I Love New Jersey

SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND LIGHT UP METLIFE

By Valerie Seckler

What could Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band do to top the surprise of their MetLife opener, “New York City Serenade”? The answer came around three hours later, when Springsteen and the band launched into an eight-song encore set that would go another hour.

Even for a musician like Bruce Springsteen, known for his marathon concert performances stretching back to the 1970s, the long distance delivery of 35 songs felt fresh.

Remarkably, some of the crowd could be seen exiting early, when the Stadium lights came up during “Born To Run,” the second song in the encore set, following “Jungleland.” Some concertgoers in the field level turf touch danced. Unlike performances of decades past, this Stadium’s employees did not endeavor to hustle the band off the stage, as those lights once signaled.

The run of eight songs took flight beyond “Rosalita,” a longtime concert closer, and “Shout,” another classic finale. On a beautiful summer night in the Meadowlands of East Rutherford, N.J., a grinning Springsteen stopped singing during the repeating Rosalita lyric “I don’t have any money.” (“And your papa says he knows that I don’t have any money.”) During 15 minutes or so of “Shout,” he donned a black-and-white hooded cape with The Boss stitched on the back, appearing something like James Brown and Batman. Bat Bruce. The champ.

“Let’s go!” Springsteen shouted. “Bobby Jean” rang out. “Jersey Girl” capped the show.

Patti Smith

Snow fence.

Patriot Tuesday - Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851), by Emanuel Leutze. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River, which occurred on the night of December 25–26, 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, was the first move in a surprise attack organized by George Washington against the Hessian forces in Trenton, New Jersey on the morning of December 26.

Planned in partial secrecy, Washington led a column of Continental Army troops across the icy Delaware River in a logistically challenging and dangerous operation. Other planned crossings in support of the operation were either called off or ineffective, but this did not prevent Washington from surprising and defeating the troops of Johann Rall quartered in Trenton. The army crossed the river back to Pennsylvania, this time laden with prisoners and military stores taken as a result of the battle.

Washington’s army then crossed the river a third time at the end of the year, under conditions made more difficult by the uncertain thickness of the ice on the river. They defeated British reinforcements under Lord Cornwallis at Trenton on January 2, 1777, and defeated his rear guard at Princeton on January 3, before retreating to winter quarters in Morristown, New Jersey.