Winding down E Street: The last stop for the Boss and his band?

By Jeff Miers
The Buffalo News Pop Music Critic
http://www.buffalonews.com/entertainment/
November 19, 2009

On May 23, 1978, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band opened their "Darkness on the Edge of Town" tour with a torrid performance in Shea's Performing Arts Center. When the same band hits the stage tonight at HSBC Arena, Springsteen and the legendary E Street Band will be wrapping up a nearly two-year tour behind the "Working on a Dream" album.

Tonight's show in Buffalo is rumored — and widely believed — to be the final performance by the E Street Band as we have known it since those days of "Darkness on the Edge of Town." Both band members Clarence Clemons and Nils Lofgren in recent days have been noncommittal when questioned about the future of the band, but many longtime Springsteen followers are wondering.

"I really believe this is the swan song for the E Street Band as we have come to know it for the last 40 years," says author and Springsteen scholar Lawrence Kirsch, whose recent "The Light in Darkness" collects fan remembrances and photographs for a startling reminiscence on the 1978 "Darkness on the Edge of Town" tour. "The Buffalo concert should be an event — not just another tour-ending concert — but one that documents one of the greatest live performers of our time."

The 1978 Shea's show has become the stuff of legend, and can be seen as the launching point for what would be an almost uninterrupted succession of E Street Band tours over the next 30 years.

It's not surprising that Springsteen — a bus driver's son from New Jersey for whom rock 'n' roll meant first an escape from a grim, blue-collar reality, and later, a means of forging a new community through the music's populist tenets — has chosen Buffalo to frame what has to be considered one of the most inspired creative tenures by any single band.

Even if the choice was one based more on circumstance than volition, it's tempting to believe that there are no accidents when it comes to The Boss.

Buffalo is a city where Springsteen's stirring narratives, songs based on the struggles of working people to find some sort of transcendence amid stark, often daunting circumstances, resound with the clarity of a church bell on a crisp, cool morning.

The signs pointing to tonight's tour-ending performance being the E Street Band's last are myriad and difficult to ignore. Rumors began circulating some six months back, fed by speculation on fan-based message boards.

The death of founding member and keyboardist Danny Federici in April 2008; the recent health issues of saxophonist and Springsteen's onstage foil Clemons; hip-replacement surgeries for guitarist Lofgren; the fact that Springsteen himself turned 60 in September, though his in-concert energy level appears to be undiminished; the not-so-subtle hints dropped throughout the latter days of the tour by Little Steven Van Zandt that fans should see the band while they still can — all suggested that the future of the group was, at best, uncertain once the "Working on a Dream" tour ended.

Earlier this week, however, Backstreets.com dropped the big one when it announced that Springsteen and Co. would be performing its first album, "Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.," in its entirety at the Buffalo show. This means, in effect, that the band in its fall tour has played every single one of its releases through 1984's mega-platinum "Born in the USA."

It's hard to view this as anything other than an attempt at closure.

Is the end near?

Within the E Street Band, lips are decidedly sealed regarding any retirements, though a little cursory reading-between-the-lines lends credence to Kirsch's conviction. In his recently published memoir "Big Man," Clemons makes it plain that the band has been closer to the end than the beginning for some time now. Clemons recently told the Associated Press that retirement "is something I think about. "I'll be 70 years old in a couple of years. I don't know how much energy I'll have left. That energy, I want to spend with my family."

No Clemons means no E Street Band. The camaraderie between Springsteen and Clemons, 67, has always been a major factor in the intimate connection between band and audience during the marathon shows the truest fans receive as more spiritual ritual than entertainment. The deep bond between the two has always been abundantly evident, and Clemons said the relationship has always been informed by "the passion of love and respect and trust."

Clemons — who reportedly has had serious knee trouble, has undergone several hip-replacement surgeries, suffers from sleep apnea, and is currently in need of back surgery — has been less of a factor as a saxophonist over the past decade, but his presence during the band's shows is integral to the sense of community that, without fail, those shows parlay.

'Anxious to get ... home'

Guitarist Lofgren, himself recovering from surgery replacing both hips, refuses to dwell on any negative possibilities regarding the future of E Street.

"Every time a tour ends, there's a chance it could be the last one," the guitarist told The News last week in a phone interview. "We are all anxious to get back home, to catch up on other projects — and that includes Bruce, too, who has teenaged kids and a family life that is his primary concern.

"But there's no way to say for sure that this is the end. The band has never been better than it has been on this tour. We certainly have plenty more to say, musically, and Bruce is far from out of ideas as a songwriter."

Lofgren, who commenced his musical life fronting Grin, and was working with Neil Young by the time he was in his late teens, is the "new guy" on E Street. He joined the band when Van Zandt left following the recording of "Born in the USA," and has been a formidable presence on every tour since. Simultaneously, he has always managed to keep busy during E Street downtime.

Lofgren is now running a subscription-based, online music school through www.nilslofgren.com, one that he plans to devote increased attention to in the coming months. Last year, he released "The Loner: Nils Sings Neil," a gorgeous collection of acoustic guitar- and piano-based interpretations of his old friend and former boss' songs.

As both singer and guitarist, Lofgren is rightly held to be cream-of-the-crop, and certainly, there will be no shortage of work for him with or without the E Street Band. Still, he hopes the band will continue.

"Whenever he calls, I'll be there, I'll answer," says Lofgren of Springsteen.

Facing the future

For Springsteen megafans who have been following their man for any significant portion of time, imagining a life without new music and concert tours from the E Street Band is a seriously depressing notion. Outsiders and casual fans might find this a bit strange — it's only a rock 'n' roll singer and his band, after all. What's the big deal?

"If you gotta ask, you'll never know" seems like the only pertinent response. But author Kirsch has a more tolerant response.

"At first, it's hard to believe that one performer could possibly have touched this many people this deeply — lifted them from depression, kept them from suicide, helped them through divorce or the death of a parent, or worse, a child," Kirsch says, based on recountings in his book. "But many stories reveal just how much Springsteen's music and his almost superhuman presence on the concert stage have penetrated people's lives and, in as much as it is possible for music to do so, made them whole. In fact, there's a running theme of these reminiscences, one that is sure to warm any Bruce fan's heart: That you are not crazy.

"Not crazy for seeing dozens or even hundreds of concerts; not crazy for feeling that Springsteen's songs and lyrics have actually helped carry you through some of life's toughest moments; not crazy to think that this man whom you've never met has and continues to fill some kind of void in your life."

If tonight's concert does indeed end up being the final bow for the E Street Band, then man, they've had one hell of a run. There will indeed be a void in the musical landscape, for the group is one of the last of its era — an era when rock 'n' roll was a populist form, one that spoke directly to a community of informed listeners and imparted a commitment to something greater than the moment. It has been something you had to see to believe, something that needed to be deeply felt to be clearly seen. And at its best, there was nothing better.

It ain't over yet, though. Tonight's show is already a tightly packed powder keg of emotion. And hey, it's Little Steven's birthday.

Sounds like a good excuse for a party.


jmiers@buffnews.com