2004-12-02 Heinz Hall For The Performing Arts, Pittsburgh, PA

Scheduled: 20:00 Local Start Time ??:?? / End Time ??:??

Info & Setlist | Venue

Concert for Flood Aid, benefiting Pennsylvanians who suffered damage from Hurricane Ivan in September. The first three songs of the main set were performed solo. Rest were with Joe Grushecky & The Houserockers and for the last song Jesse Malin joined in. Bruce joins opener Exit 105 for their final song, "All Along The Watchtower".

Flood Aid Concert

Exit 105

Exit 105

Bruce Springsteen (Guest)

Solo Acoustic

Bruce Springsteen

With Joe Grushecky & The Houserockers

Boccigalupe (Guest)
Phil Brontz (Guest)
Bill Deasy (Guest)
Jeff Garrison (Guest)
Hermie Granati (Guest)
Donnie Iris (Guest)
Jesse Malin (Guest)
Jamie Peck (Guest)
B.E. Taylor (Guest)
Jill West (Guest)
Rick Witkowski (Guest)

Intro to “For You”
´´Alright….´Greetings from Jonestown´´ here, thank you, my friend (waves to the crowd) thank you….I wanna thank everybody for coming out tonight, appreciate your support for Flood Relief…alright, this is for the old fans….´´

Intro to “Talking to the King”
´´Alright….now, I´d like to bring out the most handsome man in the world of Pittsburgh show business, Joe Grushecky….´´

Intro to “From Small Things”
(Joe Grushecky: ´´Bruce is gonna sing one for you´´)….A little slap on this one if you got…. this is a song Dave Edmunds cut, Dave Edmunds, British rocker, cut a while back….´´

Intro to “Homestead”
(Joe Grushecky: ´´We´re gonna do a couple that we wrote together….a decade´s only a couple miles down the road but it´s a long way from there to here, I tell you….who would´ve thought?´´)….´´

Intro to “Johnny 99”
(Joe Grushecky: ´´Yeah!….we´d like to thank everybody for coming down tonight and contributing to this cause, I´d like to thank Clear Channel….(?), all the people that are on staff here at Heinz Hall, (?) Music for providing this great sound system for us tonight, working so hard….I´d like to, uh, like to thank Dan and all the people at the County for putting this all together and especially Larry Kuzmanko, without those two guys this wouldn´t have happened, I´d like to thank my wife LeAnn for putting up with 4,000 calls for Bruce-tickets - don´t call my house any more, I´m changing my phone number….and I´d especially like to thank Bruce Springsteen for coming down….and helping us out this evening, making this all a success, thank you….´´

Intro to “This Hard Land”
´´(?)…oh, wanna thank Joe for inviting me out….it´s always nice to get out of the house…. especially for a good cause, so….´´

Intro to “Lucky Town”
(Joe Grushecky: ´´We´ve got time for a couple more….we don´t want Bruce to miss his plane ….or he´ll be staying at our house tonight´´) Oh my God!….(?)….´´

Middle of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”
´´We wanna thank everybody for coming out tonight….thank you, Pittsburgh….wanna thank all the guys in Joe´s band for inviting us up, all these wonderful musicians….Santa´s gonna be very, very good….´´

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

The Panther

What a wonderful nite. Bruce looked great; very rested and relaxed. This show was very rock and roll oriented. Obviously, the Houserockers are not as polished as the E Street Band, but there was much emphasis on guitar play, and Bruce rocked quite a bit. The highlight of the show for me was Everythin's Gonna Work Out Fine followed by a rocking Murder Inc. Two hours of non-stop rock and roll. Great fun.

Pete

I knew this would be probably my only chance to see him up close and personal. And man, did I get up close. Flood Aid was all about hope, overcoming adversity and setting things right. So it's no wonder Bruce was eager to step up and do his part — because that's what he does. So he joined Joey G for a night of remarkable music and solidarity. From the beginning, he made it clear that this night was not about him. It was about the people he came to help and the talent that made this union possible. He opened the night with a short and simple impromptu emcee address. "There's a lot of young talent on stage here tonight" he remarked above a chorus of awe-inspired cheers. "No Bruuucing tonight or I'll have to get medieval on your ass". And with that he introduced Johnny Grushecky, Joe's son to the crowd. An introduction by The Boss — can a career begin any better for a 16 year old? Pittsburgh is a place of people used to giving. On Thursday they came to give support to flood victims. They came to give support for local music. They came to see Springsteen. There was no doubt. Joe Grushecky may be The Burgh's favorite rock and roll son, but Bruce is their adopted brother. He was there in the 80's when the mills went down and needed inspiration and support (and cash). He was there in the 90's for the Rainbow kitchen and its army or volunteers and the thousands of homeless that relied on it to get back on their feet. Bruce was there again on Thursday and spared nothing. He gave of his heart and gave from his pocket (Springsteen paid for all the t-shirts and donated all the profits to the Salvation Army for the flood relief). A 2,700 seater with near-perfect acoustics, Heinz Hall was made for Bruce. Exit 105 made an unpublicized appearance and provided the audience with the vehicle for Bruce's first treat of the night. Befittingly, Bruce would join his Jersey brethren for an incredible cover of "All Along the Watchtower". I've never heard it played with so much power. He squeezed every note out of it. A tease of things to come. The evening was half way over before Springsteen would again grace the night. Joey G and the House Rockers were next and I knew if I ever wanted to fulfill my hopes of seeing Bruce up close, this would probably be my only chance. I left my back row seat and nonchalantly worked my way up to the low wall that separated the special seating in the orchestra pit and the front row seats. The somewhat reserved crowd of mostly middle-aged concert goers didn't mind. There were no security personnel to kick me back. I though I might have a chance. The lights dimmed. The organized commotion begin. The crowd's respectful demeanor turned into anxious delight. All eyes were on the darkened stage when I made my move down the pit's steps and walked across floor in front of the stage. I settled just to the right of the last folding chair directly in front of the stage. I acted like I was supposed to be there — after all, I was. Bruce entered stage right and I thought this would be about the time I would get the tap on my shoulder and wake up, or at least have to go back to my seat. It didn't come. Instead a resounding "If I Should Fall Behind" filled the venue air. The shock waves of emotion rippled back through the crowd as the lone poet reminded us of how we are all in this together. The flood victims. The Country. Life itself. Whatever your interpretation, it was profound. The last chord strummed and the roar picked up again. Not the typical sonic boom of applause we're accustomed to in the arenas or stadiums, but in a way, it seemed to embody a more appreciative tone. "Land of Hope and Dreams", a song normally reserved as a sign off for the E Street Band, made its way into the front end of his performance. Again, another acoustic solo. I was still mesmerized watching him make the make music I so much adore when he broke into "For You" "For All the Old Fans". It was a not-so-subtle statement that he was here to help. Ironically, the audience motioned by the ir united chorus that they largely "came For You" Bruce. Joey G and the band joined Bruce on stage for the remainder of the show. A jam perfectly rationed with Joe and Bruce songs including "Code of Silence" and "Never be Enough Time" both co-written by these long-time friends. As far as Bruce fare, the other choice selections included "From Small Things", "Johnny 99", "Atlantic City" (my favorite full band of the evening), a rare appearance of "Factory", "Murder Incorporated", "This Hard Land" and "Lucky Town". Finally, the evening kicker, the seasonal classic "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" with the entire cast of performers joining Bruce on stage. I was hoping to get a hand slap from Bruce as he made his way off stage. But I was reminded that this wasn't about him. Maybe at a different show at different place for a different reason, I would have gotten one. Instead he looked down and smiled as if to say "I know you enjoyed it, let's remember why we're here and leave it at that". There's no way I could be disappointed after a night like that. So we respected his humble wishes and waved instead. On the backstreets behind Heinz Hall as the other performers dashed into their awaiting limos, I saw Joe and Bruce pull up to the red light in an SUV. Joe was chauffeuring. Bruce gave the thumbs up from the passenger side to the guy and girl who managed to spot him. They held up their Born to Run vinyls and Sharpies. They didn't get the autographs, but I think they were content with the thumps up. They smiled and just left it at that."

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Springsteen to the Rescue

“No Brucing tonight, or I’ll come out and get medieval on your ass,” announced Bruce Springsteen at the beginning of Flood Aid 2004, a benefit concert at Pittsburgh’s Heinz Hall Thursday night.

He was referring, of course, to the ever-present chants of “Bruuuuuuuuce” that you find at the typical concert by Springsteen and the E Street Band. But trying to stop the “Brucing” was a little like trying to stop the rains that flooded Pittsburgh on September 17th, leaving hundreds of families without homes and causing millions of dollars in damage.

Flood Aid 2004 was the brainchild of Springsteen friend and occasional collaborator Joe Grushecky, a longtime fixture of the Pittsburgh music scene. For the concert, Grushecky assembled a wide-ranging cast of friends, like Donnie Iris, who had hits in the early 1980s with “Ah! Leah!” and “Love Is Like a Rock,” and Bill Deasy, a singer-songwriter who led the now-defunct Pittsburgh band the Gathering Field.

But it was the presence of Springsteen, Grushecky’s most prominent pal, that led all 2,600 tickets to sell out on November 23rd in just one hour.

For the first two hours of the concert, Springsteen yielded the stage to the lesser-known acts, appearing only at the beginning and later with New Jersey band Exit 105, with whom he played a set-closing cover of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower.”

Around 10 p.m., Springsteen walked back onto the stage at Heinz Hall, the usual home of the Pittsburgh Symphony, for a three-song, career-spanning acoustic set consisting of 2001’s “Land of Hope and Dreams,” 1992’s “If I Should Fall Behind” and 1973’s “For You.” He then joined Grushecky and his band, the Houserockers, for a fifteen-song set that mixed selections from each of their catalogs, as well as collaborations like “Code of Silence.” The highlights included a hard-driving version of “Factory,” from Springsteen’s 1978 album Darkness at the Edge of Town, and Grushecky’s soulful “Everything’s Going to Work Out Right.”

The night concluded with all the musicians — including Grushecky’s sixteen-year-old son, Johnny — coming out for a loose rendition of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” which found the Boss wearing a red Santa cap.

The concert was expected to raise about $270,000 for victims of the flood, which was caused by remnants of Hurricane Ivan. Up to eight inches of rain fell on the region that day. Several communities surrounding Pittsburgh were particularly hard-hit, including one where Grushecky and his band store their equipment.

Grushecky, also a special education teacher in Pittsburgh, said that he and his wife had been fielding calls over the past few weeks from people desperate to get tickets to the show. He joked from the stage, “I’m changing my phone number.”

^{By Brad Hundt via Rolling Stone.}

Links:

Springsteen to the Rescue ^{(RollingStone)}

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