Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: Live at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Aug. 24, 2008

I don’t think there’s a bigger fan of rock & roll music than Bruce Springsteen. It probably helps that he’s one of rock music’s biggest stars, but seeing him last night at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis he looked as genuinely excited to be there as everyone else in the stadium.

The show started an hour late, and as I sat in my $70 seat sipping on my $8 Bud Light I had plenty of time to speculate on what song he’d open with. “Tenth Avenue Freeze-out” perhaps, or “The Promised Land,” or even “The E Street Shuffle”; I was giddy with anticipation. What I was not expecting, however, was a cover of the Crystals’ “Then He Kissed Me.” While a 1963 girl group hit seems like an odd choice for a group of street tough Jersey boys to play, it felt like a completely natural part of their set: Max Weinberg laid down the rudimentary blocks on his drumset, while the four guitarists, two pianists, and lone bass and brass players built the song up to the appropriate Phil Spector-ish wall of sound. More tellingly, it was the first of many covers that marked the start of Rock & Roll History 101 with Prof. Springsteen.

“Then She Kissed Me”

The band then jumped 40 years forward with “Radio Nowhere,” one of my favorites off last year’s Magic, in part because it sounds so much like vintage Springsteen. In fact, the whole evening sounded like vintage Springsteen, as if the youth and passion that had once made the E Street Band such legendary performers had never left them. For the entirety of the three-and-a-half hour performance, Bruce never ceased to amaze with his on-stage antics, outdoing rockers a third his age. He would sprint across the stage and slide down on his knees; jump back up and do a quick succession of head-high Rockettes assembly line kicks; swing his Fender Esquire around his entire torso, catch it, and proceed to lay into an impassioned lead solo. Unfuckingbelievable. I pulled a groin muscle just watching him.

“Adam Raised a Cain”

After a particularly theatrical version of “Spirit in the Night,” in which the Boss slumped around like a beatnik pantomine and plucked a blonde boy out of the audience to sing the chorus on his lap, Bruce went around shouting “Hey!” and stealing away fans’ homemade signs. “What is he doing,” asked my friend, “Has he gone senile?” Reasonable enough question, but it turns out that’s the Boss’s makeshift suggestion box. He’d rifle through the signs until he found one with a song on it that he wanted to play, and he’d play it, even if it was something he hadn’t done in over 30 years, like the cover of “Mountain of Love,” which Johnny Rivers had a hit with back in 1964 (and strangely reminds me of the Replacements’ “Waitress in the Sky”).

For a band as lauded as the E Street Band, it’s hard to review a show of theirs without sounding like a broken record. What’s there to say that hasn’t been said before? The set was incredibly long, the band was incredibly tight, and the whole show was, well, incredible. But as my first concert experience with the Boss, I got a kick out of seeing these things for the first time: Bruce and Little Stevie Van Zandt sharing the microphone like good ol’ buddies on “Backstreets”; watching the band show their influences on songs like “She’s the One” by starting it out with a verse from Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away”; listening to Bruce’s garbled political messaging before “Livin’ in the Future” (something about extraordinary rendition and illegal wiretapping, I couldn’t hear but I think he was in favor of it); witnessing Bruce channel the energy of a fire-breathing Baptist preacher before a rousing, ten-minute version of “Mary’s Place”; watching the Big Man, Clarence Clemons, sit on his enormous throne throughout half the set as he waited for his cue to toot his horn (seriously, this plush throne he had was larger than Max’s drum set). The set ended with a triumphant rendition of “Badlands,” off 1978′s Darkness on the Edge of Town.

But even the main set, as rousing/anthemic/legendary/[insert hyperbolic adjective here] as it was, was no match for the encores. It started with “Girls In Their Summer Clothes” and I think Bruce learned the hard way that not enough people in the audience bought Magic, because when he let the crowd sing the first chorus it was uncomfortably silent. But when Roy Bittan began twinkling the ivories on the next song, the man in front of me began losing his shit. “It’s not…? Is it? Ohmygod, yes, it’s… YESSS!!!” The word he was looking for was “Jungleland,” and yes, it warranted that kind of reception. Bruce and the Band could do wrong by this point, so when they launched into the Detroit Medley (“Devil in a Blue Dress”/”Good Golly, Miss Molly”/”CC Rider”/”Jenny”/”Devil” redux) that they’ve been doing since the ’70s the excitement went into overdrive.

Detroit Medley – 1975, Hammersmith Odeon, London

Immediately afterwards the Boss counted down to “Born To Run,” which of course caused everyone to go collectively apeshit. Not even letting up after that, the E Street gang started “Dancing in the Dark,” during which I could’ve sworn that Springsteen was looking at me. “Hey! You up there, 200 rows back in the mezzanine level!” “Who, me?” “Yeah you! Get down here and dance with me, Bruce Springsteen, on the stage. We’ll keep the beat going strong while you take the escalators down!” Alas, such was not my luck and instead he brought up some young blonde girl who was probably in her diapers when Courtney Cox first appeared on Friends. Pssh. She didn’t even know she was supposed to dance up there.

He ended with “American Land,” “Thunder Road” (sooo good), and his “final” audience request, a cover of “Little Queenie,” written by St. Louis’ favorite son, Chuck Berry. I loved it. But what makes Bruce Springsteen such a great performer, aside from his natural charisma, innate musical talent, and all-American storytelling faculties, is that he always gives 101 percent of himself. Even if a song is technically over, he’ll keep it going for another chorus or two just because it feels right. So even though the extended, six-minute version of “Little Queenie” should have been the end of the show, he knew that the audience needed just a little bit more, just one more cherry on top, so with no sign of exhaustion at all, Springsteen and the E Street Band played one more Phil Spector produced hit, “Twist and Shout.” And with that, my night was complete.

Head on over to A to Z for another great review of the show, complete with professional-looking photos and other goodies. Setlist below, modified from brucespringsteen.net.

SETLIST
Then She Kissed Me [Tour Premiere—Crystals cover. First since 1975]
Radio Nowhere
Out In The Street
Adam Raised A Cain
Spirit In The Night
Rendezvous
For You
Mountain Of Love [Tour Premiere—Harold Dorman/Johnny Rivers cover. First since 1975]
Backstreets
Gypsy Biker
Because The Night
Not Fade Away/She’s The One
Livin’ In The Future
Cover Me
Mary’s Place
Drive All Night
The Rising
Last To Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands

Encore(s):
Girls In Their Summer Clothes
Jungleland
Detroit Medley (Devil in a Blue Dress/Good Golly, Miss Molly/CC Rider/Jenny)
Born To Run
Dancing In The Dark
American Land
Thunder Road
Little Queenie [Tour Premiere—Chuck Berry cover. Ultra rare]
Twist And Shout