Springsteen & E Street Band: Detroit, March 29, 2023

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, March 29, 2023, Detroit

It wasn't so long ago that Bruce Springsteen coming to Michigan to play was pretty much an annual event. Every year from 2002 through 2009, Bruce made at least one appearance in the Great Lakes State. But after Bruce infamously forgot where he was during that 2009 show at The Palace of Auburn Hills, his appearances here have been rare. Last night's appearance with the E Street Band at Little Caesar's Arena in Detroit marked just his 2nd appearance in Michigan in the past decade, and was his first in the city of Detroit since 2005.

Which is to say, it's been a moment. Things have happened. But more to the point: Springsteen & E Street Band -- the graphics for this tour can't be bothered with first names or definite articles -- were in town last night for a show, and this is what I witnessed.

Smile for the camera! Ezra (and the hat) with Bruce in Detroit

Just before 7:45pm the lights dimmed. I was still clowning with my 21-year old child who was in the pit -- me a few rows above in a side section -- when the lights went down. Having paid as little attention as reasonable to the tour so far, I understood that lights down was earlier than past tours, but not this early. The section where I was hanging out to blow kisses to my kid was very nearly empty at that moment, so I hung around for a few songs before making my way to my assigned seat.

The band came on in its typically understated manner, except for Stevie who was sporting a completely ridiculous hat. Almost immediately, Bruce and the band tore in to "No Surrender," a phrase and pledge with many applications -- be it against conditions in the world, or his own mortality. The blue and yellow lighting in the arena created an unmistakeable political connotation to the term, though that was as far as politics went last night.

Reviews I've seen of this tour have called out mortality as an ongoing theme of the show; frankly, I didn't hear it. Sure, the songs from "Letter to You" all have mortality as an underlying theme, and as that's Bruce's newest album of original material that portion of the connection was inevitable. But with songs like "Candy's Room," "Kitty's Back," "She's the One" as well as long time concert favorites such as "Prove It All Night, "The Promised Land" and "Out in the Street" in the set, the theme seemed to me more akin to "Bring it on bitches, we can still rock the hell out of these suckers... and, you're gonna love it."

The rocking, though, was substantially more restrained than on some prior tours. It seemed to me that Max was visibly slowing down the band during "Kitty's Back," and the pace for "Darkness on the Edge of Town" (a tour premiere) is something I can only describe as "stately."

Several songs seemed designed to give a particular band member a spotlight: "Nightshift" for Curtis King; "The E Street Shuffle" for Anthony Almonte and Max Weinberg; "Because the Night" for Nils Lofgren and, to a lesser extent, the otherwise nearly comically underutilized E Street Choir -- I get it, Cindy Mizelle isn't around this time, but surely they could be highlighted more?

Nightshit

To me, the notion of bringing on the music, and the shtick, took precedent even over context. I mean, how else do you get Bruce vamping for more cowbell just before the singer says he had debts no honest many could pay? and why else would you punctuate a plea to be put on death row with a series of mimicked train whistles? Whoo whoo!!!

There were just moments that were genuinely powerful: In "Backstreets," not just raising the Tele to the audience before the song, as if to announce, "this is my sword, this is my shield, this is the power of love revealed," and more so the coda in which the veneer was stripped and the ghost of teenage Bruce inhabited the stage.

The crowd highlight, with reason, was "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out," which featured the monitor tribute to Clarence Clemons (I'm told there's also a monitor tribute to Danny Federici, though I didn't see it), and also Bruce's one foray to the rear of the pit. The audience roar at the end of that performance sent a few shivers up my spine.

And nearly as fast, the show was over. Bruce sent off the band and took center stage for a gentle and poignant solo version of "I'll See You in My Dreams," closing as he had during the reprise of his Broadway show in 2021. It was 10:21pm, a closing time that would have been unimaginable on prior E Street Band tours. Bruce then called out, as he has at every stop on this tour, "The E Street Band loves you!," and left the stage, with no hint as to when -- or even if -- they'll be back.