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Usually, it's difficult to compare Bruce shows: The set lists change, if not in song content then at least in song order. The 1999-2000 world tour, for instance, never had a show repeated. However, the D.C. and NYC shows were identical in content and order.
As one would expect, the lion's share of material for the show came from The Rising, the album Bruce is touring to promote. The show opens with the two most energetic tracks, the title track followed by "Lonesome Day." Both work even better live than on the album, and the band is much tighter than they were on the Today and David Letterman shows. More importantly, Bruce's voice is in fine form; the early performances and rehearsals were a little rough-sounding. Apart from the songs from The Rising, Bruce draws most of the set list from 1978's Darkness on the Edge of Town. The album was criminally under-produced, but contains some of the best songs Bruce ever penned. The '78 tour was deservingly legendary, and the performances of the songs on this tour are almost as powerful as they were back then. "Prove It All Night" follows the first two songs, and later on in the show, "Badlands," "Darkness on the Edge of Town," and "The Promised Land" get an overwhelming response from the crowd. Bruce has a great love for the album, but more importantly the songs — about the power to struggle through tough times — fit well with those from the 9/11-influenced Rising. Unfortunately, some tracks from The Rising don't translate well to the stage. Few people know what to make of "The Fuse." The most experimental track on the album, it sends people to the beer stands four songs into the set — not the response you want. It benefits from a great slide guitar solo by Nils Lofgren at the end. Unfortunately, this is Nils's only solo all night. Nils is relegated to a role player, playing the complicated slide parts and the neoclassical introduction to "Counting on a Miracle." It is a task he performs amazingly well: Apart from Bruce and drummer Max Weinberg, Nils is by far the most-animated performer on stage. Two of the weaker tracks on the album — "Countin' on a Miracle" and "Waiting on a Sunny Day" — are improved in concert. The crowd sings along, with Bruce's encouragement, to the latter and pounds their fists in the air for the former. "Worlds Apart" is growing on me as a concert standout, although the backing tapes of the Pakistani chants remain unnecessary indulgences. More importantly, the "featured" guitar solos at the end — between Bruce and guitarist/Sopranos star Little Steven van Zandt — are drowned out in the mix by Soozie Tyrell's violin. Soozie is the newest member of the E Street Band. Strings are featured prominently on the new album, and Soozie was added to the band to allow them to duplicate the songs in concert. She has a prominent role on the new songs but takes a backseat on the older material. (Sadly, some of the older material which would lend itself to a violinist — "Jungleland," "Incident of 57th Street," "New York City Serenade" — is absent from the set.) Two of the more poignant songs from The Rising were featured. Bruce asked for quiet before singing an acoustic version of "Empty Sky," in a duet with wife/background vocalist Patti Scialfa. He didn't get the quiet he wanted in New York, so he made his point in a way New Yorkers could understand: "Shaddup, ya bastards." Following that touching moment, the band came back, led by pianist Roy Bittan and Soozie, for "You're Missing." The performance was more emotionally intense in New York, where members of the audience were more affected by September 11. When he came to New York in 2000, Bruce made headlines by performing "American Skin (41 Shots)," which detailed the shooting of Amadou Diallo. I never found it anti-cop (the officer who shoots the young man prays for his life, a sure sign of regret), but even if you do, its juxtaposition on this tour is striking. It is followed by "Into the Fire," Bruce's heartfelt tribute to the men and women in uniform who risked their lives going into the World Trade Center — "ascending, ascending," as he has said in interviews, while others were fleeing downward. Unfortunately, "Into the Fire" has a fatal flaw in its position as the set-closer: A sizeable portion of the audience was seated throughout. For the encores, Bruce returned to his greatest hits: "Thunder Road" and "Born to Run," "Glory Days" and "Born in the USA." Introducing the latter song, Bruce warned that we were "witnessing a rollback of our civil liberties." Long a supporter of Amnesty International, Bruce's stating such a position is unsurprising. But "Born in the USA" was no longer the folkish, bluesy acoustic version from the last tour; the keyboards and snare drum were in full effect. Two new songs also show up in the encores: "My City of Ruins," which Bruce plays on the piano, was written about the deterioration of his hometown but appropriated for 9/11; "Land of Hope and Dreams" ended most shows on the last tour. The former, with its pleas to "rise up" and prayers for strength, had many in the crowd standing and raising their hands; the latter, with its bouncy rhythm and jangly guitars, had them dancing in place. The NYC performance was, as one might expect, more intense. Bruce started off the show by saying, "Good evening, New York. I been thinking about ya." Of more consequence for those in the arena is that the mix was dramatically improved from Saturday's show. The feedback and squealing at the MCI Center was atrocious. Fortunately, the band, introduced during the crowd-pleasing "Mary's Place," is in fine form. Pianist Roy Bittan — "the illegitimate offspring of Jerry Lee Lewis and Liberace," as Bruce calls him — leads on many of the older songs. Organist Danny Federici takes several powerful solos, though none more powerful than the coda of "You're Missing." Bassist Gary Tallent lays down a powerful bottom, and is sadly underappreciated for so doing. Guitarists Lofgren, Van Zandt, and Scialfa are primarily role players, as Bruce takes the majority of the solos. Soozie Tyrell adds the new layer of coloring on top of the standard E Street bombast. Clarence Clemons, relegated to a sideman on the album, returns on the older songs and also adds a couple of solos on the new material. But the driving force is, of course, drummer Max Weinberg — "the offspring of a ménage a trios between Keith Moon, Buddy Rich, and Ed McMahon." He has never been better, and he has adapted to the more demanding rhythms of the new songs admirably. Longtime fans will have some quibbles. The shows are substantially shorter than even the reunion tour, although the length of those shows was inflated by the 20-plus minute version of "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" played every night. That the set lists were identical for the second and third shows — and almost identical to the first show; "Bobby Jean" replaced "Two Hearts" — will disappoint those who look for surprises. One could easily see "Thunder Road" dropped at some point for another song at the opening of the encores. In 1974, Jon Landau — then a rock critic, now Springsteen's manager — wrote that "I saw rock and roll future, and its name is Bruce Springsteen." Bruce's "glory days" are assuredly behind him. But the show he's putting on now is more than can be expected of your average 52-year-old man; it is far better than that put on by most of today's younger artists. He falls short only of the standards he has set for himself; the four-hour marathons are a thing of the past. If you can move past expecting that, you will not be disappointed by this tour. |
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ruce
Springsteen and the E Street Band started their worldwide tour last Wednesday
at the Meadowlands on their home turf of New Jersey. They then took the
show on the road to Washington, D.C. and New York City on Saturday and
Monday, both of which I attended.
