When the new issue of Rollingt Stone arrived, proclaiming Bruce Springsteen as one of the "best live acts now" (maybe ever) I went back to a blog post I wrote last year about the Boss' show at Fenway Park in Boston.
Turns out, he just may be. Here's a re-post of what I wrote following the first of two sold-out nights:
Bruce Springsteen Just Killed It at Fenway
Watching Bruce Springsteen’s Wednesday August 15th show at Fenway Park was reaffirming tonic for the healing, celebratory and life-changing power of music. No other art form so directly connects the feet, crotch, head and heart. Part carny-barker, part preacher, part romantic, part poet, part music historian, part R&B /soul revue bandleader and every bit the everyman, Springsteen and company put their fingerprints all over each and every part of the body last night. A fast and loose “Take Me Out The Ballgame” kicked things off and illustrates Springsteen’s innate connection to Americana and his appreciation of a culture that is perhaps losing —if not it’s grip —its sense of history beyond your last tweet .
The harmonica and piano-only opening of “Thunder Road” gave way to perhaps the greatest opening couplet ever written in rock’n’roll:
“Screen door slams…Mary’s dress waves.”
So much meaning, so much anticipation, so much longing…so much..romance (perhaps more?)….or at least a world of possibilities…. in those six words.
It was a perfect opener and that arrangement (which can heard on the Hammersmith Odeon DVD on the 25th Anniversary re-release of “Born To Run”) lays bare just how great a song that is. The “summer house party” then went into full effect: “Hungry Heart,” “Sherry Darling,” “Summertime Blues,” and “Girls in Their Summer Clothes” in rapid succession.
But I was compelled to write not because of the awesome song selection (which it was), but rather the communal “here and now” spirit that at one time encompassed all great rock ’n’ roll shows. I remember seeing the Born In The USA tour in DC around the 4th of July at RFK Stadium and it was an altogether different feeling, a different time in this country; it felt more…crazy, than happy, more zealous than joyous. To tell you the truth, that over zealous fist thrusting during "Born In The Usa" felt...well...like a Brown Shirt rally.
Lately, concerts seems to be more of a $100 door charge at an overcrowded, soulless venue where you simply Instagram how hip you are. This was different.
Maybe it’s a sign of the times, as Bruce sings “Hard times come, hard times go “ over and over and over in “Wrecking Ball” that we, as a people, choose to “spit in the face” of these hard times. The new songs are very muscular live, the Irish lilt a little harder and sharper; an angry fist shaken in the face of the hard times, now coming more than going (Which leads me to another tangent …the irony of Wall Street traders, who almost certainly pack the luxury suites along the tour, pumping their fists to “Shackled and Drawn”.) It was a communal celebration of life, hard times and all. All of its joy….all of its pain and all of its hardship. And how fun it is to see real people, play real instruments and sing about things they care about. Even in the rain.
I do find it strange that this uniquely American artist and his vision translates to the extent it does outside of these shores and attendant dreams. But I guess the beauty of Springsteen is that he can put a whole life into perspective – love, lust, romantic longing, failure, the hard road, the sacrifices and disillusionment of adulthood, the simple pleasures of family – in such a personal way that it becomes universal. I was trying to think who else has the capacity to touch us this way, so fully, so completely. The Dead could do it to those willing to "go there," but that was a lifetime ago. Maybe U2. Not the Stones. Not in this way.
No one.
No one else can do it.
And hey….that’s all right with me…
