Things that make me happy: Springsteen covers edition

Last night, I went to go see the War on Drugs and they played Bruce’s “Ties that Bind” not once, but twice!

I’m in a “Ties that Bind” mood particularly because “The River” is my “Stop being a sad sack and bounce around!” record because it’s light and fun and there’s not any serious parts and I think that Springsteen kind of thought of it the same way. He was a sad sack on “Darkness,” and then he was like, “Buck up, Brucie!” and then he made “Nebraska,” but that’s an anomaly and, therefore, I’ve decided, does not count.

I also, I have it on vinyl and I really like the cover. Because I’m deep. But look how cute he looks!

image

But it’s not that WoD played “Ties that Bind” twice that made me happy [happiest unexpected Springsteen cover goes to Titus Andronicus and Free Energy doing “I’m Going Down” a couple years ago because “I’m Going Down” has my favorite bridge breakdown of any song ever (“I pull you close now baby but when we kiss I can feel a doubt / I remember back when we started / My kisses used to turn you inside out” is just so perfect) and because it’s the best song on “Born in the U.S.A.”]. Here’s a video not of that show but of a different show where they played the same song.

It was the fact that as soon as they played the opened chords, I knew exactly what song it was … and so did the chick next to me who freaked the fuck out in exactly the same way I did. She looked a little out of place for the skinny jeans-leaning set. I think she was only there because she was dating a dude who sat in on a song. I went up to after the show and told her how glad I was that I was standing next to the other huge Boss fan in the room and she laughed and said, “I was just about to say the same thing to you!” 

Extreme fandom creates an electric euphoria between two people. Total strangers who don’t know each other’s names were so happy to just be in proximity to each other because of a shared bond that millions of other people around the world have. But in a sweaty club in Fishtown, we were the only two and it felt so wonderful to share that with someone else, even though we’ll never see each other again.