It's 'Magic': Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band back with album and tour

Beloved, no question.
Great stage presence.
Very average player, though.

 

Re: It's 'Magic': Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band back with album and to

I'm a huge Bruce fan and I have to agree (I think a lot of others would too).

He doesn't really try anything too difficult, but it's not really the genre for it.

 

He's still the baddest man in the whole damn town.

 

I didn't really care for that particular song. I hope the rest of the album is better. And I LIKE the Seeger stuff.

 

Re: It's 'Magic': Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band back with album and to

The Seeger stuff was artistic self-indulgence which went on for 2 years, about 20 months too long.

As Web-released mp3s, like the Dead and Pearl Jam do with just about every concert, the Seeger stuff would have been fine.

Devoting two years of your performing career to it, when you're in your late 50s, seemed a little much.

Yes yes yes I know Pete Seeger was important, influential, socially significant, politically relevant, etc etc etc. I know all that.

The only thing is, he isn't as important, influential, socially significant, politically relevant, etc etc etc. as Bruce Springsteen. Never was, never will be. The world needs new Bruce Springsteen songs more than it needs Pete Seeger's songs sung for the eleventy-thousandth time.

 

"Artistic self-indulgence"
As opposed to playing "Rosalita" for the 25000th time, I guess, or letting The Big Man blow middle-school Junior Walker riffs over new lyrics about cars.
I'd say if Springsteen thought Seeger was important enough to devote one album and a couple of years touring to his music, I'll take his word for it over know-nothing, faux-proletarian outrage, I think.

 

Re: It's 'Magic': Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band back with album and to

Bruce Springsteen's last song about cars was "Pink Cadillac," 1984.

Try to keep up.

 

On the Big Man -- in the early days of the band, he was spectacular. Since BITUSA, he's really let his playing go. At this point, we cheer the idea of him more than his actual playing. If not for Patti, he'd be the weakest link in the band by a mile. But I can't imagine an ESB concert without him on the stage. In many ways, the band is the Born to Run cover -- him and Bruce.

On the Seeger Sessions -- I thought that it was a great idea. From 1999 through 2003, Bruce and the ESB basically played shows with very similar structures -- I should know, I was at 45 of them. By the time that the last leg of the Rising tour rolled around, there were moments of greatness, but there were a lot of times when they were going through the motions. How many times can you do Badlands with the crowd singing, Little Stevie singing the last verse at the center mike and doing the reprise on the guitar? How many times can you slide across the stage during Waiting on a Sunny Day?

So, he mixes it up with different sounds. The Devils and Dust tour was an excellent idea that worked far more often than it failed. He was on stage alone for two hours playing a bunch of different instruments and the shows rushed by. Maria's Bed, Long Time Comin' and especially The Promised Land were stunning songs in that format.

And then, he decides to do the Seeger Session. He wasn't trying to be Pete Seeger -- he was trying to do a completely new show. Singalong music. 20 musicians. Violins, horns, pedal guitar. Those shows were as fun as anything which he's ever done. He played with some great musicians and was able to do some new things. Sure, some of the arrangements of his older songs were iffy. But songs like "Pay Me", "John Henry" and "My Oklahoma Home" were great. He was able to throw in the political with "Mrs. McGrath". And he even wrote his best song in 10 years -- the new version of "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times (and Live)", which was more of a tribute to Pete Seeger than anything on the CD.

With this album and tour, he'll have come out with three different CDs and three tours in completely different styles in three years. Not bad for a soon to be 58-year old who could have rested on his laurels and played "Glory Days" instead.

 

Artistic self-indulgence = Songs I Don't Like.
Apparently.

 

US Tour Dates -- per Backstreets:

Date Venue City On Sale
Oct 2 Hartford Civic Center Hartford, CT Sept 8
Oct 5 Wachovia Center Philadelphia, PA Sept 8
Oct 9 Continental Airlines Arena East Rutherford, NJ Sept 10
Oct 10 Continental Airlines Arena East Rutherford, NJ Sept 10
Oct 14 Civic Centre Ottawa, ON Sept 17
Oct 15 Air Canada Centre Toronto, ON Sept 17
Oct 17 Madison Square Garden New York, NY Sept 10
Oct 18 Madison Square Garden New York, NY Sept 10
Oct 21 United Center Chicago, IL Sept 8
Oct 26 Oracle Arena Oakland, CA Sept 15
Oct 28 Venue TBA Los Angeles, CA TBA
Nov 2 Xcel Energy Center St. Paul, MN Sept 22
Nov 4 Quicken Loans Arena Cleveland, OH Sept 15
Nov 5 Palace of Auburn Hills Auburn Hills, MI Sept 21
Nov 11 Verizon Arena Washington DC Sept 21
Nov 14 Mellon Arena Pittsburgh, PA Sept 14
Nov 15 Times Union Center Albany, NY Sept 8
Nov 18 TD Banknorth Garden Boston, MA Sept 22

 

They got it from the official press release:
http://shorefire.com/index.php?a=pressrelease&o=1279

 

The question now is will the wife let me go to 7 shows (Hartford, Philly, 2 NJ, 2 MSG, Pittsburgh)