I'm coming off a few pints of bitter at ye ol' pub watching World Cup, but I'm ready to tell you about Bruce last night.
By New Jersey law, every resident must complete some form of Bruce Springsteen activity, whether it be attending a concert, buying an album or yelling "BRUUUUUUUUUCCCEEEE" randomly. Thus, I fulfilled my obligation by attending the first night of his two night stand at the Garden State Arts Center.
My Lord, is there ever a more dynamic musician or performer at the top of his game than Springsteen? For about 2 1/2 hours, he delivered a completely unique experience. We are use to seeing Bruce play countless memorable songs with the E Street band. The last time was back in 2003 for The Rising tour. The other way we see Bruce is in a stripped-down acoustic form when he tours his more somber efforts like The Ghost of Tom Joad or Devils & Dust. This tour is a different beast onto itself, a traveling band of old time preachers and musicians playing the gospel.
As you know by now, The Seeger Sessions is a pet project of Springsteen that he's been working on and off for ten years. The result is a timely retrospective of protest and spiritual songs that are uplifting and dense musically. All stemming mostly from New Orleans influences, you hear folk, zydeco, jazz, skiffle, and country & western. Springsteen has a knack for making albums appropriate for the times we live in.
Seeing them performed, whether it be in person or on video, is truly a must for any kind of Springsteen fan .. or just a music fan in general. Last night, it felt like one big party. Walking into the venue from out of the insane rainstorm, you see a stage draped in red velvet with chandeliers across the stage. It reminded me of the stage set-up for The Band documentary, The Last Waltz. The band is dressed as a modern versions of Wild West musicians, 30s era dust bowl players or old New Orleans jazz troubadours. There were probably 17-18 people on stage the whole time. You have guitars, an upright piano, accordion, upright bass, fiddles, steel guitar, bass drum, banjo, saxophone, trumpet, trombone and tuba making this wonderful sound.
Here's the setlist:
- American Land
- John Henry
- O Mary Don't You Weep
- Atlantic City
- Old Dan Tucker
- Eyes on the Prize
- Jesse James
- Cadillac Ranch
- Erie Canal
- My Oklahoma Home
- If I Should Fall Behind
- Mrs. McGrath
- How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?
- Jacob's Ladder
- We Shall Overcome
- Maria's Bed
- Open All Night
- Pay Me My Money Down
- Encore: Bring Them Home
- My City of Ruins
- Ramrod
- You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)
- When the Saints Go Marching In
So many fantastic moments through out the night. The one that stood out is "Jacob's Ladder" (video below) where the band members take turns stepping out in front of the stage to a thunderous applause. "Ramrod" from The River and "Open All Night" from Nebraska were rearranged in a sort a 50s rockabilly, doo-wop style. "Jesse James" was also memorable for it's Old West feeling. The best thing that the Jersey crowd knew all the songs from the current album, so we all sang together to "Old Man Tucker" and "Pay Me My Money Down."
There was not a false note during the show. Each song was played for maximum effect, many times being played out to 6-7 minutes. I recommend you catch a PBS/BBC documentary that features live concert footage from the tour.
As I mentioned before, it was pretty band weather, that eventually cleared up during the show. I had a prime location in the 104 sections (24 rows from the stage), albeit I was on the very end of the aisle, so I could only see half of the stage. During some of the songs, I would get up from my seat and just walk back and forth in the back of the section so I could see the whole stage. Then towards the encore, I leapt over seats to get a better view. I started in row x, then made it down to H, then D. For the last song of the night, I was in front of the stage. I was like, "Success." Then the show ended three minutes later. DOH!
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