Is Northern Illinois a Top 25 Program? Baver Answers Colin's Questions.

Colin: Cardale appeared to look a little frustrated struggling against the Rainbows. Meeting expectations is always tough as the starting QB at Ohio State. I've been at games and heard people criticize Terrelle and Braxton while they were putting up Big Ten player of the week numbers. Is it possible Cardale could struggle through the dog days of the schedule if Buckeye fans start nitpicking his every flaw? He isn't just a lovable backup QB who made good anymore. He is the starting QB and his Kenny Guiton is JT Barrett.

Brent: Yeah, the Buckeye fans are going to keep clamoring for Barrett as long as Cardale plays like he did against Hawaii. Of course JTB didn’t help himself much either with his performance. But Cardale seems to have no fear, and little seems to bother him. If anything, I think the fans nitpicking will motivate him. With that being said, Cardale may still end up on the bench because JTB is going to be very hard to hold off.

Colin: If the offense was a little flat, the defense brought the lumber. Who/what on defense is really jumping out at you?

Brent: With all due respect to Joey Bosa, Darren Lee is the best defender on this team. Enjoy him now because he won’t be around next year. The guy is everywhere. As far as newcomers, Sam Hubbard has gotten a lot of ink, but there is a reason Tyquan Lewis is a starter and Hubbard isn’t. Lewis, I think, will be an All-Big Ten player before he leaves here. Also, you have to love Gareon Conley’s play Saturday. Hawaii elected to take their shots at Conley instead of Eli Apple, and Conley responded big time.

Colin: Toledo jammed a big rocket in Bielema's pig-hole and Bowling Green smushed the Turtles. How good is the MAC and what problems does Northern Illinois present the Bucks? Over the last five years, is Northern Illinois a Top 25 program? If not, are they close?

Brent: I think people tend to overreact to a small number of games. The MAC is still the MAC (poor), the Big Ten is still the Big Ten (mediocre), and the SEC is still the SEC (tops). Northern Illinois over the past 5 years? Probably on the edge of the Top 25, with a minimum of 11 wins in each of the 5 seasons. They are a FAR BETTER opponent than Hawaii. As for the matchup, Ohio State’s offense should be better prepared for UNI’s defense, which plays your standard 4-3. The Bucks had problems with Hawaii’s 3-4 front that did some things OSU was not expecting. On the other side of the ball, QB Drew Hare is going to be more troublesome for the Buckeye defense than Hawaii’s Max Wittek, because of Hare’s mobility.

Colin: After two weeks, are there any teams nationally that are surprising you either good or bad?

Brent: Bad? Auburn. They were a 40-point favorite last week against Jacksonville State and needed OT to pull out the win. Simply unbelievable that a Gus Malzahn offense would struggle against any FCS school. Yeah, there was the look-ahead to LSU; but still, Jacksonville State? New QB Jeremy Johnson, so far, looks like a poor fit for Gus’ system. Yet, win at LSU Saturday and Auburn is a contender in the SEC West. Good? I guess the trendy pick is Northwestern, but it’s hard to gauge much after two games, and they are an underdog at Duke this week. That should tell you the bettors aren’t buying the NW hype just yet.

Colin: You hit two out of three games last week with the Bucks not covering by 3, your only miss. What games and lines will you be keeping an eye on this week?

Brent: Like last week, not a lot that jumps out at me, spread-wise. But as usual, we’ll start with the OSU game. Urban is now 25-18 against the spread as the OSU coach. To compensate, the lines are getting a bit ridiculous. When a team like Northern Illinois wins 11+ games every year, I think you take 34½ points….even against the best team in the country. And UNI is 9-1 against the spread in their last 10 gms against the B1G. I like the Bucks 45-14, which would be a cover for the Huskies. I’ll take Bama giving the 7 against Ole Miss…the line looks about 2 or 3 pts light to me, and Bama is the biggest threat to Ohio State as the nation’s best team. And I think you have to take the Irish getting points (2½) at home against Georgia Tech. Notre Dame definitely has more talent up and down their roster than Ga Tech, and I think new QB DeShone Kizer will hold his own for the Irish.

Happy Birthday To Me: Cougs at Rutgers - by Brian Phillips

50.  Fiddy. Half a bill. Half a century. Embrace it, I say. The wife says "pick something to do and we'll do it. You are FIFTY after all." Hmmm.....cruise? Nah, that's more her style. Jump out of an airplane? Never once wanted to do that. The Replacements were supposed to be here, and had I known Paul Westerberg would contract scurvy and cancel I would have plowed in the van with our editor and gone to Minneapolis for the show last fall. Too late for all that. Too late for lots of stuff. More days past than future. What to do, what to do, what to do? I know!

22 years it's been since I've seen my school play college football in person. Full disclosure: I attended a great university and had the time of my life. I wouldn't trade those years, that experience and all the people I met for anything. To this day I share with them great memories, friendship, and decades in the third circle of college football hell: I am a Washington State Cougar. And knowing we're horrible and will continue to be horrible I chose for my 50th birthday to drive to New Jersey (of all the Godforsaken places on the planet) to see a team so putrid they could only be the fever dream of a bacteria festering in Chris Christie's bellybutton. Yup. Washington State at Rutgers. Fuck me. 

When I hatched this plan I was not drunk. Not having a stroke. Nothing. A rational-thinking 50 year old man decided that to mark this milestone he would drive 8 hours to purposely see a defense incapable of tackling. Tackling is important in the game of football and the Cougs have - for most of our history - chosen not to do it. Every defensive staff at Wazzu, including the one currently led by prepubescent newbie Alex Grinch, pursue a strategy of running into, and bouncing off of ball carriers. That doesn't work, not even against reigning Big Sky conference 11th place finisher Portland State this past Saturday. 35 point u-dogs were the Vikings of Portland State. Clad in high school uniforms and led by a coach who has been held in interim captivity for a year now, PSU ran amok over the allegedly Pac-12 Cougs for several hundred yards and a 24-17 win in Pullman last Saturday. 

For this reporter it was too late. A Stub Hub 'bot had already belched forth tickets 20 bucks apiece off their face value into my mailbox. A neo-liberal free marketeer would praise the elegant efficiency of the transaction, but as the Vikings skipped off the Martin Stadium turf on their way back to what probably resembles an ironic West Coast take on Cleveland State's campus the wages of football sin were already being paid in full. 

Oh sure, the Cougars can score points almost at will on most afternoons. Last season we lost to Cal 60-59 after missing a 19 yard field goal as time expired. That's called "Coug-ing it." It's a verb, look it up. It means snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and all that cliched shit about teams that can't get out of their own way. We invented that! Even when we're decent, which ain't often, we Coug it. 

Coug-ing it predates current coach Mike "The Pirate" Leach by decades and despite his law degree, and civil war reenactment hobby or whatever the fuck, he's powerless against it. In fact Leach seems to embrace the concept. During his 11-25 tenure in "The Palouse" he's gone for it on multiple occasions on his own 30 yard line. Perhaps he remembered that the Cougs forgot to practice punt coverage, or for that matter kick-off coverage, because Cal scored a good chunk of their points running back kicks that night. 

Here's where it gets good! Guess who the highest paid public employee in the state of Washington is... Yup! Mike Leach. A man who may have stuffed the son of "television personality" Craig James into a metal lawnmower shed one windswept Lubbock afternoon. This has to be the first and only time WSU paid its coach more than those fucking Huskies over in Seattle. Hey, they have their own problems.....paying off former Coach Cutty Sark's bar tab being one of them, but the Dawgs have to be laughing. Leach's agent managed to bury a poison pill in the "Pirate's" contract whereby WSU will be "on the hook" for 60% of his salary should the entire fanbase wish to "mutiny" and demand he "walk the plank." AAARRGHHHH! (Hey, I admit it I fell for all this quirky "He loves pirates, he never actually played football, he's actually a Hobbit" shit.)

So while Ohio State is busy beating Hawaii (Hawaii? why does Hawaii have a football team? there can't be a reason for this) with a dead fish, think of me blowing four hours of whatever life I have remaining reliving my college years. Yay! Go Cougs! I'll let Tom Tuttle from Tacoma, Washington have the final word.

Big $ of the North Coast Posse is Back to Talk Browns Football

Do yourself a huge favor and follow @northcoastposse during all Browns games.

The NCP returns, and we’re saltier than ever! So without further adieu, here’s Big $’s initial thoughts on your 2015 Cleveland Browns:

Q: Not to start on a downer, but is it possible this collection on QBs has the lowest combined career QBR rating of any preseason team in NFL history?

Big $: It’s no secret that I think Ole Johnny Football is one of the most embarrassing Q.B. experiments in NFL history. You add journeyman Josh McCown to the mix and suddenly Holcomb/Couch looks like Montana/Young. The only area in which McCown is superior to Brian Hoyer is in his ability to acquiesce to Trader Ray‘s desire to have him serve as JFF’s mentor. There is a lot of national negativity surrounding the Browns, and the genesis of most of these low expectations is the lack of talent at quarterback. As for QBR, its almost unfair to lump Josh McCown and his pedestrian, yet manageable career number of 76.1 in with Johnny’s robust 5.08. It does, however, allow Johnny the right to state that he is one of few QB’s in league history with a jersey number which is less than half of his career QBR.

Q: Is it possible that the best quarterback on the Browns is WR Terrelle Pryor? Is it possible the best QB in Ohio plays for Ohio State?

Up until Monday, I would have had a hard time not awarding top Q.B. honors to T.P. Since that time though, the Browns have signed the steadily mediocre Austin Davis. On this team “steady mediocrity” shoots you right to the top of the Q.B. chain. Congrats A.D.! The NCP welcomes you with open arms.

As for OSU Q.B.’s, I’ll try not to completely derail this Browns-centered passage by going on a tangent about Cardale. (Hyperbole alert) He has Big Ben’s intimidating elusiveness coupled with Aaron Rodgers’ ability to keep his eyes and shoulders downfield smothered with Kapernick’s arm strength (Hyperbole Alert). In short, I fully envision a worthless last second game 17 victory will keep Cardale from becoming a Brown.

(editor's note: Pryor was cut just after this went to press so the Browns could sign an injured running back. Big $ could not be reached for comment as he was out shopping for Brian Hoyer Houston Texans jersey.)

(copy-editor's note: after this transaction, I fully expect the next Browns trade to be their next two first-round draft picks for an aggie, two cat's eyes and a sackful of magic beans.)

Q: The only offensive positive we heard all off-season was that the Browns should be able to run the ball. Suddenly, the Browns are fishing for a washed-up girl smasher like Ray Rice. What the hell is going on?

I began the pre-season enthusiastic about The Browns ability to run the ball. Then I witnessed the Bills’ Marcell Dareus treat Alex Mack like the 5th grader who gets forced into O Line play because he can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. I’m going to chalk that up to rust accumulated from last year’s injury, especially since Mack has to play big this year if he wants to collect on the open market. I’m also hoping that the West trade is as much a nod to the team’s confidence in Crow and Duke as it was about West’s immaturity. I’ll be keeping a close eye on Crow’s ball security, if he can remedy his fumbling yips, a 1,300 to 1,400 yard season is not out of the question.

Q: It's hard to imagine any coach getting more than 5 wins from a team with this collection of talent. Is it possible the Browns will again blame the head coach and start over or be patient and maybe look for another scapegoat for this decade-long embarrassment?

The NFL is a game of match-ups and exploiting mismatches. Surprisingly, I think week to week the Browns will maintain match-up advantages in the secondary, on the left side of the O line and in D line depth. However, I believe said mismatches will be overshadowed by an alarming lack of playmakers on O, a porous right side of the line and issues at L.B. (specifically setting the edge in the run game). How much of this will be Pettine’s fault? Well, I’m not ready to lay down cash on the Vegas dismissal odds, but it is his job to develop game plans that utilize the roster handed to him. There is very little chance that Coach Pett improves on the 7 (Hoyer-led) miracles of last year, so improvement will have to be gauged by other metrics. I have not been impressed with Haslam’s integrity or decision-making to this point, so it’s safe to say regardless of the owner’s pre-season statements on his job security, Pettine will need to continue looking over his shoulder.

Q: What players on offense are you keeping an eye on?

I truly believe that T.P, is going to create problems for NFL defenses. He looks mammoth when he lines up against NFL CB’s and us Buckeye fans know he has the feet and speed to make life miserable for a Safety or L.B. I’m not sure when he’ll get his opportunity to crack the lineup, but I don’t see any of the current W.R. corps performing to a level that will make T.P. obsolete. If Braxton can do it, I’m fully convinced T.P. can make the transition as well.

Q:  And on defense, is Gilbert really this bad? Who is looking good?

I’m concerned that the Browns did not complete their due scouting diligence as it relates to Gilbert’s football I.Q. He simply looks lost when trying to engage in an NFL pass defense scheme. I don’t foresee him contributing at CB at all this year.

I was pumped to see Armonty’s move to OLB, however that experiment ended with his depth chart move back to D.L.

I think Kruger and Desmond Bryant looked like world beaters in the pre-season and I’m also enthused about Stark’s potential. I expect big things from the D-line.

I do not however share the general optimism about Danny Shelton to this point. He at times struggled with instinct off the ball and was also moved at will on several occasions this August. With that said, I will give him the benefit of the doubt and believe he does have the potential to be a solid contributor this year based on his motor alone.

Q:  Browns fans have lots to complain about, but I never heard  one complain about the uniforms. Why change now? Do you like the look?

I’m simply shocked by the fan response to the absolute disgrace that I find these uniforms to be. It’s not bad enough that the Browns perform like a 2nd tier MAC team, but now they are dressed like one as well. In 3 words, I find the look to be unprofessional, nauseating and ridiculous. On second thought, they may suit this organization to a tee.

Troubling Signs For OSU Repeat? Baver Answers Colin's Questions

Click here to read previous Baver Buckeye Bag

Colin: Which surprised you more, Cardale getting the start or how damn good Braxton Miller looked in his first game as a wide receiver?

Baver: Cardale getting the start. ESPN’s Travis Haney said he spoke to a Va Tech assistant prior to game time who told him they would be “shocked” if it wasn’t JTB under center. So Urban may have pulled some misdirection here, but postgame talk makes it sound like the OSU coaches liked Cardale over JTB in this matchup vs. Va Tech specifically. As for Miller, what can you say? The kid is a gamer…an absolute nightmare to defend. I expected him to eventually become a star at H-back, but did I expect him to bail Ohio State out in Game One when the Bucks trailed at halftime? No.

Colin: Did you see any troubling signs on the road to a repeat? 

Baver: The fact that the Ohio State D had problems slowing down a mediocre Virginia Tech offense while Michael Brewer was in the game is concerning. If Brewer doesn’t come out of that game, I think the first-team OSU defense gives up another 7 to 10 pts. And Brewer is not a great QB; he rarely plays well unless he is playing Ohio State. But, the OSU defense will get better. Urban will make sure of that, even though he is not heavily involved with that side of the ball. And when Ohio State wins the yardage battle 572-320 against Va Tech, in Blacksburg, with 4 players suspended, life still looks pretty good if you are a Buckeye fan.   : )

Colin: I find it hard to believe we couldn't find a team from the mainland United States to play in Ohio Stadium. Why on Earth are we flying a team 5,000 miles for a football game? What is the upside?

Baver: I guess you get the automatic “W” and you don’t have to agree to the home & home thing with a school like Hawaii. But they could have gotten those two benefits by scheduling a lower tier Midwest school. Yeah, seems silly to me too.

Colin: What can Ohio State hope to accomplish against Hawaii?

Baver: Stay healthy. Get Braxton & EZE out of the game by halftime. I would think Corey Smith eventually ends up being the starting flanker if he stays out of trouble. And I would think the Bucks want to work on the deep ball, going long to C. Smith or whoever a few times. They need to determine who their deep guy is, now that Devin Smith has moved on. Also, Torrance Gibson is another skill-position potential game changer. If he’s healthy, I think the OSU coaches want to start getting Gibson reps immediately at his new position. And of course the coaches will want to continue to evaluate Cardale vs JTB.

Colin: Northwestern won a nice game but Penn State... geez, that's a tough loss for a team supposedly led by a future NFL star quarterback. What is Hackenberg's deal?

Baver: The best description I think I read about Sackenberg is that he doesn’t seem to have “it.” Cannon for an arm that the NFL scouts love, but with this being his third year as the starting PSU QB, he still looks like a first-year starter. You look at how good Cardale’s pocket presence is…Sackenberg’s is piss poor. Now, plenty of Temple’s sacks are the fault of Penn State O-line, but plenty of the blame goes to Sackenberg as well. 

Colin: What games and lines do you find interesting this week?

Baver: Gotta like the Buckeyes laying 41. Don’t let Hawaii’s win over Colorado fool you – they are not good. The Buckeyes won’t take their foot off the pedal with their 2nd team QB in the 2nd half. OSU rolls to the tune of 57-7. Don’t see much else that looks appetizing in terms of picking against the spread, but sticking with tradition, I’ll take a shot at two more. I’ll go against the grain and take Virginia at home getting 12.5 against the Irish, with ND in a letdown spot. And I’ll take the Sooners giving a point at Tennessee. Bob Stoops gets too much criticism and is at his best when people underestimate him.

Ohio State WR Braxton Miller uses an incredible spin move to score a touchdown in the season opener against Virginia Tech. The former QB lined up under center and took it himself 53 yards for the score.

Clearing My Brain of Browns Draft Wreckage - by Colin G.

I make no claim to be an expert when it comes to professional football and, specifically, the Cleveland Browns. I'll leave that title to Big $ and K-Dubs the Soldier from the North Coast Posse. But still, as another NFL season is upon us, I find my thoughts increasingly cluttered with the wreckage of Browns recent 1st round draft picks. In fact, it's become so distracting that I have a hard time completing simple tasks, and service at Colin's Coffee has suffered accordingly. I hope that by putting some of these thoughts on paper, I will once again be able to enjoy a good night's rest and stop giving people regular instead of decaf. Let's get started:

Johnny Manziel - 2014 - Pick #22. What words jump to mind when I say Johnny Football? Entitled? Arrogant? Questionable character? Sure. But those also apply to Tom Brady. The words that best describe John have nothing to do with his hard-partying lifestyle or money- sign-waving shenanigans. The two words that really matter are: small and slow. That and, uh,  sore elbow. Which he recently mentioned has been hurting him since high school. Nice. So the Browns used a first round draft pick on a small, slow quarterback with a sore elbow and well-documented personal demons. 

The fact that his career has been a disaster is about as surprising as that the decision to invade Iraq was a bad idea. All sorts of really smart people warned us about both well in advance, but who wants to listen to a bunch of nerds spouting a bunch of know-it-all facts and figures. Pfftt... Not the Browns front office and certainly not a large cross-section of the Dawg Pound. We go with our gut, baby! One wonders how Johnny Football would have been treated in Cleveland if he looked more like Terrelle Pryor? (Click here to read "What if Johnny wasn't white?" by Big $)

Staying in 2014, lots of people knew Manziel would be a bust, but how did the Browns miss on #8 pick Justin Gilbert? Isn't a cover corner one of the easiest players to scout?  I mean the guy is on an island shadowing guys all by his lonesome. Certainly somebody taken that high must have some ability. At the very least, when you are paying big money for a high pick they shouldn't get beat out by an undrafted free agent like Gilbert did. Think about that: Gilbert, who is getting paid millions, got beat out for his job by a guy getting league minimum. Ah yes, money well-spent.

What went wrong? In hindsight, it appears that while Gilbert is blessed with impressive size and speed, it turns out he cannot cover anybody and he cannot tackle. At all. This wouldn't be much of a problem if he were playing, say, center field for the Cleveland Indians, but this skill set presents a challenge for an athlete hoping to play defensive back in the NFL.

So, to summarize the Browns 2014 first round draft, they picked two players who should be PAYING the Browns to stay on the roster. They have contributed nothing to the team.

Boy, imagine a team blowing two first round picks in the same year. Bet that doesn't happen very often. I mean these front-office types get paid big bucks just to scout talent. I wonder how far back we have to look to find another situation like this....

Browns Draft 2012

The Browns TRADED UP one pick to grab Alabama RB Trent Richardson at #3. It is worth noting that by this time, most successful franchises had stopped wasting high draft picks on running backs and had gone to a committee approach in the backfield. As luck would have it, the team the Browns traded valuable picks to move up one spot was the Minnesota Vikings, who happened to have the highest-paid and most valuable running back in the league ALREADY on their team: i.e. The Vikings were never going to draft Trent Richardson in the first place, but somehow convinced the Browns they might and got a couple of extra draft picks out of the deal. As I was watching the draft I said out loud to my 8 year old son Owen, "That was a sucker trade, though I can live with it as long as we don't do something really stupid with our next pick and draft somebody like Brandon Weeden."

"With the 22nd pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, the Cleveland Browns select...... Brandon Weeden, Quarterback from Oklahoma State".

I got up and started kicking the sofa.

Here are the actual Brandon Weeden Wiki page opening sentences "Weeden was drafted by the Cleveland Browns with the 22nd pick in the 2012 NFL Draft; he became the oldest player ever taken in the first round, at 28 years old. The Browns gave Weeden the starting job. In his first game, Weeden had a 5.1 passer rating after throwing four interceptions in a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, which is the sixth lowest in a season opener by any QB attempting at least 15 passes in league history."

I believe Weeden and Richardson are both out of the league as of opening day 2015. So is 2011 Browns first round pick Phil Taylor BTW.

Take heart Browns fans, it's not all doom and gloom, 2013 first round Barkevious Mingo is still on the squad and rumor has it he might contribute on the special teams and some selected 3rd down situations. Value! 

OK, It feels good to get this out of my system. I better start sweeping up this coffee shop before I start my next essay, "Cleveland Hates God."

Colin Gawel started Pencilstorm and wrote this at Colin's Coffee. He doesn't know very much about football.

Vet's Memorial, part six, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, September 5th, 1978 - by Ricki C.

(I should have mentioned at the end of Vet’s Memorial part 5 back in May that there would be no entries in the series for June, July or August because every year Vet’s was taken over by The Kenley Players – a kind of early traveling Broadway Series – for the summer months.  Yes, Spotify boys & girls, show tunes did indeed take precedence over the rock & roll back in the 1960’s & 70’s and now people flock to see Green Day concept albums presented on Broadway.  I cannot wholly condemn that fact, but I certainly don’t go along with it, either.)

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND / SEPTEMBER 5TH, 1978

The first time I heard Bruce Springsteen was in the old Pearl Alley Discs record store on 13th Avenue, just off High Street, WAY back in the day, when you could still turn off High onto 13th.  From perusing my Springsteen reference materials I see that Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. was released on January 5th, 1973.  That seems about right because I was at Pearl Alley that day with my first – and best – rock & roll friend of all time, Dave Blackburn, and he moved to Boston sometime later that year (where, by the way, he got to see the original configuration of The Modern Lovers AT A HIGH SCHOOL, WEARING MATCHING CASHMERE SWEATERS, with some youngsters called Aerosmith OPENING the show).  But I digress……

“Blinded By The Light” must have just been ending when we walked into the store, because I remember looking up at the speakers as Bruce started singing, “Well, I stood stone-like at midnight / Suspended in my masquerade / I combed my hair ‘til it was just right / And commanded the night brigade.”  Then the band kicked in at “I was open to pain and crossed by the rain and I walked on a crooked crutch / I strolled all alone through a fallout zone and came out with my soul untouched” and I was SOLD, son!  

I said – out loud, without meaning to – “WHO IS THIS?” and Dave glanced over at the Now Playing station of the store, then said, “Oh, that’s Bruce Springsteen, he’s one of those New Dylan guys everybody’s writing about.”  (Dave ALWAYS knew more about rock & roll than I did, back then.)  Thus began the Bruce Springsteen chapter of my life of rock & roll.    

I covered the first time I saw Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band live pretty extensively in a Pencilstorm blog called The Perfect Age For Rock & Roll, part two, back in January 2014, you might wanna check that out.  

This 1978 show, however, was a completely different animal from that ’76 outing: gone was any lingering trace of hippie-ism in the E Street Band presentation; gone were the beards, bell-bottoms, wooly Bob Marley hats and multi-hued 3-piece suits on band members.  Everybody – including, most crucially, Springsteen himself – was clean-shaven and dressed in some combination of vests, suit jackets and straight-leg black or blue jeans (except Clarence Clemons, of course, ultra-sharp in a sparkling white suit, befitting of his Big Man status).  Also  gone were any lengthy, meandering jams of the old days.  Even when songs got expanded (“Prove It All Night,” Bruce’s take-back of “Because The Night” from fellow Jersey-ite Patti Smith) those expansions were pounding, driving fever-beat extensions of the tunes, Springsteen’s WAILING lead guitar blowing the songs open, rather than the multi-section The-Band-meets-prog-rock stylings of earlier years.  As much as I loved (and still love, to this day) "Incident On 57th Street" from The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, watching Bruce & the band sear through "Candy's Room" on that warm September evening in 1978 was just a whole other level of rock & roll genius entirely.

The band opened with an insane, joyful take on Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues,” blasted straight into “Badlands” and “Adam Raised A Cane,” didn’t really take a breath until easing into a perfect, swinging version of “Spirit In The Night,” that  served notice that this was a band who could do ANYTHING.  You want rockers?  We’ve got rockers.  You want angry rants between fathers, sons & brothers goin’ all the way back to Cain & Abel?  Yeah, we’ve got those.  You want richly overly-romanticized depictions of a boozy Saturday night excursion to some New Jersey lakeside back in the early 70’s?  Done and DONE, Jack.

Really, in my now 50th year of seeing live rock & roll shows (1965-2015), I have never witnessed a better-paced, better-sequenced set of rock & roll than that night in 1978.  I have never seen a show with the emotional & musical length and BREADTH of that show.  I have never seen a show of that INTENSITY.  I’ve often told anybody who would listen that this was the SECOND greatest rock show I ever saw.  (For a list of the Top Ten, check out The Best of Everything, part one on my old blog.)  The Who in November of 1969 was the only show that topped this Springsteen outing, but The Who accomplished that task by COMING OUT ROCKING, AND THEN ROCKING SOME MORE, AND THEN ROCKING EVEN MORE AFTER THAT, until the Vet’s Memorial crowd I was a member of was basically pummeled into submission by their Sheer Rock & Roll Command.  (Seriously, I went to high school for THREE DAYS after that show not hearing one word clearly.  I thought I was gonna have to learn to lip-read.  I don’t know how Daltrey, Townshend, Entwistle & Moon had any hearing left after 1970.)  

Bruce & the guys did essentially ALL of the Darkness On The Edge Town album in the first set that night, with detours over to the first record for “It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City” (capped by a killer twin-guitar duet call & response coda with Miami Steve Van Zandt), the aforementioned “Spirit In The Night” and ending with truly heartbreaking performances  of “Racing In The Street,” straight into “Thunder Road,” and concluding with “Jungleland,” all from Born To Run.  Really, just that first set would have been enough to be better than 95% of all other rock concerts I’ve attended, and there was another whole set to come, announced simply by Bruce as, “We’re gonna take a 20 minute break and be back to play some more for ya.”

(For those of you scoring at home, there are ample bootlegs available of the Cleveland Agora show from August 9th, 1978 – broadcast live over Cleveland's WMMS – that is essentially the same set-list as the Columbus show I witnessed.  I have a double-CD set of that show made from cassettes I recorded when it was simulcast over Q-FM-96.  I sat mesmerized at the kitchen table of my apartment in the old Lincoln Park West complex off Georgesville Road that hot August night, staring at the radio, barely registering the sky and the room growing dark, scarcely able to believe what I was hearing coming out of that beat-up boombox.  If I could take only one CD-set to a proverbial desert island, THAT would be the one.  The Cleveland Agora show is now also available over live.brucespringsteen.net.  Send away for it, it’s a triple-disc set now and CHEAP at 20 bucks.)

Okay, fuck it, that’s already 1000 words and I’ve barely gotten to the point.  Here’s the point: I could write ANOTHER 2000 words about this show and not do it justice; I could tell you how sometime during this show the mantle of My All-Time Rock & Roll Saviour got passed from Pete Townshend to Bruce Springsteen, where it remains to this day (Keith Moon died two days later, September 7th, 1978, sealing that deal, The Who would NEVER be the same after that); I could tell you how that night Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band were the Greatest Bar Band EVER in the Universe, right before they became An Arena Band; I could tell you how Bruce has never sold a song to a commercial, has never cheapened himself to make a buck, has never lost his faith in the Power of Rock & Roll to get through hard times.  (Though, I fully admit, I have at times.)

Let me say this quite simply: I have seen at least one show of every major Bruce Springsteen tour since Born To Run - including the Human Touch/Better Days non-E Street shows and the Seeger Sessions band - right up to last year's High Hopes outings.  Many of those shows have been great, some were magnificent, most have been better than just about anybody else I've witnessed in any bar, club, theater, arena or stadium, but none of them have been as all-consuming, or as life-changing as the 1978 Darkness On The Edge Of Town tour.  

Here’s all I can ask you to do: There is a series of videos on YouTube from a show at the Passaic Theater in New Jersey on September 19th, 1978 - exactly two weeks after my beloved Columbus show - that will say more to you than any 50,000 words I could write here on Pencilstorm.  Just watch and enjoy………      

my receipt for the 1978 show (note spelling of Springsteen, nobody knew who Bruce was)

Yeah, you're readin' that right, cats & kittens, in 1978 you could purchase EIGHT Bruce Springsteen tickets for $62.20, including the service charges (a whopping $2.20).  Today the Ticketmaster fees alone for eight tickets would probably set you back more than sixty bucks.

Today's blog entry is dedicated to Jodie Weaver and Chris Clinton, my two best Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band friends.  I've known Jodie since high school, and we met Chris in 1984, when he wound up next to us in an overnight line for tickets to the Born In The U.S.A. tour, at the old Buzzard's Nest Records on Morse Road, where Jim Johnson worked at the time.  I think I still owe Chris upwards of $150 for tickets to Springsteen shows last year in Cincinnati and Columbus, but I do not expect this dedication to go towards repayment of that debt.

Jodie & Chris, I love ya, and thank you for always helping me to remember that it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive.  (Someday, Chris and I are gonna put our heads together and come up with our list of the Top Five Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band shows we've ever seen.)

Oh hell, let's go for one more stand-alone video from Passaic, 1978 (If I had to explain rock & roll to a being from outer space, I would show them 2:39 to 2:59 of this clip, Bruce & Steven moving up & back from the mics in total bad-ass harmony for verse two of "She's The One.")