Bruce Springsteen Totally Rules
After a long night of concert going, I am taking the day off. But here's what I saw.
No short takes today, no acerbic political commentary. But I am happy to share some pics from the UBS Arena in Hempstead, LI, my first Bruce Springsteen Concert ever! We were sitting behind the stage, probably as close as I have ever been to a rock n’ roll star since I was attending punk and New Wave concerts at Toad’s Place in New Haven, CT. Yes, Joey Ramone once spat on me (not deliberately—he just spat when he sang. Like, a lot.)
Not only is a Springsteen concert more expensive than a 1970s concert in the Connecticut boonies, it’s packed with late Boomers and Gen X’rs who—let’s face it—are getting up there and have the money to pay the freight.
But it was also a very loving environment, and the band did everything they could to make it fun, including visiting us frequently at the back of the stage. Everyone sang every song, and honestly? If you don’t know the words, and you can go “Whoa-Ahhhh—oh” you can feel as though you are singing. The fans adore Bruce and he is enthusiastically engaged with them, shaking hands, making eye contact, giving autographs in the middle of numbers. The guy leaves it all on the floor.
There was no warm up band—everybody walked on stage at about 7:40, started playing, and didn’t stop until quarter of eleven. Literally didn’t stop. At all. They would switch out guitars in between numbers and roll right into the next song. What makes this astonishing is that the core of the band is in their seventies—Bruce and Little Steven Van Zandt are 73—and these people played a hellacious rock n’ roll show without rest for three hours.
This is Bruce and Little Steven (who is my favorite band member, in part because he played Silvio Dante in The Sopranos) near the beginning of the concert. The friend chemistry is intense. Even though they have been playing together for years, it has not cooled—unlike, say Mick Jagger and Keith Richard, who I think actively hate each other. Even though Mick and Keith are individually cool, watching them together on stage is as sexy as inviting your divorced parents to your wedding.
Yes, there were teleprompters all over the stage, but if you had written and performed this many songs, and had a three hour playlist (they have been known to play for four), you might not remember the words either.
In this next picture, you can see the legendary Nils Lofgren, who will be 72 in June, on the right. In the center is drummer Max Weinberg, who is 72 today, and joined the band in 1974. Why do I keep talking about age? Well let me know if your knees would stand up to stomping around a stage for three hours and we can stop.
Here you can also get a clearer look at Little Steven and realize that he was actually dressed like a pirate. He came on stage in a pirate hat (which he abandoned, I suspect because it was impractical), silver pointy-toed lizard skin boots, a silk head scarf, a kind of drapey tunic thing, and long dangly earrings decorated with feathers. It’s a bold look. And while I have no picture of them, take my word for it: the brass section looks like a motorcycle gang, with instruments.
Bottom right is the adorable, 43 year-old Jake Clemons on sax, nephew of the late Clarence Clemons who joined the band in 1971 and died prematurely in 2011. Clemons’ other distinction last night was that he was one of five Black people in the entire arena. The whiteness of a Springsteen concert is a conversation I am too tired to have tonight, but it is worth having.
And let me just say? I tweeted this pic from the concert and noted that you have not lived until you have sung “She’s the One” with 19,000 people on Long Island.
Below is what the arena looked like in the first few bars of “Thunder Road.” The crowd has many ways of returning the love: this is one, and another is, during infrequent pauses in the action, to fill the void with a guttural: “Bruuuuuuuce.”
This picture also allows you to understand one of the great features of sitting behind the stage at a Springsteen concert (H/T Rebecca Traister for selling me the tickets) which is: these men in their seventies have excellent butts. I say this as an objective, lifelong lesbian who has no investment in the male behind. Personally, I think they owe it to the men of America to reveal their secret.
Near the end of the concert, Bruce left the stage and just waded through the crowd, shaking hands, greeting people, and singing at the same time: you can pick him out in the black tee shirt. It was astonishing.
I realize this is a political newsletter, so here goes: although it is an impractical idea to run a septuagenarian guitar hero for president, it did occur to me that if Joe Biden decided to not run after all, Bruce Springsteen would be an excellent campaigner, and I think he would be the perfect crossover candidate.
Just saying.
Too bad we didn’t see Bruce at the tiny Main Point! You may be just old enough to have gone. Anyhow, I saw him last week in Brooklyn, but didn’t sit that close! It was, I think, about my 9th Springsteen show. I agree with everything you said, and wanted to let you know Stevie has said he drew on being the main guy’s second in command to play Silvio as Tony’s second, and vice versa. Here is a link to a podcast with him and Josh Olson, my first boyfriend and the person I went to my first Springsteen concert with. Spent the summer between Baldwin and college cranking Thunder Road in my ‘71 Chevy Impala convertible. Anyhow…. In the interview, when Josh talks about a teenager he knows who imitates Steve doing Silvio doing that famous line from The Godfather, he’s talking about my son. https://trailersfromhell.com/podcast/steven-van-zandt/
Love the recounting. Thank you.