PHOTOS: RICHIE DOWNS | They’re technically still calling it “The River” tour, but Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band has long since dropped the concept. Instead of playing all 20 songs from the 1980 album in order, as the band did last time it was in DC, at the Verizon Center in January, they played just three during a typical marathon return to Nationals Park to help close out the summer, staving off raindrops as they did.
Tossing off “Sherry Darling” early on, and returning only for the hit (“Hungry Heart”) and the can’t miss concert staple (“Out in the Street”), Springsteen instead traversed a more personal river, presented roughly chronologically through a 34-song, 3 hour and 45 minute set.
The D.C. skyline behind him, he began the ballpark show with a lengthy “New York City Serenade,” backed by an eight piece string section and was soon diving deep into his first two albums—with nine songs altogether from Greetings from Asbury Park and The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle. “Growin’ Up,” like “No Surrender,” was supposedly a request granted from one of the waving signs in the crowd, so frenzied that it sometimes made the front of the house look like a protest at a Trump rally. (Still to be answered: Does he pick the sign requests for songs he was already going to do, or is he just ready for anything?)
At any rate, it led to what he called the first song he played for John Hammond in his Columbia Records audition, “It’s Hard to be a Saint in the City,” in what turned out to be the only spoken introduction of the night, followed by “Does This Bus Stop at 82nd St?,” “Spirit in the Night,” “Lost in the Flood,” and “Kitty’s Back”—supposedly another sign request but a great showcase for the ever-solid band.
He wasn’t done, with two more epics from the second album to immediately follow: “Incident on 57th Street” and “Rosalita” (which features no knee slides from the frontman who turns 67 this month). “Night,” about halfway into the show, seemed to signal to more familiar territory, but it was topped by what may have actually been a sign request (except that it was so well executed), his gripping version of Jimmy Cliff’s “Trapped,” which first appeared on the Live Aid album 30 years ago.
Nats Park was populated with more younger people than I remember usually seeing at a 21st century Bruce show, but I was surprised how few seemed to recognize it. There followed a bigger surprise, maybe, the optimistic “Better Days,” from the often ignored Lucky Town that he made without the E Street Band, for the first time on the tour.
Despite being in the nation’s capital, and despite the contentious political season, Springsteen, who has spent past presidential cycles busking for Obama, remained mum on politics but delivered a powerful and timely indictment of race that’s still as potent today in “American Skin (41 Shots),” which he alerted his band to play with the hand signal of four and one. Springsteen’s most stirring songs from Darkness on the Edge of Town—“The Promised Land” and “Badlands”—bookended the hits dominating the last third of the show before encores that featured just one other song from this century, “The Rising” (which is 14 years old by now).
Encores don’t mean much here—the stage is so vast it barely makes sense to leave it and return, so after a pause and a slight change of mood with “Secret Garden” there were “Jungleland” and “Born to Run” played all over the stadium, an oldie cover “Seven Nights to Rock” to increase the houselights-on party atmosphere, and what’s turned into the invitation dance party of “Dancing in the Dark,” the Clarence Clemons tribute of “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out,” and the remarkable crowd participation of “Shout.”
Often his shows this year have ended there—and his James Brown in a cape tribute suggested that it should have. But he had one nostalgic thanks for the Washington audience, “Bobby Jean,” and a heartfelt thanks for supporting his music all these years—years he had just revisited with us all.
SETLIST
New York City Serenade
Summertime Blues
Sherry Darling
No Surrender
Growin’ Up
It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City
Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?
Spirit in the Night
Lost in the Flood
Kitty’s Back
Incident on 57th Street
Rosalita
Night
Trapped
Better Days
The Promised Land
American Skin (41 Shots)
Hungry Heart
Out in the Street
Darlington County
Working on the Highway
Downbound Train
I’m on Fire
Because the Night
The Rising
Badlands
ENCORE 1
Secret Garden
Jungleland
Born to Run
Seven Nights to Rock
Dancing in the Dark
Tenth Avenue Freeze-out
Shout
ENCORE 2
Bobby Jean
