The Marathon Man

I have seen Bruce Springsteen probably somewhere between 20 and 30 times over the last 35 years.  That might sound impressive but in the Springsteen world that makes me a piker, as it is fairly easy to find folks that have seen him over a 100 times (like N.J Governor Chris Christie).  This year I decided I was going to see all 3 Boston Shows, the 2 at Fenway Park as well as the one at Gillette Stadium.  Based on what I was reading about the recently completed European tour as well as the superlative new CD “Wrecking Ball” I felt like this was a time to go all in.

Bruce has from the first moment I saw him on stage been “the boss.”  That was always clear; the E Street Band was never a “band” like The Beatles, for instance.  These days that is even more distinct, Bruce leads the band thru drummer Max Weinberg who seems to virtually never take his eyes off Springsteen, all on stage cue’s seem to move from Bruce to Weinberg and then out to the rest of the band.  Even Bruce’s old pal “Little” Steven never steps to the microphone to sing with Bruce unless invited, same with the horn players, they only come down to the front of the stage when called.  The tradeoff is, of course, the entire stage is in the hands of music’s greatest showman and performer.  

In all 3 Boston shows, especially the monumental 2^nd night at Fenway Park, Springsteen was able to infuse a show with a stunning sense of purpose.  The second night at Fenway Park was a 3 and a half hour show that possessed an amazing continuity given the wide ranging musical styles covered.  It shifted from the opening tune, a quiet and serious duet with pianist Roy Bitten on “Thunder Road” to a “summertime hits” set of 4 party songs before settling into a handful of tunes from the new LP.  The middle of the show was a series of true rarities (“Does This Bus Stop on 82^nd Street”,”Thundercrack” and a magical “Frankie”) as well as a killer cover of Eddie Floyd’s Memphis soul hit from 1967 “Knock on Wood.”  Next was an audience request that sent the Springsteen main-liners into rapture; “Prove it all Night” with the long, tortured guitar intro famous from the 1978 tour, this was followed by a gut-wrenching “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” at which point Dave Little leaned over to me and stated that we had just witnessed “the greatest 15 minutes of live music we had ever heard” AND there were still 6 songs to go in the main set as well as an 8 song encore!

Somehow Bruce Springsteen is able to move thru his own vast catalog as well as select covers that traverse the American music landscape of rockabilly (Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues”), soul and R&B (Mitch Ryder’s “Detroit Medley” and Gary U.S. Bond’s “Quarter to 3”) and have it all hang together as a coherent whole.   This is done with the force of his personality as well as the masterful E Street Band that can turn on a dime and (seemingly) play material that they have either never played or have not played in many years (the last time they performed “Knock on Wood” was 1976, for instance).

It is an amazing history that the 62 year old Springsteen shares and represents to us fans.  As the original band members passes away (the only E Street Band member now onstage that played on Springsteen’s first 2 albums is bassist Garry Tallent), Springsteen himself remains ebullient, focused and committed and by my estimation he may, in fact, be better than he had ever been as a performer and that is (as the song goes) really saying something!