I was truly blessed to see a reprise (with a nice space in between) of Springsteen’s River Tour in Columbus after having seen it February in Louisville. Unexpectedly, this show turned out to be of particular interest since it was Bruce’s first after his much-publicized North Carolina boycott. Outside of him appearing well-rested, there was not a single thing pointing to his controversial cancellation.

Having already made my remarks about this tour, I will let these photos tell the story.

I suspect that Mr. Springsteen is the only 66-year old performer to have ever crowd surfed.

Having recently made few changes to the post-River portion of the set and paying little attention to fan’s request signs, the free-for-all portion of the show started with three sign songs. The first came from these two young lads who also got to sing along with Bruce on “Growin’ Up.”

The second came courtesy of this lady’s request for the 1979 outtake “I Wanna Be with You.”

Later on in the set, a third sign request got the rarely played “Born in the USA.”

This young lady had the night of her life dancing with the Boss during “Dancin’ in the Dark.” It takes a good sign to get this gig, and she had one.

I still think that the Mighty Max Weinberg is currently the hardest working man in show business. I know that I couldn’t play the drums for 3 hours and 40 minutes.

Watching old-timers Van Zandt, Tallent and Bittan play always brings a smile to my face.

Finally, here’s thanks to the band that still remains to be the best there is and perhaps ever was. How those E-Streeters continue to perform night after night with such flawless excellence is simply hard to fathom.