Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band @ Xcel Energy Center
Tuesday night saw the return of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band for what was, predictably, a drawn out and massively entertaining set mixing songs from his classic early work to his most recent album, Working on a Dream.
After seeing the Boss a handful of times, I knew going into the show that there was little to no chance that the concert would be a bust or a letdown, as Springsteen has proved time and again to be one of the hardest working men in show business (sorry James Brown [R.I.P.]). I am convinced that even if he had only played material from his sub par latest disc, Working on a Dream, he would have found a way to make the show entertaining. Luckily for the nearly full Xcel crowd, he didn’t. Springsteen only played a couple of songs from the disc over the course of his nearly three hour long set that showed again why his live shows are held in such high regard.
The Boss came out firing with a stirring take on his concert staple “Badlands,” which got the crowd into the show right off the bat. Shortly after the band took the stage, the projection screens jumped to the drum riser, which found the young Jay Weinberg pounding away. Max’s son, who is prepping to take over fully for his father when Conan O’Brien takes over the Tonight Show next month, added some extra energy to the first half of the set. It was easy to tell the difference between the two drummers’ styles, with Jay playing a more frantic style while his father was much more restrained. The show even had a looser feel for the front half with Jay, and a more professional and well-oiled aesthetic when Max took the stage for the second half.
After the blistering start, Bruce settled into a routine where he played songs from his last few albums with classic tracks littered in between. Early set highlights included a rousing version of “Out in the Street,” which was followed by a morose and stammering take on “Working on a Dream.” One of the last songs that Jay played with the band was a scorching version of “The Ghost of Tom Joad” which had a similar sound and delivery as “Youngstown” did on previous tours, with a simmering buildup and a great Nils Lofgren solo that broke the tension in exciting and dramatic fashion.
During the middle of the set, like he has done throughout the entire tour, Bruce started collecting signs from the crowd with suggestions for songs the crowd wanted them to play. The first song he chose was the classic Rascals song “Good Lovin’,” which was the start of a three song set that consisted of all requests from the crowd. The other two songs Bruce picked (and sprung on his band) were “Prove it All Night” and “E Street Shuffle,” both of which sounded great. After the great spontaneity of these songs, it made me think that Bruce should do an all request tour, as it really brought the E Street Band to life. After this short burst of energy, the band sandwiched two crowd favorites (“Promised Land” and “I’m on Fire”) between two newer songs (“Waiting on a Sunny Day” and “Kingdom of Days”)that found even the mighty Bruce Springsteen losing some of the audience’s attention. The band ended the set with a raucous version of “Born to Run,” which even got fans up in the nosebleeds (where I was sitting) up on their feet (and it led one overexcited fan to removing his shirt).
The group left the stage for just a minute before returning for a six song encore. Like the main set, the encore had strengths and weaknesses, but came across as impassioned and fun. The Boss dusted off some old classics (“10th Ave. Freeze Out,” “Bobby Jean” and concert highlight “Rosalita”), some really old classics (Stephen Foster’s classic ballad “Hard Times Come Again No More”) and some newer songs (“Land of Hopes and Dreams,” and Seeger Session track “American Land”) for an engaging end to the show.
Nearly three hours after he hit the stage, Bruce Springsteen and his AARP member E Street Band finally sauntered off stage to a standing ovation from an appreciative (and tired) Xcel crowd. While I never saw them in their “prime,” the band still plays exceptionally good shows that put bands 1/3 of their age to shame. While some of the E Street Band (especially Clarence Clemons) are showing their age, Springsteen seems to have some magic elixir that allows him boundless energy. The Boss proved again Monday night to be the lasting exception to my rule of avoiding arena shows and made something seemingly impossible (making an arena show seem relevant) seem so easy that you wonder what he knows that other big artists (sans Neil Young) just don’t seem to get.
Setlist (courtesy of setlist.fm):
Badlands
Radio Nowhere
Outlaw Pete
No Surrender
Out in the Street
Working on a Dream
Seeds
Johnny 99
The Ghost of Tom Joad
Raise Your Hand
Good Lovin’
Prove it All Night
The E Street Shuffle
Waitin’ on a Sunny Day
The Promised Land
I’m On Fire
Kingdom of Days
Lonesome Day
The Rising
Born To Run
Hard Times (encore)
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out (encore)
Land of Hope and Dreams (encore)
American Land (encore)
Bobby Jean (encore)
Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) (encore)
This was my first Springsteen live experience after I managed to score a pair of GA tickets for $35 last week. It’s pretty amazing the level of energy Bruce can keep up still throughout a 3 hour set. After the size of shows I usually attend it’s pretty amazing being up front with an enthusiastic crowd of thousands like that.