I love going to opening and closing nights of Springsteen tours.
The last night is always a loose yet polished emotional marathon full of wild cards and rarities; the first night is short, tight, and safe–but equally unpredictable, since no one yet knows what to expect.
At this opening show of the 2016 River Tour, I certainly wouldn’t have expected this: a 3-1/2 hour, 34-song extravaganza to rival the best final-leg shows. It was certainly the best tour opener I’d ever seen.
Even though the show was advertised as revolving around a full album performance of The River, I still couldn’t believe that I’d just witnessed “Drive All Night,” “Stolen Car” “The Price You Pay,” “Fade Away,” “Point Blank,” “Crush on You” and more–all in a single show.
I’ve seen shows with complete album sets before, and usually they’re a novelty, an engaging mid-set detour. The River, though, is different–not just because of its length (20 songs is pretty close to 2/3 of a show), but also because Bruce has often described how he sequenced the album to mirror the roller coaster of his live shows, and sure enough: it translated perfectly.
“Meet Me in the City” was a fun, fresh opener (at this show, at least–as the tour progressed, it wouldn’t hold up anywhere near as well as the album, and I came to appreciate why it was left off).
Gone were the backup singers and horns from recent tours; this was the core E Street Band, as powerful as ever. Jake now fully assumed his late uncle’s role, and as the only horn on stage, when he stepped forward for his first solo (watch the video below), the sustained roar of the crowd was an embrace, an acknowledgement, and a welcome into the role he’d earned over the past few years.
Album highlights included the always majestic “Drive All Night,” the wonderful new/old arrangement of “I Wanna Marry You,” the silliness of “Crush on You,” and the powerful “Stolen Car.” “Cadillac Ranch” into “I’m a Rocker” has to be the most fun back-to-back combo in Bruce’s songbook.
The surprises came after the album set. Now twenty-one songs in, I was sure Bruce would play only a couple more, as he did the only other time he’d played the full album. But instead he played seven more songs in the main set. And while it was essentially a “greatest hits” mini-set, who could fault getting “Backstreets,” “Thunder Road,” “Brilliant Disguise,” and “Because the Night” in the same show as a full album set as The River?
And if the encore was mostly predictable, there was at least a one-time-only highlight: in memory of the recently passed David Bowie, Bruce kicked off the encores with a cover of “Rebel Rebel” that had the entire arena singing along in an emotional tribute.
Altogether, this show gave me nine(!) personal premieres–not bad for a retro-themed show. And although Bruce’s tours often evolve significantly from their humble beginnings, I couldn’t begin to imagine the epic victory leg that would cap this tour eight months later.
For a tour that originally seemed like a brief lark, it would evolve into a career summation that would include some of his longest-ever shows.
But that was further on up the road.
