Wednesday, February 1, 2023 Entry #11
I actually took the above video in Atlanta a few nights after the Tampa concert. I purposely did not record the band and Bruce’s entrance on opening night because I wanted to be completely present for that singular moment, seeing it through my eyes and heart, not my phone. I include the Atlanta video with this post about Tampa, however, just to try and illustrate the force, the jolt that I felt right then and there. I got very emotional in the summer of 2021 as Michael Franti took the stage at Red Rocks in Colorado, the first big time rock show I attended after live music returned. Tonight, “emotional” was an understatement. Yes, watching the E Street Band entering the stage one by one, leading up to Bruce Springsteen waving hello and counting off “No Surrender” with his signature “1-2-3-4!” all from my unbelievable vantage point was emotional-moved me to tears even-but more so, it was utterly redemptive!
Bruce Springsteen clearly came out this night on a mission, his main affect was defiance. Defying the passage of time, defying aging, defying the disruption that the untimely COVID pause had on his plans. At times, it was defiance was coupled with joy, but sometimes it was stripped even of that as Springsteen focused solely on the power of his music, his ever-passionate voice and slashing, crashing guitar blazing, aiming squarely at his belief that a direct sonic blast of rock music can rattle and heal souls.
The lyrics in the opening few songs in the setlist say it all: “I learned more from a three-minute record than I ever learned in school!/Tonight I hear the neighborhood drummer sound, I can feel my heart begin to pound!” “Maybe we could cut some place of our own with these drums and these guitars.” “Your old Fender Twin from Johnny’s Music downtown, still set on ten to burn this house down. Count the band in then kick into overdrive, by the end of the set we leave no one alive!” “I turn up the volume, let the sprits be my guide!” “Kick in the band and side by side, you take the crowd on their mystery ride!” This night, Springsteen made me believe he really meant it when he wrote in one of his origin story songs (“Tenth Avenue Freeze Out”) that he and Clarence Clemons “bust the city in half” with their music, that driving audiences to the brink of insanity (in a good way), as he often says, is his business.
The other obvious stream running through the show is that The Boss is loving playing live music with his “employees” once again, the E Street Band, first time in six long years. There were plenty of iconic moments with old pals Bruce and Little Steven Van Zandt, sharing a mic and otherwise:
Also, by now, Bruce and Jake Clemons (the late Clarence Clemons’ nephew) have developed a chemistry, intrinsically connected to Springsteen’s brotherhood with the Big Man, but also distinct from it as well:
As much as Springsteen seemed to be defying time, he also is in a definite mode of contemplating and recognizing mortality. The centerpiece of this concert was Springsteen paying tribute to his friends and bandmates who have passed away. This theme was most pronounced in the songs “Ghosts,” “Backstreets,” “Last Man Standing,” and “I’ll See You In My Dreams” (as well as the video montage of gone-but-not-forgotten E Streeters Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici). Symbolically, and often literally, Bruce Springsteen stood poignantly alone at those moments.
Before performing Last Man Standing, Springsteen addressed the hushed crowd:
“It was 1965 I was 15 years old. One summer afternoon, I heard a knock on my door, it was George Theiss, my school pal who was dating my sister…He invited me to audition for his band…it was there that I embarked on the greatest adventure of my young life-I joined my first real rock & roll band! And we lasted for three years, that’s pretty good for kids…We named ourselves…The Castiles…Cut forward 50 years and it was another summer day, and I found myself standing at the side of George’s death bed…he only had a few days to live. His passing would leave me as the only surviving member of that first band. It’s like you’re standing on the tracks with a white hot light of an oncoming train bearing down on you. It gives you pause to think. It brings you a clarity of thought and a clarity of purpose. So I went home, and about a week later, George passed away and shortly after that I wrote this song. It was just a song about the job I chose, and the passion that I followed since I was a kid. At 15, it’s all tomorrow and hellos and then later on there’s a lot more goodbyes. But it makes you realize how important living every moment of every day is. You only get one shot at life. So be good to those you love, be good to yourself, and be good to the world we live in.”
I hung on every word, of course and I was primed to hear more. Besides the powerful music, Bruce Springsteen the performer has long been known for emotive song introductions, stories both tender and funny, messages about social justice, and even what I deem to be “secular preaching” about the “ministry of rock & roll”, how it “ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive!” But not tonight. The story of George Theiss was the lone exception, the messages Springsteen wanted to send at this performance came to us almost exclusively through the songs. And, if there was any downside for me on this otherwise truly thrilling evening, it was that I wanted Springsteen to address us just a little more (I do humbly realize there are Bruce fans who were ecstatic about this, who always want The Boss to talk less). Springsteen has always been for me one of those messengers that says what I want to hear in the exact way I want to hear it. His troubadour-authentic, passionate, wise, rebellious, joyful, literate and soulful voice has always been able to reach into my mind, heart and soul and stir them around and leave me in a better place.
I have a few dime-store theories about this change in style, one that has lasted so far throughout the tour. First is that Springsteen is coming off of a few years of doing a lot of public talking. His one-person Broadway show flipped his concert formula on its head as it contained more monologues than music, and his wonderful series of satellite radio broadcasts as a DJ was arguably more notable for Springsteen’s reflections in between the songs he played than the tunes themselves. Perhaps, Bruce Springsteen is simply ‘talked-out’ for the moment.
It is also possible that the severe political tribalism of our times has curtailed Springsteen. The Boss has long been identified with the liberal end of the spectrum (for example, Springsteen has performed benefit concerts for the last four Democratic presidential candidates, John Kerry, Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, and Joe Biden) , but until recently, this fact didn’t make much of an impact on his fan base. But lately, in our you’re with us or against us times, legions of vocal ‘former fans’ speak with great personal vitriol about Springsteen. If this is a factor in Bruce being reluctant to speak on this tour, I would counter that politics is only one of the subjects that he has been known to touch on, and Bruce Springsteen would certainly be free to choose to talk about whatever he wants. I would have been fine if it was all personal on this tour.
The other thought that I have centers around the effects of this COVID era. As I stated in a previous post, Springsteen was very vocal about his desire to get back in touch with his audience as soon as the public health conditions in the world improved. He said, “I’ve got things to do that involve me and you,” to continue his “long and noisy prayer as a traveling companion.” But COVID changed many aspects of our society, and COVID changed many of us, often in the direction of being a little less social, and maybe more guarded, as if we there was more forgetting of how to interrelate than we bargained for coming back from the pandemic. I wonder if Springsteen’s new reticence to speak out has anything to do with that.
In any event, Springsteen owes me nothing and I had an amazing, transcendent time. Better yet, I left the arena knowing that I had 3 more Bruce Springsteen concerts to see in less than a week. This time I didn’t need to go to work the next day, with the show growing more distant as I got caught up in my obligations and routine. For me (and for The Boss), this time, it was just the beginning.
Day 4
Showtime! Concert #1-Tampa, FL