What is it about theatre and music people? The ticket says the concert starts at 7:30 p.m. But promptly at 8:30 the ads on the walls cease, the house lights come up (I guess to allow all those senior citizens on stage to see where they are going!), the sold-out crowd roars, and Bruce and company appear. For this tour he's beefed up the band. In addition to 40-year friends and stalwarts Van Zandt, Bittan, Weinberg, Tallent, Lofgren, and Tyrell, he's added the "E Street Horns," including Jake Clemons, the nephew of the late, great Clarence Clemons, and the "E Street Choir" with three singers. Charles Giordano has replaced the late Danny Federici on the B-3 organ and accordion. The only one missing was Patti Scialfa, Bruce's wife, whom he said, "Is back home making sure the kids don't get into our drug stash!"
And thence begins three hours of pure joy. His choices for tonight range from the most recent album, "Wrecking Ball," including the title song, a lovely and quiet "Jack of All Trades," the moving "We're Alive," and the anthem, "We Take Care of Our Own," through the rest of his career. Of course, being in Northeast Ohio, we hear "Youngstown," one of my favorites, but also a medley of soul songs (which Bruce said in his lead-up "in the Sixties and Seventies every band in Jersey had to play soul at every V.F.W., high-school prom, Shop-Rite opening, C.Y.O. dance and corner bar."), "My City of Ruins," reaching back to "The E Street Shuffle."
During "Waiting on a Sunny Day" Bruce waded out into the floor crowd to press the flesh. Whether it was a set-up or serendipity, he pulled a eight- or nine-year old girl out of the crowd, put the mic in front of her, and allowed her to belt out the refrain. Bruce so enjoyed her enthusiasm that he picked her up in his arms, walked her back up to the stage, where to the great great delight of the crowd, she continued to sing and dance with him for the entirety of the song. What a fun scene! Later he "crowd surfed" from the middle of the arena back to the stage. You gotta see it to believe it!
To close the concert the house lights again came up, and the band gave us what we wanted: "Born to Run," "Dancing in the Dark," and "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out." During the last song, as the lyric "and the Big Man came to town" was sung, the band abruptly stopped, and we were treated with a three-minute video montage of the Big Man himself, Clarence Clemons, in every kind of wild attire, in front of stadium crowds, embracing Bruce, and blowing that horn. What a tribute. Then the spotlight shifted from Bruce to Jake Clemons, who admirably led with his sax, just as his uncle did for more than 35 years.
What a concert! What was evident from the peanut gallery seats up against the roof where we were standing, was that 62-year old Springsteen loves Cleveland. Every rocker who can croak out a song says "Hello Cleveland!" (Leading to that great Southwest Airlines commercial parody, "Wanna get away?" where the aging rock singer comes out on stage and shouts, "Hello Detroit!" to silence as his band mate whispers in his ear, "It's Chicago.") But Bruce must have greeted "Cleveland" six or seven times. He even made reference to the Cleveland origins of one song, the high-energy "Light of Day."
In a review of the Springsteen concert a few days earlier in Buffalo, New York, a reviewer called the experience "transcendent." It was. Long may the Boss reign.
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