Where the Band Was: St. Paul, February 29, 2016

Happy Leap Day!

During the first year of this blog, I shared  my Springsteen concert memories on the anniversary date of each and every show I attended.

All but one, that is.

On February 29, 2016, I was fortunate to be in St. Paul for work during the week that Bruce Springsteen’s River Tour came through town, and I was doubly lucky to score a ticket.

I’ve been sitting on my review of that show ever since, waiting for the first anniversary date to roll around so I could post it. Today’s that day: the one-leap-year anniversary of Bruce’s third-ever and last-ever (to date) Leap Day show.

Here’s the review I originally wrote–might not be worth the build-up, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. (with thanks to YouTube user LOV2ROK2VINYL for filming pretty much the entire show!)

Springsteen fans who see a lot of shows dread the “standard set.”

It’s so easy to get spoiled with the rarities, wild cards, and spontaneity of recent tours and expect it every time. But with only twelve to fourteen flexible slots per show on this tour (the other twenty are set in stone every night), odds are sooner or later you’re gonna get a show where you’ve heard every song multiple times.

That’s what I got last night. That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy myself tremendously, though–after all, I already knew going in what the first 21 songs would be.

Plus, it was Leap Day! There was something special in the air, and even Bruce noticed it… even if he (like we) weren’t quite sure what exactly it was that was so special about it. He gave it a shot, though–his intro to “I Wanna Marry You” was head-scratchingly funny, especially when he took the train right off the track into a complete wreck.

And of course, the final sequence of songs from “Fade Away” through “Wreck on the Highway” remains one of my favorite albums sequences ever. I could listen to those songs again and again and again.

I’d held out hope that in the brief post-album mini-set, I’d get a rare chestnut or two. But it wasn’t to be last night–instead, Bruce gave us terrific performances of songs I’d seen many, many times before, from “Badlands” through “Thunder Road.” It’s pretty tough to complain about that.

Still, even though the performances were great, the crowd was one of the most energetic of the tour to date, and the River set continued to grow in its majesty, I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed as the encores started and I realized I wouldn’t be getting any surprises at all.

But then I reminded myself that the first set was full of songs I hadn’t heard before last month, and as Bruce launched into “Born to Run” and “Bobby Jean,” I watched the crowd go nuts and surrendered to the vibe, and that’s when the magic started.

Bruce always brings someone up on stage to dance with him during “Dancing in the Dark,” usually a young woman. But last night, Bruce invited both an elderly woman and a young girl–and both of their expressions (especially the bewildered girl who was presented with a guitar she had no idea what to do with) were priceless. I love those moments at a Springsteen show–you never know exactly when one’s coming, but you always know–at every show–that one will.

It was spontaneous and heart-warming, and the crowd roared its approval and didn’t stop until well after the last song ended and the band left the stage.

Bruce rewarded the crowd with a rare (this tour at least), unplanned performance of “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” resurrecting the Clarence and Danny tribute video from the Wrecking Ball tour.

And as the final bars faded with Clarence looking on, I was reminded that the performance is only half of what makes a show special–the other half is the crowd.

When Bruce launched into the show-closing cover of “Shout,” I looked around for the mass exodus that usually happens at that point, with frequent concert-goers making a beeline for the exits so they can beat the crowds… but no one moved. No one.

The standard set kept the audience riveted to the very end, and that’s a beautiful thing in its own right.