I was walking to my seat, and I couldn't believe I was actually at the Bruce Springsteen Concert; it was the one thing I looked forward to all summer. There were a lot of people there, and many of them were adults, because Bruce started singing before I was born. It felt different to be at a concert with adults, because I never pictured adults getting into the kind of music I like.

Many people were wearing black and gray Bruce shirts and talking about the concerts they had seen when he was with the E Street Band. The shirts were old and faded, because they were from the early and mid-eighties. I wondered if he would play some of his hits that he had had with the former band, such as "Born to Run" and "Thunder Road."

Bruce had a long interview in Rolling Stone where he said he felt comfortable about his new band. He also said he was more relaxed. There had been talk that he wasn't feeling well when he was on "Saturday Night Live" last spring. He said after going on tour in 1985, he felt "Bruced out." Now he has a stable life: he married Patti Scialfa, a member of the E Street Band, and he moved to Los Angeles. He said that he knew how to give a quality show each night without being too exhausted at the end of the tour.

The lights finally went out, and Bruce was on stage. He started playing "Better Days," a song about the renewed happiness in life. He continued with a good mix of his new and old songs, which included "Badlands" and "Gloria's Eyes." He sounded as good now as he ever did with the E Street Band. He played for almost two hours before taking a half hour intermission.

When he came back from the intermission, he showed how much power he had over his fans. He stopped singing at one point, and turned his head to the right side of the audience. The fans began to cheer and scream, then he turned his head to the left, and that side of the audience began to go crazy. He did this for five minutes before he began to play again. It must have felt awesome to have all those people worshipping him.

Bruce played "Hungry Heart" in the second set, which he wrote in 1979, and almost everyone sang along with him. He left for about five minutes before returning for an encore. He played a couple more songs before ending up with an acoustic version of "Thunder Road" and a hard version of "Born to Run."

The crowd went wild when he began "Born to Run," probably his most popular song. I was completely satisfied and I thought the show was really good. The concert lasted four hours including the intermission. I walked out of the arena and began walking to the car. I turned around to get one last look at the arena, and I saw the big "Welcome Home Bruce" banner again. I just smiled because I knew the Boss was back. n