Honorable Mention: Boxing-Brandon Rios vs. Richard Abril/Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Sergey Fedchenko (Saturday 9pm from Las Vegas live on Pay-Per-View), Friday Night Fights-Michael Katsidis vs. Albert Mensah (Friday 11pm from Las Vegas live on ESPN2); Women’s College Lacrosse: Virginia Tech @ Maryland (Saturday 12:30pm Ludwig Field); Tennis: ATP Tour U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship (Saturday 1pm Sunday 2pm from Houston live on Tennis Channel); Soccer: MLS DC United @ New England Revolution (Saturday 4pm from Foxborough, MA live on Comcast SportsNet); Charm City Roller Girls (Saturday 5:30pm Du Burns Arena)

10. Kaiser Chiefs (Tuesday 7pm Rams Head Live), Rodney Atkins (Wednesday 7pm Rams Head Live), The Ting Tings (Saturday 8pm Rams Head Live); Ballyhoo (Saturday 6pm Recher Theatre); Nada Surf (Tuesday 7pm 9:30 Club), All-American Rejects (Sunday 7pm 9:30 Club); Robert Randolph & The Family Band (Friday 11pm Howard Theater) Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) (Saturday 11:30pm Howard Theater), The Roots (Sunday 9pm Monday 8pm Howard Theater); The Bacon Brothers (Friday & Saturday 7:30pm Birchmere); Alison Krauss & Union Station (Saturday 7:30pm Meyerhoff Symphony Hall); Cris Jacobs (Thursday 9pm Whiskey 1803 Annapolis), Local H (Saturday 9pm Whiskey 1803); Blues Traveler (Sunday 8pm State Theatre); Counting Crows “Underwater Sunshine (or what we did on our summer vacation)”, Alabama Shakes “Boys & Girls” & Florence & The Machine “MTV Unplugged” available in stores/on iTunes (Tuesday)

Robert Randolph Robert Randolph Robert Randolph Robert Randolph. He’s my friend…

I remember seeing Blues Traveler a few years back at Power Plant Live on a Friday night. I swear to God I sang along to every word, even when they did Sublime…

Alabama Shakes TORE UP the stage at RHL Saturday night. I’m so all in on their record…

And I both enjoy FATM and I enjoy MTV Unplugged. How could this get better? What, could Florence Welch combine with Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age to cover “Jackson” by Johnny Cash???

9. Jim Norton (Thursday-Saturday DC Improv); Jim Breuer (Friday & Saturday Magooby’s Joke House); Corey Holcomb (Thursday-Saturday Baltimore Comedy Factory); David Sedaris (Thursday 7:30pm Meyerhoff Symphony Hall); “Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol” available on Blu-Ray/DVD (Tuesday); “The Three Stooges” out in theaters (Friday); The Gathering (Friday 5pm Baltimore Museum of Industry); 16th Annual City Paper Brew Fest (Saturday 1pm Broadway Square Fells Point)

Judge me all you want. I still giggle about Jim Breuer in Half Baked…

Also of note in this-Stooges looks terrible and I’d go to The Gathering for THIS from Miss Shirley’s…

And Brew Fest? If I were to end up in Fells Saturday afternoon I would ABSOLUTELY end up spending too much time “sampling” this…

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Honorable Mention: Mixed Martial Arts-Bellator Fighting Championships 64 (Friday 8pm from Windsor, Ontario, Canada live on MTV2); Women’s College Lacrosse: Maryland @ North Carolina (Saturday 3pm from Chapel Hill, NC live on ESPN3.com); Soccer: Team USA Women vs. Brazil (Tuesday 7am from Chiba, Japan live on ESPN2), MLS-Seattle Sounders @ DC United (Saturday 7:30pm RFK Stadium)

10. Alabama Shakes (Saturday 8pm Rams Head Live); Cody Canada/Shooter Jennings (Friday 8pm Recher Theatre); Kevin Costner & Modern West (Tuesday & Wednesday 8pm Rams Head on Stage); Snow Patrol (Friday 7pm Saturday 8pm 9:30 Club); Moody Blues (Tuesday 8pm D.A.R. Constitution Hall); Of Monsters And Men “My Head Is An Animal” available in stores/on iTunes (Tuesday)

I’ll be at RHL Saturday night because I’m ALL IN…

I wish I could tell you I enjoyed The Moody Blues. Sadly I do not. But here’s this because there’s not much going on this week…

Now here’s Snow Patrol. Look, if Paul McCartney was playing this week I’d post something of his…

I think I posted the studio version of “Little Talks” by Of Monsters and Men last week. But I’m posting them again this week because THEY’RE REALLY FREAKING GOOD…

9. Mike Epps (Saturday 8pm 1st Mariner Arena); Kevin James (Wednesday 7:30pm Warner Theatre); Royal Comedy Tour feat. Bruce Bruce, Sommore, Mark Curry, Earthquake (Saturday 8pm Show Place Arena); “War Horse” available on Blu-Ray/DVD (Tuesday); “American Reunion” out in theaters (Friday)

We’re going to see “American Reunion” Thursday night/Friday morning at midnight in White Marsh. If you’re not going to see “American Reunion” Thursday night/Friday morning at midnight you’re a terrible human being and I don’t want to be your friend. So just make it simple and come with us. We’ll probably hit Tilted Kilt before then.

But honestly, if you don’t go see this movie you’re just the worst person of all time…

Just when the Washington Capitals had a chance to put themselves on the brink of making the post season, they found a way to mess it up. After tying the game on a late Jason Chimera tally, the Caps lost a defensive zone faceoff and allowed Bolts sniper Steven Stamkos to score on a rebound from the doorstep with 1:03 remaining for the game winner. Stamkos would add his league leading 58th goal into an empty net to make it 4-2.

It was an opportunity blown for the Caps, who now have to sit back and root for the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday before taking on the Florida Panthers at the Verizon Center on Thursday night. If the Buffalo Sabres win tomorrow, they tie the Capitals in the standings with two games remaining, but the Caps own the tiebreaker (more regulation or overtime wins).

This was another sloppy game and it started slowly for the Capitals. Part of that was their inconsistent play but another reason was the officiating tandem of Kelly Sutherland and Frederick L’Ecuyer. Those two zebras gave Tampa two early power plays while missing some obvious infractions committed by the Bolts. It would go that way most of the night despite Washington carrying the play. Tampa received four power plays to just two for Washington and there were some questionable non-icing calls that went against the Caps late in regulation. They might as well have put Buffalo Sabres or Florida Panthers jerseys on the referees tonight because they were anything but objective.

But the Caps did not play well enough to win despite the bad officiating. They made key mistakes at the wrong time. Mathieu Perreault made a great pass to set up the first Caps goal by Alexander Semin (goal, assist), but he then made a terrible giveaway in his own zone shortly after Mike Green was robbed by Dwayne Roloson (31 saves) with a dandy glove save that would have made it 2-0, Washington. Perreault’s horrible turnover forced Dmitry Orlov to take a penalty and then Teddy Purcell scored on the power play to tie it up. 25 ticks later the Bolts scored again.

Chimera’s late goal (3:17 left) off of a rebound of a Semin shot after Green skated through the Tampa defense seemed to be the type of marker that would propel the Capitals to a victory, or at least a point. But Jay Beagle lost the draw to Stamkos with 1:15 to go and #91 provided the dagger. It was another late loss for Washington and if they miss the playoffs they have a whole slew of these contests to go back and revisit from 2011-12.

So now the Caps will have to sit and wait until Thursday to play again, with the hope that Buffalo loses on Tuesday against the Leafs or on Thursday in Philadelphia. Otherwise they’ll need a win vs the Panthers and a victory against the Rangers on Saturday to be sure to qualify for the post season (assuming the Sabres win in Boston on Saturday too).

Notes: The Washington coaching staff has got to get the power play going. Right now it is just terrible. There is too much passing at the top and not enough shots with traffic. Why not move Alexander Ovechkin down low or at least on the half wall again?…Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Brooks Laich, and Troy Brouwer were all -2. The Caps need those guys scoring if they are going to win their last two games…Michal Neuvirth (26 saves) was in goal and he was outplayed by Roloson. He needed to stop the Purcell shot. The other two were the result of long shots with traffic…speaking of traffic, the Capitals need to get more of that in front of the other clubs goalie. Washington makes it too easy on opposing netminders too often.

There aren’t many bands in the world where you can make a legitimate argument for making a Top 50 and still be throwing at least 50 more great songs OFF THE LIST…but then again, Bruce Springsteen is no “ordinary” artist.

Maybe for the Rolling Stones, U2 and a few others you could make this kind of list, but Bruce Springsteen is certainly about as prolific a songwriter as there’s ever been in our lifetime. And then factor in the wide variety of versions of all of his songs, and well, like I said it’s HARD to think of 50 GREAT songs by any artist.

So, with sincere respect to Drew Forrester and all the Springsteen fans everywhere who might read this, here’s one Bruce fan’s look at my personal favorites over the years. Honestly, the whole Top 20 here at some point was “my favorite Bruce song” of any particular era or year.

But this is how it stands on the eve of Bruce Springsteen and The E Street coming back to the area after a few years away…and some liner notes…

Nestor’s Top 51 Bruce Springsteen songs…in perfect order!
51. Glory Days — Obvious baseball reference here
50. The Promised Land — Mister I ain’t a boy, no I’m a man
49. Ain’t Got You — I’m a massive fan of the TOL album, which kicks off with this one
48. No Surrender — We learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned in school
47. My Hometown — Great haunting melody
46. Spare Parts — Particularly poignant, having been a teenage parent myself
45. Girls In Their Summer Clothes — The Boss’ ode to beautiful women in the September of his years
44. Waiting On a Sunny Day — A hopelessly happy song and Bruce hams it up in concert
43. Out In The Street — I walk the way I wanna walk
42. Working On a Dream — This one is still a little “young” for me, but I do love this song and what it stands for
41. Because The Night — Patti Smith rocks!
40. Pink Cadillac — Waving to the girls, feeling outta sight
39. Ramrod — Great guitar riff that Lofgren calls a dinosaur
38. Badlands — Poor man wanna be rich, rich man wanna be king, And a king ain’t satisfied till he rules everything (see Angelos, Peter G.)
37. Cadillac Ranch — Another rocker… “Long and dark, shiny and black”
36. Prove It All Night — What it’s like to live and die
35. Point Blank — Haunting ballad, great groove
34. Be True — He played this the first night I ever saw him at the Spectrum in Philly, a B-side I love that Ken Rosenthal once gave me on 45
33. If I Should Fall Behind — Beautifully performed live song in the encore about love & friendship
32. The Rising — Bruce’s fall epic yields an infectious title track
31. Fire — Pointers Sisters did a nice job…You say you don’t like it, but girl I know you’re a liar
30. Downbound Train — Now I work down at the carwash where all it ever does is rain
29. Rosalita — I know your daddy, he don’t dig me ’cause I play in a rock ‘n roll band
28. Dancing In The Dark — My lifetime crush on Courtney Cox continues, she still “starts a fire”
27. One Step Up — Last night I dreamed I held you in my arms, the music was never-ending
26. Hungry Heart — Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack

Here’s video of Bruce Springsteen calling me a dummy:

Go to Page 2 for the Top 25…