From the New York Times http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.h ... %22&st=cse

Springsteen & E Street Band fall short on opening-night show in San Jose
http://www.mercurynews.com/entertainment/ci_12053748

By Shay Quillen / Mercury News
Posted: 04/02/2009

Being first isn't always an advantage.

Wednesday night, San Jose got the first glimpse at Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's world tour to support their latest album, "Working on a Dream." And though the band labored admirably for two hours and 40 minutes, it's clear that this show needs a little work before the dream is achieved.

For long stretches, the near-capacity crowd at HP Pavilion was glued to its seats, and even the can't-miss anthems at the end failed to truly achieve liftoff. Throughout, Springsteen struggled to fuse the lush pop romanticism of the new album with bleak songs from his catalog that speak to the current economic state of the union.

It's been a mere seven months since Springsteen and the E Street Band finished the tour for "Magic," a mostly dark album informed by war and political deception. As he finished the songwriting for that album, a new batch of songs began to emerge. Before the "Magic" tour was over, Springsteen had rushed into the studio to record these tunes, filled to overflowing with love and passion and vocal overdubs. But before the record could come out, the economy collapsed and Springsteen, always attuned to the national zeitgeist, had to readjust.

As Don Rumsfeld might say, you don't go on tour with the album you wish you had, you go on tour with the album you've got. So Springsteen faces the tough task of hyping a new romantic pop record while simultaneously offering hope and support to a wounded nation — not an easy task.

Perhaps he was still tinkering with the formula at the last minute, as the band came out an hour late, around 8:30 p.m., to kick off the night and the tour with the classic "Badlands."

Two additions to the troupe — backup singers Curtis King and Cindy Mizelle, increasing the ensemble to an even dozen — emerged next for "Outlaw Pete," the overwrought eight-minute slab of whimsical Americana that kicks off "Working on a Dream" in bizarre fashion.

It was a tough night for the new material. The early appearance of the title track, despite some vigorous ensemble whistling, brought the previously enthusiastic audience to its seats, and Springsteen's attempts to rouse a singalong were met with apathy. "Good Eye," a postmodern roadhouse blues built around repeated rhythmic loops and one of the standout tracks on the album, proved to be a difficult fit for the E Street Band live.

Those two songs bookended a trio of recession-minded numbers: "Seeds" (rarely performed over the past two decades), "Johnny 99" and "The Ghost of Tom Joad." "Johnny 99," a grim tale of a unrepentant killer from the solo acoustic "Nebraska" album, was turned into a rip-roaring rock 'n' roll number, with pounding boogie-woogie piano from Roy Bittan. It was fun, if a bit incongruous.

The rock 'n' roll spirit emerged again when Springsteen, for no apparent reason, pulled out the classic oldie "Good Rockin' Tonight" mid-set. Finally, "Darlington County" got the crowd back to its feet, and a fan request for "Growin' Up" kept them there.

The best showcase for new material was the back-to-back pairing of "The Wrestler," the gritty theme to the Mickey Rourke film that appears as a bonus track on "Working," and "Kingdom of Days." The latter is a unabashedly romantic celebration of marriage that lies at the heart of the new album. Springsteen sang it standing side by side with backup singer Patti Scialfa, his wife of 17 years (their teenage daughter, Jessica Rae, was spotted on the floor during the early part of the show dancing along to the music).

Springsteen's signature song, "Born to Run," closed a two-hour main set that never quite caught fire.

Yet the Boss kicked off the encores with a perfectly chosen '50s classic that showed the potential of this 12-piece band at this juncture in American history. A '50s tune is nothing new for Springsteen, you might think, except that this one was from the 1850s: Stephen Foster's "Hard Times."

Springsteen and his compadres formed a virtual E Street Chorus as they began one of the most beautiful songs in the American canon, and one sadly applicable today. As the tour develops, Springsteen would be wise to make better use of the additional vocal firepower on hand by adding lush "Working" songs like "This Life" to the show.

A poster for an old Robert Mitchum movie, a gift from a fan, prompted a performance of "Thunder Road," always a pleasure to hear. "Dancing in the Dark," however, has just about run out of juice, and "10th Avenue Freeze-Out" seemed to be a TiVo of the Super Bowl performance, sans the horns.

"Land of Hope and Dreams," which followed, would have made a perfect finale, but instead Springsteen once more trotted out "American Land," the jig that has been closing the band's shows in recent years.

For anyone else, the show would have been fine. For Springsteen and the E Street Band, it was decidedly subpar. But based on their track record, you've got to like their chances for getting a hold of this before long. Guys, please come back once you're warmed up.

Music review: '1-2-3-4!' Boss in driver's seat
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 16RHK3.DTL

Reyhan Harmanci, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, April 2, 2009

Is there a more consistently thrilling concert moment than the millisecond between Bruce Springsteen tilting the mike stand toward his face, snarling "1-2-3-4!," and the E Street Band charging into its next song?

For the thousands packed into the HP Pavilion in San Jose on Wednesday night, the answer, of course, was no - it's a moment when anything, any song from any era, is possible. Even with a rather weak new album, "Working on a Dream," and the group's advancing age, Springsteen shows are inspirational events. He sashayed, slid, laid hands on the crowd and let them lay hands on his guitar. At one point, late in the show, he managed to do a backbend with the aforementioned mike stand between his legs. At 59, he is fit as a fiddle.

The set list is always the main concern of any devoted Boss fan. A man in line for concessions before the show confidently announced that Little Stevie (Van Zandt) had personally told him that a new cut, "My Lucky Day," would not be opening the show, and it turned out that that man was right. Around 8:30 p.m., a rousing "Badlands" kicked things off before two new songs - "Outlaw Pete," featuring Springsteen in an outlaw hat that he threw into the crowd and the crowd threw back and ended up on drummer Max Weinberg's head, and "My Lucky Day." Then came a fantastically arranged "No Surrender," and the flirty "Out in the Street" that worked just fine as a sing-along.

The beginning of the show, while expertly produced, was rather stiff. Guitarist and former "Soprano" cast member Little Stevie seemed oddly restrained. Sure, he got back to back with Springsteen and guitarist Patti Scialfa (otherwise known as Mrs. Bruce Springsteen), but there was far less showboating than normal. Clarence "Big Man" Clemons was also subdued, sitting on a chair for much of the show. It was left to chief guitar shredder Nils Lofgren to take the solo spotlight, attempting a few knee slides of his own.

"Working on a Dream" came next, with the familiar Springsteen exhortation of "Sing it like you mean it!" A honky-tonk version of "Johnny 99" put the spotlight on a few timely lines about foreclosure, and then out came a searing rendition of "The Ghost of Tom Joad." Not to be a total downer, Springsteen boogied to "Good Rockin' Tonight" and brought out beloved old songs like "Darlington County" and "Growin' Up," along with some newer hits from post-2000 albums like "Waiting on a Sunny Day," "Lonesome Day," "Radio Nowhere." A few more new songs, like "The Wrestler," made up the second half of the show. The lights went up for the finale, an ecstatic "Born to Run."

But the Springsteen encore experience is never an afterthought. The Stephen Foster classic "Hard Times" preceded a spare "Thunder Road," and then came perhaps the most joyful songs of the night: "Dancing in the Dark," complete with Springsteen picking up a girl out of the audience, and the raucous "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" and "The Land of Hope and Dreams," followed by the traditional Irish song "American Land."

Springsteen would appear to be the artist most appropriate for this low economic moment. But it's a hard balance to strike in concert, as the public has been awash in bad news. There was palpable hunger for escapist fun - more getting in the car and driving away, and less Tom Joad. Luckily, just when we thought the action is over, out came another "1-2-3-4!"

And now for something completely different...

Remember the Unplugged CD? How it originally was only available in the US as an expensive import?

That very same CD, the domestic version that was finally released many years later, is currently available at the Virgin Megastore for $5.00 (five dollars).

How about that!

Oh come on--in these economically trying post-Bush years, St. Springsteen is simply trying to cut the hard-working American factory worker a break by offering glorious Clinton-era music at Carter-era prices--and the rest of us have cash left over to donate canned food to disaffected Katrina survivors! That's hope and change that everybody can believe in!

When will Bruce be named a Saint? Isn't Bono one already?

I wonder if he'll do this at the MSG shows too.

I wonder if he'll do this at the MSG shows too.

Springsteen adds album mini-sets to Giants Stadium shows
By Jay Lustig/The Star-Ledger
September 29, 2009, 10:20AM

In addition to everything else Bruce Springsteen has to offer, he has a strong sense of occasion.

Think of him pulling out all the stops during his brief Super Bowl appearance this year, or duetting with Eddie Vedder on "Better Man" at the 2004 "Vote For Change" concert at the Continental Airlines Arena, or inviting Bob Dylan to guest on the final night of the Rising Tour, in 2003. He always seems to know how to make a special occasion even more special.

Yesterday, he announced that he will perform a classic album, in its entirety, at each of his five upcoming shows at Giants Stadium. The albums are: "Born To Run" (Sept. 30 and Oct. 8), "Darkness On the Edge of Town" (Oct. 2), and "Born In the U.S.A." (Oct. 3 and 9).

He has done this kind of thing only twice before. In a May 2008 benefit concert at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, he played "Born To Run" and "Darkness," then returned for a four-song encore. And last week in Chicago, he played "Born To Run." (He also has announced that he will play "Born To Run" at his Nov. 18 concert in Nashville.)

Maybe the Giants Stadium plan is a ploy to move tickets. At press time, only the show on Oct. 9, which will be the last concert ever at Giants Stadium, was sold out.

But it’s undeniable that this move also makes the stand more of an event.

Yes, there will be some grumbling from fans who bought tickets for a night where Springsteen will play an album they don't particularly like, or who feel that anything that decreases a show’s spontaneity is a bad thing. But there are many positives.

I was at the Red Bank show, and it was one of the most memorable nights in my 25 years of Springsteen concert-going. I probably hadn’t listened to those two albums in their entirety since the early ‘80s, and it was a revelation to hear the songs flow into each other as they did when I first heard them. I was reminded how much the songs complement each other — how they almost seem to grow out of one another.

Longtime fans who have attended many Springsteen concerts but never heard him perform a favorite song — "Candy’s Room," say, from "Darkness," or "Meeting Across the River," from "Born To Run" — can be assured that they will finally hear it, if they are there on the right night.

The "Born In the U.S.A." nights will be especially poignant, as Springsteen first played Giants Stadium on the 1984-85 "Born In the U.S.A. Tour."

Even with the album mini-sets, there will be lots of room for other songs. There are eight songs on "Born To Run," ten on "Darkness" and 12 on "Born in the U.S.A." Springsteen generally plays between 25 and 30 songs a night.

Bruce Springsteen shows heart, puts foot in mouth
By BRIAN McCOLLUM
Free Press Pop Music Critic

A little geography snafu couldn't keep Michigan from being rocked by Bruce Springsteen.

The iconic rocker greeted his Palace of Auburn Hills audience Friday night with a hearty "Hello, Ohio!" -- a reference he repeated several times over the next half hour before catching his mistake, with what appeared to be a whispered assist from guitarist Steven Van Zandt.

"I'm all right," said the grinning Springsteen, who remained visibly self-conscious about the slip. "That is every front man's nightmare."

A BRIEF STATEMENT FROM BRUCE
Like many of you who live in New Jersey, I've been following the progress of the marriage-equality legislation currently being considered in Trenton. I've long believed in and have always spoken out for the rights of same sex couples and fully agree with Governor Corzine when he writes that, "The marriage-equality issue should be recognized for what it truly is -- a civil rights issue that must be approved to assure that every citizen is treated equally under the law." I couldn't agree more with that statement and urge those who support equal treatment for our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters to let their voices be heard now.