Friday 22 March 2013 Allphones Arena Sydney, NSW, Australia
This, my friends, was a show of epic proportions. I was front row, right at the edge of the seats, seemingly close enough to reach out and touch - the heavy security presence aside - Nils Lofgren and Soozie Tyrell. Great seats, great view...and the E Street Band delivered the show of a lifetime. They delivered in spades. Yeah, maybe there wasn't "Jungeland" and "No Surrender," which got a run on Wednesday night, but the raucously fun singalong "Pay Me My Money Down," returned, and got everyone up from their seats in less than the ninety seconds Bruce predicted pre-song. We heard a haunting version of "The River," and a double shot from the Born in the USA album back-to-back in the middle, "Working on the Highway" and "Darlington County" - two of my favourites. So far as I was concerned, this was about the perfect set list, even though it missed some of the songs from Wednesday that I would've given anything to hear.
"We Take Care of Our Own," opened the show - the first time I've heard it live - and there were other cuts from Wrecking Ball in the set again. I can't get enough of "Shackled and Drawn" or "Death To My Hometown." It's one of the great Springsteen studio albums performed live. The title track, though referencing the Global Financial Crisis that's brought American to it's knees, manages to be a happy song. The entire night was one big house party. The crowd was insane. You couldn't not get up and dance and clap and sing and yell. The E Street Band is white-hot at the moment. There isn't anything they cannot do.
"Hungry Heart," saw the Boss come past my seat, on his way to surf the crowd, and I got a chance to slap him a high five. He was back in the crowd later, and I got to do it again. Not sure whether I'll ever wash my right hand again after that. "Waitin' On A Sunny Day," was great; such an uplifting song that raises the spirit in the room just about through the roof.
A haunting, "My City of Ruins" seems to transport the crowd somewhere else, somewhere where we can walk with ghosts. The emotion in Springsteen's voice is there for all to hear. There's no escaping it. Not that you want to. The tribute for those E Streeters not with us any more never fails to make your spine tingle. You just have to watch Springsteen to see how much those guys, the Big Man and Phantom Dan, meant to him. And to the band.
Fill-in guitarist Tom Morello won more fans over with another searing rendition of "The Ghost Of Tom Joad." How can you not love that? Watching him ring every last skerrick of sound of out his guitar is an incredible thing. So was hearing "Badlands", and then the hauntingly epic "Thunder Road", which closed the main set - there was a very short break; the band didn't even leave the stage this time - and paved the way for a song that, as Bruce said, they didn't play very often. But they played "Born in the USA" with epic gusto tonight, and the crowd repaid the favour, belting it out like there was no tomorrow. And there may as well not have been, the way this night was progressing.
Two lucky ladies got to dance with the Boss during "Dancing in the Dark". The tributes were back for "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" and, because no one wanted to go home, Bruce played on, ripping through an energetic version of "Rosalita" to end the night, and by then, there wasn't a soul who hadn't been moved by the great power of music, which the E Street Band and their legendary singer have so expertly harnessed. If there's a better rock and roll act out there, I'd like to know who it is!
My ears are still ringing! I'll never forget tonight!!
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