The first thing you have to remember when you settle in for a Springsteen show is that it is going to be an endurance contest.
He will outlast you.
As the Spectrum draws it's last beer-drenched breaths, Springsteen opened the night with a song he hasn't played live since 1973. From the opening chords of "Seaside Bar Song", it was clear that the evening was going to be something special.
The night was full of possibilities and Springsteen did not disappoint.
The second song, "Wrecking Ball", was meant to be an ode to the old barn with its shout-outs to Dr. J. and "cheese steaks as big as airplanes". Originally written for New Jersey's Giants Stadium, it was retrofitted with lyrics meant to bring the locals to their feet.
That's alright...the crowd loved it, anyway. We don't care if you love someone else, Bruce...just love us best.
Then, there is a promise in the dark as the man calls out, "The Spectrum will live forever!", making it very clear just how much this building means to the Springsteen mystique. After all, The Spectrum is the first arena-sized gig that he ever played, in October 1976.
"Out In The Street" is a revelation each time I hear it. Beneath the buoyancy of the song's beat and Springsteen's good-natured mugging, there is a swagger and toughness that stands out when he sings the words,
"When I'm out in the street
I walk the way I wanna walk
When I'm out in the street
I talk the way I wanna talk"
In a few short minutes, Springsteen has lifted us to the ceiling. At sixty, he conjures enough energy to shame men half his age. I am a little more than twenty years his junior and as I watch him I think, "I need to put on my sneakers and do some road-work."
"Outlaw Pete" sounded amazing, even if it was delivered with Springsteen in a cowboy hat...an image I could live without. After the sturdy "Working On A Dream", Springsteen leads the band through a rousing "Hungry Heart" and crowd-surfs from the middle of the Spectrum floor back to the stage.
Considering the guy is a 60-year-old AARP cover boy, the mere sight of this takes your breath away. The entire time, I am thinking, "Just don't drop him. Then, Philly will be the city that ended Springsteen's touring career. First Santa Claus...now...this..."
It's been more than thirty years since Springsteen became a household name by landing on the cover of Time and Newsweek. And last night, it was that defining moment that provided the dramatic centerpiece to an evening rife with emotion and supercharged by the memories that Springsteen made with many of these same audience members over the last three decades.
Before Springsteen performed "Born To Run" from start to finish, he told the audience, "This is a record that introduced a lot of us to each other. And it holds a special place in my heart."
With a slight tease, Springsteen raised a harmonica to his mouth and sounded out the opening notes of "Thunder Road", with all the conviction of a man who still who still walks around in the same destroyed Chuck Taylors of the twenty-something who wrote that song. It was epic and spine-chilling. The band ripped into the song trying to recapture the very feeling that gave birth to one of the most realized visions of sad-eyed Romanticism ever written.
It was a singular moment that Springsteen would put behind him with the release of "Darkness On The Edge Of Town", three years later. That album provided a glimpse into the soul of a man who begins to feel the pressure associated with achieving some measure of your dreams. If "Born To Run" is about a young man yearning to break free, "Darkness On The Edge Of Town" is the sound of that same man, about an hour outside of town...with no gas and no money.
Mission-sort-of-accompished?
Well, Springsteen has spent the better part of his storied career trying to reconcile all the moments before, after and in-between. But, last night was all about the grandeur of the moments that lead up to the realization that "something has to change".
"Tenth Avenue Freezeout" was given extra heft thanks to Clarence Clemons' saxophone and the guest performer Curt Ramm, whose trumpet gave "Meeting Across The River" the feel of a mini rock-opera.
As "Jungleland" called out the sweeping climax of "Born To Run", you could almost imagine the room where Springsteen first wrote about the giant Exxon sign that "brings this fair city light". My friend turned to me and said, "He must have performed that song hundreds of times and you can still feel the passion...(in his delivery)."
Springsteen lightened the mood with "Waitin' on a Sunny Day," before pounding his way through The Music Explosion's "Little Bit O'Soul". It wasn't perfection - but, it sure felt good. From there, Springsteen actually took signs from the crowd that had songs names on them and performed "The Fever" to the rapture of many fans who remember the song as an unreleased album-rock radio hit from 1974.
One of the show's more explosive moments came when Nils Lofgren hammered out a blazing guitar-solo on the Springsteen/Patti Smith collaboration "Because the Night". Because the set was front-loaded with the "Born To Run" material, "Bobby Jean" and "Rosalita" felt a bit anti-climactic.
But, you can hardly complain after spending three hours with Bruce Springsteen. The man gives you your money's worth and then some.
Next week, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band will perform "Born to Run" again on Monday and "Born in the U.S.A." the following night.
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