Bruce Springsteen's unforgettable first outdoor concert

I can point to several reasons for why I became a music critic in my younger days. One was Ben Fong-Torres, an Asian American critic who was one of Rolling Stone's original editors in the late '60s, and an Asian American role model for me as a young writer. Another was Vin Scelsa, a DJ at WNEW-FM in New York City where I went to college, who was so passionate and knowledgeable about all music that I learned to love all styles of music from him.

But there's only one concert I can point to and say, "That show inspired me to write about rock and roll." That was Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, when they performed at Red Rocks on June 20, 1978.

I wasn't a full-blown Springsteen fan when I went to that concert. But over the previous three years, I'd become familiar with his music, and with his reputation for extraordinary performances.

I got that from the first week I arrived in New York in August of 1975. The whole city was abuzz about a recent five-night stand by "The Boss" at the Bottom Line, the legendary Greenwich Village nightclub.

Coming from Colorado, I'd never heard of Springsteen and was suspicious of the hype -- especially when a couple of months into the semester, Springsteen ended up on both TIME and Newsweek?s front covers on the same week.

But I became a casual fan because "Born to Run" came out that fall and I liked the album a lot.

It was seeing the E-Street Band on that hot summer night in 1978 at Red Rocks that made me a true fan -- and helped push me into being a rock critic.

The show wasn't sold out. It was sponsored by KHOW, of all radio stations, an AM station which at the time wasn't a big musical influence. Springsteen hadn't had a Top 40 hit (except other people, like Manfred Mann, covering his "Blinded by the Light," or the Hollies' version of "Sandy"). He was virtually unknown in Colorado except for people from the northeast who'd seen him before.

I went kind of knowing what to expect, and I was still bowled over. He played his standard three-hour concert with a break in between sets. He played his older songs, he played almost everything from "Born to Run," and he played a lot of the powerful, lyrically bleak songs from his newest album, "Darkness on the Edge of Town."

He also played his trademark oldies, including Gary U.S. Bonds' "Quarter to Three" and the first-known E-Street Band version of "I Fought the Law."

In between songs, he turned Red Rocks into a campfire and played the part of storyteller, with his rambling, witty dialogues that segued smoothly into the next song. He ran around the stage like a mad fool; he slid on his knees to Clarence Clemmons, jumped on top of the piano, and climbed into the audience.

Springsteen put so mich energy into his performance that he re-wrote the rules of a rock concert that night for me, and showed how much an artist can connect with his music and his audience. I was a convert, and I was so inspired by the show that I wanted to tell others about performers like him, and how rock and roll can save the world.

But the capper came just a few weeks later, when I was back at school and still raving about the concert.

WNEW-FM in New York was broadcasting one of Springsteen's three nights at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, New Jersey, a homecoming celebration after his national tour. The show was terrific -- and during the intermission, the station's Vin Scelsa interviewed Springsteen about the tour.

During the interview, Springsteen talked about one concert in particular. "It's the first time we've ever played outdoors," I recall him telling Scelsa. "And it was in this magical place, called Red Rocks outside of Denver. It was amazing, with these giant rocks on both sides of the stage."

I was beside myself. I was jumping up and down, pointing to the cheapo stereo we had in the dorm room, and telling my roommates that I was there at the show. Springsteen had vowed he'd never play an outdoor gig (he later had to recant that one when he became a superstar and started playing stadiums, including Denver's Mile High Stadium), but he had played Red Rocks and the setting inspired him enough to rave about it to his hometown fans.

I was hooked. I never looked back after that. I saw hundreds of shows as a music critic, including three more Springsteen concerts.

But none ever really held that same spark as seeing Springsteen for the first time, back in 1978.