A marginally edited version of this post originally appeared on Backstreets.com, which you can read here.

At a Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concert, everyone expects the former’s presence to be felt more than anyone else’s in the building. Yet at their sole stop in the Lone Star state on this River Tour 2016, the Boss surprisingly wasn’t the lone star of the evening; stationed mostly around the side platforms in the pit were an overwhelming bevy of Born in the U.S.A.-styled, dolled-up Texas “cowgirls,” emphasis on the latter half of that term. These bushels of broads – who have made appearances at shows of Texas past – were indeed more girls than women, with not a single one looking a day over 30 and a majority of them probably a decade away from being able to enjoy an adult beverage. Yet even without liquid courage, these gals were complete balls of vivacity, and Bruce not only fixated on them but derived increased energy from their liveliness from the very first note, which in turn further ignited the crowd. On a night when the setlist provided no real surprises – only one song differentiated it from OKC’s two evenings prior – these young ladies helped set the night apart, mostly for the better but regrettably sometimes for the worse.

Continue reading “DALLAS: Cowgirls in Their Hoedown Clothes” →

A much shorter version of this post originally appeared on Backstreets.com, which you can read here. 

Minutes after Bruce and the Band – sans Patti – bounded onto the stage of Denver’s Pepsi Center for their first stop on The River Tour 2016’s Midwestern swing, the former had a special introduction planned for the Mile High City during “Meet Me in the City.” Referencing the state’s most popular local resource, Bruce posed a new question to the crowd for the first time on this tour: “What I want to know is…WHERE ARE THE MARIJUANA GUMMY BEARS?!” Receiving an expectedly huge ovation – including many around me offering their own personal stash to the Boss – the crowd probably didn’t realize at the time that this city-specific joke would set the whole mood for the night: it was an out and out PARTY, with both Bruce, the Band, and the crowd on a pure rock and roll jovial high from beginning to end.

Continue reading “DENVER: ‘The River’ Tour Express 2016” →

A condensed version of this post originally appeared on Backstreets.com, which you can read here.

What the hell do they put in the water in Seattle?!

From the moment Bruce literally sprinted up the stairs and onto the Key Arena stage to begin Thursday night’s rip-roaring concert in the Emerald City, it was clear he was in rare form. Yes, Bruce almost always looks like a man on a mission, but after skipping the E Street-deprived city on the last three tours, this stop felt like a release of over eight years of pent up energy from both the Boss and the Boss-ravenous crowd. And for one of the first times all tour, this show featured a bevy of something that Bruce’s more passionate fans have been clamoring for since Pittsburgh: surprises.

Continue reading “SEATTLE: Setlist-less in Sign-attle” →

Though I’m scared this post will come off as excessively showboaty (totally a real word…), I couldn’t resist sharing something so cool.

Last week, writer-editor extraordinaire Greil Marcus published his latest offering in his monthly series “Real Life Rock Top 10” for one of the true promised lands of online music journalism: Pitchfork . Each entry “offers incisive commentary on what he’s called everyday culture and found objects—including songs, albums, movies, novels, commercials, TV shows, overheard remarks, and more—making connections across time and circumstance.” He’s been writing this column for three decades, and Pitchfork only recently began publishing them on their website.

Continue reading “Look Over Yonder See My Name Up in Lights” →

Hi Bruce,

I know you’re aware of what happened earlier this week, but allow me roughly 90 seconds to catch up all of those unlucky souls who were not in attendance at your concert on Sunday night at Oakland’s Oracle Arena:

Continue reading “An Open Letter to Bruce Springsteen” →

In recent months, Bruce Springsteen has spoken more about what he was thinking when writing The River – objectively his most expansive and longest album; subjectively my favorite album of his, which is REALLY saying something – than he has at any other point in his career. For its 35^th anniversary in 2015, Bruce Inc.[1] released a rather marvelous box set that includes:

Continue reading “RANKING THE RIVER – Introduction” →

A fairly edited version of this post originally appeared on Backstreets.com, which you can read here.

Rochester?!

Those setlist-watching from home may have expressed the above sentiment many a time throughout Saturday night’s barnburner of a concert at Rochester’s Blue Cross Arena, but they would have forgotten one of the cardinal rules of E Street Nation: expect the greatest shows in the most unexpected of cities. Though many just assume Bruce and the Band will deliver their best performances in the biggest markets, the smallest, most rundown dumps of venues[1] located in oft-forgotten cities commonly bring out their absolute A game. And that’s exactly what the electric fans squished into Rochester’s tiny arena[2] were treated to over and over and over again in yet another 34-song, three-hour and 15-minute set that included three (3!) tour premieres, including one rare outtake, one gem off their most popular album, and the return of perhaps one of the most seminal songs in their entire catalogue, ultimately rivaling Philadelphia to take the title of top show of the tour thus far.

Continue reading “ROCHESTER: I Wanna Be Goin’ Down With You” →

A minimally edited version of this post originally appeared on Backstreets.com, which you can read here.

“This one’s for the old timers.”

Unbeknownst at the time to the lucky tramps within the walls of Buffalo’s First Niagara Center on Thursday night who had escaped the chilly snowstorm outside, those six words uttered by Bruce midway through the evening introduced a smoking hot, guitar-heavy stretch of three songs that proved to be the highlight of the show AND epitomized the pure, unadulterated rock and roll heat that Bruce and the Band were slinging all night long at the crowd, full of both old and new timers rocking out alike. By the time the 34 song, 3 hours and 15-minutes set came to a close, the sweaty masses filing out of the arena probably wanted to jump in the piles of snow lining the streets of the city to cool off after witnessing such a fiery concert.

Continue reading “BUFFALO: The Heat Came Down” →

This post originally appeared on Backstreets.com, which you can read here.

As the now customary set-closer “Shout” was winding down at the end of Monday night’s concert in Albany, I was fully prepared simply to go home, slip into my PJs, and write a normal recap of the show…until Bruce took an uncustomary break near the end of the song to survey the crowd one final time while repeatedly saying “Now all I got to say is…” Random people shouted back equally random responses, to which Bruce said “That’s good…that’s good too…”

And then he looked right at me.

Continue reading “ALBANY: You Prove It to Me and I’ll Prove It to You” →

A heavily edited version of this post originally appeared on Backstreets.com, which you can read here. 

Bruce and the increasingly death-defying E Street Band’s lone jaunt to the Great White North reaffirmed many age-old truths, but perhaps none more so than the classic adage: “you had to be there.” Though setlist watchers will undoubtedly harp about the fact that the closest the show came to a tour premiere was the briefly soundchecked “Spirit in the Night,”[1] those lucky enough to have actually been inside of Toronto’s Air Canada Centre on Tuesday night were treated to one of the most raucous, intense, and flat-out joyous evenings so far on this tour. In fact, I would argue that the predictability of the setlist not only helped to unify the crowd into one of the best of the six shows thus far, but also fit perfectly with what Bruce is trying to get at with each and every show on this 2016 River Tour.

Continue reading “TORONTO: Calling Out Nation to Nation” →