Showtime! Concert #7-Brooklyn, NY and Setlist
Monday, April 3, 2023 Entry #69
I jumped on the subway from Manhattan to Brooklyn for the second time today, and grabbed a quick dinner across the street from the arena. At a Shake Shack jammed with Springsteen fans, I had a spontaneous reunion with a family who I had meet back at one of the Florida concerts and are also seeing multiple concerts on the tour. Although my Springsteen journeys this year started out as an individual quest, I have also been routinely reminded about the communal and even familial aspects of fandom. After over 40 years of loving Bruce’s music and persona, I am just now becoming a happy and proud member of the Springsteen community.
I got to my seat, and the show began. It took a bit getting used to my elevated vantage point after being situated on the floor directly against the stage a few nights prior. But, I soon happily adjusted.
The first musical surprise of the night came pretty early on, as Bruce and the band launched into “It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City,” from Springsteen’s debut album which was released 50 years ago. Though the song doesn’t mention Brooklyn at all, it just felt like this was the perfect urban setting to host its tour premier. “Saint” has a tough, swinging, gritty and swaggering sound, much like the lore that surrounds this less shiny borough. It was an electric moment. I’m also enamored of the song’s title. It is hard to be a saint in the city, and that seems to me to be a good thing-we need places like NYC, filled with all-night energy, anonymity, and subcultures where we can act a little less like saints!
There is a set piece in these shows which I haven’t mentioned yet but that I really love. During the self-titled jazz-rock number “E Street Shuffle,” longtime Springsteen drummer “Mighty” Max Weinberg (who had a side gig for a spell as the bandleader on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien”) and the expanded touring band percussionist Anthony Almonte alternate solos. The Boss loves to showcase band members, giving each a turn to shine, and this is carried off to great effect with Max and Anthony. First there is a green stage light on Weinberg, and he does his thing on the traditional drum kit, and then the focus shifts to Almonte, as he plays on a variety of hand drums and other noisemakers. I am a big drum circle guy, so while many use this time to take a break (a la the Grateful Dead’s “Drums/Space”), I am at full attention.
Another huge moment for me came during the closing stampede of Springsteen’s most anthemic songs. I knew it from the first note-the band was launching into “Land of Hope and Dreams!” This was one of the two off the main setlist songs I was most hoping to hear live (the other is “If I Was The Priest,” which I still haven’t caught yet), and it was very gratifying to let this gospel-tinged and uplifting song about inclusive community wash over me in Brooklyn. (For more about this amazing song, see Entry #53.)
I appreciated Springsteen’s earnest desire to connect as closely as possible with his audiences, and to create intimacy in massive spaces even more now that I was further away from the action. You can see the difference this makes from these photos of Springsteen venturing out onto the strip his crew constructs to extend the stage into and through a big chunk of the rows much further out on the floor.
From my spot, looking out at the crowd instead of up at the stage when I am in GA, I could really capture the “Raise Your Hands” excitement and ecstasy in the arena,
Springsteen always pulls another “Boss” move at the end of the concerts. After the band takes their bows, Springsteen stands near the wings as his band members exit the stage. There, he offers private words and a warm pat on the back to each. Jake Clemons always is the last to leave as he and Springsteen share a familial embrace.
When only Springsteen is left, he grabs his acoustic guitar and says his goodbyes by playing the tender “I’ll See You In My Dreams.”
And just like that, we’re all giddily floating on air over the Brooklyn pavement, sated after another cathartic performance by Bruce Springsteen. In that moment, I truly believed the words over the entrance to the subway station, “We Belong Here!”