Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band made a triumphant return to Washington, DC Saturday night, performing at Nationals Park to a massive, elated crowd. This was one of several postponed dates originally scheduled for 2023 but put off so Springsteen could attend to health issues. DC was glad to have him back.
Nats Park was crammed to capacity with fans, and it was an amazing night. Having a few drinks and yell-singing “Thunder Road” with 40,000 or so strangers was just the experience I needed. Hell, from the looks of it, it’s what we all needed.
Bruce Springsteen & the E Street band need no opening act. For one thing, they have a back catalog to die for and there is just too much to get to, and it seems like they really could play all night if allowed. Besides that, who would dare open for Springsteen?
It was showtime at about 7:40PM. Bruce and the gang took the stage one by one to massive cheers, with the stadium erupting when the Boss himself appeared. The set kicked off with “Seeds,” a song Springsteen has played live a billion times, even though it’s never had an official release.
From there it was three full hours—29 songs—of rock and roll glory. With a discography like Springsteen’s, three hours of material is merely the tip of the iceberg. There’s lots of room to mix up a setlist while keeping enough of the hits in there to keep everyone happy.
Saturday night, the selections were, overall, weighted in favor of a couple of Springsteen’s standout 1970s albums—Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town. The rest of the set was comprised of sprinklings from other albums. The first half of the show felt introspective and somewhat low key, and included songs like “Youngstown,” from The Ghost of Tom Joad and “Ghosts,” from the critically acclaimed Letter to You (2020).
The back half of the show was a Boss-led rock and roll party, the kind fans know to expect from him. We had the aforementioned “Thunder Road,” “Badlands,” “Dancing in the Dark,” among others. The band went from one song to the next with barely time to breathe. The Boss bantered with the crowd and made his way down to the rail, and we all envied the fans up front who got to be near the rock giant. As the night went on, the crowd got more lubricated, and the party intensified, with literal dancing in the aisles.
It was a setlist that, when you step back, made a lot of sense. Much has been made of the fact that Springsteen turns 75 years old this month. He sounds great and performs with an impressive amount of energy. I go to my share of shows, and I don’t know anyone else who can play for three hours, at any age. But obviously Springsteen is at a different place in his life now and the setlist reflects that.
One could argue that he’s telling us a story about his own life through his choice of songs on this tour. From the very earliest days of his career, and the expression of youthful hopes of love and sex in “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” all the way to “Last Man Standing” and the show ending “I’ll See You in My Dreams,” both from Letter to You, an album praised for its reflective treatment of aging and death.
I had a conversation with someone who said the show represented “nostalgia” to them. I disagree—on the contrary, this is about a life’s arc. My only regret about the set was that I missed “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” one of my very favorite songs, because I needed to go store my camera equipment after I finished shooting.
Of course, Springsteen is not alone in his endeavors. Backing him as always is the E Street Band, which filled the stage. There are stalwarts like Nils Lofgren and Steve Van Zandt, along with Max Weinberg the notable Jake Clemons, nephew of the late saxophonist Clarence Clemons. The band performed at the high level you’d expect, and they were a delight to watch and listen to as they supported their Boss.
Sure, the crowd skewed older—as Springsteen pointed out, the E Street Band has been around for 50 years, so it’s not surprising. But there were A LOT of younger folks in the audience and even many kids. Everyone shows up for Bruce Springsteen.
As for myself, my Saturday went something like this:
“I’m not going to cry.”
“Why am I crying?”
The emotion of the day hit me like a ton of bricks. After covering concerts for The Vinyl District for the last several years, I have a sincere appreciation for the privilege of having media access to shows. Access is limited, and it’s not guaranteed.
While I am appreciative every time I get approved to cover a show, I admit there are times when there is extra excitement: jumping up and down for Duran Duran, giddy over Judas Priest, thrilled for Myles Kennedy in any band, and deeply thankful for every opportunity to cover my favorite Swedes, Avatar.
I got final approval to cover Bruce Springsteen late last week, and my mind immediately went to logistics—what camera to use, what lenses to bring, what my strategy would be for shooting at Nationals Park, a setting new to my photographic experience. What I forgot to do was wrap by brain around the fact that I’d was about to cover an all-time favorite of mine, an artist I’d literally been listening to since childhood. Springsteen’s work is threaded through every major stage of my life—from a kid in the Chicago suburbs, to seeing Springsteen with my friends in college and graduate school, to popping into his Broadway show as a fully employed adult.
Since the 1970s, Bruce Springsteen, more than most artists in the rock world, has provided a soundtrack to the human experience. If a Mount Rushmore of rock and roll songwriters and performers existed, Springsteen would be on it. Love, loss, working class desperation, simple joy—there are few who can address these themes like Springsteen. Maybe no one else can.
Saturday morning, I watched an old performance of his, from 1978 in Passaic, New Jersey—a black and white recording of “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” some of the best rock songwriting ever recorded. Bruce’s performance at that show was raw, and the honest rage palpable (I recommend looking it up on YouTube). The emotion in that grainy old video still has power, and that’s when the significance of my day hit me, and I started sobbing.
After a few minutes of allowing myself to just feel, I composed myself and got on with doing my job. At the show, I promised myself I’d keep it together and not shed any tears. I kept that promise until the band broke out into “Because the Night,” a gorgeous song first recorded by Patti Smith in the ’70s but co-written by Springsteen. I’d never heard it performed live until Saturday night. I sat in my seat behind the visitors’ dugout at Nats Park and kept very still while my glasses acted as a dam for my tears.
Covering Bruce Springsteen for The Vinyl District is an experience I won’t forget, and I thank the tour for granting me this opportunity. The Boss continues his rescheduled tour dates in the U.S. through this week, culminating (of course) in Asbury Park, NJ on the 15th. At the end of October, he sets off for Canada. Next summer there are a few European dates on the books.
