Boss Undressed

My friend PK did a little more research into recent Bruce shows given my complaints about Springsteen's failure to meet my expectations Monday night. Writes PK, "He doesn't do 4-hour marathons but actually he hasn't done those for a very long time. The Sunday night show was 24 songs, the Monday night show 23 songs. I went back into the ultimate fan site, Backstreets.com, and looked at the set lists of all the shows I had seen Bruce in years past, and the high-water mark for me was 25 songs on the '99 tour. Of course, what distinguished that tour was there was no album he was promoting so it was just the band and all their classics.But now that I've looked at the data, he's not really any shorter now than he was 8 1/2 years ago when I first saw him."

Fair enough. And an anonymous poster noted that all the shows on this tour have started about 8:20. But at the risk of enraging the Springsteen cult, many of whom are friends of mine, let me expand on my sacrilegious critique of St. Bruce.

The emperor has no clothes. The shows are starting at 8:20 - even though the tickets stipulate the show is scheduled to start at 7:30 - because Springsteen can't bring himself to admit what my friend PK pointed out. He no longer does marathon shows. There's nothing wrong with that, certainly not for a 58 year-old man. But why does he have to pretend -or conjure the illusion - that he plays as long as he once did?

He starts nearly an hour later than the scheduled time because if he did start on time the show would end around 9:30 and only serve to highlight how short his shows have become. (Can it really be true that a Bruce show now is shorter than a Flyers' game?). Ever heard of an opening act?

And why do fans have to be aware of how much later previous shows on tour started to know how delayed their show will be? Talk about catering to an exclusive clientele. This is likely all well and fine with the diehard groupies, but it isn't helping out the casual fan (like myself) and certainly goes against Bruce's "man of the people" persona. A "scheduled delay." How's that for an oxymoron.

And it is more of a sad commentary on the affairs of the entertainment industry that a professional, workmanlike performance of Bruce and the E Street Band like the one I enjoyed Monday night can be made into the be all, end all of concert shows. Yes, it was good. Entertaining. Groovy. But it wasn't a life altering experience nor did it justify all the hyped anticipation i've been hearing about the shows. Sort of like being married to Julianne Phillips. Having seen one of the performances I certainly did not feel the need or desire to go to the second Washington, DC show like some people I understand do.

And speaking of the show itself. What was up with the popcorn maker/fairground icon that was spotlighted at the very beginning of the show? It was accompanied by carnival music which lead me to believe the band was leading off with Tunnel of Love, but they didn't. And we never saw the popcorn maker again, nor was there any subsequent reference made. What was that all about?

The sound was muddled at various points throughout the show, but never more than on She's the One when the driving base lines sounded like they were emanating from a 20 year-old cracked speaker in my basement.

And the song selection...oh marone! Dancing in the Dark? As the second to last song? Are you kidding? The biggest commercial sellout song in the Springsteen catalogue. And for fans of my generation the song is most remembered for the embarrassing video and the fact that Courtney Cox, in a breakout cameo, is prominently featured in a faux pas de deux with Springsteen onstage. In a concert chock full of "new" songs, Dancing in the Dark is one of the "classics" you choose to include in the playlist!

Finally, another anonymous poster noted that Monday's show did indeed have an encore. My mistake. Upon reflection they are correct. I thought Bruce and the band's brief break was actually an intermission, particularly since it came less than two hours into the show. As it turns out, it was the end of the show, so the last 5 songs were the encore.