Bruce Springsteen | Live at Xcel Energy Center – 2/29/16
Yeah I’m a week behind on recapping this show but to be fair it’s probably taken me this long to recover from it. Man, Springsteen just doesn’t quit. Between his 66 year old self rocking out for over 3 hours as well as his 90 year old dancing partner I really shouldn’t be the one complaining about my age here. But shit, what I wouldn’t give to have that energy. That was really the theme of last Monday night as a whole: old people going nuts. I’d forgotten that seeing The Boss is like country fest for the middle aged folks. Crowded bars from 2pm on, age-inappropriate clothes, and a whole mess of nostalgia. It was beautiful. In the awkward family wedding kind of way. You’re really happy that these people still want to get down but…. you really wish you didn’t have to be the one to witness it.
Touring behind The River, it makes sense to bring out the moms & dads. In 1980, these people were probably teenagers having great lives before becoming the characters from the title track and losing faith in everything. I’m 93% positive that getting Mary pregnant was the reason everything awful that happened in the ’80s took place. Yeah people could have put up a fight against leg warmers and synth everything but what’s the point? I got knocked up and look terrible in spandex, go enjoy the neon bracelets and weird haircuts, its better than changing fucking diapers.
Anywho, leap day this year in the Twin Cities wasn’t about ruing the past, but embracing it. Saying eat shit to those failed dreams and saying yes to dancing in the aisle. Or the dark. Or swaying to the obnoxiously long ballads from The River. Seriously, I’ve said it before but it’s really not my favorite Springsteen album. And I really don’t like “album tours”. I hate knowing what’s coming next, even if it helps me better plan out my beer & bathroom breaks. But that’s on me, not Bruce. I knew what I was getting into and with all these disclaimers, The River section of the set was still pretty enjoyable.
But that’s not why I was there. This wasn’t my first rodeo: I knew that a double album still left time for the E Street Band to mix things up. After wrapping up a pretty tight version of “Wreck on the Highway” it was time for “Badlands”, and I was fully engaged for about 6 minutes before I started to get tired. Springsteen on the other hand kept going with songs like “No Surrender”, “Prove It All Night”, “Backstreets” and my favorite “Because the Night”, which I didn’t realize until a few months ago wasn’t a Patti Smith or 10,000 Maniacs song. How many fucking songs did you write, Bruce? Even counting the encore I think it was my favorite song of the night, but the encore was as expected the best part of the night, None of this walk off stage for 10 minutes and come back for 2 songs bullshit. Springsteen played 6 more songs for the crowd to go nuts a little longer to including “Born to Run”, “Dancing in the Dark”, “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out”, and “Shout”: an appropriate end for the folks who probably saw Animal House in theaters.
It was a great show and I honestly just wish that I had more energy to stay involved the whole time. I also wish that I didn’t have to drive 2 1/2 hours to get home after the show or that I didn’t come directly from a funeral but that’s my problem. I knew I would be physically and emotionally exhausted but I always said seeing Springsteen live was as close as I get to a religious experience so even in mourning I was going to see The Boss in my attempt for solace. I know that I didn’t fully get there, but I saw thousands of others around me who felt their souls lifted up and that’s probably good enough. Sure, I’d rather have seen “Atlantic City” and “Jungleland” instead of some of The River’s filler, but does it really matter? If I can’t be satisfied with the show that Springsteen puts on then there’s probably a 90 something year old fan in the crowd who would trade places with me just so she could catch a few more Springsteen concerts in her life.
Bake
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