There's always one...

I've recently been listening to a recording of Bruce Springsteen's May 7th benefit show for the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, NJ, where he played both Darkness on the Edge of Town and Born to Run in their entirety. The performance is phenomenal and I would have loved to attend, but with tickets starting at $500 and topping out well over $1,000, it just wasn't in the cards. Plus, it was the same night as Flight of the Conchords, and how many times in your life do you get 3rd row center seats for New Zealand's 4th most popular folk-parody group?

Bruce's show was apparently a success on all levels - he helped to raise $3 million for renovations to the theater and put on one hell of a show while doing so. But the most interesting thing about the recording is how, aurally, the show didn't seem that much different from your standard $95 + $20 in Ticketmaster convenience fees. Case in point: some guy, even knowing that "Thunder Road" was coming up (as Bruce had just finished Darkness on the Edge of Town and announced Born to Run was next), felt compelled to shout "ROSALITA!" at the top of his lungs, over and over again.

What is it they say about money buying class?