Like a boss
Klein Oak grad is living the dream when he gets to take the stage with Bruce Springteen.
When the boss tells you to do something, you do it.
Especially when the boss is “The Boss” … rock ’n’ roll superstar Bruce Springsteen.
And he’s telling you to come onstage and do a song with him.
Matthew Aucoin, a graduate of Klein Oak High School and current sophomore in the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University, has been a Springsteen fan all his life — thanks to his father.
“My dad turned me on to Bruce at a young age. Before that, I didn’t really listen to a lot of music, but there was something different about Bruce’s music that got me to listen,” he said.
Last week, Matthew had an idea: Hey, Dad, let’s fly up to Philadelphia for Bruce Springsteen’s concert, we’ll get close to the stage, and I’ll bring a sign asking Bruce if I play a song with him in front of 50,000 people!
Yeah, right. That’ll happen.
Oh, it happened. Now Matthew is the envy of millions of Springsteen fans, a video of him rocking out with the E Street Band is an internet sensation, and he’s all over the national network TV news.
Pretty amazing. Beyond cool. The only problem, Aucoin knows that nothing will ever top this. He’s peaked at 19.
“I’m fully aware that this probably will be the best day of my life. So I apologize in advance to the woman I marry someday,” Aucoin laughed.
Here’s how it went down.
Aucoin and his dad hopped a 6:25 a.m. flight from Houston to Philly last Friday. Aucoin already had his sign: Can a college kid play ‘No Surrender’ with you?
“I had all of the chords written at the bottom of the sign proving to Bruce that I knew the song,” said Aucoin, who plays guitar just for fun. He isn’t in a band or anything like that.
Springsteen’s current The River tour is playing around the world. Why did Aucoin pick the Philly concert?
“I’ve always wanted to go to a show up northeast because that’s where he’s the most popular,” Aucoin said. “The Philadelphia show fell on a Friday and checked off all the boxes for me. It was a weekend, and I had no tests. I’m a hardcore Springsteen fan. This was my 12th or 13th show but my first up north. I can see why Bruce loves Philly and why Philly loves Bruce.”
Springsteen grew up in nearby Freehold, N.J., so he was playing on home turf.
Aucoin and his dad bought general admission tickets to the concert held in Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies baseball stadium. They got to the ballpark early in the afternoon to get wristbands that would determine in what order fans would be admitted to the field area close to the stage. The Aucoins got lucky. They were the 80th and 81st person through the gate. They would be front and center when Springsteen performed.
“The show starts, and at the end of the song ‘Rosalita,’ not even halfway through the show, I find the perfect opportunity to raise my sign to Bruce. I hold it up and, boom!, he makes eye contact with it and scans it and thinks about it. He’s thinking, thinking, thinking and looked over to his bandmate Steve Van Zandt. Then he looked toward my dad and said, ‘Can he play?” My dad said, ‘He can play it!’ And I said, ‘I can play it!’ So he waved for me to go onstage,” Aucoin said.
A roadie handed Aucoin a guitar. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band … and Matthew Aucoin broke into “No Surrender.”
“In the video, you see me and Bruce move in sync like it was rehearsed, but it wasn’t,” Aucoin said. “I wasn’t really paying attention to Bruce’s moves. I was just doing my own thing. I even added a shout-out to Philly in the lyrics at one part where he let me sing. After the performance ended, Bruce came over to me and said, ‘Bro, that was so great!’ I said, ‘Thank you, brother, thank you for all that you’ve done. My dad and I came here all the way from Houston for this show.’ He just smiled and nodded his head. He was such a sweet guy, so genuine and kind to his fans.”
One last thing before he left the stage. Aucoin’s father tossed a phone onstage and he took a selfie with Springsteen.
Aucoin became an instant hero, overnight sensation, and his sudden fame lingers.
“After the show ended, I was swarmed by people trying to get pictures with me. I took probably 100 to 150 pictures with fans. I felt like a celebrity,” he said. “I would just be walking by myself, and people would stop and stare at me in awe, and it was such a cool feeling. Everyone would come up to me and tell me how great it was and what I meant to their show experience. It was an incredible night.
“I’ve been reached out to by so many people across the country. I’ve gotten Facebook messages from people in Australia, Spain, Belgium, France, Germany, Norway, Italy, Croatia, Ireland — you name it! It has touched my heart that they really took the time to go out and find me on social media, telling me about my performance. I really appreciated every person who reached out to me. It started out as just me and my dad at the show.
“Honestly, the only thing that could top this experience would be to meet Bruce at his house and have a chance to just talk to him. I’d like to tell him how much he has meant to my life. He has been such a role model for me, somebody I have looked up to. Just look at his face throughout the show. He’s loving every second of it, maybe even more than me.”