Everything Changes When the Big Man Is Springsteen's Right Hand Man (Music Monday)
A trip back in time with The E Street Band of 2009
My relationship with Springsteen has become complicated.
A tour or two ago, the dynamic pricing kicked in. And look, I understand that concert tickets cost money. I know the math. But this wasn’t “concerts cost a lot of money.” This was a different category entirely. This was “go fuck yourself” pricing. The kind where you sit there refreshing Ticketmaster thinking surely there’s been a mistake, and then you realize there hasn’t been.
Fans waited for Bruce to say something. Surely he’d acknowledge it. Surely he’d say something for the people.
He said something. It amounted to: sucks to be you.
So I sat that tour out. I’m sitting this tour out. And I may have seen my last Bruce Springsteen show, which is not a sentence I ever expected to type.
Anyway. Saturday night I was in a Bruce mood. I pulled out London Calling: Live in Hyde Park. June 28, 2009, Hard Rock Calling Festival. Working on a Dream tour. Two discs, 27 songs, starts in daylight and runs into the night. 70 inch TV. Comfy chair. Nobody smoking pot around me.
And wow.
Here’s what hit me immediately: Clarence.. The Big Man. And I don’t think I fully appreciated what that meant for the energy of the whole thing. Everything has another level. There’s a weight and a joy to the E Street Band with Clarence that just doesn’t exist in the same way after. Death and age comes for all of us.
Patti isn’t there for this show.. Soozie Tyrell plays violin and fifth guitar and covers a few spots Patti would have. And musically? It makes absolutely no difference. It never does. That always amuses me. Patti Scialfa’s presence or absence on fourth guitar (fifth if Tom Morello drops by) has never once changed the sonic character of an E Street Band performance in any detectable way. She can be there…or not. Whereas if Max or the Professor or Charlie or Garry or Jake Clemons missed a show you’d notice. To be fair we know the ESB doesn’t need Nils AND Steve, of that we have proof.
Even with Charlie Giordano in for Danny Federici, what you’re watching still feels like the real E Street Band. Not the FESB. (That’s Fake E Street Band, for the newer readers. You know the one. The one the the $1500 tickets.)
At least they included the fees.
The show starts at its worst. A cover of London Calling. It’s lame (we get it, you’re in London.) Musically it’s bad. Bruce sounds bad. The band sounds bad. It’s not exciting as a leadoff song. Ignore it.
Badlands/Night/She’s The One. Bang. We’ve already caught a good setlist even if we go home now.
Outlaw Pete. LOL. This song always was a swing and a miss. It’s corny. It’s terrible. Bruce even puts on a cowboy hat. Cringe. Move along.
During Working on A Dream, Bruce went into preacher mode. This is when I really enjoyed the concert. Just like at a real show I walked out and went to the bathroom and got a drink. He was still going when I got back. I am confident I didn’t miss anything other than a generic Springsteen speech. I asked AI to generate such a speech for us….
…ok imagine if you will, Bruce goes to the microphone. Band drops down into kill-time-backgroudn mode. Bruce lets the guitar hang around his neck. His hands are free. He speaks slowly. Deliberately.
“Nothing good comes easy…………..Nothing good comes easy……….. This past year, a lot of people found that out the hard way. People who got up every morning and did everything right and played by the rules and still got knocked down. [pause, mug for crowd]
And they got back up. They got BACK up. And tonight I want to ask all of you to join with us in choosing something. Choosing to get back up. Choosing hope over despair. {Max picks up tempo, band follows}
Choosing each other over the people who want us divided and frightened and alone. Because that’s what they want. They want you frightened. They want you alone. [builds] Well you are NOT alone. [band heads for verse, Bruce does stereotypical Bruce mode where his hands returns to the guitar and he presses the guitar down with both hands]
It was probably something like that. I had my drink and sat back down.
Bobby Jean/Trapped/No Surrender. Again, we caught a good show!
A nice version of Racing In The Street with the long coda. There’s also an interesting mount where Bruce gives The Professor a hand sign to drag out the open as Bruce isn’t yet ready to sing.
The Rising/Born to Run/Rosalita
Somewhere in the closer we get Jungleland where man hearing Clarence play that long sax at the end got me. That will never hit the same way with the FESB.
Glory Days and Dancing in the Dark take us home.
We got a good setlist.