Current Conditions
42°F - CLEAR
(995) (936) (361) (95) (95) (25) (2)
In launching 1975's "Born to Run" tour, Bruce Springsteen joked to an audience in Hammersmith, England: "This is the first time I was ever here before."
It was quintessential Springsteen, whose whimsical prose — especially on the first three albums — often left you mystified. You sometimes didn't know whether he was coming or going, but man, he and the E-Street Band always bestowed goose bumps.
At Hersheypark Stadium Friday, Springsteen performed many of those gritty anthems that depicted fear, pain, redemption, love, death and ultimately surviving a tough life on the streets.
Thirty-four years after the "Born to Run" masterpiece, Springsteen remains a virtuoso whose energy and passion throttles through the E-Street Band's erupting thunder of twists, turns, screeching stops and soaring starts to paint a kaleidoscope of unmistakable images connected through emotional prosody.
Because this tour is promoting Springsteen's album "Working on a Dream," the band cranked out new hits "Radio Nowhere," "The Wrestler" and "Outlaw Pete" to a crowd of more than 30,000, who clearly yearned for classics from "Born to Run," "Greetings from Asbury Park" and the "Wild, Innocent and the E-Street Shuffle."
Dressed as usual in anti-glam blue-jeans but devoid of his once-famous scruffy beard, Springsteen instantly connected and drove a diverse audience of tots, teens and 60-year-olds to its feet.
He jarred memories back to the first time you heard "Born to Run," in a bold and grandiose rendition of "Badlands," which kicked off the show.
The E-Street Band played minus Bruce's wife, Patti Scialfa, and with the surprise addition of Max Weinberg's son, Jay, who sat in for his dad on drums. Jay, 18, had performed on a few songs in past concerts, but this was only the second time he played an entire show with the band.
The kicking percussion of Eddie Floyd's "Raise Your Hand," whipped the crowd into a dancing frenzy. That later led to Springsteen's harmonica intro of "Promised Land," which featured a neat mix of horns, guitar, keyboards, percussion and just about the entire band harmonizing with the audience.
Soozie Tyrell's violin hushed the crowd a bit, while Springsteen and guitarist Steve Van Zandt went face to face to belt out "The Rising," a song that centers on Springsteen's reflections on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Springsteen saved what many in the stadium yearned to hear for his encores.
Veteran band members Clarence Clemons on saxophone, Roy Bittan on piano, Garry Tallent on bass, Charles Giordano on organ and guitarists Nils Lofgren and Van Zandt, meshed with Springsteen's poetic layers to radiate images of salvation, refuge and escape in "Born to Run," "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out," "Rosalita" and "Bobby Jean," with which he ended the show.
All in all, the 27-song three-hour concert was typical Springsteen. What more could you ask for?
E-mail: pburns@lnpnews.com
