Springsteen & E Street Band: Brooklyn, April 3, 2023

No Surrender. April 3, 2023

It's been nearly 20 years since I've seen three consecutive Springsteen shows, and given the current dynamics of a) high prices and b) lack of shows near where I live, I'm unlikely to see 3 consecutive shows ever again. But there I was, last night, in the corner of the exalted GA pit at Brooklyn's Barclay's Arena, at my 3rd consecutive show, with my 5th family member.

I took some pains not to immerse myself in the current set prior to last Wednesday's show in Detroit, but by the time we got to Brooklyn the basic structure was pretty well memorized: There'd be a core of 25 songs, in a specific order, and then a couple of "wild card" slots -- one after "Nightshift" and the other at the beginning of the encores. With the exception of those two songs, every moment, every move, pretty much, was tightly choreographed. To be clear, this isn't a bad thing, but if you saw the show in Detroit or at the Garden, you pretty much saw the show in Brooklyn.

And YOU get a guitar pick!

For those of us who have seen the show before, the unambiguous highlight was the tour premiere of "It's Hard to be a Saint in the City." No fancy intros, Bruce just launched the band in to it, letting the crowd absorb the moment. Then, to the end, with Bruce and Stevie having a conversation on guitar -- it's not a "duel," really, they were just yakking using their guitars! -- and when Bruce gave the signal, Max pushed the pace until it was all controlled mayhem on stage. Bruce clearly enjoyed the moment, at times being openly amused by whatever phrasing Stevie had come up with in his responses to Bruce's calls.

The other wildcard last night went to "Land of Hope and Dreams"; played twice previously on this tour, this performance was a tight 7 minutes. Bruce also switched the order of "Johnny 99" and "The E Street Shuffle," giving me the momentary thrill of thinking that maybe Bruce was tinkering a bit with the setlist beyond the wildcards.

But my son's highlights went more to some of the shtick: Stevie's hat, just because of how absurd it was. And, as he'd pretty much grown up on The Three Stooges, he loved the Stooges routine at the end of "Rosalita." He's a musician. Go figure.

Bruce coming down the floor,
in front of photographer Danny Clinch.

Other observations: 

• Patti Scialfa remained absent from the stage. Many of us expected to see her for the "home" shows, but she was not there. 
• Garry Tallent was there, but in his own space: It seemed to me that he was keeping 6 feet of social distancing throughout the show. Not that he ever loved in to the front stage lineups, just that his distancing last night was very noticeable.
• Max Weinberg is a tour de force. If you see someone say the band sounds better than ever, it has to be in part because Max sounds better than ever.
• Jon Landau came down to the soundboard side stage for the end of the show. I don't think it was to play with any of the knobs, but rather to follow along on the TelePrompter there for the words on "I'll See You in My Dreams."
• Bruce seemed to be in a particularly giving mood with the small bling -- it appeared that lots of folks, especially young fans -- went home with guitar picks or harmonicas last night.