I moved to Houston in June of 1978 to work on the Space Shuttle simulator. Unbeknownst to me, Houston had been a hotbed of Bruce Springsteen support for many years so Bruce made two stops in Houston that year on the Darkness on the Edge of Town tour. I was fortunate enough to go to both shows! To this day, these two concerts are the best that I have ever seen.
The first concert was in July at the Sam Houston Coliseum, an aging 9,000 seat arena near downtown. The show was unbelievable! Bruce was on fire and the show seemed to go on forever. He told more stories that night than at any of his concerts I have seen since and to be honest I love his stories as much as I love his music. I was Bruce fan before that night but I was a Bruce fanatic from that point forward.
I could not believe my luck when the tour, which continued to pickup up steam through the last part of 1978, made a second 1978 stop in Houston in December. This second show was at the much bigger and newer Summit Arena which seated almost 17000. It was another amazing show although it lacked the intimacy of the July concert at the smaller Sam Houston Coliseum. Luckily for you, video tape of the Summit concert was uncovered and released as part of the Darkness on the Edge of Town box set released a couple of years back. So…travel back with me to that December evening in 1978 and relive the incredible Detroit Medley which is today’s long song.
I hope you enjoyed that as much as I continue to enjoy it to this day! As always, let me know what you think.
RIP Clarence and Danny…..you will always be in our hearts
thebestmusicyouhaveneverheard 