It's been a few weeks since the Bruce Springsteen concert that Cuz, Buzzard, Janis and I went to at Rogers Place in Edmonton. This was my second time seeing The Boss in concert, the last time I saw Bruce live was back in October 1992, and that show was without the E Street Band. And I thought that show was excellent. Well, this show we just saw was absolutely incredible, in my top ten shows ever.
We were originally supposed to see this show in 2023, but it was cancelled due to Bruce battling health issues. Well, the wait was worth it. Playing to a sold out Rogers Place, Bruce and his long time backing band the E Street Band (18 members in all) played for over three hours. Bruce's backing band since 1972 still has it's core members Steven Van Zandt on guitar, Nils Lofgren on guitar, Max Weinberg on drums, Gary Tallent on bass, Roy Bittan on piano and Jake Clemons on saxophone (Clarence Clemons nephew). Jake took over this position after the passing of Clarence in 2011 and does an incredible job filling in that spot in the band. What a fucking band, so good!
This show was a no frills kind of concert where the music did the talking. No crazy light show, no lasers, no background screen showing images all night, no costume changes, no intermission, just three hours of pure rock n' roll bliss. Bruce and his band covered songs ranging from his 1973 debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ. The opening song of the night "Spirit In The Night" was from said album, which kind f surprised me for an opener, but was so good. And like I say he played stuff from his whole catalog right up to his 2020 album Letter To You, ending the night with "I'll See You In My Dreams" from that album.
So many great songs, stand out tracks for me ere, and there were a lot of them. But I'll go with what really sticks out for me "Glory Days" which had the crowd up and dancing and singing along. What am I saying? The crowd all 18,000 in attendance were up and singing all night. People were eating it up and having a good fucking time. Other amazing songs were "Born To Run", "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" from his 1975 Born To Run album. Hearing Bruce do "Atlantic City" live was unbelievable. I fucking love that song.
I really should have wrote this review earlier as I am racking my brain trying to recall all the songs. Other standouts were "Badlands", "Hungry Heart" and "Dancing In The Dark". Again, can't remeber all of them, but for three hours Bruce and The E Street Band put on one hell of a show, Bruce looked and sounded amazing. The E Street Band were excellent. It was so cool to Steven Van Zandt in concert finally. Such an awesome concert. Good times!!!
Some pictures from the show that I took.
Jake Clemons and Bruce.
