Bruce Springsteen Review

When the song came to its conclusion, Springsteen questioned his audience’s enthusiasm by asking, “Is there anybody alive out there?!” to which they responded with tremendous applause. The band went on to play “Outlaw Pete”, the opening song from their latest effort, this year’s Working on a Dream, which even though it sounded great live didn’t receive as positive of a response as the song before. This was most likely due in part to the record having been released only three months ago which is no comparison to knowing a song for three decades. For the song’s performance Soozie Tyrell switched from an acoustic guitar to a violin, with Springsteen donning a cowboy hat towards the end.
            All wearing black clothing, the E Street Band looked thoroughly pleased with their set, as drummer Max Weinberg always bore a look of intensity upon his face, guitarist Steven “Lil’ Steven” Van Zandt spent most of the set in a half-crouched position dancing around the stage like a frog about to hop, and when not singing backing vocals, Clarence Clemons would strut back and forth with a huge smile on his face.
Shortly after the beginning of “She’s the One”, Weinberg’s drum set needed to be tweaked a bit by a roadie, but didn’t seem to affect his playing at all as he kept on drumming along. Near the end of the song, Springsteen ran his guitar strings across the microphone stand before tossing it offstage and pulling out a harmonica, which he proceeded to jam out on. In between songs, the crowd would chant, “Bruuuce!” which tended to sound more like booing than the name of the iconic figure on stage.
            Before diving into a lively performance of “Radio Nowhere”, Springsteen took some time to converse with his fans. He informed the packed arena that, “We’re here tonight to fulfill our vow to rock the house!” He then went on to tell them, “The E Street Band is here to bring you the power of music, but we need you to bring the noise!”
            Max Weinberg’s 18-year old son, Jay, took his father’s place behind the drum set for several songs. The younger Weinberg put on quite a show, giving the elder a good run for his money as a member of the E Street Band, thrashing around while still delivering a great sound.
            The crowd continued their theme of screaming, “Bruuuce!” but started to use it during the songs. While performing “Johnny 99” the band had to stop playing so Springsteen could address the fans. Continuing to yell his name, he turned to them and mouthed, “Are you talkin’ to

me?” with facial mannerisms replicating that of Robert De Niro’s Travis Bickle, as well as the matching finger pointing. A jaw-dropping live rendition of “The Ghost of Tom Joad” was a true highlight of the set. Guitarist Nils Lofgren stumbled around on the stage as if he were possessed while delivering a brilliant solo, bringing anyone who had sat down to their feet resulting in a complete standing ovation throughout the arena.            While the band had a brief jam session, Springsteen traveled around the front of the stage picking out signs with song requests on them, a somewhat recent tradition for the group. After he had settled on some choices he put one of the signs in front of his microphone stand, which read “Soul Stompin, Earth Shakin, Heart Breakin, Mother F***kin E Street Band”. He then went in between Weinberg and bassist Garry Tallent where he made his decision; Jimi Hendrix’ “Wild Thing” and John Fogerty’s “Rockin’ All Over the World”. Both covers were nothing short of impressive with Springsteen stating after the songs, “Think you can stump the E Street Band, huh?”
            Near the end of “Waiting on a Sunny Day”, Springsteen headed back towards the crowd, falling to his knees and laying down into his fans. One of his shirt sleeves was pushed deep into his vest by a fan prompting him to roll up the other one replicating the classic Springsteen image.
            A very ballady performance of “The Wrestler” from Darren Aronofsky’s recent blockbuster of the same name was an offbeat yet welcomed change of pace in the set. The original set came to a close with back-to-back energetic performances of “Born to Run” followed by “Cadillac Ranch” before an extremely brief intermission, readying both the band and the crowd for the encore.
            The five-song extended set kicked off with a cover of “the father of American music” Stephen Foster’s “Hard Times Come Again No More”. The encore would also feature “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” off of Springsteen’s breakthrough record Born to Run, as well as “American Land”. The show would finally come to an end with “Rosalita” which many fans throughout the crowd bore as requests on their signs. When all was said and done the entire band came to the front of the stage and took a unified bow. The crowd remained on their feet for quite some time, cheering at the top of whatever lungs they had left after singing along for the past two hours.

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