PREVIEW Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Where: The Q, East Sixth Street and Huron Road, Cleveland. Tickets: $57-$91 at the box office and Ticketmaster outlets, or charge by phone, 216-241-5555 (Cleveland) or 330-945-9400 (Akron)
Friday, November 02, 2007
John Soeder
Cleveland Plain Dealer Pop Music Critic
Rewind to July 1999, somewhere in the swamps of New Jersey -- or, more accurately, Continental Airlines Arena. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band were headlining the first of 15 sold-out shows there, kicking off their first North American tour in a decade. When 20,000 fans raised their fists to punctuate the first euphoric "Whoa!" during "Born to Run," the effect was electrifying.
Take it from an eyewitness: It made the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Literally.
Then again, we've come to expect nothing less when the Boss and his illustrious sidekicks have their mojo working.
Think of Clarence Clemons' spiritual sax solo on "Jungleland." Or Roy Bittan's exquisitely rippling piano on "Thunder Road." Or Max Weinberg's thundering martial drumbeat on "Born in the U.S.A."
Without those guys and the rest of the E Street Band (whose core solidified in the mid-1970s), would Springsteen be nowhere? No way. But he'd definitely be somewhere else.
Now, fresh from a couple of creative detours in other directions, Springsteen is back in business with the group, in all its unwieldy glory, renewing one of the most enduringly popular and successful partnerships in rock 'n' roll.
Asked during a 2005 interview with The Plain Dealer if he could foresee going back to a leaner, meaner E Street Band at some point, Springsteen replied:
"No, because everyone took many roads, and we all arrived at this particular location. The guys and girls who are there now, that's the E Street Band.
"It was an organic growth, in that it just moved in its own direction.
"I can't ever imagine -- I mean, would I ever play in a smaller band unit at some point, in some other type of project? I might, depending on what music I wrote.
"I leave all the doors open. I listen to the music, and I try to go where it takes me."
'It sounded like they were never apart'
In 2005, the music led to a somber, stripped-down solo album, "Devils & Dust." Last year, Springsteen changed gears for "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions," a fun collection of old-timey songs popularized by folkie Pete Seeger.
Neither of those projects involved the E Street Band.
"Springsteen has lots of different musical paths he needs to follow," said Bob Santelli, author of the book "Greetings From E Street: The Story of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band" and a former Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum executive.
Santelli caught a tour rehearsal by Springsteen and the E Street Band in September.
"It sounded like they were never apart," Santelli said. "They've been playing together so long, coming together again is pretty easy for them."
Springsteen took an extended break from the band starting in 1989. Three years later, he released a pair of uneven albums, "Human Touch" and "Lucky Town," followed by "The Ghost of Tom Joad" in 1995.
Springsteen resumed touring with the E Street Band in 1999. The group backed him on his 9/11-inspired album "The Rising," released in 2002, and his latest No. 1 album, "Magic."
Their recent collaborations have been enriched by Springsteen's extracurricular activities, Santelli said.
"More than most other artists, Springsteen is a product of American music," Santelli said. "The music he plays represents the broad landscape of American music. Blues, folk music, country music -- all of these are components of what Springsteen is.
"Most of them work well with the E Street Band, but not all of them.
"There are opportunities for him to explore new ideas with other musicians or solo, then bring them back to the E Street Band. He comes back with a renewed sense of energy."
The E Street Band "wasn't just a great rock group or a street gang," U2's Bono said during his speech inducting Springsteen into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999. "It was a brotherhood. . . . Bruce surrounded himself with fellow believers."
The brotherhood wasn't enshrined in the Rock Hall alongside Springsteen, although he made a point of bringing the band onstage with him during the induction ceremony.
Right now is all that matters
For all its virtues, the E Street Band has been a monkey on Springsteen's back at times.
"Many fans who love him with the E Street Band are utterly not interested in the rest of what he does," said veteran music journalist and Springsteen biographer Dave Marsh.
"He put together a great band in '92 and '93, with the best vocal support he ever had and a really different kind of drummer [Zachary Alford] with a metal-funk approach. Fans ran screaming from it.
"It's unfortunate some fans aren't open to more of what Bruce has to offer."
But enough about bygones. And while you're at it, never mind the future. For Springsteen, what counts is right here, right now, Marsh said.
"We're seeing for the first time ever in rock 'n' roll somebody who is almost 60 years old [Springsteen is 58] doing some of his most creative work ever . . . with his long-term collaborators," Marsh said. "They're the collaborators he seems most comfortable with, the ones who bring him a tool kit or a palette he uses well."
Make no mistake, however: Just because Springsteen is flanked by a familiar supporting cast these days, don't expect them to stick to familiar territory in concert. The setlist changes from show to show, although lately they've consistently dusted off rarities such as "Thundercrack" and drawn heavily from the new album.
"I've learned . . . not to have any preconceptions about what Bruce might do," E Street Band drummer Weinberg said in a 2001 interview with The Plain Dealer. "Bruce is our fearless leader and we have the ultimate faith and trust and love for him."
Night after night, they feel the love from audiences in those packed arenas, too.
"They get something out of the experience, something money can't buy," Weinberg said. "You really are all in it together."
As Springsteen sings on "The Ties That Bind," an oldie he and the E Street Band fittingly have been revisiting on this go-round:
We're runnin' now
But, darlin', we will stand in time
To face the ties that bind. . . .
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
jsoeder@plaind.com, 216-999-4562
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