I Saw Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band A Few Days Ago And Still Can't Get Over How Mediocre It Was
I’ve seen Springsteen live now, I think, 13 or 14 times. Including his “On Broadway” show, he did that was as close to a 3-hour orgasm as I think I’ll ever experience without having Sting involved.
After never understanding what the big deal was with him, a good friend got me hooked on him a few years after college. We’d drive around listening to the “Nebraska”, “Darkness On The Edge Of Town”, “Ghost Of Tom Joad”, “Devils and Dust”, and the “Live In Dublin” albums late at night not saying a word to each other. He purposely stayed away from the typical “Born To Run” and “Glory Days” stuff because he was trying to show me how much better Springsteen actually was than the stuff he was known by the masses for.
And he was right.
What I discovered, what I think Bruce’s most hardcore fans all discovered at some point, was just what a magical songwriter and storyteller he actually is.
Calling him a modern-day, “classical poet” is not just an oxymoron, and cliche as fuck, it is also a lazy insult to his talent. But I don’t know the words or correct terminology as to how to do what exactly he does justice.
If you’re one of the people who write him off because of his political views, his lack of charity, or because you think he “sold out” a long time ago and is still trying to pass himself off as a blue-collar hammer-swinging working man, I am here to tell you I feel you dog.
I totally get it.
Those are frustrating things, for sure.
But what I’m also here to tell you is to try letting it go, and separating the artist and the music from the person. Because you’re missing out on something special, and only forsaking yourself.
You not supporting Bruce Springsteen isn’t hurting Bruce’s checkbook or costing him a single bit of sleep at night.
But you could be depriving yourself of some really soul-touching music.
I’m done with my Ted Talk, but that goes for 99% of artists, musicians, actors, etc.
I’m guessing if we really knew what they were like, or thought and believed in real life, we’d fucking hate them. At the end of the day, they’re weirdos. You have to be to stand out and create on the levels that they do. Thinking like a weirdo and believing your opinion counts more than others comes with that territory.
That all said, during all my Bruce concert experiences, I never let his political or social views affect my experience. And they were all transcendental musical experiences. All of them. Except for seeing his “The River” tour at United Center, (where they kept the house lights on for the entire show, and it was really weird), and this last show I saw in Detroit. Which is what this blog was about.
My friend Tony and I are both big-time fans of Springsteen. We’ve been to a few of his shows together in Chicago and Milwaukee (including an epic show at Wrigley Field where it down poured for 2 hours in the middle of the show, and Bruce and the band rocked out in the pouring rain and the crowd loved it.)
When this tour got announced, we circled in the Chicago dates and mobilized a plan to secure tickets through his fan club when they went on sale.
Thanks to this bullshit “dynamic ticket pricing” scam that Ticketmaster is employing, Bruce tickets went the way of Taylor Swift tickets and skyrocketed to the moon in almost all of his tour stops markets.
It sucked.
The site, which I think was built in 1999 and never updated since, still crashes, freezes you out, and now sticks you in a “waiting room”, where they tell you to prepare your card info for when you’re released into the box office to purchase. When you actually get to shop and select your seats, everything they show you as being available never actually is, and when you get to the “checkout” step, you get error messages directing you back to the beginning. You repeat this process for 30 or so minutes before you realize you’ve just wasted half an hour of your life, and you’re shit out of luck. But hey, at least they gave you the impression you had a shot.
The secondary market for Chicago was so fucking outrageous that we decided to say fuck it, and look at cities around us we could travel to. Most of my college friends all moved back to metro Detroit, and I love going there for shows, so when we found “fairly affordable” tickets that weren’t in the nosebleeds at Littel Caesar’s Arena, we scooped them.
And by fairly affordable, to give you context, I’m taking $390 a piece (with fees included) for 100-level seats directly to the right side of the stage, about 30 rows up.
But whatever, it was The Boss! And he hasn’t been on tour in forever. Well worth it, right?
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It all started off poorly, but it wasn't the band's fault.
Little Caesar's Arena's flow design is a fucking disaster.
The arena itself is amazing. Beautiful, well laid out, concessions are awesome, and lines are a breeze. Inside! But outside it's a cluster fuck.
There's like 3 entrances into the place, and they're all the worst bottlenecks you've ever seen. There's nobody from the staff outside directing traffic, no stanchions or bike racks separating lines. Just giant crowds of people fighting to get to the front.
Once inside, the show began almost the second we stepped in the door and scanned our tickets.
Bruce never has an opener, and almost always begins the show 15 minutes after the scheduled start time. So people know not to dick around and show up late.
The E Street Band sounded phenomenal. For a band that hasn't toured since 2017, they haven't skipped a beat. And Clarence's nephew has made the leap to an even more incredible saxophonist than he already was.
Springsteen sounded great too. And he moved from song to song with energy and gusto.
Which is why I can't understand why I was left feeling so "meh" after the show concluded.
The show ran pretty standard as far as set list went. With one of the standouts for me being the two Motown covers Bruce did off his latest album.
SETLIST
No Surrender
Ghosts
Prove It All Night
Letter to You
The Promised Land
Out in the Street
Candy's Room
Kitty's Back
Nightshift (Commodores cover)
Darkness on the Edge of Town (tour debut)
The E Street Shuffle
12. Johnny 99
13. Last Man Standing (acoustic)
14. Backstreets
15. Because The Night (Patti Smith Group Cover)
16. She's The One
17. Wrecking Ball
18. The Rising
19. Badlands
Encore:
20. Thunder Road
21. Born to Run
22. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
23. Glory Days
24. Dancing in the Dark (followed by band introductions)
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25. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out (pictures of Danny Federici… more )
26. I'll See You in My Dream (Acoustic solo)
Their performance for "The Rising" was spine-tingling. Such a powerful song and impossible to hear live and not get goosebumps.
But this was the first show I've been at, the band didn't leave the stage after their "last song" ("Badlands"), and instead rolled right into the encore. The lights came on for the encore and stayed on, and they ripped through seven songs.
There was no political ranting, no pontificating, or anything else the haters love to point to and knock Bruce for doing. (All things I've pretty much never experienced at a single show of his).
There was, however, a great moment where Bruce paused between songs, before beginning "Last Man Standing" and addressed the crowd about his age, and mortality. He reminded us all how fleeting life is, and how we really need to cherish each and every day. His remark about how "these days he's saying goodbye more than hello" really made you think and hit you right in the feels.
But aside from that, there weren't that many moments that were that memorable, and this was the first show I left of his feeling underwhelmed and not flat-out blown away.
The guy is 73 years old, and still performing at the top of his game. The band was tight as could be. The arena was packed and rocking. The only thing I could put my finger on really was the ticketing and pricing experience. Was it really that big of a factor that it affected my enjoyment of the show?
I have never been one to complain about paying money to see a musical act play live. It's one of the very few things I don't really worry about the price on if it's somebody I want to see. I'm lucky enough to get tickets left for me for enough shows that when I have to pay it all balances out.
But this show pissed me off.
From the whole ticketing shit show, to having to watch the show from the side of the stage for $400 was just insanity. The whole time I was just looking out around the crowd, noticing how even the seats behind the stage were sold and filled, wondering what those poor souls paid to watch the back of the band's heads all night. I looked down at the floor seats, thinking about how many thousands the people down there must have paid to get in the door. And reminder this was Detroit. Not Los Angeles. The fans there were die hard Bruce fans, in denim jackets and carhartt gear. I know it shouldn't have bothered me, and I sound like a whiner, but it did, and it took away from the show for me.
Every other time I'd seen Bruce and E Street I walked out in shock about what I'd just seen. I told everybody I knew that they had to go and see him live. It was a must. A bucket list show.
Tony and I brought our friend Keith to this show with us, having hyped it up to him for years and years, and as we were walking out, he didn't want to make us feel bad so he offered up a half-assed, very unconvincing, "that was pretty good". I laughed and said, "nice try."
We discussed this in-depth on our Barstool Backstage podcast. Tune in here -
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Check out some clips from the show here -