It’s a strange thing to get a text message asking if you want to go see Bruce Springsteen; well it was for me. I realised I’d never really considered the prospect. So, about half an hour after the the instinctual response of GOODGODNO! it began to dawn on my that actually, yes, I did want to see The Boss. Thankfully the ticket was still on offer and a Tuesday night had an interesting alternative to the norm on offer. So, off to the national stadium with us.
The unprofessional git was twenty minutes late taking the stage. Not what I’d been left to expect from the hardest working man in showbiz. (All of which is irrelevant if your still not cheesed off about missing the last bus and having to wait hours for a cab, getting you home at 2:30am.)
When it comes to the rest of it, though, it was pretty much exactly as you would expect. Seriously, the image you have in your head of a Bruce gig is exactly what it’s like. Yes, it’s completely entertaining. But no, the scales didn’t fall from my eyes and it all suddenly clicked into place that he is the greatest performer of all time and the poet-laureate of the working schmo.
Highly polished. A bit too much. He does this thing where the audience make signs requesting songs and he’ll grab the signs and chose some to do. While the E Street Band are very obviously a finely honed machine, this bit at least felt like it had a bit of spontaneity. He did Incident On 57th St which at least had some subtlety to it (unlike the version of The River they did). Then a surprisingly enjoyable Pink Cadillac. And, Cover Me which although pish as a single was as close as we were getting to punk rock tonight. It had some rough edges to it, and was all the more welcome for it.
It’s kinda like getting repeatedly bludgeoned by a precision bar-room band.
Born To Run was, of course, great fun (if a bit lacklustre in the beginning). And, a rather good Thunder Road. Did some (obviously recent) song that Shane McGowan must be suing him over. A surprisingly enjoyable Dancing In The Dark (which after Pink Cadillac, got me thinking it might have been brilliant if he’d just stuck to the pop tunes – a little less earnest gurning). Finished with an interminable cover of Twist & Shout.
All-in; good to have seen. Not really gonna be rushing back.