Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - USA & Europe 2023 tour

Because he was touring behind the weakest albums of his career with a group of polished studio pros instead of one of the best, most influential bands in rock history?

 

Not sure how this thread became a Rod Stewart thread, but what the hell. I loved Rod Stewart, and first saw him when I was 14 years old, on Faces' last stand with Tetsu Yamauchi on bass and Jesse Ed Davis on second guitar. They were loose and a bit sloppy, but with Ian Mac's rolling piano and Ronnie playing gorgeous fills, the music just moved. It was a fantastic performance by a magnificent band, with Rod singing his heart out, and one I will always remember. Over the years, I've seen him a few times, with increasingly polished and increasingly anonymous backing bands. They were good shows, but Rod only seemed to be fully invested in his vocals when playing with others he respected, like his astonishingly great Unplugged performance, when he joined Jeff Beck on stage a few years ago, or any of the times Ronnie Wood would lug his Zemaitis guitar on stage for "Maggie May" or "Stay With Me."

I've seen clips of Rod with his Vegas showline of guys in dinner jackets and long legged horn players in spangle mini-skirts. I would never step place in whatever supper club they happen to be playing. Thank God that Bruce, after a decade or so of wandering, realized that the E Street Band is one of the greatest bands in rock history, and he is their lead vocalist. It makes a difference.

 

Scripted. Exactly.

The Shrine shows, and Joad didn’t seem scripted. Neither was a “full-on rock concert.”
Springsteen choose to make Broadway scripted. Nothing says it had to be scripted.

And he was on auto pilot, which negatively impacted the quality of the show.

 

All true, but I would still say it counts.

 

the Other Band were not Toto. They were unknowns.

 

Of course it was scripted, all Broadway shows are. That was the whole point of it. It wasn't a musical solo concert, it was a Broadway show. He was doing something different.

 

I saw them in 93 in Europe. Not as good as E St Band possibly, but it was a very good show. Remember at the time it was thought the E St band was done for good, so we didn't know this would be a brief break from that as far as live shows with a band were concerned

 

I have never seen a music performer take over a crowd the way Depeche Mode’s David Gahan can take over an arena audience. I don’t particularly like Depeche Mode, but I have seen a number of their concerts and Gahan is the most commanding frontman I have ever seen. Eddie was great at one time, haven’t seen Pearl Jam forever. I suppose Freddie Mercury would have beat them all, including Springsteen.

 

It was somewhere in middle. They weren’t “unknowns”. Lone Justice the B-52’s and the Billy Joel/John cougar bands were established acts.

On the other hand, none were anywhere near cream of the crop A list musicians you might expect an artist of Bruce Springsteens caliber to get. I remember first seeing the lineup and thinking “jeez, that’s really the best he could get?”

 

Well generally speaking, that's the nature of all Broadway theater. It just doesn't change.

Complaining about Bruce's static Broadway setlist and stories is like complaining that the "setlist" and dialogue for Hamilton is the same every night.

Obviously, that format was not for you. Sorry you didn't enjoy it more.

 

It's a bit of a leap, as he doesn't sing, but Doc Z's post said "rock performer". So.......Angus Young.

 

Wouldn't call them that-- Shayne Fontaine was pretty much a band guy (CSN's band sure got livelier when he joined), and Crystal came from Mellencamp's band. And Roy was Roy. It was a really good band, just lacked the years of shared experience ESB had.

 

Also not a big fan of la Mode, saw them live once and was pretty disappointed given their reputation. Was fairly subdued actually, maybe I caught them on an off night.

If you are rating rock's best frontmen then Jagger has to be in there too

 

I was most surprised by the drumming choice. I mean…Zac Alford?? When there were guys like Jim Keltner, Steve Ferrone, Russ Kunkel, Steve Jordan etc etc around..

 

Yet remarkably the same night after night. The original post I responded to remarked that Bruce had never "mailed it in" and I said he did on Broadway, which is a lot easier to do when you are beholden to a script night after night and treat it like a job. As Springsteen said, "This is my first real job." Bruce Springsteen on Broadway: The Boss on His ‘First Real Job’ - The New York Times (nytimes.com) The show came off as someone working, instead of the liberating celeberation of a concert. Hence my disagreement that Springsteen never "mailed it in."

 

Well, it wasnt a concert, there was more talk than music. It was a performance like all others on Broadway. Are all those performers and actors "mailing it in" or giving great performances night after night?

 

No need to apologize. I saw both Christic shows up close and a lot of other legendary Srpingsteen concerts.

"Complaining about Bruce's static Broadway setlist and stories is like complaining that the "setlist" and dialogue for Hamilton is the same every night" if Lin-Manuel Miranda was almost universally known for 51-year music recording and concert career and was regarded as one of the greatest rock and roll recording and performance artists before Hamilton opened. Your analogy is abasmyl.

 

You don't think he was yelling in the Darkness and BITUSA tours?
I think his singing got better, more varied.

 

Depends on the actor and show, it should go without saying. "It was a performance like all others on Broadway" is a ridiculous assertion. I've seen plenty of dynamic off-broadway and broadway shows where the actors where in the moment and it felt like they were living the role instead of acting, or performing. I've see other off-broadway and broadway shows that fell flat, the actors performing instead of living the moment. This shouldn't be controversial. Springsteen's Broadway reflected the later. If you enjoyed it, you enjoyed. I and other fans didn't.

 

Most fans loved it. I found it a very moving experience. Not a typical Springsteen show by any means, but I think the suggestion that as it didn't vary makes it automatically inferior is a false one. It was just different.

There are thousands of other concerts he has done that are unpredictable, unscripted, but possibly not as much as one thinks. Every show has a structure. Maybe he varied it 5 or 10% every night on Broadway, don't know. Went once loved it, have never watched or listened to it since. Once was enough

 

Don't ever, ever call Lucky Town a weak album.

 

Maybe you had to be there but the one shown on Netflix was underwhelming to me.
Some of the songs were tired to me, and he wasn't doing great renditions of them.
I skipped quite a few and just listened to his commentary in between.
Great idea, he had, special kind of show.
Too bad most couldn't afford to attend.

 

I've seen Bruce 51 times and never did I see a weak show. Some of them may have been "good" because of my preferences in the set list, but most of them were outstanding. IMO, he's a top notch performer who gives his all. My fave show was probably closing night at the Meadowlands August 20, 1984 with Little Steven and the Miami Horns.

 

the drummer and bass player for the Other Band tour, were less than stellar. to say the least.
guitar player not far behind. but, why ditch the E Street because you want to try new things and then have
a mediocre band go out and try to do E Street? i think a lot had to do with finances.

 

Alford was good enough for Bowie to hire him a few years later.