Running on all cylinders
Springsteen, Seeger Sessions Band in top form at second PNC show
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 06/27/06
BY MICHAEL RILEY
STAFF WRITER
In strange and dangerous times, under threatening skies, Bruce Springsteen brought his traveling medicine show and tent revival to the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel on Sunday night.
The second of two homecoming shows (and the final shows of the tour for now) saw Springsteen and a full comport of the Seeger Sessions Band in top form, tighter than at the tour's Asbury Park rehearsal shows a few months back.
For much of his career, Springsteen's music and stage shows have been about the political and the personal, and the two are bound together, especially when informed by faith.
And that's still the case, and it's present even when the music isn't playing. Representatives from both the Community FoodBank of New Jersey and New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty were on hand, and Springsteen exhorted the audience to check them out.
But now, with this tour, Springsteen makes history a central part of the equation by reaching back over the last two centuries for folk tunes that speak to and for this day's troubles.
The show opened with a recent addition to the set list, "American Land," a song done by Pete Seeger and rewritten by Springsteen as a song about the immigrant experience.
The gothic shadows of "Long Black Veil" and the devastation of "My City of Ruins" both had their place, alongside a big band-style "Open All Night" and a salesman-rap "You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)."
The endearing corny schtick that Springsteen uses as a replacement for flashpots and laser shows has been a mainstay of many Springsteen tours, and these non-E Streeters do their part to keep the tradition going, from horn player Richie La Bamba's wild leap off his riser to the stage floor to Springsteen's Jimmy Swaggart-like exhortation that "there is no free beer in heaven — You've got to earn it!" to the tuba player having to be pulled offstage at the end of "Pay Me My Money Down."
Both PNC Bank Arts Center shows were sold out, unlike a few on the U.S. leg of this tour, and Springsteen thanked the crowd for taking a chance on this genre-bending musical history tour. With the huge Seeger Sessions Band, the whole Phil Spector "wall of sound" thing has to take on new meaning.
And the one-two punch of the Depression-era "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?" and "Jacob's Ladder," a question-and-answer pair of songs that still seem to form the emotional center of the show, seems to prove once again that song order matters in a Springsteen concert.
What fans who took a flier on this strange new direction got was a mature artist surrounded by darn fine musicians, playing music that matters to them and having a high old time doing it.
Kandra and Rob Vuono of Wall have seen Springsteen maybe a half-dozen times during the last decade or so in various incarnations. But this time was something different, something special.
"I think we had a good time because Bruce seemed to be having such a good time," said Kathy.
"Only Bruce Springsteen could get away with this," said Rob, "and make it so good."
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