DKE Fraternity, University of Pennsylvania 12/5/09

It was the 39th Street Freeze-Out on a cold, snowy Saturday night at the DKE House at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. One of the craziest crowds you’ll ever find was on hand for the 33-song set, rocking out with bandannas and sleeveless flannel shirts until the wee hours of the morning. Rarely do you find an audience at a fever pitch from the beginning of a show till the end, but that’s exactly what we had at the DKE house. Even the more obscure songs like “The Ties That Bind” and “The E Street Shuffle” had the crowd going as did the slow songs “I’m on Fire” and “Racing in the Street.” Speaking of "Racing in the Street," a humorous episode occurred during that song as drummer Rich Hodder went outside to relieve himself during the beginning of the song, figuring he'd have plenty of time to get back in by the time he had to kick in with the drums. Unfortunately the door wound up locking behind him and he was stuck outside in the cold. Amidst all of the noise, nobody could hear him pounding on it to get back in. He had to run around the house to the front, eventually made it in and hightailed it back to his drum kit.
By the end of the evening enthusiasm had turned to borderline chaos as guys and girls ran to the stage area singing along on our microphones, playing tambourines and snapping photos. At the end of the night when the show was finally done and the crowd was filtering out saxophonist Bill “Butterfingers” Shanker put an exclamation point on the evening by dropping one of the PA speaker cabinets into the fire alarm, setting it off and sending the cabinet crashing to the floor. Thankfully the cops were cool, no major damage was sustained by the equipment and we all had a good laugh. Thanks to Mike and Gage at DKE for their unbridled enthusiasm, hospitality and delicious Keystone beer.