Fan snags harmonica from Boss for shot of Manitoba whisky By: Kevin Rollason Posted: 5:41 PM CST Friday, Nov. 15, 2024 Last Modified: 10:44 AM CST Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024 Updates

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This article was published 15/11/2024 (343 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipegger went to this week’s Bruce Springsteen concert with a “hungry heart” and left with the Boss’s harmonica.

Now, Dave Pineau will be “dancing in the dark” in his basement, where his new prized possession will soon grace a shadow box filled with other mementos from Wednesday’s concert.

“I’ve had two sleeps, but I’m still pretty charged up,” said Pineau on Friday.

“The show was fantastic; he never disappoints. I’ve seen him 13 times now. But to get the harmonica? That’s not just a music memory, but a family memory.”

To score the harmonica, Pineau, his wife, Diane, and three of his four children — Taylor, Dani and Riley — went to the arena armed with a sign emblazoned with large capital letters that read, “Manitoba whiskey for harmonica?”

Pineau had to, uh, spirit a miniature bottle of booze into Canada Life Centre.

“I hope I don’t get a lifetime ban from the arena because of his,” said Pineau laughing, noting it was Manitoba whisky: Crown Royal produced in a distillery in Gimli. “I took a little bit of a chance with the bottle.”

Actually, the family went armed with three signs. The other two said, “We are mom and dad’s living proof” while the other said “Sunny Day and I play guitar?”

Pineau said the one sign was a request for Springsteen to play Living Proof (he didn’t), from his Lucky Town album, while the other was a riff on Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (nope again) from The Rising album.

Springsteen played the harmonica solo in The Promised Land right in front of Pineau and his family, then took the sign and held it up for the audience to see and accepted the liquor in exchange for the harmonica. The family caught the moment on video.

Springsteen, popularly known as the Boss, then walked back on the stage closer to the E Street Band, made a show of taking off the bottle’s top with his teeth and spitting it out, and slugged back the shot of booze as fans cheered.

“The harmonica looks new,” said Pineau. “It’s not that worn.

“I was thinking optimistically before that. I thought (my youngest kid) would get his attention, and he did acknowledge him with the sign, so I thought we had a shot. Then he played the solo in front of him, and sure enough, he did it.”

Kevin Donnelly, senior vice-president of venues and entertainment with True North Sports and Entertainment, said from his vantage point he witnessed the sign and the harmonica transfer, but he missed Springsteen having a quick drink.

Donnelly agreed it’s one of the many iconic musician-fan interactions in the arena’s history.

He said a full bottle of Crown Royal has been gifted by True North to many entertainers who have graced the stage.

“That it is made here is one of the best-kept secrets, that Crown Royal is distilled just an hour north of Winnipeg,” he said.

Donnelly said had security found Pineau’s bottle, “It would have been confiscated, but then the person would have been allowed in as long as they weren’t intoxicated.”

Pineau said he has seen Springsteen in various cities, including his first time in Fargo, N.D., in 1999, as well as Chicago, New York and Barcelona, but he has never come back with a souvenir from the Boss himself.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca