Oakland, CA
Oracle Arena
Oracle Arena
It's taken a full day to recover from another epic, loud, rocking, raucous, high energy, three and a half hour marathon of a show. If you've never seen Springsteen live and you are a fan of rock and roll, you are seriously missing out on one of the best experiences in live music ever. This is not hyperbole -- there is no one else who puts on shows like this every single time out.
Sunday was a pretty rainy lazy day until it was time to head out the door to meet Cheryl who'd flown up to join me for the show. After grabbing a light early dinner and catching up on things, we hopped on BART and headed over to the Oakland Coliseum Arena (yeah, yeah, it's called Oracle Arena now, but it's always the Coliseum Arena to me.) The lines to get in were ridiculous and, naturally, it started raining while we were waiting. We kept looking at our watches as it was getting closer and closer to 8:00 and showtime. I thought that perhaps because it was a Sunday night the show would actually start on time. There was no way it would with the crowds of people still trying to get in at 7:45.
We got in and got to our seats behind the stage a little before 8:00 (even managing to grab a couple of bottles of water from a near empty concession stand!) and settled in for the show. I've had seats behind the stage for Springsteen several times and they're usually pretty good, but this time we were at the wrong angle and there were cables obscuring center stage most of the night. What that meant was I could see most of the E Street Band through the heads of the people in front of me, but Bruce was a bit hard to see. Ah well!
For those of you unaware of this tour, Bruce is out performing the entirety of his 1980 release The River -- a 20 song double album. That makes for a very strict set list, even for someone who routinely does three hour plus long shows! It also meant I needed to do some homework before the concert. When The River was released in 1980, I was twelve years old and just discovering different kinds of music than the things my parents listened to and simple pop music. "Hungry Heart" was the huge hit single from the album and probably the first Bruce Springsteen song I ever heard. Fast forward in time and Born in the USA comes out while I'm in high school and I really start listening to Springsteen, but it wasn't until I got a copy of Live 1975-1985 that I actually heard some of the other tunes from The River and fell in love with them. Still, when this tour was announced, I knew I had to go back and listen to it in full to remember all of the songs.
The band took the stage about 8:30 with the houselights still up and kicked off with "Meet Me in the City," an outtake from The River recordings. It's a great rocking song and feels a little like something The Ramones might have done. It's a high energy song and a great opener. Bruce then welcomed everyone to the show and explained what he was thinking about when he wrote and recorded The River. Then off we went, back in time 36 years to listen to that album in full. As a whole, it's interesting to listen to a whole double album performed live, but I do have to say that the sequencing of the songs makes more sense for an album than for a live show -- especially a live Springsteen show. Most of the uptempo, rocking songs were in the first part of the set and then things slowed down to a bit of a mellower pace.
Still, there were lots of great moments during the performing of The River. Two of my favorite songs from this album came early in the set -- "Two Hearts" and "Independence Day." Then came THE HIT -- "Hungry Heart." I don't know when it started, but somewhere along the way Bruce started letting the crowd sing the whole first verse and chorus before starting over himself with the band, and this show was no different with a loud singing crowd. During this point, Bruce walked out into the general admission floor and out to a small stage in the middle of the arena. After hugging and high-fiving fans along the way, he fell backwards and crowd surfed his way back to the stage.
My next personal high point was the title track, which is a song I absolutely love and is way up on the top of the list of favorite Springsteen songs. The line "Is a dream a lie if it don't come true/Or is it something worse" is one that grabbed me the very first time I heard it and is something that has always made me think.
The River wrapped up after two hours with "Wreck on the Highway" and then it was time for some more! After the briefest of pauses to let The River fade away, it was off to the rocking "Badlands" and from this point forward, there were several times where the crowd was singing along so loudly that Bruce and the band were drowned out -- truly impressive! Since there was only about another 90 minutes left for the show (!!) it was mostly the songs you would expect to hear, but all performed with the same amazing high energy. And all of it was performed in rapid succession. There were a couple of times when the video screens would show shots of drummer Max Weinberg and I'd swear he looked like he was about to have a heart attack with all the energy he was expending! I think that's probably one of the most impressive things about a Springsteen show -- he and the band performing 30+ songs with only the briefest of breaks between them.
The main set closed out with "Thunder Road" (more audience participation and drowning out the band) before what would probably be called the encore if the band had actually left the stage (there was just a longer than usual pause.) Using a request from the audience Bruce and the boys kicked into "Growin' Up" before heading into "Born to Run." He pulled a young man out of the audience to sing along with him for "Growin' Up" as "it's a young man's song" and the kid had a blast. For "Dancing in the Dark," Bruce pulled up a girl about 12-14 years old who proceeded to whip, dab, and nae nae on stage, much to Bruce's befuddlement! The next to last song was "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" and when they got to the important part -- "and the Big Man joined the band" -- up on the video screens appeared pictures of Clarence Clemons and a few of Danny Frederici, the missing members of the E Street Band. One of the things that crossed my mind throughout the show was what an excellent job Jake Clemons did on all the saxophone parts there were. He's really come a long way from the first time I saw him in the band as part of a larger horn section who stepped out front from time to time. The Big Man is irreplaceable, but Jake does a great job honoring his uncle.
The set list closed out with a cover of "Shout" and that's when Cheryl and I made our early exit about half way through the song. It was 11:45 by that point and there would soon be a mad dash for BART so everyone could catch their train. Cheryl and I said our goodbyes at the BART station and I hopped on a train as soon as I got to the top of the platform for the hour plus ride home. As always after a Springsteen show I was exhausted and energized at the same time and it was so worth a long late night on a "school night." (I wisely took Monday off work!)
Set List: (courtesy of brucespringsteen.net)
Meet Me In The City (The River: Outtakes)
The Ties That Bind
Sherry Darling
Jackson Cage
Two Hearts
Independence Day
Hungry Heart
Out in the Street
Crush on You
You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)
I Wanna Marry You
The River
Point Blank
Cadillac Ranch
I'm a Rocker
Fade Away
Stolen Car
Ramrod
The Price You Pay
Drive All Night
Wreck on the Highway
Badlands
Prove It All Night
Lonesome Day
Candy's Room
Because the Night
She's the One
The Rising
Thunder Road
Growin' Up
Born to Run
Dancing in the Dark
Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
Shout
No comments:
Post a Comment