Penultimate Springsteen show lives up to the hype

Sometimes I get the feeling that the Boss could play for eight hours straight.

While his Nov. 20 concert in Baltimore didn’t quite get there, nearly three and a half hours after Bruce Springsteen took the stage, the crowd looked exhausted. And why shouldn’t they be? Almost every single track that blasted through the speakers at 1st Mariner Arena had the floor jumping, singing and dancing to the beat. That’s because Springsteen’s concerts, often given their instrumental foundation by the mighty E-Street Band, are an exercise in reciprocity. If he’s feeling it, the audience will too. He wants you to feel his exhilaration during “Born to Run,” and his stark sadness during an unbelievably beautiful solo rendition of “For You.” He runs, shouts, and slides in an endless display of energetic abandon. He doesn’t want the crowd to think he’s having a good time-he wants them to know it.

Springsteen’s catalogue is, among other things, an amalgam of anthem rock, blues and a touch of jazz, all of which found their way into the impressive 30-song set two Fridays ago. His considerable discography allows for a high turnover rate from show to show, not to mention concerts that act as microcosms for a music legend’s entire career. The first two songs of the night spanned three decades of work. The opener, “Wrecking Ball,” was written two months ago and has had no official studio release while “Prove It All Night,” which featured incendiary guitar work from Nils Logfren, was recorded in 1978 for the album, “Darkness on the Edge of Town.” The audience sang along to the opening verse of the 1981 crowd-favorite “Hungry Heart,” (Got a wife and kids in Baltimore Jack/ I went out for a ride and I never went back) which saw Springsteen surfing through the audience-microphone and all. “Working on a Dream,” the only song of the night from his newest album, followed suit.

In hot pursuit was “Born to Run”-not just the iconic song but the entire album. In introducing his 1975 masterpiece, he told the audience, “This was the record that started a life-long conversation between me and you.” The wail of his harmonica confirmed the opening of “Thunder Road.” Almost every track, with the exception of the sparse-but-brilliant “Meeting Across the River,” calls for fist-pumping, sing-along crowd participation. And given their usual climactic spots in set lists past, it was a welcome departure to hear them in the first 60 minutes of the show.

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