Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Launch World Tour With Ecstatic, Emotional Tampa Show 

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A long time from now, when historians and epidemiologists look again on the Covid period, they’ll in all probability have a tough time pinpointing the precise second the pandemic got here to an finish in America and regular life resumed. Some will in all probability level to the day in August 2021 when the vaccination charge hit 70 %, whereas others will highlight April 2022, when airways dropped their masks mandate, and even Joe Biden’s 60 Minutes interview just a few months later when he bluntly declared the pandemic over regardless of protests from members of his personal administration. Others nonetheless would possibly say that second continues to be to come back.

From one other perspective, although, there’s a powerful case to be made that it occurred on Feb. 1 at 8:01 p.m. EST, when Bruce Springsteen and the E Road Band walked onstage at Tampa, Florida’s Amalie Area and kicked off their world tour with a thunderous rendition of “No Give up” in entrance of 20,000 screaming, maskless followers. 

This second adopted six painfully lengthy years of E Road Band inactivity — together with a number of tour delays resulting from Covid issues — and a torrent of concern over Springsteen’s determination to dramatically increase ticket costs this time round. “I do know it was unpopular with some followers,” Springsteen instructed Rolling Stone late final yr, in his solely remarks so far on the controversy. “But when there’s any complaints on the way in which out, you’ll be able to have your a refund.”

No one in Tampa appeared headed towards the refund line as “No Give up” segued into “Ghosts” from 2020’s Letter to You. By this level, any fears the E Road Band would possibly want just a few exhibits to shake off six years of rust have been gone. They have been locked in tight, beaming with pleasure, and feeding off the frenzied ambiance within the crowd.

It was additionally a barely completely different incarnation of the band that now options 4 backup singers (Curtis King, Michelle Moore, Lisa Lowell, Ada Dyer), a five-piece horn part (Curt Ramm, Barry Danielian, Eddie Manion, Ozzie Melendez, Jake Clemons), and percussionist Anthony Almonte along with the same old crew of Soozie Tyrell, Charlie Giordano, Steve Van Zandt, Nils Lofgren, Garry Tallent, Roy Bittan, Patti Scialfa, and Max Weinberg. 

An 18-piece band would possibly look like overkill contemplating the unique E Road Band acquired alongside high quality with a mere 5 musicians, however this present covers lots of musical floor, together with alternatives from Springsteen’s 2022 soul covers LP Solely the Sturdy Survive, and no person felt superfluous. This was very true on “Kitty’s Again,” when Springsteen gave almost everybody within the band a bit of second to shine. A few songs later, he invited the background singers to the entrance to lock voices with him on “Nightshift,” a 1985 Commodores basic that was one of many shock highlights of the night. 

The lengthy layoff made even E Road requirements like “The Promised Land,” “Out within the Road,” and “Show It All Evening” sound recent and important once more, whereas the darkish Nebraska deep reduce “Johnny 99” was reworked into an area anthem. However probably the most emotional second got here halfway by the evening, when your entire band left the stage, leaving Springsteen alone along with his acoustic guitar.

Addressing the gang for the primary time within the night, he instructed the story of forming his first band, the Castiles, with childhood buddy George Theiss. “Reduce ahead 50 years,” he stated. “On one other summer season day, I discovered myself standing together with George’s deathbed…His passing would go away me because the final dwelling member of my first band. That’s type of like standing on tracks with the new mild of an oncoming prepare barreling down on you. It brings a readability of thought and a function that you just may not beforehand have considered.”

He continued his story: “I went dwelling and, a couple of week later, George handed away. Shortly after that, I wrote this music. It’s in regards to the job we select, the chums we select, the fervour we adopted as youngsters. At 15, it’s all tomorrows. At 73, lots of yesterdays. Loads of goodbyes. That’s why you gotta benefit from proper now.”

The world got here to a whole hush as he sang “Final Man Standing” from Letter to You for the primary time to a dwell viewers. The music focuses on his recollections of Theiss, and the exhausting realization that he’s now the final of the Castiles. “Rock of angels, carry me by some means,” he sang. “Someplace excessive and exhausting and loud/Someplace deep into the guts of the gang/I’m the final man standing now.”

Few artists outdoors of Springsteen may create a second that intimate and heartfelt in a basketball area named after an oil firm. He adopted it up with one other mellow Letter to You music, “Home of a Thousand Guitars,” earlier than bringing everybody again to their ft for a blistering “Backstreets.” The primary set ended with “As a result of the Evening,” “She’s the One,” “Wrecking Ball,” “The Rising,” and “Badlands.” The band has celebrated lots of seventieth birthdays since they final performed collectively, however by some means they performed these songs with the identical stage of fireplace and keenness that they had many years in the past. 

After taking a fast bow, the band didn’t even hassle to undergo the charade of leaving the stage earlier than the encore set. It started with the dwell premiere of “Burnin’ Practice” earlier than the home lights got here on for a euphoric double shot of “Born to Run” and “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight).” They then went again to the hits of 1984 with “Glory Days” and “Dancing within the Darkish,” although the latter was a barely truncated model since he didn’t convey any wannabe Courteney Coxes onstage to bounce. (This may need been resulting from Covid issues, which may additionally clarify why he didn’t crowd surf at any level within the evening.) 

The evening capped off with “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” — full with video tributes to the late Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici — and a solo acoustic “I’ll See You in My Goals” that once more introduced the world to complete silence.

It’s one other music about saying goodbye to a liked one, and a reminder that “dying is just not the top.” As Springsteen sang it, it was exhausting not to consider Jeff Beck, David Crosby, Tom Verlaine, Barrett Sturdy, and all the opposite icons we’ve misplaced in latest weeks, or the truth that artists of Springsteen’s technology, to make use of his personal phrases, have much more yesterdays than tomorrows. However no matter occurs sooner or later, Springsteen and the E Road Band are lastly again on the street, and so they’ll be there for a minimum of a yr. Let’s get pleasure from each second of it whereas we nonetheless can. 

Right here is the entire setlist:

1. “No Give up”
2. “Ghosts”
3. “Show It All Evening”
4. “Letter to You”
5. “The Promised Land”
6. “Out within the Road”
7. “Sweet’s Room”
8. “Kitty’s Again”
9. “Good Disguise”
10. “Nightshift” (Commodores cowl)
11. “Don’t Play That Music (You Lied)” (Ben E. King cowl)
12. “The E Road Shuffle”
13. “Johnny 99”
14. “Final Man Standing”
15. “Home of a Thousand Guitars”
16. “Backstreets”
17. “As a result of the Evening”
18. “She’s the One”
19. “Wrecking Ball”
20. “The Rising”
21. “Badlands”
(Encore)
22. “Burnin’ Practice”
23. “Born to Run”
24. “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)”
25. “Glory Days”
26. “Dancing within the Darkish”
27. “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”
28. “I’ll See You In My Goals”