San Jose, CA
HP Pavilion
HP Pavilion
So, my busy concert week continued last night with Bruce Springsteen coming to town for his third show in six months on his current Magic tour. I'd caught his two shows in Oakland back in October and wasn't going to miss the return trip to San Jose this month. For the first time since the first time I saw Springsteen back in the early '90s, I actually had someone to go to the show with. Cheryl joined me for her first experience at the Church of the Boss.
There's been some crazy family stuff going on the last couple of days and I wasn't sure I'd make it to San Jose in time to meet Cheryl, but not only did I arrive in time, I was actually a little bit early so I could go off and grab myself a much needed margarita. Alas, I knocked it over when we got to our seats, spilling about $6.00 worth of my $9.00 drink all over the arena floor. Damn.
I knew from the shows in October that Bruce and the band wouldn't hit the stage at the stated 7:30 show time, but would come out closer to 8:00. It was about 8:20 by the time they actually took the stage, but as always it was worth the wait. Our seats were behind the stage, but dead center behind the stage. This gave a great view of not only the band (albeit from behind) but a great view of the crowd. You can see what kind of rush that can give a performer -- staring out at 20,000 people singing along with every note. I had warned Cheryl that sitting down would not be an option -- Bruce won't let you!
While not entirely true, as there were a couple of slower songs where the crowd with seats did sit, for the most part it was 2 hours and 15 minutes of standing up, singing along, and rocking out. In my not so humble opinion, no one on the planet puts on more consistently exciting, energetic, and flat out fantastic shows than Springsteen -- and that's with or without the E Street Band, though those shows are the peak performances. The man knows how to put on a rock show and you can see where those other Jersey boys I saw this week picked it up! I only wish I'd been able to see him back in the days of the 4 hour concerts. Hell, I suspect that even now, at 57 he could go that long. The man just has so much energy and obviously loves to perform.
With a catalog of songs like he has, I don't know how Bruce manages to pick out a set list, so it's a good thing that he's been changing it up a lot on the tour and never playing the same set two nights in a row. The set he played last night was different from either of the shows I saw in Oakland in October with only a handful of repeated tunes other than the new tracks from Magic. Like he did in October, he treated his new tunes as he did the older more familiar tunes and woe betide you if you didn't get up off your feet and sing along. The reception to the new songs was better this time than in October as the album has been out for a while (as opposed to 2 weeks) so more people have had a chance to hear it. Still the sing along on "Long Walk Home" (I think) wasn't quite the same as it was for "Badlands" or "Born to Run."
The band wasn't quite complete as Patti had gone home to be with the kids and Danny Frederici is still out recovering from cancer treatment. But Clarence Clemons, who's had both hips replaced, was much more mobile and like his usual self this time around than he was in October. He still sat down once and a while (and as a rule of thumb, if Clarence is sitting, it's okay to sit) but he seemed to be moving around much better than he was six months ago. Clarence is the secret weapon of the E Street Band, so it's good to see him in good health.
It's always impossible to pick a high point of a Springsteen show -- the whole show is a high point -- but a few standouts for me included playing "Trapped" which is a song I've loved for years that he performed on the Born in the USA tour and was only released on the We Are the World album for the longest time until he included it on 18 Tracks a few years ago. There was an online vote on KFOG for fans to pick a song for him to sing, which was next to impossible to choose from, but I'd picked "Trapped" and when the opening note hit I was on my feet cheering. There were several points in the show where Bruce would pull a sign out of the crowd and that's the song they played. Looking at the set list on his website, none of them were planned for the set, so the show was changed on the fly. Awesome!! It meant a couple of planned songs got dropped from the set, but it was all good -- his catalog is that deep and that incredible. The song that actually won the on-line vote was "Fire" which was a treat to hear (though I must admit I still have to work really hard to get the Pointer Sisters version out of my head especially the locally modified line "I'm driving in my car, I turn on KFRC.") During the encore, Bruce pulled a guy out of the audience who had written "Glory Days" on his forehead -- and then promptly launched into the song. And then followed that up with another USA track "Bobby Jean" which I've adored for over 20 years.
I left the show exhausted and renewed and wishing there was a second show to go to. Until the day he stops touring, I will never ever miss one of his shows if I can get a ticket. I'm hoping that's many many many years from now...
Set List:
Out in the Street
Radio Nowhere
Lonesome Day
Gypsy Biker
Something in the Night
Magic
Trapped
Reason to Believe
Prove It All Night
She's the One
Livin' in the Future
The Promised Land
Fire
Incident on 57th Street
Devil's Arcade
The Rising
Last to Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands
Encore:
Detroit Medley
Born to Run
Glory Days
Bobby Jean
American Land
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