Last weekend, as I mentioned in a previous post, we traveled 440+ miles of highways, byways and back roads from North Carolina to Philadelphia in order to witness Bruce Springsteen and his mighty E Street Band’s righteous stand against the “corrupt, incompetent, racist, reckless, and treasonous” Trump and his “ship of fools” administration. (For the “shut up and sing” crowd: The concert’s “No Kings” theme was advertised before tickets went on sale so, really, all who attended shouldn’t have been surprised.) It was a political rally for the ages, in a sense, but also one helluva show, with the 27-song set filled with one rocking dispatch after the next. Most everyone was on their feet, pumping their fists in the air, from the get-go.
At exactly 7:36pm, Bruce stepped into the spotlight and shared the preamble to the night, including a prayer for our brave men and women in uniform, before unleashing a fiery cover of Edwin Starr’s “War” that was amplified all the more by the addition of Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello on guitar—which meant not one, not two, not three, but four guitarists on stage for long stretches of the night, as Nils Lofgren, Stevie Van Zandt and Springsteen himself took turns ripping out rhythmic fury and shredding solos. The irony-laden “Born in the USA” furthered the mood, while “Death to My Hometown”—from Wrecking Ball—tempered the proceedings a tad. It’s far from my favorite Wrecking Ball track, yet fit within the context of the show. A raucous cover of the Clash’s antifascism anthem “Clampdown” brought down the house, with everyone within my sightline pogoing in place. “No Surrender” added an extra dimension to the theme Bruce explored on his last tour: “We learned more from a three-minute record, baby, than we ever learned in school.”
The moody “Darkness on the Edge of Town” gave way to a sterling rendition of the poignant “Streets of Minneapolis.” (One might have expected the mostly aging fans to sit during those slower-tempo tunes and catch their breath, but one would have been wrong.) A rousing “The Promised Land” lifted the spirits, however, especially during a playful back-and-forth between Jake Clemons (Clarence’s nephew) on saxophone and Springsteen on harmonica, while “Two Hearts” and “Hungry Heart” expanded and expounded on the nostalgic stretch. Nils Lofgren stepped to the fore during the electric “Youngstown,” one of my favorite Springsteen songs, with the band erupting into a rockin’ rendition of “Murder Incorporated”—that one-two punch dates to the Springsteen/E Street Band reunion tour of 1999-2000, by the way. (If, as then, “Badlands” had followed, my hunch is the roof would’ve flown off the former F.U. Center, which has since been renamed the Xfinity Mobile Arena.) Instead, Springsteen and band returned the focus to the events in Minneapolis via “American Skin (41 Shots),” which remains as relevant as ever. (It boggles my mind that it was ever deemed controversial.) Backup singers Michelle Moore, Lisa Lowell, and Ada Dyer added a soulful dimension to the song, while the interplay between Clemons on sax and Morello on guitar—who’d returned to the stage after stepping off after “Clampdown”—served as an emotive accent. (As I’m apt to say, “Wow. Just wow.”)
I could continue with the song-by-song rundown, I suppose, but the mention of Morello brings to mind what was, for me, the night’s highlight: the transcendent “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” which, as on his 2014 tour, saw Bruce share lead vocals with Morello—and for Morello to go to town on his guitar. Truly, there was a moment when I grabbed hold of my seat to stop my soul from rising to the rooftop. Just amazing.
“My City of Ruins” was another memorable moment, starting with an anti-Trump diatribe that won much applause and cheers before transitioning into the song itself; in some respects, it comes across as a worship song in concert, with many raising their hands: As the song lyrics go, “Now, with these hands, with these hands/With these hands, with these hands/I pray, Lord (with these hands, with these hands)/I pray for the strength, Lord (with these hands, with these hands)/Yeah, I pray for the faith, Lord (with these hands, with these hands)/Pray for your love, Lord (with these hands, with these hands)….”
The night ended with a flashback to happier times via three of Springsteen’s best-known songs: “Born to Run,” “Dancing in the Dark,” and an emotive “10th Avenue Freeze-Out” that saw images of the late Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici flash across the screens. A thank you to the city that helped make him, Philly, fed into the night’s benediction, a wondrous cover of Bob Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom.”
As I said up top, it was part political rally and also one helluva show. It put into words and sentiment the thoughts, fears, and hopes many of us feel, these days, and did so in artful and inspiring fashion.
The setlist: “War,” “Born in the USA,” “Death to My Hometown,” “Clampdown,” “No Surrender,” “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” “Streets of Minneapolis,” “The Promised Land,” “Two Hearts,” “Hungry Heart,” “Youngstown,” “Murder Incorporated,” “American Skin (41 Shots,” “Long Walk Home,” “House of a Thousand Guitars,” “My City of Ruins,” “Because the Night,” “Wrecking Ball,” “The Rising,” “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” “Badlands,” “Land of Hope and Dreams,” “American Land,” “Born to Run,” “Dancing in the Dark,” “10th Avenue Freeze-Out,” “Chimes of Freedom.
The Old Grey Cat 