Scaled-down Springsteen concert hits the Meadowlands
Friday, May 20, 2005
By Scott Fallon
Gone were the theatrics- the stage slides, the piano jumps.
On Thursday night at Continental Arena it was just Bruce Springsteen and his music.
Armed with only an acoustic guitar, harmonica, piano and organ, Springsteen gave a performace as powerful a performance as any he has given with the vaunted E-Street Band. It was a night where Springsteen displayed a quiet fury that hit the audience in its guts, head and heart.
He began the 25-song set playing the under-appreciated "My Beautiful Reward" on a pump organ that sounded like the equivalent of a full band. He strummed furiously as he played his new album’s title track, “Devils & Dust” - a tale of lost trust - with the Iraq War and American foreign policy as a backdrop. Springsteen acted like a crazed Pentacostal minister stomping his foot and distorting his voice during a blusey rendition of "Reason To Believe." Three songs later he joked about the trials of parenthood before launching into the touching "Long Time Comin'."
The concert was a striking departure from The Rising tour of 2003 in which Springsteen he and the E-Street Band sold out football and baseball stadiums nationwide, including an unprecedented 10-night stand at Giants Stadium. It was reminiscent of 1996's The Ghost of Tom Joad tour, the first time Springsteen set out without a rock n' roll band behind him.
About 9,000 fans packed a cordoned section of an arena that normally holds upward of 20,000 for a concert. They were treated to a side of Springsteen that is rarely accessible in large venues.
He spoke to the crowd early and often, first reminding them to turn off their cellphones. "I'd rather not sweep the chainsaw out there while my relatives are here," he joked.
Between songs he talked about the trials of parenthood, joked about how every country singer has to have a song about his mother and detailed a meeting with one of his heroes, Roy Orbison, who at the time was working on a song about a windsurfer.
"I just thought, 'That's not going to fly,'" he said to laughs. "A song about surfing maybe, but windsurfing?"
The banter aside, the night was highlighted with Springsteen's kinetic energy. Songs that may have seemed flat on "Devils & Dust" were given new life on stage. "The Hitter," which plodded along under the weight of poor production, was given a sense of immediacy with Springsteen sitting on a stool, strumming his guitar and offering a haunting narrative to take shape and have meaning. "Matamoras Bank" -- about a Mexican border jumper who dies while crossing - was given political overtones when Springsteen called for a president "with a humane immigration policy" before playing the song.
At the same venue where only three days ago noted journalist Seymour Hersh was booed for criticizing President Bush at a college commencement, Springsteen was applauded before "Matamoras Banks" and after "Devils & Dust" - his most caustic songs of the night.
Equally as important Thursday was Springsteen's reworking of his staples. "Promised Land" turned from a fist-pumping anthem into a subdued dirge as he slowed the song's pace and used the body of his guitar for percussion. "Further On Up The Road" seemed to gain snarling power that its full-band version as Springsteen pounded his aguitar as if he was trying to break it.
"It is fun and exciting playing this way," he said near the end. "And it's fun doing it with you."
SET LIST:
My Beautiful Reward /Reason to Believe /Devils and Dust /Lonesome Day/ Long Time Comin' /Black Cowboys /The River/ Real World /Part Man Part Monkey/ All The Way Home /Nebraska /Reno /The Wish/ Paradise/ The Rising/ Further On Up The Road/ Jesus Was An Only Son /Leah/ The Hitter /Matamoras Banks
ENCORE:Ramrod /I'm On Fire /Land of Hope and Dreams/ Promised Land /Dream Baby, Dream
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