If you're inclined to be superstitious, you might be inclined to approach Springsteen show #13 with a degree of trepidation.
On the other hand, experience over the previous twelve suggests that you're not likely to get a show you would rate too far below excellent in terms of performance.
Some are more stellar than others, but even when things don't quite click you can be reasonably confident of a good time.
Of course, experience also shows that the enjoyment of the performance can be affected by your environment, particularly those around you.
And, at the start, things did not particularly good. My seat was on the floor in Section E, well back on the end of Row 22.
Alarm bells started ringing when the bloke on the right-hand side of the bald-headed gentleman in front of me remarked that he could stand all night because there was no one behind him.
But I can't help thinking he had one eye pointed in my direction, waiting to see if there was any response.
Hughesy, of course, was diplomatic.
There's always a wait and see approach, and if things panned out so that I had to spend three hours on my feet, I'd be spending three hours of my feet.
That's not a problem, complaints can be passed forward to the gentleman in front.
In any case, the video screens at Qudos are very well elevated, and if you don't always need to be able to see the stage to enjoy the concert vibe.
But it helps.
Anyway, the gentleman in probably made his intentions quite clear by spending the ten minutes before the show actually started on his feet.
As The Professor hit the keyboards, I thought he was going to remain on his feet through New York City Serenade, but sanity prevailed, and those behind me got to see the whole of the stage for the first number.
That, however, was never going to last and as the keyboard duo strapped on the accordions for American Land he rose to its feet and that stayed there for the duration.
For my part, I went with the flow, standing with those around me stood and resuming the seat when I realised they had done so.
The easiest way to avoid minor irritations is to lose yourself in the flow of the concert and ignore anything on the periphery.
Even when the periphery includes an ignorant bastard standing to slap bang in front of you.
Mind you, there was a point what I nearly tapped him on the shoulder.
A particular section of the bank of lights above the stage had a nasty habit of shining right in my eyes. If Inconsiderate Standing Dude would be so kind as to move about ten centimetres to his left this would no longer be a problem.
Of course, I didn’t.
My teeth are not particularly good, but I would prefer to keep them attached to my gums rather than having them repositioned at the back of my throat.
Losing yourself in the flow of the concert isn't particularly difficult.
Not when American Land flows almost straight into The Ties That Bind, which in turn segues into No Surrender and Out in the Street.
And at this point, we return to a suspicion expressed previously.
The last couple of shows seem to have seen the return of the sign request, but I'm not sure that everything is the way it seems on the surface.
There have not been too many genuine obscurities selected.
After Out in the Street, Bruce plucked aside advocating My Love Will Not Let You Down out of the audience.
Half a dozen songs into the set is probably a reasonably natural niche for this minor classic, and I suspect it could have been lurking there in the set list all along.
Straight afterwards, Bruce grabbed another sign referring to a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack.
Right in the slot where one would expect to find Hungry Heart and the associated piece of crowd-surfing back to the stage.
But I'm not suggesting that it's all preplanned.
The next sign, the third alleged sign request in succession, was for Long Tall Sally, and curiosity about the spontaneity factor saw the consult the iPhone and the BRUCEfanatic app, which is revealed 11 performances with the most recent in Milan in 2013.
And that was the first time the song had been played since August 1989.
I think you can count that one as a genuine that sign request.
It took a minute or two to get things set up for the song, just like it did for Joel Blon at the first show in Melbourne last time around, but the band roared through it in fine style. One can't help suspecting there's some arrangement combining a database and electronic prompts to remind those on stage of lyrics and chords and the like.
But that was really the only surprise in the three-hour set.
I could have sworn I had experienced American Skin (41 Shots) in concert before, although it didn't appear in the song matrix until I added it earlier this morning.
You couldn't really count Candy's Room as a surprise either, although Bruce doesn't play it as often as I'd like.
Personally, I'd have it in the set list ahead of Downbound Train, I’m On Fire, or any of those crowd favourites from Born in the USA.
But then, as stated before, I'm not the person who has spent $300 to see Bruce for the first time.
On the other hand, Bruce, old buddy, old pal, next time you've got a setlist with more than two of those Born in the USA workhorses, drop one of them answer in the Candy's Room in its place.
As long as you're not dropping My Home Town.
Scan through the set list below and you'll see She’s The One straight after Candy, around the same slot it occupied when it turned up in Adelaide.
Somewhere over the last week or so, I saw that given as a sign request, is what prompted suspicions about the current practice regarding sign requests.
Here, it sat nicely as a worthy but slightly less played, inclusion among the what could really be described as the usual suspects.
The blurry line between the main set and to the encore continues, with the house lights not coming up until after Jungleland.
And from there, the run home might have been predictable but underlines the valuable spot occupied by Shout. Bruce, I suspected at the time, couldn't have gone straight from Tenth Avenue Freezeout into Bobby Jean, and further investigation through BRUCEfanatic reveals that sequence has never happened.
Yet.
New York City Serenade
American Land
The Ties That Bind
No Surrender
Out in the Street
My Love Will Not Let You Down
Hungry Heart
Long Tall Sally
Wrecking Ball
Darkness on the Edge of Town
American Skin (41 Shots)
Youngstown
The Promised Land
Mary's Place
Candy's Room
She's the One
Downbound Train
I'm on Fire
Because the Night
The Rising
Badlands
Thunder Road
* * *
Jungleland
Born to Run
Dancing in the Dark
Tenth Avenue Freeze-out
Shout
Bobby Jean
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