Bruce Finds His Place (The Palace, November 13, 2009)

Bruce Springsteen at The Palace, November 13, 2009.

When I was growing up in New Jersey, the state had a bit of an identity crisis.  It was the suburb of New York and Philadelphia.  When the Giants and Cosmos moved in to Giants Stadium, they kept "New York" as part of their name.  Bruce Springsteen helped change things for us; from his very first album he proclaimed himself to be a New Jersey man.

Michigan, on the other hand, is a big state with no history of being someone else's suburb; Bruce has played here at least once every year since 2002. Imagine, then, Bruce coming onstage and greeting the crowd with a salute to Ohio! And then sticking Ohio in to the lyrics of "Wrecking Ball"; of course, a Michigan audience tends not to object too much to lines such as, "tonight Ohio is going down in flames." Finally, Bruce put Ohio in to the story for "Working on a Dream." This last actually managed to get a few boos, and prompted Stevie to inform Bruce that they were, in fact, in Michigan (Bruce took it well, and periodically shouted out, "Where Am I?" throughout the evening after that to get a rousing Detroit answer).

Fortunately, while Bruce was forgetting where he was, he wasn't forgetting how to put on a magnificent show.  By the conclusion of Nils's incendiary twirling solo at the end of the evening's second song, "Prove It All Night," it was already clear that Bruce and the band were intent on taking no prisoners.

Several notable things have changed on this latest tour, as compared to prior tours:
1) Bruce used a rear riser and crowd surfing during "Hungry Heart";
2) The set includes of a full album -- usually "Born to Run," early in the setlist
3) Audience members bringing signs, with some signs being accepted as song requests
4) De-emphass of the current album

All of these changes had the effect, tonight, of drawing the audience more in to the show.  The use of the read riser and the crowd surfing literally puts Bruce face to face -- or closer -- with several hundred fans.  And I confess that I had contact... with Bruce's right shoe.  Nice shoe, very sturdy.

Not that all of the changes are necessarily for the better.  I'd have preferred to hear more content from "Working On a Dream" than just the title song, for example.  That said, the crowd responded well to the show, and was as loud as any crowd I have ever heard at The Palace.

The performance of the "Born to Run" album was spot on.  The songs were crisp, impassioned, and uniformly attacked, hard.  Even "Meeting Across the River," which was enhanced by trumpeter Curt Ramm's playing.

The accepted requests had a distinctive Michigan flavor, first with Bob Seger's "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" (played one time previously, also at the Palace, back on August 18, 1992), and then with the Detroit Medley.  Bruce started "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" by playing the distinctive opening keyboard riff on guitar, and with that started a 3-pack dance party right in the middle of the set, with Bruce playing guitar slinger throughout.  By the end of Bruce's blistering solo in "Because the Night" -- during which Bruce proved he could blow a snot rocket and play a guitar solo at the same time --- my voice was gone, my hearing was shot, and my legs were jell-o.  He's a freaking force of nature, is all I can say... and that band is pretty damn good these days.

Show highlights including a roaring version of "Johnny 99" early on (perhaps a bit of a reference to the state of the auto industry), and also a thundering performance of "Born in the U.S.A." During "Rosalita," Bruce handed the mic to Steve at the beginning of the 2nd verse and Steve survived it, as Bruce went to check something side stage (maybe the woman who stole the spotlight during "Dancing in the Dark" by jumping on stage from the pit and dancing much too wildly).  Finally, the closer, "Higher and Higher," which finally allowed Cindy Mizelle to get a bit of the spotlight, closed the show on a high.