I realize I was quite slow in posting on Wednesday morning. The truth is I was too sleepy and happy to focus on the rights and wrongs of the world because….
…..I went to see Bruce Springsteen Tuesday at the Honda Center in Anaheim. (BRUU-U-U-UUUUUUUCE!!!!!!!!!)
As anyone reading this blog for a while knows, I’m a bit of a Bruce groupy (and not nearly as sorry about it as some of my friends and family would likely prefer), but, fan fanaticism aside, Springsteen continues to put on one of the great shows in rock and roll.
This was the second leg of the tour for his “Magic” album released last October. The album itself is not one of my personal favorites as it has an oddly pop production aspect to it that either works for you or it doesn’t. In concert however, the enormous strength of the various songs emerges and all objections disappear.
Bruce’s wife, the angel-voice, Patti Scialfa, didn’t do this leg of the tour because, as Bruce said, “Patti sends her love, but we have three teenagers at home and I think I saw a three black helicopters dropping cases of beer in our backyard. The black helicopters could have been my paranoia, but I’m pretty sure about the beer drop.”
Like Mick Jagger at a Rolling Stones concert, Bruce does two-and-half hours of straight cardio that makes those of us also in his age group want to go back stage to ask what kind of vitamin supplements he’s taking, and where we can get a couple of bottles.
As is always true these days, part of the Boss’s show has clear political content. I can’t say how the Bush voter segment of the Orange County crowd took Bruce’s comments about extraordinary rendition and habeas corpus. Yet based on the overall audience reaction, if they didn’t entirely see eye to eye with him, they loved the music enough to overlook any disagreement.
Among the musical highlights were an exquisite version of the 30-year old Jungleland , and Nils Lofgren blowing the roof off the place with his killer guitar solo on Because the Night. But the thing that felt the most like rock history was the stunning duet between Bruce and Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello as they turned the social justice folk ballad, The Ghost of Tom Joad, into a stadium-shredding rocker.
(A fan captured part but not all of it for YouTube below)
I’ll stop gushing now since Jon Stewart already did the best commentary on the Boss’s “Magic” tour when he saw Bruce in performance last fall.
“I can’t say how the Bush voter segment of the Orange County crowd took Bruce’s comments…”
If conservatives quit listening to good music because bands favored communist causes, I would have quit listening to popular music after hearing Peter, Paul, and Mary back in the 1960’s. We just accept stupid political commentary as part of the price that we have to pay for the music–except for the Dixie Chicks, who made an extra point of kicking their fan base.
Wouldn’t you like to hear a nice concert by “Up With People?”
Oh, I just noticed a comment at the bottom of the video link to “Up With People.”
“what nice, honest, clean looking kids. no gays in that group. i wish they still did the half time at the super bowl!”
Well, if they did, the NFL wouldn’t have to worry about any “wardrobe malfunctions” or “phallic symbols.”
Far be it from me to diss Bruce Springsteen…
BUT
I have a friend who went to school on the east coast in the early ’70s who caught him in small venues and says it was the greatest rock and roll he’s ever seen. Today Bruce is one of the classiest guys in the business, has a great heart and I’m proud to be his fellow American, etc. etc. but…those shows !!! When to see an act you’ve got to go places like “The Honda Center in Anaheim” or the “Amway Arena in Orlando (here it’s the Oakland Coliseum – ooops, sorry…that’s “The Oracle Center and McAfee Coliseum”), include me out. Never been a fan of stadium rock – even at it’s best (which I would contend is the Stones.)
Unfortunately I didn’t see Bruce in concert until a few years back and…believe it or not it was one of the most mediocre musical experiences I’ve ever had – although I was probably the only person there who felt that way. (Partly it was annoying because of being surrounded by folks like Jon Stewart in his video.) I felt like I was watching an over-rehearsed schtick, complete with audience responses that were on cue for all concerned. This is a terrible thing to be saying, because Springsteen is a great guy and he’s produced some pretty great music, but I just feel like it’s way too packaged and predictable when he takes the whole thing on tour. That’s what I loved about the Seeger sessions (which I only saw in “concert video” but would have loved to have seen live) – it all seemed so much more intimate and fresh than the stadium rock stuff. Also love the Hammersmith Odeon concert DVD from ’75 when they were still a young and hungry band. I watched the New York Live DVD recently and couldn’t get through it all – but I’ll go back to that Hammersmith Odeon concert again and again.
My contrarian take. And a reason why I’m glad Bob Dylan is more of a quirky acquired taste, travels much more as a working musician and is less of a certain thing as a live performer – you get to see him in smaller venues, the performances are unpredictable and it’s not as much of a pre-fab cult thing (or at least it’s a more reflective cult – without the overtly messianic trappings.) Even my wife (who “adores” Springsteen almost as much as she “adores” George Clooney and Denzil Washington) admits Dylan operates at a level of weird genius that well-adjusted, down-to-earth Bruce will never touch. That said, I’d much rather have Bruce as my next-door neighbor.
Now to turn this into “not a diss,” I have to say that while it’s not at the top of my “must-see” list, I’m glad that Bruce is able to do what he does on the scale he does it, that he makes millions of fans feel good with his shows and that there are guys like him and his brother Bono who have managed to stay eminently decent, thoughtful and positive through decades of rock-and-roll celebrity.
P.S. I guess that Patti Scialfa is a nice person, but how in the world did the Boss let Christie Brinkley get away?
Oh, wait. That was Billy Joel, wasn’t it? Well, they’re almost the same.
I don’t know, Woody. Those fellows in Up With People looked kinda gay to me.
“they’re almost the same” – uh, no.
Incidentally – I shouldn’t have used the phrase “one of the most mediocre” to describe the Springsteen show. Totally wrong usage. It was one of the most polished and professional shows I’ve ever seen. To a degree that seem so self-conscious and lacking in real spontaneity – as opposed to calculated spontaneity, if such a thing is possible – that I wasn’t drawn into it. It was a mediocre experience for me, but the problem with the show wasn’t “mediocrity.” Not at all.
Aside from the fact that Joel and Springstein are both from the East Coast I can’t think of two more different performers.
Last saw live acts in the seventies. Like the Duke I Don’t get around much anymore!
I have to agree with Reg, the 60’s now marginalized hippie, who often wears Che Guevara tee-shirts while conjuring up his revolutionist ideas about concert venues. I also dislike seeing concerts at large venues, such as the Honda Center in Anaheim or the Staples Center in L.A.
I wish popular performers would do a week/month of concerts at smaller venues, such as the Universal Studios Amphitheatre, which was specifically built for concerts. Celine Dion made a smart move and performed at a smaller venue in Vegas for years, I wish more performers would use this type of concept.
I’m not a fan of the big venue shows either. I put up with it to see Springsteen, and had to deal with a large venue both times I saw Dylan.
But even with regard to the Boss, I’m with reg and LR, I saw him at the Pantages theater in 2005 for the Devils and Dust tour and, all in all, I much preferred the experience. (It didn’t, for example, feature the woman who sat in front of me on Tuesday night, who danced to every song with all the deep, impassioned feeling for the music of a metronome. I wanted to shoot her. (This is why it’s unwise to arm liberals. We’re hostile.) Around mid concert I became convinced that she was not an actual person but a malfunctioning anamatronic wandered over from nearby Disneyland.
In the end, it was all worth it, though. It felt like standing next to a large waterfall. In a good way.
I’m really sorry I missed the Seeger sessions concert at the Greek, a perfect sized venue.
Also, agreed: In my book Springsteen is a great musician, one of the best rock performers living, and a stupendous and moving lyricist. The American Lorca. He’s also a brilliant social commentator.
But Dylan’s a genius. There’s a difference.
My idea of a great night out was going to the (late, great) Ash Grove in the late sixties and seeing the creme de la creme of the folk world: Stanley Brothers, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, Brownie Magee and Sonny Terry, New Lost City Ramblers, Taj Mahal and so many others. They did a concert at Royce recently to commenerate the place but it couldn’t be the same in that venue.
For those who are interested Garrison Keillor will bring “A Prairee Home Companian” to the Greek in June with Martin Sheen and Bonnie Raitt as guests. Tix thru KPCC.
As much as I like Springsteen live, I have to agree with the commenter who felt like some of it was staged. Case in point: Bruce inviting a little girl onstage to dance with him during “Dancing in the Dark.” Darling, right? But he also did it in Indianapolis and Cincinnati. A video from the Cincy show is posted here:
http://springsteeninanaheim.wordpress.com/2008/04/09/tuesdays-awwwww-moment/
Still, the show was amazing.
A Prairie Home Companion in Los Angeles ????
Pretty drastic cultural dissonance if you ask me. That would be like going to see Jackie Mason perform in Cairo.
Not really Reg. He’s playing Town Hall in NY right now. Don’t forget Keillor is a NEW YORKER writer!
The boss can’t hold a candle to this guy: The Singing CPA
Keillor just sends stuff to The New Yorker to keep lutefisk on the table.