GA Floor --
towards the rear of “the pit”, left side against the barricade
The couple
in front of us in line as we were waiting to get in had two signs. One said “1st
show”, while the other said “110th show”.
I was closer
to the former, this being my fourth Springsteen concert, but for the first time
I had one of the coveted “GA Floor” tickets. Bruce’s arena shows have a
standard seating protocol for general admission tickets. You show up during a
specified time period (in our case, between 2:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon) and
get a wristband with a sequentially-assigned number. After that, you can leave
and go about your business – we headed down to the Inner Harbor for lunch –
until near the end of the number-pickup window, when you return and line up by
number. Finally a fan randomly picks one of the numbers that have been handed
out (a “random start” for any statisticians in the audience), and fans are let
in starting with that number, with the process wrapping around so that the fans
with numbers below the one selected are the last to get in.
There’s one
additional factor: the floor area of the arena is divided into a front section
(the “pit”) and a rear section. Depending on the site configuration, only a
certain number of fans are allowed into the pit – in our case, they announced
that it would be the first 500. We got there around 1:30 and got numbers 48 and
49. The number selected was (if I remember correctly) 1033. After checking with
someone who had picked up a number relatively late, we estimated that maybe 1600
numbers were distributed, which meant that we would not quite make it into the
front section. We actually wound up being pleasantly surprised that we did make
the cut; apparently the cutoff was at 70. We still aren’t sure whether we
overestimated what the maximum number was or whether they decided at the last
minute that the pit could accommodate more that 500 people.
Naturally,
given that we were among the last to get into the pit, we didn’t get right in
front of the stage. I was, however, pretty happy with where we wound up. The
entire pit area is surrounded by a barricade, and we positioned ourselves next
to the barricade on the left side. Although we were near the back, we had a
relatively unobstructed view of the stage, we could lean against the barricade,
and the area wasn’t nearly as crowded as I had expected. It was also relatively
easy for us to get in and out of the area for food, beer, bathroom breaks etc.
The other
great thing about our location was that there’s a path between the barricades
and the seats (on the sides) and the front barricades of the rear section of
the floor. Part of the Springsteen concert experience is that Bruce comes back
along the barricades during a few songs (3 in our case) to get closer to the
rest of the crowd, which means that if you’re at the barricades, you may
actually get to touch The Boss, and/or get some close-up photos.
There are a
couple of downsides to standing-room tickets, although they’re less significant
than the advantages. The first, obviously, is that you’re standing for a long
time, in our case from when we lined up around 4:30 until the show ended about
7 hours later. (We could perhaps have sat down on the floor for a bit while
waiting for the show to start, but didn’t.) I held up reasonably well, but my
back was starting to feel the strain around 10:30 or so. The other drawback is
that some folks tend to get a bit chatty, especially during the slower numbers.
This tour
featured Bruce and the band performing his 1980 two-disc album The River in its entirely (which took
about the first two hours of the show), followed by a selection of other songs.
Highlights for me of course included “Hungry Heart” (although I personally don’t
have a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack), “The Price You Pay”, and a reworked
version of “Point Blank”. He also changed the post-River song lineup a bit,
starting with “Prove It All Night” and “My Love Will Not Let You Down” (which I
first heard in a Mary Chapin Carpenter show at the 9:30 Club). There was also
an on-stage marriage proposal, strategically placed right before Bruce did “I
Wanna Marry You”.
All in all,
a great experience. Even getting out of the parking garage and downtown
Baltimore wasn’t nearly as messy as I had feared.
How many times have you seen him live?
ReplyDeleteActually only 4 -- when we were at LVC, Verizon Center maybe 10 years ago, Nationals Park about 4 years ago, and last month. The friend I went with has seen him 30-some times, while another Westatian we met there has been to 40 shows. (I prefer to spread my concert $$$ around ...)
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