By SHERRY ROSS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, September 28th 2007, 5:44 PM
Bruce Springsteen brings it at Monday night's open rehearsal in Asbury Park.
Full moon over the boardwalk, Bruce and the E Street Band in the house. All is well in this little corner of New Jersey.
In the sweltering confines of what Springsteen playfully referred to as "the world-famous, air-conditioned Convention Hall" in Asbury Park, no one was complaining. On the second of two nights of rehearsal shows (there will be a third in the soulless cavern of the Continental Airlines Arena Friday night), Springsteen brought the heat, and the magic.
"Good evening, guinea pigs," Bruce announced, as the band trooped onstage just shy of 8:40 p.m. (the lateness due to drummer Max Weinberg pulling double duty as bandleader on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" in the city).
The huge stage – more than twice the size of what the band used for the holiday shows at the same venue - ate up nearly half of the floor, which was all general admission (no wonder tickets were so hard to get). There was a big platform behind the stage, which should gladden the hearts of anyone holding "rear stage" tickets for any date on the tour.
Any concerns that the new material wouldn't mesh with the familiar vanished as Bruce called out "is there anybody alive out there?" The band ripped through "Radio Nowhere" (the first single, but not the best song by far, off the new CD), into the "Darkness" era's "Prove It All Night," melting into "Lonesome Day" from "The Rising," a hat trick encompassing almost 30 years of Bruce's career.
Even though "Magic" won't be officially released until Oct. 2, enough fans had already gotten their hands (and ears) on it to know the "na na na" chorus of "Livin' in the Future" (one of the few songs given a detailed political introduction and one Bruce described as the first written for the album). As with "Hungry Heart," "Livin'" has a jaunty melody that belies some of its darker undertones.
The new songs that are most enhanced by the live treatment live are the heartbreaking "Gypsy Biker" and the heartfelt "Long Walk Home." The latter makes me think of an older, wiser, more scarred but still optimistic narrator from "My Hometown" (which wasn't performed last night but was played at the first rehearsal show).
One snarky prediction: the beer run/bathroom break song will be "Town Called Heartbreak," which is showcased to bolster Patti Scialfa's solo CD.
For those keeping score at home, there were seven songs (out of the 12 album tracks) from "Magic." For lovers of the classics, the highlight moments were "Night" into "She's the One," and the rollicking "Thundercrack."
There was only a quick band intro at the end of the night. Surely by the time the shows start for real (Oct. 2 in Hartford), there will be a longer band intro and Bruce rap, if only to allow everyone to catch his or her breath. The show clocked in at a tight two hours.
The complete setlist: Radio Nowhere/Prove It All Night/Lonesome Day/Gypsy Biker/Magic/Night/She's the One/Livin' in the Future/Promised Land/Town Called Heartbreak/Darlington County/Born in the USA (full band; not acoustic)/Devil's Arcade/The Rising/Last to Die/Badlands.
First encore: Girls in Their Summer Clothes/Thundercrack/Born to Run.
Second encore: American Land
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