Bruce Springsteen - Classic or Dud ?

LMAO. My partner is a big, big Coldplay, so it was inevitable that we’d go to a show. THIS was the show so it was a pretty damn welcome surprise. (McCartney’s got a show coming up in the same place, the last of the North American leg of the tour - bet Bruce pops in for that.)

I can’t dump on the band but I will say in the lead up to the show, I started thinking how bewildering and fascinating everyone from Jay-Z and Beyoncé (who were at the show) to Frank Ocean to U2 and R.E.M. are Coldplay fans. The one time everything comes together for me is “Yellow” which I wouldn’t call atypical (probably quintessential if anything) but it’s the one time where their stuff lights up for me and it was actually pretty memorable to witness it at the show.

They kind of remind me of the nicest, most straight-laced upperclassmen I went to school with, guys who got elected to student council, won track meets and went to good schools, probably good jobs as well and a family raised in a posh suburb. I kind of feel like that’s reflected in their work, if you know what I mean - I can’t say it translates into the things I personally find interesting or compelling in art, but my partner gets an immense amount of enjoyment in it.

Beyond music, the environmental friendly aspects of their tour is great - who else powers a stadium tour with completely renewable energy? That should be the case for everyone, to the point where it’s nothing anyone brags about. And there were a bunch of moments, while looking around at the lighting arrangement they devised for the show, where I thought “if you were into acid, NOW would be an perfect time to drop.”

So that’s all the nice things I have to say about them.

I have been to a couple shows where the artist indicated that the tour was carbon-neutral - by which I gather they meant offsets. (You buy a ticket, someone plants a tree in Norway or something.) Can't remember who. A 90s indie songstress of some sort. KT Tunstall, Eliza Carthy, Michelle Shocked?

They did not mean that their amps were solar-powered, or that the lights in the venue were run by windmills, or that their tour bus was electric. Not sure what Coldplay is doing but yeah, that's something every artist should be doing.

They had a detailed description of what they were doing on the screens before the show actually started. I was very impressed - power came from a variety of sources, enough to charge up everything before each show. And in terms of environmental impact, even the plastic wrist lights they handed out (which you return in bins before leaving the venue) were made from renewable materials, I'm guessing plant-based resin instead of common petroleum-based plastics.

Even though they're roughly middle-aged, it was kind of like a boy-band pop show. I've only been to one other show at MetLife - the Stones. They were singing about sex and murder with projections of Mick et al looking like they were consumed by hellfire - the highlight, "Midnight Rambler," was like a ghost train barreling straight through hell. (This was three years ago, before I went to any shows with my partner.) Coldplay's show was aesthetically the complete opposite in every possible way.

Even though they're roughly middle-aged, it was kind of like a boy-band pop show.

Didn't they work with Max Martin on their most recent records? They know what they need to do to keep filling arenas.

Bruce and SVZ just showed up at McCartney's show and played "Glory Days" (perfect choice - Paul turns 80 in a few days) and "I Wanna Be Your Man"!

Actually Van Zandt didn't join (though he was at the show).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxIS1XTZAQA

And he came back out for "The End"

Paul McCartney e Bruce Springsteen tocando “The End” no MetLife Stadium, em East Rutherford (16/06) #PaulMcCartneyGotBack
📸: edkeller66 pic.twitter.com/kxCK0ay4gO

— The Beatles BR 🍏 (@TheBeatleBR) June 17, 2022

(Apologies, the Twitter link actually misses all but one of Springsteen's turns at a guitar solo.)

I'm biased, but it's kinda amazing how he can just command the stage next to Paul friggin McCartney. Also, that they are both really old, too. Octogenarian Macca making me more hopeful for the Bruce tour.

If I had to pick between Bruce and the Beatles, it would have to be the Beatles, but I absolutely agree, it's impressive how Springsteen completely takes the show when they launch into "Glory Days." Some credit goes to McCartney - I want to say being in the Beatles gave him a natural inclination to cede the spotlight and make room for someone else when he knows he's backing them up - but the song actually makes Springsteen look like the greater songwriter. It's a cliché that McCartney's songwriting is pretty lopsided, where he's unmatched as a melodist and arranger but frustratingly uneven as a lyricist. While both of them can come up with immensely catchy ear worms that can seem corny in the wrong context, Springsteen's usually has a lot more going under the surface, and that's exactly what I get from "Glory Days." Musically, it starts off like a lot of McCartney's poppier hits, but with every line and every verse, there are nuances and a level of detail in the storytelling that's typically absent in McCartney's post-Beatles output. McCartney's pop hits can feel like nothing songs in comparison.

"Glory Days" has gradually become the Springsteen song I look forward to hearing the most in the wild. Sure, I'm now maybe 10 years older than he was when he wrote it, but I also credit the disciplined economy of his writing.

It really feels like a perfect song written for the future. I know there's a lot of darkness to it, but in true Springsteen fashion, he manages to find a lot of humor in the same subject as well, and last night that last verse was especially hilarious, especially with McCartney repeating the same exact stories over and over again at every show in every tour since at least 2002.

(Though to be fair, they're not really boring stories - the first time I saw him and heard them, it was cool af.)

Where was that funny twitter thing about all the talking heads (Dave Grohl, Lars, Elton etc) talking about Ringo a little while back?

Oh, this, sorry for the derail:

"Ringo, man, he was like a drum machine, you gotta remember this was -before- the invention of the drum machine" pic.twitter.com/Ze6ydRcDYG

— Jesse Hawken (@jessehawken) November 30, 2021

Not actually a derail since The Boss is in there. Not the very start of the thread either but I will leave that be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OK-lSq3vVZ0

https://rockinsights.com/assets/images/Artist%20Images/Bruce%20Springsteen/Screenshot_2015-10-26-10-07-22~2.png

Who's that guy with Joe Walsh's brother-in-law?

If I'm Garry Tallent and I'm watching that "Glory Days" clip, my mind is blown because I'm thinking, "When I was a teenager I played Paul's bass lines...and now HE'S playing one of MY bass lines."

good point!

I thought this was weirdly amusing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nFjXv1MpAk

Reminds me of an old Conan sketch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0XnP_1TaAo

lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR8J4_Q74RM

Lol! Bonus points for Percussion Poobah Joe Levy JudgeCam content.

And you know that tilt-a-whirl down on the south beach drag
I got on it last night and my shirt got caught
And they kept me spinning, babe, didn't think I'd ever get off

xpost reminds me that a member of the E Street Band said when Max was writing the book about drummers, his playing would get influenced by each one, and that when he got to the Ringo chapter, he sounded a lot better.

Just learned a few minutes ago that Joe Strummer was one of those performers whose lives were changed by seeing Bruce Springsteen. He saw the first of the two 1975 Hammersmith Odeon shows, and apparently immediately changed how he performed on stage, right down to getting an extra long cord for his guitar so he could wander at will like Bruce.

Did he start telling stories from his life?

Lol

Seriously, might have been good!

Maybe he would still be called Woody.

Though what if every young performer inspired by young Bruce did that? What the heck, sometimes performers' intros are better than their songs

I think what I was reading actually did delve into that a bit, about how Springsteen's songs (and banter) focused on street life (mundane and colorful alike) in a way that no one had really been doing, and that struck a chord with Strummer, too. Though I don't think the Clash were ever much for banter.

Rumors a US (and UK?) tour date announcement is imminent and/or Tuesday.

Yep, US dates just announced. Basically February to April 2023. (And, um, no Chicago date ... )

Maybe Chicago will be Wrigley Field in the next leg.

(I guess it would be August, since Europe is June-July.)

I think that's a good guess. Maybe I'll try to go see him in Milwaukee first.

can't believe he would do Josh in Chicago like this

(probably the requisite Canadian stop or two to come as well?)

I've already got a ticket to see him in Hamburg next summer, but I'll try to get one for Seattle. It will be interesting to see how the setlist changes, because the Seattle date is pretty early in the tour.

No California dates but i’m guessing there will be another leg :/

I wish I had been able to do this, but the first time I saw him was in 2009 during a run of shows at Giants Stadium (right before it was demolished - "Wrecking Ball" was written for the occasion and unveiled at those shows). After I bought a GA ticket, it was announced that he would dedicate each show to a different album, his first time doing that, and Born to Run was scheduled for mine. I was a diehard fan who had traded and downloaded a ton of shows but I had never seen him live until now, so not surprisingly it was mindblowing - it really felt like the best show I had ever seen, and even though I had to get permission to leave work early, wasn't making that much money, and had to limp out of the stadium after standing over four hours (I got there early to get in the front), when Bruce said "I'll see you tomorrow for Born in the USA!" I immediately thought, "can I find a ticket? Can I afford it? Can I get time off from work again??" Like there was no question I wanted to, but I ultimately decided against it for "responsible" reasons. URGH.

These US dates are in indoor arenas, right? That makes them sound like comparatively intimate shows for him, if they're around the 20,000-capacity mark. In Europe it's stadiums all the way.

He doesn't play stadiums in the US anymore, though I'm sure he could; for some reason he only plays in a Europe. If he goes outdoors he plays baseball fields.

Coming to the ATL Feb. 3. State Farm Arena, naturally. Not a bad venue as long as you get up fairly close.

it's got to be weird being one of these guys who has played arenas for decades, and not only do they change names every few years, but now they are all name brands.

They're all banks and financial institutions around here - he's playing five NY area shows (!), two are at UBS Arena, one at Barclays, one at Prudential, and one at good old Madison Square Garden.

Yeah, the one in Seattle is in the Seattle Center. I don't think I've actually been there, but it can't be very big.