For many people throughout the world, Easter weekend marks a big occasion. They celebrate the holiday with their families, attend church services, and have a big dinners.

Although I didn’t spend the weekend in a church, or even with my family, I did have what some would term a religious experience last weekend.

I saw Bruce Springsteen perform two concerts in North Carolina. Or should I say, for two nights I was a faithful disciple in the church of Bruce.

Springsteen, who has developed an unbelievably loyal and strong fan base over his 25-plus years in the recording industry, is on tour with the E Street Band for the first time since 1988.

It was to be my sixth and seventh shows on the tour, all coming since September. I’ve seen him in Minneapolis (twice), Chicago, Detroit, Denver, and now Charlotte and Raleigh.

I own all the official albums and more than a few bootlegs, and I consider myself a pretty hard-core fan.

My pilgrimage to North Carolina, however, really opened my eyes.

Traveling with a fellow “Tramp” (the nickname that fans bestowed on themselves, comes from the song “Born to Run”) from Utah who had already seen a couple shows himself, we were in search of a good show.

We ended up finding so much more.

The show starts with each band member popping out of the tunnel one by one.

The biggest cheers are reserved for Clarence “Big Man” Clemons, the 6-4, 280-pound sax player, and Springsteen.

The Boss makes his entrance and is greeted by a long ovation. Clemons, long his on-stage foil, walks to the mike and says in his deep baritone voice “All rise.”

The crowd, already standing, cheers in anticipation.

Each show then goes into a gospel-type intro, with Springsteen asking “Are you ready for me people? There’s going to be a meeting in the town tonight!”

Then they kick in with the first song, and the next three-plus hours are pure adrenaline. Although he peppers the set with five or six songs that slow the pace, this is to be sure a rocking set.

Mixing old favorites (“The River,” “Badlands”) with songs that are more geared toward the long-time fans (“Something in the Night,” “The Ties that Bind”), Springsteen’s energy carries the rest of the band and the crowd.

Two times the show comes to a virtual standstill as he puts on his preacher facade and goes to work.

He talks of going to the “river of life” to find joy, happiness and perhaps even sexual healing.

And when it comes down to it, Springsteen tells us that he’s here to show us “the mystery, the, the majesty, the MINISTRY of rock and roll.”

Closing out the spiel, he declares that although he can’t promise us life everlasting, he can promise us life right now.

Although not the final song of the night, the climax of the show comes during Born to Run, always placed as the second or third of six encores.

As the song starts off, the house lights go up, and the feeling of community is never more apparent than at this time.

As 25,000 people raise their fist in unison to the signature line “Tramps like us, baby we were born to run,” it’s clear that Springsteen has delivered on all the promises made.

Following the first night’s show in Charlotte, we grabbed a few of our vinyl records and stood outside the arena in hopes that the Boss would make a showing.

We were joined by approximately 20 other people, all with the same goal.

I quickly learned that my seven shows this tour were not impressive. One man, who said he worked on Capitol Hill, had just seen his 39th show.

Of this tour.

I also met one of the more well-known Springsteen fans, a man named Bill Daverne. Daverne told me this was his 46th show of the tour, which had started last April 9 with a three-month break in between.

His story gets better. It turns out he had followed the Boss during the 1984-85 “Born in the USA” megatour.

From all the “cheering and traveling,” he had gotten pneumonia and was told to stop going to the shows.

Which he did, for the most part, for the next ten years. When Springsteen embarked on a solo tour, Daverne went to a few shows.

Then, when it was announced that he would go back on tour with the E Street Band, Daverne began making his plan.

And there he was, with 46 down and many more to go.

There was also a man who was attending his 34th show overall. He was a law professor at Yale, a man over his fifties.

The conversation turned to how people got hooked on Bruce. He began describing his conversion, detailing the afternoon when he was listening to “Backstreets,” a song off the Born to Run album.

Something just clicked, he said. And later he enthusiastically recounted a show he was at in 1978 when Springsteen leapt off eight-foot speakers.

He was jumping, too, just recounting the events of the night over 20 years ago.

Others were well into double digits, and we all stood around for well over an hour, reflecting on this show and other shows while speculating as to Bruce’s whereabouts.

Although many of us had not met before the night, by the end we were one big happy family. We finally gave up on an appearance by the Boss at around 1:15 a.m.

Ah, yes, just another night at the Church of Bruce. At the end, everyone told each other they’d see one another down the road. I have no doubt they will.

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Josh Flickinger is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Rockford, Ill.