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Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Sunday night
Scotiabank Arena
RATING: **** (four out of four)
*****
Anyone who saw the 2024 documentary, Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, debut at TIFF back in September or subsequently on Disney+ will be able to appreciate the thought and care The Boss put into his current tour.
Between the band rehearsals and developing the set list, the film basically showed you “how the sausage is made,” as Springsteen himself quipped at the film’s opening night at Roy Thomson Hall.
Fast forward a few months and Toronto fans got The Boss and the E Street Band back in the flesh performing a rousing version of that show on Sunday night at Scotiabank Arena, a more bittersweet evening than the usually exuberant previous treks, as the 75-year-old Springsteen explained he’d lost the last remaining member of the earlier band he joined when was just 15 and learning to play the guitar.
Springsteen realized he was the Last Man Standing of the group members, also the name of one of 27 songs performed to a sold-out crowd of giddy audience members screaming, “BRUUUUUUCE,” for three hours.
“Grief is the price we pay for having loved well,” he summed up perfectly.
Also missing in action was Springsteen’s wife-vocalist-guitarist Patti Scialfa who revealed in the documentary that she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2018 and has to be selective about which live shows she can perform at for obvious reasons.
The good news is that Springsteen was backed by no less than 17 musicians on a stripped-down stage with four large video screens to help everyone see what was happening including on a smaller stage along the front of the general admission audience which made up about a third of the floor.
Opening with She’s The One – which some took as an ode to Kamala Harris – Springsteen invited a lot of interplay early on with his trademark shout, “C’mon!’ to such band members as saxophonist Jake Clemons and guitarists Stephen Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren who were all given their turns in the spotlight to wild cheers and applause.
By the time such crowd-pleasers as The Promised Land and Hungry Heart rolled around the audience was firmly on their feet and pretty much stayed there as the rarity If I Was The Priest – which Springsteen said he wrote 50 years ago – followed by Youngstown were performed.
“We’ve got a big day coming on Tuesday – pray for us,” said Springsteen, referring to the U.S. election.
He next introduced Long Walk Home as “a small prayer for my country.”
Springsteen also did justice to the Commodores’ Night Shift, Because The Night – which he wrote he wrote with Patti Smith for whom it became a hit – and Twist and Shout and his own Backstreets, The Rising, Badlands (which saw The Boss finally toss off his vest although he kept on his tie) and Thunder Road which wrapped up the set before two encores.
As is tradition, Springsteen kept the lights up on the audience for the entire first encore with such singalong highlights as Born To Run, Dancing In The Dark, Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out (with photos of late sax player Jake Clemons and organist Danny Federici shown on the screens while The Boss walked through the crowd during the latter tune) – before The Boss returned alone on his acoustic guitar and harmonica for the poignant I’ll See You in My Dreams with the lights back down.
Springsteen and the E Steet Band play their second Toronto show on Wednesday night at Scotiabank Arena.
*****
SET LIST
She’s the One
Prove It All Night
Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?
Ghosts
Sherry Darling
Letter to You
The Promised Land
Hungry Heart
If I Was the Priest
Youngstown
Long Walk Home
The E Street Shuffle
Nightshift
Last Man Standing
Backstreets
Because the Night
Wrecking Ball
The Rising
Badlands
Thunder Road
ENCORE:
Meeting Across the River
Jungleland
Born to Run
Bobby Jean
Dancing in the Dark
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
Twist and Shout
SECOND ENCORE:
I’ll See You in My Dreams