Bruce Springsteen started up the second leg of his US tour this past Thursday in Hartford, CT and over a few shows has demonstrated that he's up for shifting set lists and digging into his vast catalog. I found the fall Magic shows to be a tad polarizing. I made a last minute trek to St. Paul, MN last fall and as the band started "Your Own Worst Enemy" I felt like I had wasted $114 and a 6 hour car ride. However, mere moments later, Roy Bittan's piano churned out the chords to "Incident On 57th Street" and I nearly lost it. When Springsteen wailed on that feverish guitar solo that opens the song, I was taken to another place and time and even though I didn't grow up in New Jersey, I felt as if I was walking along the Asbury Park boardwalk on a summer day. Music transcends people, places and feelings better than old home movies, photo albums and reunions; it has the capability to truly bring feelings to the surface that you didn't know you had. Alas, Individual moments of the three shows I witnessed were brilliant, but alas they proved fleeting because of poor pacing and a few too many new songs which leave a lot to be desired. Don't get me wrong, Springsteen is arguably the greatest live performer of the rock n' roll era and in my opinion, few people can come close, but after hearing a few bootlegs from Europe in December and the Hartford show, I'm trying to see what I am missing. In 1999, every time I looked at a set list, I would kick myself for not being there, even if it meant flying 3,000 miles and going into debt, alas, the set lists were so enthralling, I felt like I needed to be there! Flash-forward 8 years and thirty-plus shows later, and I've become bored with Bruce. Now, let me state something; I am a very tough cookie and have been blessed and fortunate in seeing some truly momentous shows since 1999. I shrugged my shoulders at the inclusion in Hartford of "So Young In Love", "Janey, Don't You Lose Heart" and "Loose Ends" because I've seen all three songs before. However, as my dear friend Johnny pointed out, those three songs have been performed less than thirty times COMBINED. So I give Bruce props for digging into his catalog and embracing these songs, but I wish they were a little less messy live. However, as powerful and defining the band may be, it does not fix the biggest issue with the set lists overall; the Magic material.
I am not sure why, but a rather large portion of the material does not work live and yet there are still eight Magic songs in the set list. Magic is a better album than I gave it credit for when it first came out, but an overwhelming amount of the material just flat out does not work live. It's not even as if the material is performed with meticulous vigor, some of these performances are just flat out dreary. "Magic" doesn't work live even if the tongue twister is the album's most ominous track, in concert it leaves the audience cold. "Devil's Arcade" chugs away until the pounding progression finale
alas it's misplaced in the set. "Girls In Their Summer Clothes" is played in a different key from the record and the album's most luminous track wimps along in the encores. Give me a tired version of "Thunder Road" any day of the week over this. Then there is "Livin' In The Future" which welcomes you on the record like the first ray of sunshine out of the sky, but it's plodding and futile live. Magic took a long time to grow on me, but what shocks me is that each of these tracks are ebullient and shadowy on record but feeble in concert.
What makes Bruce Springsteen one of the definitive live performers of all time is his ability to transform his material into larger than life epics that are a piece of a bigger story arc, it just ain't happening this time around.I had issues with some of the arrangements he adapted on The Rising tour, but the sheer drive and power of the performances ultimately won me over. Plus the emotional magnitude of the songs floored me nightly even if certain songs never became definitive in concert ("Into The Fire", "Empty Sky", and "World's Apart"). However, many of the Magic songs alienate the crowd and it's a shame, because the older material is delivered with such passion, even if you aren't overly familiar with the song, it warrants your attention. My main issue is that for the first time in my life, I feel these shows are not worth traveling for. Sure, there are some choice rarities here and there, but the performances and arrangements of the Magic material leaves a lot to be desired.
Come on Bruce
kick the band's ass into gear or reduce the number of Magic tunes down to about five and rotate the rest in and out night to night. Until you do, this is lining up to be the most underwhelming tour of your career.
Anthony Kuzminski is a Chicago based writer and can be found at The Screen Door and can be contacted at thescreendoor AT gmail DOT com.
