I’m rarely at a loss for words (as my wife continually reminds me), but I gotta tell you, Bruce’s show at The Pepsi Center last night left me virtually speechless.

Fortunately….that passed pretty quickly. (har-har) The following are some thoughts on the big Bruce performance. Forgive me if they’re overly gushing….you know how Archer feels about the Beatles•Well, that’s how I feel about Springsteen. You’ve been warned….

Okay, the first thing that was really cool for me personally was that I got to head backstage and meet Steve Van Zandt. (E Street guitarist and the guy on “The Sopranos”)

I don’t mention this to be a name-dropper because that’s kind of silly. I mainly mention it because he was a really cool guy, very down to earth, no pretensions of any kind. Believe it or not, for the brief time we talked, we mostly talked about Bob Dylan’s record “Like A Rolling Stone” and “Hound Dog” by Elvis Presley. I don’t remember how we got on the subject exactly but it was really interesting to see this big time rock star, a guy who’s in his early 50’s now, turn into this little, excited kid right before my eyes, going on and on about how much those records meant to him. That, of course, is the beauty of music. If it speaks to you, it changes your life forever. (With all that in mind, I did mention to Steve that he should check out 99.5 The Mountain if he got the chance, since we’re essentially building this radio station on the philosophy I just mentioned above…..he seemed interested. He really did.)

As expected, Bruce opened with “The Rising” and it sounded absolutely great. “C’mon up for the rising…c’mon up lay your hands in mine“ sounded much more like an invitation or a call to arms than just a simple rock n’ roll chorus.

And for the next 3 hours (keep in mind, most bands play for 90 minutes, if you’re lucky) Bruce and The E Streeters delivered fully on that invitation.

Because I’m not the smartest guy in the world, I forgot to bring pen and paper to the show, so I can’t tell you the whole set list inside and out (You can probably find it at www.theboots.net a very cool Springsteen website) but the show focused largely on material from The Rising (Title track, My City of Ruins, The Fuse, You’re Missing, Worlds Apart, Lonesome Day) The River (Two Hearts, Ramrod, I’m A Rocker, The Ties That Bind) and Darkness On The Edge Of Town (Badlands, Candy’s Room, Racing In The Street, Promised Land.)

I’m sure like a lot of longtime fans at the show, I was struck by how amazingly relevant and timely some of his older material seemed. All of sudden I’m listening to Badlands and Promised Land with a brand new set of ears and they’re sounding as good as they did when I first heard them! (And any song that can seem relevant 24 years after it was released is an unbelievably great song, in my opinion.)

I made a special effort NOT to check out Springsteen set lists from earlier parts of the tour because I wanted to be surprised…..and I was.

Songs that I didn’t expect to hear include:

Two Hearts
Ramrod
Candy’s Room
Racing In The Streets
Born In The USA
Dancing In The Dark

Especially the last 2 songs above. Of all the Bruce albums there are, Born In the USA isn’t necessarily one of my favorites, and if you’ve noticed, it seems like a record that the Boss has distanced himself from as well.

Needless to say, I was floored to hear those two cuts from that record last night and I was even more floored by how great they sounded and how much I enjoyed them. Like the rest of the show, The Boss and The E Street Band really did a great job of breathing new life into songs I never expected to hear.

Other things I noticed:

• The age range of people at last night’s show was just unbelievable. I saw people who looked like they were in their 60s along with pockets of kids who couldn’t have been more than 10 or 12. In fact, there were two youngsters right in front of the stage for the whole show and I kid you not when I say they could barely see over the front riser! But I’ll bet you they’ll never ever forget that night for the rest of their lives.

How many artists can you think of that can reach, and I mean really reach, an audience that spans 50 years•(I mean other than Lawrence Welk, of course…)

• I quite literally had the worst seat in the house….in fact I almost scraped my head on the roof of the Pepsi Center when I stood up….(well, not really but you get the idea.) That said, the sound was still pretty good from up yonder (except for when Bruce was talking) and the video monitors really helped too.

• Given my…..ahem….seating predicament….I brought binocular’s with me (Thanks Jerry) and during the first encore I noticed that even the guys running the lighting rigs suspended 50 feet in the air were laughing and smiling and having a great time. That says something, doesn’t it?

• Bruce’s encores are so long that you can’t remember where the show ended and where the encore began. (Especially if you forget to bring a pen and paper to the show.)

• All of the E Street Band is to be commended for giving maximum entertainment value for your hard earned dollar, especially at this stage of their careers, but you know who I think really has to work the hardest of all of them? The drummer, Mighty Max Weinberg….I wonder if he has carpal tunnel syndrome•Man, I hope not.

• Okay, the only downside of the evening was having to sit within ear shot of two gals who must’ve thought the show was actually a try out for the Pep Squad or something. I wish I were joking but……these two talked, LOUDLY, through the first 40 minutes of the show INCLUDING the part where Bruce asked for a “little quiet” so he could do some of the more somber numbers from The Rising.

Tickets to the show were 90 bucks a pop (including the 10 dollar Ticketmaster surcharge…more on that in another episode) so the two of them paid 180 plus dollars to chit-chat! I should have given them my card and offered them 180 bucks NOT to come to the next show.

Finally some people sitting even closer to these two explained that, despite any indication of the contrary, no one had come to see or hear THEM but rather the band that was on stage. That quieted them down for a few minutes but not enough minutes, if you know what I mean.

That’s something I’ll never figure out for as long as I live. Who goes to concerts, or movies for that matter, to have a conversation•Can’t you do that for free at home•Yeesh……

• So to end on a positive note, let me say this: At 53 years old, Bruce Springsteen, along with the E Street Band, still put on the very best show in music, bar-none.

I’m sure people much more knowledgeable than me have tried to figure out just why that is. Why he continues to sell records and sell out arenas and connect with fans of all ages in this, his fourth decade in the “business”. Obviously, if I had the answer, I’d be bottling it and selling it to wanna-be rock stars everywhere and making billions of dollars and retiring to some island in the Carribbean…..

That said, it seems to me that at least part of the answer is pretty simple. Unlike so many of the artists who’ve come and gone from the show biz spotlight over the years, Bruce seems to have made some sort of promise to himself and his fans. (Interestingly, “Promise” is a word/theme that shows up in a lot of his songs)
I’d never put words in the man’s mouth, but my interpretation of that promise has to do with refusing to sell out his art for commerce and refusing to sell out his gifts for the trappings of a rock n’ roll lifestyle.

A promise to consistently work harder than he has to, no matter how much success or money he has. A promise to create a body of work that comes from his heart and soul and stands the test of time rather than chasing hit singles every time styles and tastes change.

A promise to remember where he comes from and who he is and what really and truly matters in the world, regardless of how easy it would be for him to become egotistical and self-centered.

A promise to continue to be genuine in a world full of disposable heroes.

A promise to continue to believe in and deliver on the unspeakable, unnamable, redemptive, life-changing, world-changing, power that is music.

The concept is kinda simple when you think about it. But delivering on a promise like that? That’s a different story entirely. But somehow Bruce does it year after year after year.

Thanks for reading. If you got to see the show, feel free to send me your thoughts on it. ‘Course you can also send me your thoughts if you didn’t get to go.

We’re an equal opportunity thought receptacle here at 99.5 The Mountain.

Mike Casey