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Videos: Bruce Springsteen Celebrates 63rd Birthday By Playing Until 2 A.M.
By
Ben Yakas
Published Sep 23, 2012
Modified Sep 23, 2012
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Sep 23, 2012
Modified Sep 23, 2012
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Forget union cards and nice little toasts—Bruce BROOOOOCE Springsteen celebrated his 63rd birthday with a raucous and wet show surrounded by 60K or so of his closest friends at MetLife Stadium last night into early this morning. The final night of his three shows there was delayed by a storm, but Springsteen made up for it by staying onstage until 2 a.m., the show climaxing with his mother Adele and other family members bringing cake onstage.
Altogether, he played 33 songs over the 3 1/2 hour show—among the highlights were tour premieres of "Cynthia," "In the Midnight Hour," and "Into The Fire," which was dedicated to NYC firefighter Rich Nappi and his wife Mary Ann. Nappi was killed while battling a fire in Bushwick, Brooklyn in April.
There was also a cover of CCR's "Who'll Stop The Rain;" outings for Born In The USA deep cuts "Cover Me" and "Downtown Train;" rarities "Janey Don't You Lose Heart" and "Pay Me My Money Down;" the one-two Born To Run punch of "Meeting Across The River" and "Jungleland;" and the goofy charm of "Glory Days." You can see Springsteen and Little Stevie hamming it up in a particularly close video below.
Then before the final song, Adele Springsteen came out with a giant cake in the shape of a guitar. The Star-Ledger describes what happened:
Prior to the song, Bruce's mom Adele, his oldest sister Ginny, Patti Scialfa's mother and brother, plus Maureen Van Zandt came out with a huge birthday cake. This time Steven led the fans in singing "Happy Birthday." Bruce blew out the candles and then started cutting up the cake. The first piece went to his "first fan" Obie who was in the front row. Both Bruce and Steven introduced Obie. "She was following me when she was 16," Bruce said.
Several other fans in the front of the pit got pieces of cake personally delivered by Bruce. He would have brought out even more, except he ran out of plates.
Bruce wanted to make sure his Mom had earplugs before playing the song. "I don't want to make my mother go deaf on my birthday!" Everyone stayed on stage to sing the finale. Ending a big party!
If you're in the mood for more Boss, Rolling Stone has videos of Springsteen's 18 best collaborations; Flavorpill has his 60 greatest lyrics; or you can just read Joe Strummer's take on him: "BRUCE IS GREAT... IF YOU DONT AGREE WITH THAT YOU'RE A PRETENTIOUS MARTIAN FROM VENUS."
Tagged
birthday
bruce springsteen
metlife stadium
Music
rock
the boss
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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