Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at Sommet Center, 11/18/09
Steve Cross
Check out the slideshow for more photos.
The Spin can now confirm definitively: Bruce Springsteen is real. We know. We touched him. Five songs into last night's monster performance at the Sommet Center (where he last appeared a mere 15 months ago), as he crowd-surfed over our heads during the organ solo to "Hungry Heart," it was clear that his determination to outdo any other performer in rock is still unwavering. Now more than 35 years into their performing career, Bruce and the E Street band can still pull out a relentless three-hour marathon of take-no-prisoners enforcement that--at least from an audience perspective--is still the most exhausting and exhilarating in rock 'n' roll.
The Sommet Center, at least as far as we know, is not currently slated for demolition. That didn't stop Springsteen and his "heart-stopping, pants-dropping, house-rocking, earth-shaking, booty-quaking, Viagra-taking, love-making, le-gen-dary" E Street Band from taking their wrecking ball to the stage and turning in yet another Middle Tennessee show people are likely to talk about for years to come.
After an opening run of songs that included his cover of Jimmy Cliff's "Trapped"--a fan favorite--a stirring rendition of the rarely played "Something in the Night," "Hungry Heart" and the title track from his latest offering Working on a Dream--the album's only song of the night--it was time for the show's centerpiece: a start to finish performance of his landmark Born to Run. It is a big record, in both sound and scope, and its grandeur was only heightened in the live setting. We stood transfixed as we watched the 60-year-old Springsteen belt out show-stoppers like "Backstreets" with the same amount of passion and purpose as the 25-year-old Springsteen who wrote them. As if not a day had passed since the the record's conception, the Boss and his E Street cohorts gracefully and handily recaptured the range of emotions that transpire through gems like "Thunder Road," "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out," the title track, and ultimately the epic to end all epics: "Jungleland." Seeing this done before our very eyes is something we'll never forget.
After the emotionally draining performance of Born to Run, Springsteen thought it best to lighten things up a little, which he did with a run of poppy fan requests that included his rendition of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town"--a little more appropriate this time of year than it was at Bonnaroo last June-- and "Darlington County," during which a chorus line of pink cowboy hat-wearing cougars bum rushed the stage, inspiring an audible for The River's savage rocker "You Can Look but You Better Not Touch."
Steve Cross
Apropos of playing in Nashville, Springsteen started off a long run of encores by pulling a request sign for "Ring of Fire"--a song he claimed the band has never before played. What followed was a ramshackle full band sing-along that was far more spirited than it was tight, but what other rock 'n' roll band are you ever going to see attempt such a thing in front of 14,000 people? Among other highlights were ever-reliable live staples like "Badlands," "The Rising," "Dancing in the Dark" and "Rosalita." Springsteen delivered each with all his classic hijinks--from knee-drops to guitar-throws and windmills--while E Streeters Max Weinberg, Steve Van Zandt, Nils Lofgren and former Nashvillian Garry W. Tallent propelled him into the sonic stratosphere. While it has not been officially announced, word on E Street is that this tour, which ends on Sunday, is the last for the classic lineup of the band. The sense of finality was not lost on the crowd--a mix of traveling tramps, graying boomers and recent converts--as Springsteen declared near show's end: "You've just seen the last of, for a little while...the E Street Band." We can only hope that the end has yet to come as this was more than just a concert, it was a joyous celebration of life in the face of all the fears and hardships that make it tough.
Setlist:
Wrecking Ball
Seeds
Trapped
Something in the Night
Hungry Heart
Working on a Dream
Thunder Road
Tenth Avenue Freeze-out
Night
Backstreets
Born to Run
She's the One
Meeting Across the River
Jungleland
Waitin' on a Sunny Day
Santa Claus is Comin' to Town
Two Hearts
Darlington County
You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)
Lonesome Day
The Rising
Badlands
* * *
Ring of Fire
No Surrender
Bobby Jean
American Land
Dancing in the Dark
Rosalita
Higher and Higher
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