"1, 2, 3, 4!”
Sorry, I was just re-living that orgasmic moment when having failed to get the everlasting kiss he was after, Bruce joins the broken heroes for a last chance power-drive.
‘Born To Run’ is 33-years-old in August, but like all of the 26 songs that get belted out tonight, sounds like it’s just rolled out of the factory, freshly waxed, polished and tuned for optimum performance.
It’s not all hankering for decade’s old hits though á la the Stones, Bowie, McCartney, Stewart and, let’s be honest here, Iggy and Oasis. Having called the faithful to arms with ‘Promised Land’ – if you’re only going to own one Springsteen album make sure it’s Darkness On The Edge Of Town – it’s straight into ‘Radio Nowhere’, last year’s howl of alienation which went straight into the All-Time Boss Top 20. The (fruitless as it turns out) bellowing of the Stepford Wives next to me for another Magic standout, ‘Girls In Their Summer Clothes’, underlines the fact that there’s been no resting on laurels down Asbury Park way.
The shitstorm quality of tonight’s show has everything to do with Bruce being flanked by the E Street Band, who may be a bit flabbier round the midriff, but still know how to wring every drop of melodrama out of one-act Springsteen plays like ‘The River’, ‘Badlands’ and ‘Because The Night’, which is well and truly claimed back from Patti Smith.
Giant video screens aside, there’s no ‘show’ other than nine best mates acting out their wildest bar-room band fantasies. Explaining why the gang doesn’t on this occasion include the missus, Bruce says: “Patti’s at home. The cookies have been taken out of the oven. The Guinness is being poured. My favourite clothes are being sold on eBay. No, we’ve got three teenagers, one of whom is graduating.”
The banter’s a bit more serious later on when he bemoans America’s involvement in “rendition, illegal wire tapping, rolling back civil liberties – stuff that always happened elsewhere.” Come November, you can be sure that Springsteen is going to be on the campaign trail with Barack.
So what were the highlights among the myriad other highlights? Clarence’s baritone burst during ‘Out On The Street’; the theatrical chucking of guitar at roadie after the Spector meets Bo Diddley symphony of ‘She’s The One’; the vocal face-off with Little Steve on ‘Long Walk Home’; the shotgun shack blues of ‘Reason To Believe’; and, fuck it, how long do you have?
Honest to God, this really was the Pet Sounds of gigs.