By David Hinckley
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, September 25th 2007, 3:58 PM
At a Giants Stadium show during Bruce Springsteen's 1985 "Born In The U.S.A." tour, a front-row fan named Mark held up a sign saying "Thundercrack."
"Thundercrack" wasn't part of the top-10 hit run Bruce was enjoying at the time. It was a decade old and revered as one of his most exuberant, top-down, pure rock 'n' roll love songs:
She's straight from the Bronx
Hung off the line
She slips, she slides, she slops, she bops, she bumps, she grinds
Mark didn't get his request. But Monday night in Asbury Park's Convention Hall, 22 years later, Bruce dusted it off again.
Springsteen fans say he has the best fastball in rock 'n' roll, that no one has ever done a more consistently powerful live show. But as hard as he's worked on that fastball, he's spent the last 25 years working just as hard on his changeups and curveballs.
He could still be riding the "Born in the U.S.A." wave today. Instead, he's explored folk music, acoustic music, message music and whatever else his muse found tantalizing.
On the surface, Springsteen's new CD "Magic" and its accompanying E Street Band tour looks like your basic rock reunion. But Monday's show, an early draft of a work in progress, reconfirmed that Bruce is not the Stones, who play their hits - some of the best rock 'n' roll ever - the way the fans in the $450 seats like 'em.
The fact Monday's crowd loved "Born to Run" and "Promised Land" does not mean that's what the show will be about.
Equally important to Springsteen, it was clear, were the tracks from "Magic," which were written to be melodic, guitar-driven rock that flows together easily.
"Last to Die" and "Long Walk Home" blended well, for instance, and that's the kind of thing Bruce always works on.
His challenge at this point is that he's working with such a wide palate of music and ideas.
"Last to Die" and "Livin' in the Future" want you to think. "Girls In Their Summer Clothes" follows a Springsteen tradition of tucking a bittersweet reflection under a lovely rippling song.
He sang three songs from "The Rising" Monday, next to the earlier likes of "She's the One." He turned E Street into a version of last year's Sessions Band for "American Land," and then there's "Thundercrack."
The official tour starts next Wednesday in Hartford and comes to Continental Arena Oct. 9-10 and the Garden Oct. 17-18. So far it's sold out everywhere, in part no doubt from expectations about the E Street reunion.
This show clearly is that. But Bruce's best tours also have personalities of their own, and it's a safe bet he's looking for the combination of new and old that will shape this one.
In search of the thundercrack.
SET LIST
"Radio Nowhere"
"No Surrender"
"Gypsy Biker"
"Empty Sky"
"Something in the Night"
"Girls in Their Summer Clothes"
"Night"
"The Promised Land"
"Livin' in the Future"
"Devil's Arcade"
"Candy's Room"
"She's the One"
"Lonesome Day"
"My Hometown"
"The Rising"
"Last To Die"
"Long Walk Home"
Encore:
"Thundercrack"
"Born To Run"
"Darlington County"
"American Land"
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