Mr and Mrs Manchester, can you tell me what time it is? It's Boss-Time!
It's May in Manchester, and the sun is shining. Only for Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band at Old Trafford Cricket Ground, right? And at fifty odd quid for concert ticket and coach fare I truly had paid tha cost to see da Boss. For the first time live in fact, so I can't compare to previous performances, but fansite postings seemed to suggest this was one of his best setlists in recent memory.
There was a heavy concentration on tracks from latest album The Rising as well as earlier stuff from the 70s (including a rare outing of 'Sandy' as a Broocie bonus for the wrinklies), to the exclusion of material from his non-E-Street albums from the 80s and 90s. It was therefore quite a crowdpleasing selection, proving popular with diehards from the early days and more recent converts to his post-9/11 material.
My personal favourites on the night included the title tracks from The Rising (which set the hairs on the back of my head tingling very early on) and Darkness On The Edge Of Town (which has never sounded so good) and I particularly enjoyed the fact he played Candy's Room so soon after hearing Maria McKee's version a few weeks back.
Needless to say, listening to Born To Run in the flesh was a rush, and several false endings later it was all tailed off with the aptly-titled Dancing In The Dark (no Courtney Cox this time, too busy stateside filming cosy Coke commercials with her hubby, presumably).
Bruce and his band played for just over three hours with minimal breaks and commendable levels of energy and enthusiasm. Everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves, and Bruce seemed in good form, exchanging banter with the crowd about the zen properties of cricket (or something), making a happy meal out of the band intros, touting Clarence Clemons as the rightful heir apparent and wooing Patti Scialfa with an impromptu rendition of Madonna's Rescue Me ('works at home!', apparently). By the end of it the band looked almost dead on their feet (the drummer in particular looking max-ed out) which I guess is as it should always be (but rarely is).
Springsteen may never have lived up to his (mis)nomer as 'the future of rock 'n' roll' but then who could? Rock 'n' roll only ever has meaning in the present tense of here and now - you can't shake yer ass to potential. Is he the best live act in the modern era? On tonight's evidence, I'd say only Prince in his pomp could compete.
Related link: Tony at Two Eyes has a pan image and two short avi. clips from the concert available to download from here.
It's May in Manchester, and the sun is shining. Only for Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band at Old Trafford Cricket Ground, right? And at fifty odd quid for concert ticket and coach fare I truly had paid tha cost to see da Boss. For the first time live in fact, so I can't compare to previous performances, but fansite postings seemed to suggest this was one of his best setlists in recent memory.
There was a heavy concentration on tracks from latest album The Rising as well as earlier stuff from the 70s (including a rare outing of 'Sandy' as a Broocie bonus for the wrinklies), to the exclusion of material from his non-E-Street albums from the 80s and 90s. It was therefore quite a crowdpleasing selection, proving popular with diehards from the early days and more recent converts to his post-9/11 material.
My personal favourites on the night included the title tracks from The Rising (which set the hairs on the back of my head tingling very early on) and Darkness On The Edge Of Town (which has never sounded so good) and I particularly enjoyed the fact he played Candy's Room so soon after hearing Maria McKee's version a few weeks back.
Needless to say, listening to Born To Run in the flesh was a rush, and several false endings later it was all tailed off with the aptly-titled Dancing In The Dark (no Courtney Cox this time, too busy stateside filming cosy Coke commercials with her hubby, presumably).
Bruce and his band played for just over three hours with minimal breaks and commendable levels of energy and enthusiasm. Everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves, and Bruce seemed in good form, exchanging banter with the crowd about the zen properties of cricket (or something), making a happy meal out of the band intros, touting Clarence Clemons as the rightful heir apparent and wooing Patti Scialfa with an impromptu rendition of Madonna's Rescue Me ('works at home!', apparently). By the end of it the band looked almost dead on their feet (the drummer in particular looking max-ed out) which I guess is as it should always be (but rarely is).
Springsteen may never have lived up to his (mis)nomer as 'the future of rock 'n' roll' but then who could? Rock 'n' roll only ever has meaning in the present tense of here and now - you can't shake yer ass to potential. Is he the best live act in the modern era? On tonight's evidence, I'd say only Prince in his pomp could compete.
Related link: Tony at Two Eyes has a pan image and two short avi. clips from the concert available to download from here.
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