You Say It's Your Birthday -- April 13 / First Niagara Center / Buffalo, NY

(It's My Birthday Too, Yeah!)

This review originally appeared at http://www.backstreets.com/setlists.html

Friday night, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band completed the back end of the Detroit/Buffalo two-pack. Thursday evening's show in Auburn Hills set a pretty high bar, with classics such as "Incident on 57th Street" complementing flawless versions of new songs such as "Rocky Ground." Friday's show at the First Niagara Center in Buffalo cleared the bar, with room to spare.

Let's get one thing straight: These shows aren't possible. I just don't know how else to put it. Yes, as Bruce puts it in the main set's penultimate song, our bodies may betray us in the end. And, I get it: he can't promise us life everlasting. But he is delivering life, right now. He's on that hill with everything he's got.

And the really good news is, he's got a lot. The E Street Band is tighter than ever. Max Weinberg played last night like a man possessed. The "extra" players — horns, percussion and vocals — complemented the basic E Street sound seamlessly. The energy from the stage seemed boundless. And, last night, it was a two-way street.

Bruce came out as his own version of "Buffalo Gals," a bonus selection from We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions - American Land Edition, played over the loudspeakers. Bruce complemented the song by giving a cheerful live singalong to it (the ghosts of Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed could have taken lessons: get a backing track). Bruce self-introduced, as he has in most shows on this tour, just backlit so his outline was visible but not his features. After the opening salvo of "We Take Care of Our Own" and "Wrecking Ball," "The Ties That Bind" gave the audience the chance to meet Jake Clemons. He nailed the solo, and the audience let him know it, too.

The first major detour from recent setlists came after "My City of Ruins," with "Rendezvous." Bruce used the lyrics and arrangement that he has used in concert since the '70s, not the slightly alternate version found on The Promise. We were in the portion of the set Bruce called "Rarities!” — from there he pointed out a small sign for a young woman in the audience who was having a birthday and was about to get married.... The result was the very rarely played Johnny Rivers hit "Mountain of Love," known to Springsteen fans on bootleg from the February 5, 1975 WMMR radio show but heard in person by only a few. The band pulled it off in fine style, and during the solo break Jake Clemons and Eddie Manion started a Louis Prima-style conga line out to stage left, followed by the rest of the horns filtering out stage right. It was as fun to see as to hear.

Other highlights included the tour premiere of "Point Blank," Bruce totally slaughtering the guitar solo on "Prove It All Night," and a return to the setlist for "Shackled and Drawn." Also, a really beautiful ten-year-old girl who may be very closely related to this writer got a harmonica at the end of "The Promised Land."

Yesterday was also Max’s birthday. Max has said, many times, how much he loves "Ramrod." Though the song was on the setlist all along, it helped that there was a "Ramrod" sign up front. This gave Bruce and Steve some mugging opportunities, and another chance to work "Buffalo" in to a song lyric. (Hey, Bruce: My birthday was yesterday, too — the big 5-0! My request is "Outside Looking In," my favorite song off The Promise. Can ya manage to work that one in sometime?)

I’ll note, at this point, just how much the sound and especially the lighting have improved. Last night was joyful not just for Bruce and the band's performance, but for the entire experience. Then there was the crowd: This audience needed no explanation when it came to songs like "Jack of All Trades." But they were there, and they were counted. It was a very noticeably younger audience than in some past tours; the pit area in particular was filled with 20-somethings completely having the times of their lives when Bruce brought out "Born to Run" and "Dancing in the Dark" at the end of the show. Life, delivered.

- report and photographs by Matt Orel

Setlist:
[Buffalo Gals]
We Take Care of Our Own
Wrecking Ball
The Ties That Bind

Death to My Hometown
My City of Ruins
Rendezvous
Mountain of Love
Jack of All Trades
Prove It All Night
Darkness on the Edge of Town
Shackled & Drawn
Waitin' on a Sunny Day
The Promised Land
Apollo Medley
Point Blank
American Skin (41 Shots)
The Rising
Lonesome Day
We Are Alive
Thunder Road
* * *
Rocky Ground (with Michelle Moore)
Ramrod
Born to Run
Dancing in the Dark
Tenth Avenue Freeze-out