Bruce Springsteen Plays Triple Header in California: A Visceral Approach to the Fierce Urgency of the Moment, A Desire For Dialogue That Blows The Roof Off! (Review)

Two Shows at Kia Forum in Los Angeles, One at Chase Center in San Francisco Punctuate Politically-Charged Tour.

“Bruce is the kind of guy I wish I could just text – I want to hear his thoughts on everything!” a drunken fan said, leaving the general admission pit in Los Angeles at the Kia Forum last Tuesday night (April 7), the first of three California shows for Springsteen and his E Street Band.

“You just heard his thoughts in full, raw, true form,” his similarly drunken friend shot back as they left the barricade.  Simple but effective in its summation, that dialog with the people around him seems to be the raison d’etre for Springsteen this tour around.

Much has been written about Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band’s current tour – the nature of his raw politics, his visceral approach to the fierce urgency of the moment, his ‘kick em in the teeth’ approach (as he calls it) to the current President, events in Minneapolis this past January, and national events since. But the three shows in California this past week underscore a deeper truth: this tour, entirely unplanned until late January (a master class in production and logistics and a hat tip to longtime tour director George Travis as much as anything in the concert biz these days), is seemingly about Springsteen’s desire for dialogue as much as his desire for anything else in life — dialog with his country, with his fans, and yes, with the musicians on stage tightly kicking out the jams that comprise his classic catalog. Springsteen has long opined that adult life is about compromise, and “music, when it’s really good, pries that shit back open,” as he told David Remnick (New Yorker  editor-in-chief) in 2012. “It lets light in, and it lets air in, and people take that with them for a very long time.”

He is idealistic, but pragmatic. He is a dreamer, but acknowledges the limitations of our own input in the American experience of modern day.

There is zero subtlety to Springsteen’s on-stage monologues, which total roughly 16 minutes in cumulative length per night in a show that averages a tight two hours and fifty five minutes per.  Three video screens show the 17,000+ fans every inch of Springsteen. The show begins with a referendum on the Presidential policies, as Springsteen commands the group gathered to choose, among other things, “unity over division” and ultimately “peace over WAR!” as he breaks into the Edwin Starr song of the same name from 1970.

Springsteen is joined for several songs each night by Rage Against the Machine (and as a solo man, The Nightwatchman)’s Tom Morello who adds an energy in his purposeful focus – as an activist, as a distinguished guitar player (observers will guess at which pedals are in effect; the elusive Morello plays a blend all his own), but more importantly, as a piece of the conversation who seems to constantly recharge the energy of his frontman.  Prior stops with the band in 2014 included The Clash classic “Clampdown,” which returned to the set the first night in L.A. and has stayed for the shows since. (The song was not played the first two shows and is likely heavily inspired by the presence of Morello on stage).

The subtlety of a show like this is in the production elements: As Springsteen alights the stage, the guitarist Nils Lofgren vamps in a basic chord progression, accompanied stunningly by organist Charlie Giordano. The spotlight, trained on Springsteen, follows him through the initial monologue before blaring house lights accompany the word “War” to kick off the show. The lights used during the first two songs – “War” and 1984’s “Born in the USA,” both played half a step lower to be slightly easier on the vocals – are red, a reflection of the urgent tone of the evening. The house lights are on – as in prior Springsteen tours – in full force during the coda of “Badlands” and the entirety of “Born to Run” – a punctuation of the communal experience that has long been the hallmark of a Springsteen show, but especially given the urgency of the moment and the theme of this tour.

Springsteen recognizes some of the irony during the evening, closing the evening reminding fans before a spine-tingling version of the Bob Dylan song “Chimes of Freedom” that they should “say something. Do something. Hell, sing something….that’s all I do!” But he is purposeful in his approach. There are light moments in the show for good measure. “Out in the Street,” which was played at the tour opener two weeks ago in Minneapolis and again in Portland the Friday of that first week, was dropped for “Two Hearts,” which clears the way for “Hungry Heart,” the first two breaks in an otherwise serious opening pack of songs that packs a punch.

The sound at a show like this is once again simply optimus optimorum – as good as arena rock gets – with another hat tip to longtime front-of-house mixer John Cooper. Mixing the vocals for a frontman like Springsteen while keeping all four (!) other guitarists – Morello, Van Zandt (who adds to the show as both the character of Little Steven and for stunning guitar work in pieces like “Murder Incorporated”), Lofgren, and guitarist/violonist Soozie Tyrell, is a production feat unto itself and again, rising and falling above and below the four-piece horn section, the four-piece E Street choir, and the others on stage is a tour de force in audio.  As in prior tours, pianist Roy Bittan, drummer Max Weinberg, and bassist Garry W. Tallent employ a sound that, as Springsteen noted in his induction of The E Street Band to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, ‘remains (our) calling card around the world to this day.’

Fans and critics alike have debated whether such a heavy-handed tour is for hardcore fans alone and this author disagrees with that premise: It’s a show and a full tour for people passionate about art, about music, about rock n roll, about their country, about making a difference and yes, about dialog. Whether showgoers come for “Dancing in the Dark” and think they know the angle with which to pump their fist during “Badlands” or not, they came for the communal experience. They want to be a part of the conversation. And that, of course, seems to be the point.

Bruce texted for three hours.