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Posted on FB by Jonathan Strahan 26/1/2017

On February 5 2014 when Bruce Springsten and the E Street Band first played Perth, Western Australia, it was a different world. Europe was still in one piece. We had not just ended the third consecutive hottest year on record. And Donald Trump was not the president of the United States.

So when Bruce Springsteen climbed onto the stage and into the Perth Arena everything was okay and he was clearly ready to party. He told us that one and one made three, in music and life and art; he told us that the E Street Band and the mighty people of Perth were going to make magic. And, having travelled thousands of fucking miles across shark infested waters, he assured us that he had had his Vegemite sandwich and he was ready to go. He kicked the show off with three from High Hopes, with Stevie singing the “Good morning, good morning” refrain from “Frankie Fell in Love”, and the party didn't pause until he walked off the stage in Brisbane weeks later.

The Bruce Springsteen who climbed the steps into the Perth Arena on Sunday and Wednesday nights this week lived in a different world, brought a different message, and was in a different mood. He opened his set both nights with an elegy to a shattered New York, “New York City Serenade”. Both performance were beautiful. On Night 1, though, he followed it with a trio of powerful dark songs. I’ve heard that not all of the crowd was willing to follow him. I couldn’t see that from the pit. As he pinned this stripped back version of E Street’s show to the ‘70s, the songs were sharp, clear, on point and made one hell of a message. Party songs didn’t seem to quite catch fire, or to at least hold the band’s mood as much, but the highlights were career highlights not show highlights. “American Skin (41 Shots)” was one of the three best performances I’ve seen from the band, period. But “Candy’s Room”, “The Rising”, “Lost in the Flood” all were incredible.. It was a crafted musical message, and you couldn’t not be moved.

Night 2 was something else again. We’d had three and a half hours on Sunday and rumours after the show suggest Bruce may not have been well. For the two hours and forty eight minutes he was on stage, though, you would never have guessed that. While the city sweltered outside on a hot summer night, the E Street Band was cooking inside. Tonight the Boss was plainly determined to hold the crowd in the palms of his hands, and from the pit he seemed to. A second “NYC Serenade” flowed into a driving “Prove It All Night”, then a party set that had everyone up singing, dancing, and having the time of their lives. “Two Hearts” with Stevie, “Wrecking Ball”, “Out in the Street”, “Hungry Heart” - the band almost couldn’t find a way to slow down. “Mary’s Place” was a showstopper, and “Johnny 99” was off the charts. By the time we got to the greatest song ever recorded in the history of the world, “Jungleland”, we’d been through it all and this was special. it was also clear we weren’t going to be there all night. The show was nearly done.

I’ve only been to eight or nine shows so I can’t speak to things overall, but this was one of the best Springsteen shows I’ve seen (which means it’s one of the best of a 40 year run of attending shows by artists from all over the world). It was sharp and political, but it rocked. If Friday is your first show of this tour, or if you’re seeing him elsewhere, be aware, though: I don’t think you’ll see the sort of shows you saw in 2014. Stage banter is gone. Long, rambling stories about life and art are gone. This E Street Band - the one closest to its River-era form - means business. It’ll rock you, it’ll give you the night of your life, but it knows it has a world to help change. These are the shows of the New American Resistance.

Cheers,

Hazy

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She said last night she read those letters...
And they made her feel one hundred years old...


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