Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed in Kansas City Saturday Feb. 18, 2023. KMBZ's Dan Weinbaum caught the opening show of the tour in Tampa and put down some thoughts.
There was a feeling of the inevitable that drove me to buy tickets to see the show. Yeah, the tickets were expensive. But so are eggs.
I bought tickets to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band perform once again (my 5th show!) for a few reasons - he hadn’t been on tour in about 6 years; the music moves me like no other; and because as it does, time marches on. The inevitable. This might be the last concert tour. The last time Springsteen and company do it like this. The big arena, the raucous rock 'n' roll show.
I had to see the show. I had to see and hear Bruce, to hear the harmonica’s wail and the clashing jangle of guitars, to feel the driving thunder of Max’s drums, and groove to the loin-stirring sax and the soul-stirring piano riffs. I wanted to experience a joyful rapture - again - for what may be the very last time, in this way, with these musicians.
I saw it in the crowd. The inevitable. The fan base trends older - we all have even more gray hair now. As I looked around the arena from my high perch, I noticed the building didn't seem to move. Sure, people were shuffling and swaying, dancing in their darkened seats, and many throwing fists in the air and having a great time.
But on the big rockers, the joy-makers, and the house-shakers… I didn’t see the crowd in collective motion. Not like I've felt and seen it before. The band rocked the house, oh they are so good, but the house didn’t exactly rock. Perhaps it was just the Tampa crowd. Maybe other places, like Kansas City, will be different. Or maybe longtime Bruce fans just don't jump around as much anymore.
I saw it when I looked at my watch. What? Just a 2 hour and 45 minute show?! But Springsteen concerts go for 3 hours or more! Every single one of them. For decades!!
I saw it in the 73-year-old Springsteen himself. His voice still power and passion, his body wiry, physically strong and sure-footed, albeit a bit stiff and not as boisterous. Why, just six years ago he was crowd-surfing, and not too long ago he was doing a knee slide across the stage! Oh. I guess I saw that knee slide 15 years ago in Kansas City when Springsteen was just a few years older than I am now. Time passes. Inevitable.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the release of Bruce's debut album "Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J." and the release later in 1973 of “The Wild, The Innocent, and The E Street Shuffle”. Fifty years.
Springsteen spoke about that passage of time. Under a solo spotlight he told the crowd that he’s now the last living member of his very first band,The Castiles, with whom he performed as a teenager in 1960s New Jersey.
“At 15, it's all tomorrows. At 73, it's a lot of goodbyes,” Springsteen said to a hushed crowd. “That's why you have to make the most of right now.”
And then he lit into a raw, powerful, acoustic performance of “Last Man Standing”, a live debut from the recent album "Letter to You".
I first saw Bruce perform shortly after I turned 15. For me it was a life changing experience. There were a lot of tomorrows ahead.
Before this show, I'd been to four Springsteen concerts. My very first one was January 13, 1985 at the Carolina Coliseum in Columbia, SC. Through the years I felt the power and the passion in every show, just like the very first one. Until this night. On this night I felt something... different. But maybe it was just me. Maybe I was just feeling the passage of time.
Don’t get me wrong. Oh, it was a great show. There was passion in the performance. The band was on point, song selection was great, the horn line sounded extra dirty. The E Street Band knows what they’re doing and they continue to do it very well. And Springsteen is The Boss after all, and commands the stage.
While much of the music transports me back in time, this is not a nostalgia tour. This is not a has-been band. This group of rock 'n' rollers are still very good at nailing the decades-old classic hits as well as firing up good, solid, catchy new songs.
The band kicked off the show with "No Surrender" (which I thought rather telling). The tears welled and streamed. I had trouble belting out the song at the top of my lungs. Like I said, the music moves me. I felt all the feels.
“We learned more from a three-minute record, baby / than we ever learned in school”
So, I lay down my money, paid Ticketmaster its price, and played my part. And Bruce and the band did too. And played it oh so well. And I experienced joy.
And if this is the last time, if this is a rage against the inevitable dying light, I’m here for it. As I saw in Tampa on the tour’s opening night, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are not going gently into that good night, and neither will I.
“No retreat baby, no surrender”