Bruce Springsteen has been looking for a replacement to "10th Avenue Freezeout" at least since the The Rising tour where he test drove "Mary's Place". But "My City Of Ruins"? Look, I considered it his best song of the 21st Century, it nearly saved the album it rode in on, but even his closest friends wouldn't call it upbeat. To use this song, an exhausted exultation to rise up, as an early linchpin,would be weird in the extreme.
But that's what he did to a sold out Metlife Stadium, Wednesday night. And Springsteen's exhaustion while mental nor physical showed his age was his age, he acted his age, you could feel the years rippling thru him. Later, introducing "Mansion On The Hill" he would remember buying ice cream on a late summer evening, with his Grandparents, his kids are at that place where it won't be so long before Bruce is a Grandfather himself, during "City" he would claim.. "There are ghosts with us" referencing, well, referencing a lot of things that have passed, as people and places do fall away with the inevitable closing time of age. Even when you're the boss. "Do you know how I know? I can hear them in your voice".
I've seen Bruce on stage many time, but this was the oddest concert of them all. Try as he could, he couldn't shake the ghosts that haunted the Stadium, chilling on the chilly night. And the result was a concert that didn't deliver Bruce's magic, his ability to rise us up. We couldn't quite get there. he was too down. It was a downer. It was like hanging with a friend who is always kidding around (somebody like me, to be honest) when they are feeling sad. They try and shake it off but it lingers.
So what is a down Bruce gig like? Pretty damn good if you ask me. Highlights abound, and first and foremost, a brilliant "Human Touch", sung with his wife right next to him, and with the muscular desire he doesn't really write anymore. A child to those great Born In The USA bursting with desire songs, Bruce put it in overdrive… though it is worth mentioning that even that song is a bummer, "in the end what you don't surrender the world just slips away" he sings before the first verse is over.
Equally good and an opportunity to express how powerful the E Street Horns are becoming was an "E Street Shuffle" with the horns skronking like an impressionistic jazz band and Bruce blasts forward into "everybody form a line". Maybe it was better at MSG in 2010 when he played the album it's off from one end to another. And maybe that 2010 E Street Band was 1998 Yankees, while this one is 2012 Yankees, but still it was an amazing imagination of a song.
Also a chance for the horns to shine, "Johnny 99" was the best song of the set earlier this year, and now is only one of them, but Bruce uses the chance to allow the horns to shine again. There had been a minutes silence for fallen friends, and Clarence Clemon's spirit was very much with the band Wednesday night, but if he can't be replaced emotionally, musically it has allowed Springsteen to throw everything he has and integrate a full horn section into the band. The result has been the highlight of the 2012 tour and never more so than on this masterpiece, a better song about economic hardship then anything on Wrecking Ball, even though, he chose the right songs off the album to keep in the live show.
Speaking of which, I have always intensely disliked The Rising, but for the first time ever, I've been actually able to hear "Waiting For A Sunny Day", improved immensely when sung by a six year old girl on Bruce's shoulders.
The set began very well but the setlist wasn't Springsteen's best . Mid set he performed killer versions of "The E Street Shuffle", "Human Touch" and "Johnny 99" but it was interrupted by "Jack Of All Trades" -a slower, less well know song off the new album, and the momentum was halted. A little later he did a short acoustic set but it was two hours into the night and should have been performed much earlier.
Anything else? Killer guitar solo on "Prove It All Night", you can hear Tom Morello's influence.
Plus: A long healthy downer. A set haunted by the past, his past, and a strange depression he couldn't quite lift..
And? NJ Transit did a good job getting us out of there.
Grade: A- (hey, it's still Springsteen)