There is a point in this pristine live recording, available off brucespringsteen.net (here) where Bruce lives up to my description of him as the second greatest concert performer of all time (after James Brown), and it is isn’t quite musicial. The recording is the first night of Bruce (at the height of his fame and power) ten night residency at the Brendan Byrne Arena on August 5th, 1984. That’s the 20,000 seater next to Metlife, you know it as the Izod Center. The Born In The USA tour. Born In The USA was released nine years after Bruce broke through, on June 4th,1984, and this would have been a month into the victory lap. “Dancing In The Dark” was released May 4th (the video, with Courtney Cox, is iconic). The album went straight to # 1 and sold 30 Million copies worldwide and so Bruce had worked out his setlist and he did something very clever.
Bruce split the 196 minute set in two, he doesn’t do that anymore but that isn’t the smart thing, he opened the second set with two pop hits. Bruce gave the entire first chorus to the audience for “Hungry Heart” (“my people!”) and follows it with the humongous “Dancing In The Dark”. In an act of immense musical intellect, he derails the warming the audience up again, he gets them right back, hell, he gets them right back before he even sings a word.
Listening to Brendan Byrne (the 47th Governor of New Jersey by the way), I’m, reminded of James Brown again, both musicians are crowd pleasers and this wide ranging, career spanning though really the first two albums are given short shrift, with a Nebraska-USA-River axis which allowed Bruce to remain high-low hours on end, was a popstar entertaining an audience. Everything he did here was for the benefit of the audience. I remember seeing Bruce in 2012 at Metlife (I keep thinking that was the last time I’ve seen him, it wasn’t of course, there was the E Street Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame gig last year) and around midnight he launched into a story about going for ice cream with his Grandpa. That wasn’t done for the audience, that was done for him. Telling the story of trying to duck out of a baseball game before he sang “Glory Days”? That was for the audience, and the three songs cover final encore, “Detroit Medley” (he had that in his pocket for YEARS!! And ends it in a little James Brown-y that’s alling). “Travelling Band” and “Twist And Shout (performed Tex Mex style!!), that was for the audience.
“The first night of a 10 night stand at Brendan Byrne Arena at The Meadowlands in New Jersey, 8/5/84 is the first complete recording officially released from Bruce Springsteen’s historic Born In The U.S.A. Tour. This was the E Street Band’s first tour with Nils Lofgren on guitar (Stevie Van Zandt had left the band) and Patti Scialfa on vocals and percussion.” It says here, and the band is full steam ahead, E Street power, Clemons was still the big man, Lofgren needed nothing to fit in, Patti was invisible, and any question as to whether disco Bruce was gonna wheel out a synthesizer was soon answered, Bruce played a pop program but as a rock star first. The thing about this set is, it is what Bruce does best, it shows the dichotomy between pleasure and pain, between the moments that make life great and those that give the shadings to lifes great moments.If Bruce has an overwhelming theme it is somewhere not in the extremes of working class life as such but he chooses working class life because the difference between physical toiling and the moments are easier to see, they are clearer. But it also simplifies them too much, that is the operatic quality in Bruce and some people don’t like it, it is overblown, and it can feel to some patronizing. Also, untrue.No one denies Bruce his roots, what gets denied is by blowing them into myths he makes them unreal. But it is Bruce’s magic and he unleashes it here.
The show opens with a barrel down “Born In The USA” and follows it with “Out On The Street” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out”, a great invitation to the dance. My favorite Bruce tour was the 2000 one, where he had no new album out and had cut back to 150 minutes, in the middle he would play “Two Hearts”, “Out On The Streets” and followed it with band introductions on “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” ( he has yet to effectively replace it, “Mary’s Place” and, God knows, “My City In Ruins” didn’t do it at all), the beginning of the idea is here. The tour after this, Tunnel Of Love, Clarence would be very central, two old married guys remembering the old days” but here he was but wasn’t, during “Rosalita” Bruce has the audience spell out Clemons name but even so. From here to the end of the first set, Bruce remains dark, “Atlantic City”, “Johnny 99”, “Highway Patrolman”, yeah, Nebraska, and even after that, “Glory Days”, “Badlands” and set closer “Thunder Road” are big dark songs
The second set is lighter, though it is in the second set you just wish he’d throw in “Blinded By The Light”, “The E Street Shuffle” maybe even “Incident On 57th Street”. I have a dream, right? The highlight of the second set was an acoustic “No Surrender”, though all of it had a lightness of touch missing on the first half. If it was the current U2 gig, the first half would be the Experience, the second half Innocence. The vibes are so good, it is like Bruce is giving into the kinder spirits. If you were to grade the first two sets it would go:
Set One – A+
Set Two – A
The first encore opens with Tom Waits “Jersey Girl”, not the equal of his 1981 version on 1975-1985 but no kicks from this side of the Jersey Shore, and then followed with a monumental 12 minute “Jungleland”. The second encore was the covers though “Born To Run” opened it.
And that was it.
Encore One – A-
Encore Two – A
The thing to keep in mind here, is this was Bruce as superstar, as popstar, as icon, as white Michael, as God, but what he gave was a performance for the ages which made a mockery of questions of sell out. Preaching to the converted, sure, but some of them were the newly converted.
I am not a Springsteen fanatic, he hasn’t made an album I’ve loved since before he reformed the E Street Band, and the last time I saw him live I was very disappointed. I lost a great deal of respect for him when he cosied up to the repulsive John Kerry, and felt he was on much higher moral ground when he remained apolitical. His sets are endurance tests and not in a good way any more and: he still hasn’t explained the deal on the farmland a quarter the size of Central Park to ANYONE’S satisfaction.
But, he is still the greatest living live act when he wants to be, and this is much more then a recherzhez de temps very perdu, more than a souvenier. It is a great concert, beautifully recorded, beautifully performed. A political, pop master moment and a high point of the 1980s.
Grade: A
Track List:
One
Born in the U.S.A.
Out in the Street
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
Atlantic City
Johnny 99
Highway Patrolman
Prove It All Night
Glory Days
The Promised Land
Used Cars
My Hometown
Badlands
Thunder Road
Two
Hungry Heart
Dancing in the Dark
Cadillac Ranch
Sherry Darling
No Surrender
Pink Cadillac
Growin’ Up
Bobby Jean
Backstreets
Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
Encore:
Jersey Girl
(Tom Waits cover)
Jungleland
Encore 2:
Born to Run
Detroit Medley
Travelin’ Band
(Creedence Clearwater Revival cover)
Twist and Shout
(The Top Notes cover)
