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| Photos | Michael T. Regan |
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| Photo | Michael T. Regan |
Woke up this morning with a notion, a notion deep inside, that it ain’t really a sin to be glad I’m alive. Not that I wake up any morning wishing I hadn’t done so, of course. But life’s always a good thing made just that much better when a Jersey boy gets to see Bruce live. Last night's was my third show now: one outside at the Linc with the full-band (stellar), one Bruce solo acoustic set at the Tower (good, but long) and last night’s full band inside the new Spectrum (Wachovia Center). And while it made me pain a little bit to see the Big Man walking around with a bit of a 60-something-year-old man's gimp (though he still makes that sax sing like no one else), and Bruce himself pulling away from the mic to let the crowd handle a few more of the vocals than I recall in the past, there’s something tribal about these shows. Bruce’s middle-aged imperfect army if you will and when they threw the lights up for a sick Badlands, one of the whitest gatherings I’ve ever been a part of.
Musically, there was a good mix of old and new. Bruce and the E Street Band opened with recent single Radio Nowhere – no worries Bruce; you still got some people out there - and went into No Surrender, Lonesome Day and Gypsy Biker en route to an 18-song set followed by a 5-song encore.
My highlights: (inexplicably, as I’d never been a big fan of it elsewhere) Brilliant Disguise, a mellow My Hometown, a having-grown-on-me The Rising and set closer Badlands which is anthemic as it gets, to this day. (In introducing the title track of his their new album, laden with political undertones, Bruce said it’s “not about magic; it’s about tricks.) The encore: Girls in Their Summer Clothes, Thundercrack, a still-in-my-head Born to Run, Waitin’ on a Sunny Day and closer American Land which brought in the vibe from their Live in Dublin double-CD, one of my favorite recordings of the past few years. (I know there was a cover thrown in there somewhere but, still groggy, I can’t put my ear on it.)
This having been the second show of the new tour, they were certainly still working out some kinks – a mid-show lull, for instance – but the band (Stevie in particular) still knows how to work the crowd (There was an upper stage for those stuck behind, and a smaller one down front on which Bruce pounced a few times, letting people strum his gee-tar even. If you’re going down tonight, you’re in for standard Bruce fare: Happy crowd, good tunes and a glad-to-be-alive band that’s more than the sum of its parts.
If you do, as Bruce noted at the end of the show, see him tomorrow night (as in tonight), just don’t expect one of his epic 4-hour gigs. All told, I think this one clocked in at roughly two-and-a-half.
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