Life > May 1, 2008

By Jeff Merski | Senior writer

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band made a stop at the Greensboro Coliseum on April 28, and the legendary rockers did not disappoint the crowd, giving the audience a rocking 2 hour 40 minute set of hard rocking music.

click to enlarge

The show started with a video tribute to former E Street Band keyboard player Danny Federici, who died earlier this month after battling skin cancer. After the moving tribute, set to Springsteen’s “Blood Brothers” the band came out with two songs from his tracks compilation, “Roulette” and “Don’t Look Back.” The band started out a little slow on these two songs, but quickly built up the energy and delivered a strong performance on “Radio Nowhere” before bringing out a pair of classics with “Out in the Street” and “The Promised Land” which really fired the crowd up.

Springsteen then brought out a pair of songs from his latest album with the title track “Magic” and “Gypsy Biker.” “Gypsy Biker” featured an intense guitar solo between Springsteen and guitarist Steven Van Zandt that had the two going back and forth in a series of furious fretwork that delighted the crowd.

Springsteen then talked to the crowd about Federici, giving anecdotes from their times growing up together in New Jersey before dedicating “It’s Hard to be a Saint in the City” to him. Shortly after “Saint” Springsteen went into audible mode, which is when he calls out songs to perform instead of simply following the setlist. Springsteen came out with “Mary’s Place” and delivered a rousing performance Springsteen then went down by the crowd where he took a fan’s poster that had a song request and played that song, “Waiting on a Sunny Day” which had the crowd singing along to its chorus. After the song, Springsteen took the poster, signed it and returned it to the lucky fan.

Springsteen finished up the first round with “Badlands” which had the crowd singing along to accompany a solo by saxophonist Clarence Clemons. The Big Man was showing some signs of age on stage by walking around gingerly, but he hasn’t lost his ability to deliver stirring sax solos. Springsteen delivered five songs for his encore, and any Springsteen fan will tell you that this is the most exciting part of the night, as Springsteen brings his biggest songs out during this time.

The crowd roared with approval when “Professor” Roy Bittan’s piano solo was played at at the beginning of “Backstreets” which was followed up by “Bobby Jean.” No Springsteen concert is complete without “Born to Run” which saw the houselights turned up and the entire crowd singing along to this staple. “Ramrod” came next with an entertaining back-and-forth between Springsteen and Van Zandt, with Springsteen asking “What time is it?” and Van Zandt finally answering “Boss Time.” The last song was “American Land” which featured two accordions and had a distinct Irish flavor to it.

From last night’s concert, you wouldn’t have been able to guess that the vast majority of the members were in their late 50s. Springsteen played as if he were at least 30 years younger than he actually was, delivering a high energy performance that including sliding on his knees during a guitar solo and swinging around on the microphone stand. As one poster on DeaconSports.com said so succinctly on a thread reviewing this concert, “For those that feel that Bruce has ‘lost it’ or is no longer ‘relevant,’ let’s see Fall Out Boy or Flo Rida still preach rock ‘n roll at 59 years of age.” For this group to be delivering hit after hit with so much energy after so many years, it truly is an amazing experience.