Posted on Sun, Nov. 20, 2005
Solo Springsteen improves on past
Bruce Springsteen was larger than life, even as a one-man band, Saturday night in Hollywood.
BY HOWARD COHEN
The Miami Herald
hcohen@herald.com
Never really understood precisely why Bruce Springsteen came to be known as The Boss. He even joked about the nickname's hazy origin Saturday night in concert.
But Springsteen really took the job title to heart on his latest tour, which had a belated South Florida stop Saturday night at the Hard Rock Live near Hollywood. The solo tour was to play Sunrise's larger BankAtlantic Center last month but Hurricane Wilma proved a bigger boss.
Among Springsteen's rules Saturday, printed on fliers and handed to patrons:
• No talking.
• All guests must be seated by the start of the first song.
• No visits to the concession stands.
• All seating will be done only between songs.
And the star would not tolerate rule breakers. Three songs in, a stern Springsteen launched an expletive laced tirade at fans who expressed too much zeal. ``I can get along without being cheered at.''
The 5,000 or so fans were allowed to breathe, an allowance for which we are grateful. And sometimes that breath would merit an impressed gasp. Some of Springsteen's quietest meditations proved quite moving. The 1980 LP track Fade Away was considerably more emotional, sans band, with Springsteen employing a breathy tag to the end of his lines for effect.
Clearly, this was not an E Street Band show although South Florida was given a bonus thanks to the appearance of E Streeters Steven Van Zant (guitar/vocals) and sax man Clarence Clemons. The pair, earning a standing ovation simply for being there, brought beauty to Drive All Night as Springsteen played piano.
This Devils & Dust solo acoustic tour, its name taken from his somber new CD, is a show that requires -- and rewards -- careful listening, not fist-pumping and sing-a-longs. Intimacy was the idea, not rock 'n' roll.
Springsteen performed, and improved upon, several numbers from the album -- the title track, warmer in this context, the graphic Nevada hooker story Reno felt even more cinematic -- but he wisely chose to focus on his whole career in selecting songs, not necessarily the hit singles, either, and rethought them to fit the format.
He also eschewed the sole acoustic format by strapping on an electric guitar for a metallic rockabilly run through the 1987 Tunnel of Love LP track, Ain't Got You, and turned toward the electric keyboard for the tender Fade Away. But not everything could succeed in this format.
The barnstorming Born in the U.S.A. and Johnny 99 both featured a vocal distorter. U.S.A., which also featured a drum pad on the floor, was fearless and captivating. For about half the song. The distortion became grating, even moreso on Johnny 99, now turned into a rusty blues workout.
The anthemic The Rising, the title track of a post-Sept. 11 album that grows ever larger in value as it ages, needs the E Street muscle behind it to generate goose bumps although Springsteen deftly supplied his own backing vocals, stepping a foot or two from the mike to punch in the phrase ''dream of life'' repeatedly. Two Hearts, from 1980's The River, would seem to fall flat when sung by one man, even one man with plenty of heart, so The Boss brought out Van Zant to share harmonies.
Numerous monologues about Springsteen's hometown, including a humorous take on the Irish and Italian sides of his family, lent a living-room flavor to this tour, similar to successful bare-bones recent ventures by Jackson Browne and Carole King. Wilma can't be praised for many things but forcing this show into a smaller venue improved it. In an arena, this performance would feel dwarfed. The sound at the Hard Rock was rich, clear and the sightlines were ideal.
Few could pull off this kind of show; certainly none of MTV's pop stars who need a stage full of dancers and pyrotechnics to cover vocal and songcraft lapses would dare appear on stage unadorned. Minor flaws aside, it worked wonders for Springsteen. But, hey, that's why he's The Boss.
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