Judging from both fan reaction outside the show and from message board postings I’ve read since, most Bruce Springsteen fans will love anything this guy does. Me, I’m not like that. I tend to be more critical of Bruce, because I know what he *can* do. I’ve been there. That’s why, after attending the second of his “rehersal” shows last Friday afternoon in Asbury Park, I was not exactly thrilled with Springsteen’s performance. There were, as always, some amazing highlights, but the entire set was marred by some bad, boring choices. The second half of the show was especially lifeless, leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth despite the much better first half of the show and incredible piano performances. <\/p>\n
Things kicked off with “Reason to Believe”, a track from Nebraska that I’ve been dying to hear in a live setting for some time now. Unfortunately, it was so distorted and rearranged that the guy sitting next to me had to explain which song it was. I didn’t even realize that he was singing! Basically it was Bruce, harmonica in hand (no guitar), playing a blues riff on said harp and stomping out a bass beat on the stage. About halfway through, I realized he was also singing the lyrics to “Reason” — I had first thought this was some kind of sythesizer effect that was playing along with his harmonica riff. I wasn’t the only one fooled — another die hard I spoke to after the show said, “That was Reason? I thought he was just riffing on some Robert Johnson or something.” The idea wasn’t bad — infuse a little delta blues into an older song and give it new life. Unfortunately, since it was just Bruce with no band to back him up, it didn’t end up working all that well. I kept waiting for the “blues intro” to end and for the actual song to pick up, but as Bruce wasn’t even holding a guitar, this wasn’t really possible. Obviously, if he’d brought a band, they might have been able to take this version and make something of it.<\/p>\n
The heart of the show, as expected, was the new songs. Comparative rockers “Long Time Comin'”, and “Maria’s Bed” were the clear winners, although both would have benefited by the presence of a band (Bruce even said something referring to this). I didn’t love “Leah” the first time I heard it, but it’s been growing on me ever since I saw it performed live. Neither “Reno” or “Silver Palomino” offered much, the latter being especially yawn-inducing. It would have been nice to get the more upbeat “All I’m Thinkin’ About” or “All the Way Home” instead of some of the slower (read:boring) “Joad outtakes”.<\/p>\n
Bruce also relied far too heavily on material from the Rising througout the show. I realize that it is his most recent album, but much of it is not really suited for the one man solo acoustic set, especially “Lonesome Day” and the title track. Interestingly, the two best songs on the disc, “Empty Sky” and “You’re Missing”, both would lend themselves greatly to this format, yet were passed over for the better known “LD” and “The Rising”.<\/p>\n
Just as songs from his most recent disc appeared too frequently, songs from the stark, acoustic “Nebraska” were notably absent. While the underappreciated but incredible “Highway Patrolman” was played, I had to wonder why other rarely-played classics such as “Johnny 99”, “Nebraska”, “Atlantic City” and “Reason to Believe” didn’t make the cut. (Er, scratch that last one.)<\/p>\n
Although Bruce is known as a guitar player first and foremost, and really defines himself as such, this night was owned by the piano. If I had to rank the songs in order of best performance, the four piano songs would clearly sit atop the list with any guitar tunes falling in below. Bruce is not by any means a phenomenal piano player — his songs just translate beatifully to the instrument and he mesmorizes the room when he’s sitting on the bench.<\/p>\n
The piano songs were all excellent: “For You”, “Real World”, “Racing in the Street”, and a new one, “Jesus was an Only Son”. “Real World” was an extra special treat, as he hasn’t performed it in this fashion since the famous Christic Institute shows of the early 90s. (Fans have been asking for a while). “For You” and “Racing” were as good as always, and even the fledgling “Jesus” was interesting, made more so by Bruce’s commentary in between verses.<\/p>\n
Bruce’s guitar playing, by contrast, was flat out awful throughout. During most of the songs, he attempted to create a percussive effect by muting the strings and tapping the body, which all but eliminated the actual guitar strings from the music. This also made every guitar song sound pretty much the same, with only a few exceptions. Bruce — if you’re so concerned about having a beat, bring a drummer. You can afford it! I waited all night for Bruce to actually rock out with some actual strumming, and it never came. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in some of the larger venues — if he continues to play this way the guitar will be impossible to hear at all.<\/p>\n
The very last two songs of the main set — both new — “The Hitter” and “Matamoras Banks” will soon come to be known as the “stool set”. (Bruce brings out a stool and sits for both.) This absolutely kills any energy in the room, not helped by the fact that both songs are complete snoozers. (I actually nodded off during The Hitter). Worst, why is this the end of the show? What happened to going out on a high note? This is the lowest note of the night, somehow saved for last.<\/p>\n
Lastly, the encores. The brutal encores. What was Bruce thinking here? “Waiting on a Sunny Day” was a good way to get started, to get the crowd going again, but instead of letting it flow, he yelled at the crowd and stopped playing when we tried to sing along. (Then he forgot the words — come on, at least remember the words if we’re not allowed to sing it.) Overall a very lame version, devoid of the energy that The Rising shows had. He commended the crowd for their “restraint”. Yes, Bruce, that is what I pay $50 for… to practice my restraint.<\/p>\n
The show closed with a DOA version of “The Promised Land”, lacking any of the pent-up energy of the original. Again, the guitar playing focused on the percussive body tapping, with virtually no actual strumming or picking. This is clearly the “mission statement” song of the tour, the “Land of Hope and Dreams” if you will. It’s just a shame he’s not willing to actually play the song.<\/p>\n
SETLIST: Reason to Believe\/Devils and Dust\/Youngstown\/Lonesome Day\/Long Time Comin’\/Silver Palomino\/For You*\/Real World*\/Part Man, Part Monkey\/Maria’s Bed\/Highway Patrolman\/Reno\/Racing in the Street*\/The Rising\/Further On (Up the Road)\/Jesus Was an Only Son*\/Leah\/The Hitter\/Matamoras Banks\/\/Waitin’ on a Sunny Day\/Bobby Jean\/The Promised Land
\n*=piano<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Judging from both fan reaction outside the show and from message board postings I’ve read since, most Bruce Springsteen fans will love anything this guy does. Me, I’m not like that. I tend to be more critical of Bruce, because I know what he *can* do. I’ve been there. That’s why, after attending the second […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":625,"href":"http:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions\/625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.mikemadaio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}