Bruce Springsteen’s soulman revue leaves 'em wanting more

    1 of 1 2 of 1

      At Rogers Arena on Monday, November 26

      Let’s be clear about one thing. Bruce Springsteen’s angry-man bit on new album Wrecking Ball looks as phony and calculated as those terrible JP Morgan Chase and Co. TV commercials the U.S. networks were shoving down everybody’s throats over the Thanksgiving weekend.

      On the other hand, at least he’s propping up his hollow romantic Americana with an E Street Band and a pretty righteous back catalogue. It’s hard to maintain the cynicism when long-standing piano man Roy Bittan is pounding out the exultant opening chords of “Out in the Street” or the expanded, 17-piece outfit is powering through “Badlands”. You’re putty once they start doing that shit.

      So this is the conflict you might bring to a Bruce Springsteen show. It’s hokey—really hokey when he throws on a coonskin cap and acts out the Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. track “Spirit in the Night” with new sax guy Jake Clemons (nephew of the late Clarence)—but you still don’t want to be anywhere else.

      If you had to pull a few highlights from the blazing and relentless set the E Street Band delivered at Rogers Arena on Monday night, then anything previous to 2002’s The Rising generally brought the room to a quivering state of ecstasy. “Darlington County” was given the kind of slinky makeover it’s been needing for 30 years, complete with a few bars of “Honky Tonk Women” thrown in courtesy of guitarist Stevie Van Zandt. His copilot Nils Lofgren careened around the stage like a black-clad battle top during “Because the Night”, injecting metal-machine skronk into a song Springsteen originally flipped to Patti Smith back in 1978.

      Prior to that, Lofgren vamped a nice bit on pedal steel for “Red Headed Woman”, from the 1993 Plugged: In Concert album. This was a fan request delivered to the Boss on a human-size paper doll complete with articulated joints, and he was impressed enough to invite it back to his hotel room and throw the unrehearsed number at the band. They took it to the garage and back.

      If you want an impression of the crowd, consider that the beaming vocalist pulled a kid on-stage to sing the chorus to “Waitin’ on a Sunny Day” (she nailed it, the song sparkled), and then went cheek to cheek with an octogenarian for “Dancing in the Dark”. As for the man himself, it might look like Springsteen’s joints are always on the verge of seizing up, and he talked about being “an old man” for a theatrically emotional “My City of Ruins”—“I’m a sad man tonight,” he chanted as the song morphed into a tribute to Clemons—but this 63-year-old also crowd-surfed from the middle of Rogers Arena to the lip of the stage during “Hungry Heart”.

      The ghost of Clemons (and keyboard player Danny Federici) also hovered over “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”, with Springsteen dropping to his knees soulman-style as the song built to its long and ecstatic finish. Drummer Max Weinberg still didn’t have a hair out of place (a miracle in and of itself) as he led the band off-stage, when you suddenly realized they’d been up there for three-and-a-half hours. It felt churlish to want more; it’s just that back in the day these guys would play for a week, and I’m pretty sure we’d have stuck around for that.

      Comments

      15 Comments

      FanBoy

      Nov 27, 2012 at 10:53am

      I'm just so god...damned...happy.

      AC

      Nov 27, 2012 at 11:12am

      Wow, that's the most begrudging positive review I've ever read!

      BTW, the coonskin cap "act" (which he took from a fan in the crowd, not likely a staged moment) was during "Spirit in the Night".

      Rick Dinkfingers

      Nov 27, 2012 at 11:23am

      NUTSHELL!

      R2

      Nov 27, 2012 at 12:09pm

      17 piece band.......geez the name should be changed from E Strret Band to E Street Small Town

      Arch

      Nov 27, 2012 at 12:25pm

      Exactly AC....Sounds like AM went there expecting/hoping to write a negative review with half written ideas in his head.. ("it might look like Springsteen’s joints are always on the verge of seizing up"...where do you come up with that shit?)......but something happened Adrian...no?

      rf

      Nov 27, 2012 at 1:36pm

      The show was rock, soul, gospel, country, jazz, pop, big band, blues perfection. The coonskin cap is a lyrical reference in Spirits of Night. It's tough to be subtle and keep 20,000 people in the palm of your hand. He's like the ringmaster at a circus. Playin' it up ain't hokey if it's what everyone came to see!!!!!!!

      Adrian Mack

      Nov 27, 2012 at 3:30pm

      @AC and rf -- thanks, you're both right, it was "Spirit of the Night". Duh.

      KrisM

      Nov 27, 2012 at 4:34pm

      Wow what an odd review... so begrudging.

      Sorry Georgia Straight, not hipster enough?

      Anyways, AMAZING show, it was hands down the best show that I've seen in a long time. Bruce and the whole band looked pretty stoked and seemed like they enjoyed performing in front of the Vancouver crowd.

      Pat Crowe

      Nov 27, 2012 at 6:04pm

      I was pretty cooked from the Macca show the night before. Springsteen was more of an appeasement concert for me. Have to keep the wife happy and all that rot you know.
      I made the scene as arm candy for my precious.
      I did enjoy yelling Moo when everyone was yelling BROOOOSE tho.

      Yaaawn.

      mk

      Nov 28, 2012 at 8:38pm

      as someone who became a big Bruce fan about a month after he was last in Vancouver, it's been a very long 4 year wait. Monday night was everything I'd ever wanted from a Springsteen show, I couldn't have asked for anything more.