Bruce Springsteen returned to Madison Square Garden last night with his stunning three hour show, the same lesson in democracy and empathy he’s been delivering the last few weeks.
If nothing else, the show — which I last saw on April 21st in Newark — has grown richer and more textured as the famed E Street Band has found grooves no one expects and executes them with soulful precision.
As before, the show begins with Springsteen stating the theme of the night — a rebuke of Donald Trump’s cruel and sociopathic administration, accompanied by a denouncement of ICE and a memorial to the two people killed in Minneapolis — Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
The Garden holds about 20,000 people, and you would think by now any of them there last night were on the same page politically with Springsteen. Can there be anyone left who just wants to hear “Born to Run” and “Dancing in the Dark” but are pro-Trump?
And yet there were two ultra wealthy moguls — one from media, the other from sports — sitting just above me. Toward the end of the show, Bruce makes his final pitch for humanity. But these two — who I will not name, because it’s not important — simply ignored it. I watched while one chomped away at some food, and the other just closed his eyes. They were there to hear “Hungry Heart.”
At one point, I saw Bruce’s friend, Jon Bon Jovi, who looked bewildered by his company, lean over and (I imagine) explain to one of these guys what the heck this all meant.
The experience of watching all this was quite a statement about the divide in America. Bruce was trying to address this to the other 19,998 souls who thunderously voiced their support and agreement with the singer’s brave plea to stand up to the oppression and political terror we face every day.
Watching these guys made me only that much more enthralled by Springsteen’s energy and determination to not let us lose our country.
Musically, the show was airtight. Seeing it a second time meant really getting to enjoy how Stevie van Zandt runs the stage, and handles his guitar. He is really exceptional. The same can be said for Nils Lofgren — who’s a spinning top during his solos — and guest player Tom Morello. Max Weinberg — I always want to do a health check after these shows to see if he’s survived. His drumming is ferocious. Jake Clemons continues to make his late uncle Clarence beaming in heaven.
Springsteen remains a modern miracle. For three hours he commands the most famous music venue in the world. In Newark, with a smaller room, he adjusted to a slightly more intimate setting. But at the Garden Bruce opens up the band full throttle and never takes his foot off the pedal. There is nary a break between songs. As he lands one like a jumbo jet, the next one is being counted down for take off.
The highlights — “Streets of Minneapolis” and “American Skin” are so important because they underscore Bruce’s message in the most engaging way. They aren’t lectures, but reports on how we are barely surviving. The pop songs — “Two Hearts,” “Hungry Heart” — are the welcome relief. The covers — “War” and “Welcome to the Clampdown” — re-balance the protest.
The show is titled “Land of Hope and Dreams: No Kings.” The song that inspired it is itself infused with Curtis Mayfield’s hopeful “People Get Ready,” which the Band acknowledges in a stirring tribute. The show ends with covers of Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie classics — “Chimes of Freedom” and “This Land is Your Land” — that answer the proclamation of the opener three hours earlier — “War, what is it good for?”
PS It’s not all serious, you know. Bruce still dances up a storm, shimmies across the stage and into the audience as if he were three decades younger.
Here’s the speech that the two moguls — people who’ve done damage to this country morally and financially — just ignored. Let’s win them over by making them hear it again.
