It was August 25, 1978.  I had just graduated from High School a few months earlier, and that summer I spent as much with friends and family who would soon become relegated to phone calls and letters.  My best friend Tom and I were sitting around his house listening to the radio, when the DJ announced that there were still a few tickets left for the Bruce Springsteen show at the New Haven Coliseum.  It was only about an hour's drive, so we jumped in Tom's Cougar and headed south on I-91.  We bought a couple of "restricted view" seats on the left side of the stage, blocked only by a couple of lighting cables.

I had been a Springsteen fan for about three years, starting with "Born to Run" in 1975, and working my way back to his first two records.  After a three-year hiatus, he released "Darkness on the Edge of Town" in the summer of 1978.  I can remember riding my bike to the department store to buy it the first week it was on sale.  I liked the music and knew the songs, but was totally unprepared for what the next three and a half hours would be like.