New Jersey's own Bruce Springsteen kicked off Wednesday night's star-studded Madison Square Garden concert that raised money for those enduring misery after Superstorm Sandy.
Springsteen's set included "Land of Hope and Dreams" and "Born to Run."
Proceeds from "12-12-12" benefit the Robin Hood Relief Fund, which is assisting storm victims in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Alicia Keys, launching into a customized version of "No One," told a cheering crowd, "This is our city. This is everybody's city. The resilience of this city is incredible."
Early performers include the Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, Eric Clapton, Roger Waters and Eddie Vedder, joined by comedians Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Billy Crystal. The Who's set included "Who Are You" and "Pinball Wizard." Images of storm damage were shown on a large screen.
"This recovery is not going to be quick," Jon Bon Jovi told the crowd during his set. "We need your support."
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie recently said the latest estimates of Sandy-related storm costs in his state were $36.8 billion, while New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters the total cost in his state was $41 billion.
Concert organizers said the event was accessible to 2 billion people worldwide, through television and Web sites. "We are having high donation volume on the web," they said on the concert's Twitter page late Wednesday.
Can you believe Bon Jovi, Springsteen and the Stones played the same set list last night as they did for the Joplin Missouri benefit concert.... Oh wait there was no nation wide concert to help that disaster. I guess if it doesnt happen in New York the nation is not suppose to care.
Well said.
It is about time that an event such as this happened on such a large scale to help people in the US. So glad to see the true rock and roll heroes on stage. For Bruce, Bon Jovi, Joel... it was home and they rocked it!
I love the stones but they kinda do look like a bunch of skeletons. Mick looks like he's at least 100 yrs old.
This was a great concert until they let Kanye West out on the stage! I felt like I was having a nervous breakdown during his "song." THAT is not music and he did NOT fit in with the rest of the talent that appeared at the concert since he has no talent whatsoever! Alicia Keyes was awesome . . . I had never heard her sing before!
I couldn't agree more. I changed the channel when he was on and fell asleep. I missed Chris Martin, Billy Joel and Paul McCartney. I've never liked KW before and now I have even more reason not to like him! LOL!! The rest of the concert was absolutely amazing!!
Bruce Springsteen is a man of the people. He stands up for the little guy. A regular blue-collar Joe. A union man. A bona fide working-class hero.
And, when he’s not busy being all that… he’s a tax-dodging liberal hypocrite worth over $200 million who pretends to be a farmer to save hundreds of thousands of dollars on his property taxes that would have otherwise funded the welfare programs he pretends to care about.
Sure Bruce is rich. That's what happens when you're a famous, successful rock star. You tend to get rich. He also does more in a year to support local charities then you will do in your miserable lifetime. The election is over. Go crawl back into your Fox News bunker for another 4 years.
That is funny that you wrote that because you copied that verbatim from another website called "human events". It was the first result to show up in google when I searched Bruce Springsteen and taxes.
Adam Sandler's version of Hallelujah was a freaking riot! I hope they play that on the radio, but it will get bleeped for sure....
His skit was about as funny as a hemorrhoid operation.Keep up the kiddy movies.
Adam Sandler broke his funny bone a long time ago....Now he's just annoying.
Hey! You guys forgeting Paul and Alicia, they closed the concert in style
Quote: "Eric
Sure Bruce is rich. That's what happens when you're a famous, successful rock star. You tend to get rich. He also does more in a year to support local charities then you will do in your miserable lifetime. The election is over. Go crawl back into your Fox News bunker for another 4 years."
But do YOU consider him as a 1% -er??? Is he included with Oprah and Michael Moore for now being over taxed too?? You're right. The election is over. So ANYONE, including these celeberties and the other liberal supporting ones in that same tax bracket, should be paying xtra according to your standards as well.....will you make sure of this??
How would you like me to "take care of this" Drive to his house and collect his taxes? He is a 1%. He will be paying a bit more next year. I'm sure he won't complain about it. If you want to eliminate the tax breaks and loopholes he takes advantage of then that's fine with me too. Take away the farm breaks and the private jet breaks and all the other nonsense CEOS and rock stars take advantage of.... Fine with me. However, if what he does take advantage of at tax time is legal then I have zero problem with it. Change the law but don't complain when people live inside of it.
Yes I donated and I gave 1% of my net worth. That came to about 2500 dollars. Springsteen 1% of his worth and all the other stars on stage would be way over 30 million. sir Paul alone at 1% would have been 12,000,000!!!
So did you give 1% of your net worth my friend I did...did they obivously not for they only came up with 30 Million
Quote: "ctbeckyw
And I would have rather seen this senior citizen set rock it rather than the auto-tune, cookie cutter pop tarts of today. These performers are still here and rocking it after 20 or more years. The Biebers of today will be lucky their around for two or three years before heading back into oblivion and their jobs washing dishes."
....you couldn't have said it any better!!!!! Kudos!!.....
I have to stay with EC ... love the man and his music. Agree 100% about KW – NOT a fan!
Man – Alicia Keyes can belt it out. And she is hot!
Storms like Sandy will become more frequent, and even more powerful in the years ahead. They will also start to happen in places not used to them.
It was a great benefit concert for a greater cause. Still wondering how in the hell Kanye West got there among those greater performers
. What saddens me the most about this concert other than feeling for the victims, is the terrible state that music has become. 40 years from now, who the hell will they be able to get to be in a benefit that would even compare to that line-up last night?
Kayne West was awful. Waste of time so much so towards the end any of the channels in New England carrying it started to drop off. I ended up missing McCartney
Hi