Back to the Swamplands
Apr. 4th, 2012 07:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lagilman(posted without notes: I reserve the right to come back and update as my brain comes back online, or my companions remind me of stuff I forgot).
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Without Clarence.
The Boss without the Big Man.
It was a good show, a very good show, but... weird. Yeah.
[I had always assumed when Clarence went, there would be no more touring. I'm glad to be wrong]
They went on around 8:20, and we were heading for the car around 11:20. A three hour concert: no breaks, no intermission, no loss of energy. Ok, yeah, Bruce walked where he used to run, and boogied when he used to bounce, but think you'll be able to do even that when you're in your 60's?
Not in the Top Five, no, but the Top Five is a list of transcendent rock-n-roll revival experiences. This was a damnfine rock-n-soul interactive show as only the Boss and His Band can do. And totally a drums-and-guitars night. Max was smokin'. Ok, I'm biased. He was still in smokin' fine form.
and while you go to a Springsteen show always hoping to hear your favorites, I've never been disappointed, because, well, I've never heard anyone say "oh, I wish he hadn't played that..."
Highlights:
The opening salvo: Bruce doing his own "radio announcer" introduction, including the line "Forty-five years of performing...thirty-five years of therapy..."
The "band introduction" with shout-outs (very very LOUD shoutouts) for Danny and Clarence. As Bruce said: if we're here, and they're here... then Danny and The Big Man are, too.
[“Are we missing anybody?” Springsteen called out, and the fans responded with an affirmative roar. “Are we missing anybody? Do I have to say the names? No, I don’t. All I can tell you is if you’re here and we’re here, then they’re here. So let them hear you.”]
We did not blow the roof off with "Born to Run." However, we nearly did with "Dancing in the Dark," after.
"The Rising" still makes me cry. Always. Absent friends. Following that with "We Are Alive" is sheer genius. Sacrifice, followed by bitterness, but always laced with determination.
Jake's first sax solo, and the crowd letting him know, in no uncertain terms, that he was welcome in the House That Bruce Built (and dear dog, you can see his uncle in his face. It's somewhat unnervingly reassuring, even before the first note told us it was going to be all right).
During "Waiting on a Sunny Day," Bruce pulling a young girl out of the GA pit to sing with him (and she owned the mike), including teaching her how to do the patented "Bruce Slide" across the stage. She didn't quite make it...so neither (intentionally) did he, saying after "it's harder than it looks." Hearts melted throughout the arena.
A tribute to Clarence during "10th Avenue Freeze-Out," as is only right and proper. It took 4-5 musicians to replace his solo, as is also only right and proper.
and I woke up with 41 Shots (American Skin) still in my ears, and my body aching from three hours of dancing on concrete floor.
And I get to do it again on Monday, at Madison Square Garden. Yeah, that'll do.
We Take Care Of Our Own
Wrecking Ball
Badlands
Death to My Hometown (love love love this song)
My City of Ruins (with band introduction, v. moving, with the theme of loss and love)
So Young and in Love
The E Street Shuffle
Jack of All Trades
Seeds
Prove It All Night
Easy Money (much better live than on the studio recording, IMO)
Waitin' on a Sunny Day
The Promised Land
Apollo Medley (The Way You Do The Things You Do/634-5789)
American Skin (41 Shots)
Because the Night
The Rising
We Are Alive
Thunder Road
Encore:
Rocky Ground
(With Michelle Moore)
Out In the Street
Born to Run
Dancing in the Dark
Land of Hope and Dreams
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out (with the crowdfunded tribute to Clarence where the sax solo used to go)
[the rest of the photos are here, for those who like that sort of thing]
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Without Clarence.
The Boss without the Big Man.
It was a good show, a very good show, but... weird. Yeah.
[I had always assumed when Clarence went, there would be no more touring. I'm glad to be wrong]
They went on around 8:20, and we were heading for the car around 11:20. A three hour concert: no breaks, no intermission, no loss of energy. Ok, yeah, Bruce walked where he used to run, and boogied when he used to bounce, but think you'll be able to do even that when you're in your 60's?
Not in the Top Five, no, but the Top Five is a list of transcendent rock-n-roll revival experiences. This was a damnfine rock-n-soul interactive show as only the Boss and His Band can do. And totally a drums-and-guitars night. Max was smokin'. Ok, I'm biased. He was still in smokin' fine form.
and while you go to a Springsteen show always hoping to hear your favorites, I've never been disappointed, because, well, I've never heard anyone say "oh, I wish he hadn't played that..."
Highlights:
The opening salvo: Bruce doing his own "radio announcer" introduction, including the line "Forty-five years of performing...thirty-five years of therapy..."
The "band introduction" with shout-outs (very very LOUD shoutouts) for Danny and Clarence. As Bruce said: if we're here, and they're here... then Danny and The Big Man are, too.
[“Are we missing anybody?” Springsteen called out, and the fans responded with an affirmative roar. “Are we missing anybody? Do I have to say the names? No, I don’t. All I can tell you is if you’re here and we’re here, then they’re here. So let them hear you.”]
We did not blow the roof off with "Born to Run." However, we nearly did with "Dancing in the Dark," after.
"The Rising" still makes me cry. Always. Absent friends. Following that with "We Are Alive" is sheer genius. Sacrifice, followed by bitterness, but always laced with determination.
Jake's first sax solo, and the crowd letting him know, in no uncertain terms, that he was welcome in the House That Bruce Built (and dear dog, you can see his uncle in his face. It's somewhat unnervingly reassuring, even before the first note told us it was going to be all right).
During "Waiting on a Sunny Day," Bruce pulling a young girl out of the GA pit to sing with him (and she owned the mike), including teaching her how to do the patented "Bruce Slide" across the stage. She didn't quite make it...so neither (intentionally) did he, saying after "it's harder than it looks." Hearts melted throughout the arena.
A tribute to Clarence during "10th Avenue Freeze-Out," as is only right and proper. It took 4-5 musicians to replace his solo, as is also only right and proper.
and I woke up with 41 Shots (American Skin) still in my ears, and my body aching from three hours of dancing on concrete floor.
And I get to do it again on Monday, at Madison Square Garden. Yeah, that'll do.
We Take Care Of Our Own
Wrecking Ball
Badlands
Death to My Hometown (love love love this song)
My City of Ruins (with band introduction, v. moving, with the theme of loss and love)
So Young and in Love
The E Street Shuffle
Jack of All Trades
Seeds
Prove It All Night
Easy Money (much better live than on the studio recording, IMO)
Waitin' on a Sunny Day
The Promised Land
Apollo Medley (The Way You Do The Things You Do/634-5789)
American Skin (41 Shots)
Because the Night
The Rising
We Are Alive
Thunder Road
Encore:
Rocky Ground
(With Michelle Moore)
Out In the Street
Born to Run
Dancing in the Dark
Land of Hope and Dreams
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out (with the crowdfunded tribute to Clarence where the sax solo used to go)
[the rest of the photos are here, for those who like that sort of thing]
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no subject
Date: 2012-04-04 12:30 pm (UTC)I saw Bruce at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas in the 80s. A memorable experience, indeed.
I am compelled to geek out at you.
Date: 2012-04-04 12:35 pm (UTC)The tribute to Clarence was really powerful. We all really love the Big Man. Jake does him credit, though. (And is super cute.)
I love how varied his setlists are from show to show. So Young and In Love, wow, that's a rare one! We also didn't have Badlands or Promised Land or Seeds or the E-Street Shuffle or Prove it All Night, and instead got The Promise, Seaside Bar Song, Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street, Out in the Street, Adam Raised a Cain, Night, Trapped, and She's the One. That's nearly a 50% variance! Who does that? Concert length was almost exactly the same, so I imagine the Shuffle takes up several slots. :)
American Skin really resonates right now. I can't imagine many people weren't thinking of Treyvon Martin while he was singing it.
We had a 9 year old (I guess) boy for Sunny Day, and he _did_ execute the Power Slide perfectly. Bruce was really stoked about that. :)
A Springsteen concert is as close to a feeling of hope and redemption as I've gotten. And it's not a facile hope of children, but a hard-earned, scar-leaving, gritty, dirty hope that commands respect, because nothing is easy, and yet, you make it anyhow. Getting his Live 1975-1985 set when I was 12 was a life-changing event, and I'm not sure if there's anyone, including my family, that's had a bigger influence on my worldview. What he offers is one of a kind, and I'm so grateful that the show is still going on and on!
Re: I am compelled to geek out at you.
Date: 2012-04-04 12:37 pm (UTC)(we did get "Out in the Street," too.)
Did you see my post on "Wrecking Ball" and the through-line, speaking of his songs/concerts? It was about a week ago... (EtA: Here it is: http://www.lauraannegilman.net/?p=1550)
Re: I am compelled to geek out at you.
Date: 2012-04-04 01:03 pm (UTC)Yeah, I think you nail it over there. Springsteen has a strand of love running through his work. It's hard, but rarely bitter. It's angry at times, but rarely without some channel for that anger. (American Skin is more tempered with sadness. It's one of his most challenging works for the audience, I think.)
Almost none of his memorable songs are one emotion. They're all a mix of negative and positive. They challenge you. The listener is invested. There's so very few songwriters who do this well. I love it so much.
And the music backs it up. The mix of simplicity, a core melody or set of chords, and complexity, the wall of sound weaving in and out of that core. I'm a word person, not a music person, but it definitely all works together.
Re: I am compelled to geek out at you.
Date: 2012-04-04 01:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-04 02:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-04 02:47 pm (UTC)Or something like that.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-04 02:56 pm (UTC)