The Boss Still Has Glory Days (& glory nights)...

This concert review by Kelsey Borreson was printed in the USC Daily Trojan on Friday, April 17, 2009. This is an abridged version.

After two and a half hours of nonstop foot stomping, back-bending and windmill-guitar playing, Bruce Springsteen roused a notoriously hard to please Los Angeles crowd, 3,000 miles away from his Garden State home.

At 7:30 p.m. on April 15th, a predominantly white, middle-aged, middle-class audience poured into the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, hand full of cups of Miller Lite. Never yielding the stage, Springsteen opened and closed the show - when you're "The Boss," you make your own rules.

The house lights went dim and almost immediately, as if rehearsed, the crowd began to cheer "Bruuuuuuce." The stage lit up and there they were: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band playing the 1978 single Badlands. Fans standing near the stage raised their arms and pointed their forefingers to the beat. Those in the tiered section sang along while stepping side to side and clapping their hands.

In just five months, Springsteen will turn 60. But it's a little hard to believe. As his fingers furiously moved up and down the neck of his guitar, the audience's eyes were drawn to a set of sculpted arms that couldn't belong to a man almost old enough (for) a senior citizen discount.

Like most prolific recording artists, Springsteen played a set equal parts old and new, fast and slow, upbeat and serious. He mixed hits like Rosalita and Born to Run with some of his most recent material, including Workin' on a Dream and Outlaw Pete.

But the most powerful of his performances was Waitin' On a Sunny Day which seems eerily prophetic and relevant to the millions of Americans facing financial crises and feeling generally defeated. He made it all seem OK, somehow manageable, as he sang the opening line: It's rainin' but there ain't a cloud in the sky.

His voice and stage presence convinced the audience that no matter how bad things are, we're in it together. Even though he's grossed millions of dollars, there's still this sense that he's just another blue-collar guy trying to make a living.

Fans holding up homemade posters danced, screamed and reached toward the stage in hopes of maybe being lucky enough to touch the working class icon. Sprinsteen showed his appreciation... He ran back and forth across the stage, leaning into the audience to collect the artwork of his fans and assembled it into a pile near the drum set for safekeeping.

It's these things - the little things - that Springsteen does to make a sports arena (concert) feel more like a neighborhood backyard barbecue.

Photo: flickr (Alex Hampton-Smith)