Springsteen concert a love letter to Australia

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN CONCERT: Sydney, Feb 19, 2014

Wednesday night Sydney saw a man once referred to as the future of rock and roll, and some forty years after Jon Landau wrote that now-famous line about Bruce Springsteen, the Boss is still setting the pace for others to follow.

Age has not wearied him, nor the legendary E Street Band who combined for a powerhouse performance that left fans yelling out for more (even after his customary three hour show) in a musical marathon not equalled by many younger leading acts.

And it was a performance crafted especially for Australia.

Outside drenching rain continued to fall on Homebush before and during the show, but it didn’t dampen the spirits of the thousands of fans who’d queued for hours to see Bruce for his one-night-only Sydney concert.

“I saw rock and roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen,”

Jon Landau, March 22, 1974 

The band took to the stage just before 8pm and kicked things off with Friday On My Mind… and straight away he owned the room. It was an inspired choice. The Easybeats classic was the first Aussie rock song to break it big in the UK and US, and was rated by APRA as the greatest Australian rock song of all time.

Next up was a seamless segue into Out In The Streets, a song which contains the lyrics “I’ve already got Friday on my mind.” Was it inspired by the Oz classic? Who knows, but it fit like a glove.

Now the show was picking up pace. Cadillac Ranch, a great rocker from The River, is next from a sign request and then tour favourite High Hopes, an adopted Aussie song given it was recorded in Australia, and Tom Morello’s hectic and almost acrobatic guitar work stole the show.

From an honorary Aussie song, to the real deal… the Saints classic Just Like Fire Would. Stevie van Zandt, so much a part of not only the E Street Band but of Bruce’s youth, missed last year’s tour due to a conflicting filming schedule but wound back the clock as he shared the mic with Bruce like a couple of teenagers goofing off and embracing the moment.

Then it was Spirit in the Night, a song that Bruce traditionally uses to ask the audience: “Can you feel the spirit?”, although for Sydney it was modified with a unique toilet inspired intro. Only in Australia.

So we’re six songs in, and already the concert has stamped itself as an original, and not a carbon copy of anything he’s done before.

And then… AND THEN…. he announces he’s playing the entire Darkness On The Edge Of Town album from start to finish. That album is rated by  Bruce purists as one of his two greatest albums (Born to Run being the other) and rated by many other rock and roll fans as one of the greatest of all time. It would be interesting to get an opinion on that from Glenn A Baker who was also at the concert.

This was the first time Darkness would be played in full in Australia, and indeed the first time Bruce had played ANY album from start to finish in Sydney.

The album runs through a gamut of moods and tempos … from the haunting melody and lyrics of Something In The Night and Racing In The Street, to the angst of Adam Raised a Cain, the pumping rock of Badlands, Candy’s Room and The Promised Land and the frustration and mixed emotions of Factory, Streets of Fire, Prove It All Night and Darkness on the Edge of Town. Racing in the Street has never sounded better.

As you’d expect, Bruce and the E Street Band belted out the album, but they weren’t alone as fans of all ages joined in on every lyric. Sweaty and seemingly spent, original members of the band who’d performed on the original album linked hands at the front and took a curtain call as sweaty and spent fans, unofficial backing singers in the E Street Band, cheered and hooted in response.

That album, and indeed the whole concert showcased the talent of the ever-growing E Street Band. In particular, when you have Bruce, Tom Morello, Nils Lofgren and Stevie van Zandt all tearing into their guitars you realise this is a band with FOUR lead guitarists, all of them grand-masters, all of them at the peak of their game.

So they played the album all the way through, and it was amazing, but the concert was just hitting the halfway mark.

Jumping across albums and eras, next we were treated to Darlington County, Shackled and Drawn (with Cindy Mizelle wailing up a storm in backing vocals), Waiting On A Sunny Day (complete with an impossibly cute little girl who nervously whispered her way through the chorus alongside Bruce to massive applause), and then it was time for the song new fans had come for, and old fans had loved for years, The Ghost Of Tom Joad. This version blended not only the vocal and guitar talents of Springsteen and Morello, but also the versions recorded by Rage Against the Machine and Bruce. Again, Morello’s insane guitar work bordered on performance art.

The main set finished with the gospel infused Land Of Hope and Dreams and the band grouped together, took their bows and the crowd screamed and screamed … but fans knew there was more to come. Two encores as a rule.

So we all knew there was an encore coming, but NO-ONE expected what we got.  The four guitarists (not forgetting bass player Garry Talent, but he was off a bit to the right) lined up front and centre across the stage ready to share the lead. Bruce counted them in with a double count, and with the first few notes the crowd went NUTS as they realised Bruce was launching into the INXS signature tune, Don’t Change.

At this time, in that place, against the backdrop of the brilliant INXS mini-series which ended so poignantly with exactly that tune – he could’ve played the national anthem, Khe Sanh or any other song you like and he wouldn’t have been met with a greater reaction or more love from the audience.

It was clear that this concert was a love letter to Australia.

It contained three Aussie songs: Friday on my mind, Just Like Fire Would and Don’t Change. In fact, Bruce’s latest album contains two songs recorded in Australia, the only studio songs to be recorded outside of America, and both of those got played as well.

He certainly didn’t need to throw in a handful of Aussie songs, it was a mark of respect and a thank you to his Aussie fans. And he had the room in the palm of his hand.

The big hits kept on coming. Don’t Change rolled into Born To Run, Dancing In The Dark, Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (with its tribute to the Big Man, Clarence Clemons) and finally Shout.

This time the E Street Band did leave the stage for good to more cheers and screams. The best rock and roll show band in the world? I’m fanboy enough  to say yes, or to at least ask any other challengers to present their credentials.

“…the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, house-rocking, earth-quaking, booty-shaking, Viagra-taking, love-making – Legendary E Street Band!”

Bruce Springsteen, Sydney, Feb 19, 2014 

Even with Jake Clemons unavailable due to a death in his family death that took him home to America, seasoned pro Ed Manion stepped up and belted out all the sax lines. If anything his experience and skill only added to the occasion and it was great to see a guy of such obvious talent get his moment in the spotlight.

They are, as Bruce describes them, the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, house-rocking, earth-quaking, booty-shaking, Viagra-taking, love-making – Legendary E Street Band!” So then it was just Bruce and us… all intimate like. He had two more songs up his sleeve.

Always full of surprises, he takes a birthday request off a sign and sings acoustically the little known but beautiful Surprise Surprise from the Working On A Dream Album. Few seemed to know the song as he started it, everyone was singing it by the end. And finally, after asking everyone to dig deep for Foodbank of NSW, a charity his tour is supporting, he closed the show with the gorgeous Dream Baby Dream that also closes the High Hopes Album.

Three hours after it started, the show was over. Bruce farewelled the audience and they made their steady way out of the Arena swapping show highlights.

Concerts are such personal things, predicated on the experience. On being there. That’s the bit you can’t adequately communicate. Try as you might, you can’t do them justice.

But I can say what I believe, and it’s this. I saw the greatest rock and roll performer of all time deliver one of his greatest performances last night.

Before you question that description, name any performer you like … Elvis, the Stones, the Beatles… and make the comparisons.

Have they been actively gigging continuously for the last 50 years? Are their concerts still selling out, still rated the best in the world by Rolling Stone magazine and still filled with new material that is still chart-topping? Have they produced the number of studio and live albums Bruce has? Did they write their own music, or the sheer volume of songs he has written? Does their show go for 3 hours?

There’s still only one Boss, and on Wednesday night he dropped in to say hi and thanks.

(Originally published on the Goulburn Post website).