Springsteen Show In Jersey Is A Religious Experience
July 28, 2008 - Giants Stadium, Rutherford, NJ
Giants Stadium. Dusk. The house lights flicker, then fade. Carnival music wafts from the PA.
The E Street Band emerges: Little Steven, Patti, Clarence. A spotlight burns a white-hot line through the summer haze. A figure ascends: rounded shoulders, unruly mane. A cheer rises up.
“Bruuuuuuce!!!”
Springsteen returns the greeting.
“New Jersey!” he yells into the microphone. “New Jersey!! Newww Jerseyyy!!!”
And then it happens, the countdown that’s launched a million songs.
“1, 2, 3, 4!!!”
The band catapults into “Out In The Street,” accelerating from zero to sixty in less than two measures.
Springsteen is smiling from the word go. He’s sweating by the second chorus, jabbing at his Fender, strutting and posturing and posing.
“Is there anyone alive out there?” he asks. “Is there anyone alive?”
Nils Lofgrin tears into “Radio Nowhere.”
It’s on.
Later, in the third verse of “No Surrender,” the bands falls back into the shadows. The lights go black and blue. Sprinsgteen stands alone in the spotlight, his solitude punctuating his lyrics.
“There’s a war outside still ragin’/ And it ain’t ours anymore to win.”
This is Bruce Springsteen at 58 years old: outspoken, unstoppable and dexterous. A whirling dervish with a throat full of gospel truths.
As the band moves effortlessly from “Hungry Heart” to “Summertime Blues” it dawns on me: This is a revival. This is Bruce’s church. We are his congregation.
“All right!” he wails like a preacher. “All right!!!”
He steps into the crowd, reaches out and touches his audience. He lays his hands on them. He heals them.
Later, I get chills singing along to “Tunnel of Love.”
“Oughta be easy, oughta be simple enough,” we sing together.
“Man meets woman and they fall in love/ But the house is haunted and the ride gets rough/ We have to learn to live with what we can’t rise above.”
Goose bumps race up my arms. I am dancing in the aisle, holding onto my wife and crying.
At a rock show.
Patti leans in for the last verse of “Because the Night.” The couple sing just inches apart from one another. I stand there grinning, loving her because she’s not perfect, because she’s not Hollywood. I root for them.
Nils rips into the solo, staggering and spinning across the stage, then crescendoing into a hands-free front-flip. My mouth is agape.
Bruce introduces “Living in the Future” with a not-so-subtle diatribe on the Bush administration. The crowd grows chillier, but the Boss persists.
“Torture, wiretapping — these are things that are supposed to happen someplace else,” he says. “This is a song about sleeping through the changes in your own hometown that you never thought you’d see.”
Afterward, the fire and brimstone continues.
“When I get down to that river of joy,” he says from New Jersey’s largest pulpit. “I’m gonna make a beautiful noise. But I can’t make that noise alone! Are you with me?”
This is it: Faith and sex and God in the belly of Babylon by the Hudson. This is the Church of Bruce, and I am born again.
“Who’ll be the last to die for a mistake?” he asks, then resolves, “It’s gonna be a long walk home.” Keyboardist Roy Bittan’s part sounds like a dusty, old church organ. It is a hopeful eulogy.
Maybe we’re not so young anymore. But we are all singing, all 60,000 of us.
Together.
“Show a little faith,” we sing. “There’s magic in the night.”
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July 29th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Great show, Bruce rules Jersey. Of all the great armies of rock fans, few can match the devotion of Bruce Springsteen’s. Anyone who has experienced Springsteen in concert will testify that the bond between audience and artist transcends the usual adulation. Something magical, almost mystical happens. Some might describe it as spiritual-most definitely it is life affirming. It is in trying to nail this phenomenon that the beautiful hardbound For You has arrived.
Edited by Lawrence Kirsch and replete with an amazing welter of outstanding photographs, it’s a mind-blowing collection of thoughts and stories from fans of every age and many nations, each explaining why Springsteen occupies such an important place in their hearts. Covering all four decades of Springsteen’s career it is possibly the ultimate fanzine for it is the fans who have made the journey and whose words tell us as much about them as they do about Springsteen. The warmth and humanity that flows from every page is truly moving and provides a beacon of hope from which we can all draw strength in these hard times. Not a book to be read at one sitting but rather to revisit and enjoy over time.