Bruce Springsteen Plays a Thrilling Electric Set With Steve Earle and the Dukes
The charity show at New York’s Town Hall featured “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” ” The Promised Land,” “Glory Days,” and “Pink Cadillac”
Before anyone played a note of music at the seventh annual John Henry’s Friends Benefit at New York’s Town Hall, host and organizer Steve Earle walked onto the stage, beaming with excitement and anticipation. “This is going to be good,” he said. “I’ve asked friends to do this every year, but the bar is going to be high from here on out.”
That would have been true even if the bill for the night included just his longtime backing band the Dukes plus Roseanne Cash, Willie Nile, Matt Savage, and the Mastersons. But Bruce Springsteen agreed to join the fun this year, transforming the fundraising event for the Keswell School, which educates children and young adults with autism, into an extremely hot ticket for Springsteen fanatics who have been denied their Bruce fix for far too long.
He followed that up with “The Promised Land,” playing the 1,500-seat Town Hall like it was an 80,000-seat European soccer stadium. There was no saxophonist to handle Clarence Clemons’ original parts, but the Dukes had clearly done their E Street homework and they nailed every other part with perfect precision.
Other highlights from the show included autistic pianist Matt Savage transforming Alanis Morissette’s “Head Over Feet” into a classical masterwork; Roseanne Cash delivering a haunting version of “Long Black Veil”; and Willie Nile warming the stage for Springsteen with selections from from his upcoming LP The Day the Earth Stood Still.
The event raised over $100,000 for the the Keswell School, and it served as a tiny preview of what fans can expect from the next E Street Band tour. That’s probably at least six months away, but judging from this performance, Springsteen is ready for it to start right now.