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)

Bruce Springsteen Celebrates the Majesty of Everyday Things...

John Mellencamp's recent music has reflected both the weight and burdens of everyday life, and the fear of death. Bruce Springsteen's new album, Working On A Dream, instead celebrates life and the joy found in small, everyday, things. The "joy of life" it reflects is far closer to Brian Wilson than to Mellencamp, Henley or Dylan. (Consider that on the Boss' previous CD, Magic, he included a song with the very Beach Boys-like title of "Girls in Their Summer Clothes.")

These comments on the 13 tracks of Dream are not in the original order of play, but in the order I would have chosen had I played the role of producer Brendon O'Brien.

My Lucky Day - This is the anthem. It could - minus the sax - be a track from The Who. The closing is classic Who. "I've lost all the other bets I've made / Honey, you're my lucky day." In his dreams (pun intended), Mellencamp creates songs like this.

Working On A Dream - A tribute to Roy Orbison with a bit of Jackson Browne - circa The Pretender - thrown in for good measure. Beach Boys' style background vocals.

Queen of the Supermarket - A fun but silly track that calls to mind Joni Mitchell's Raised on Robbery ("I'm sitting on my groceries.") Bruce sings of the love he has for the angel he's discovered in the local market. "As I lift my groceries into my cart / I turn back for a moment and catch a smile..." Billy Joel could have sung this song on The Nylon Curtain... Scandinavian Skies.

What Love Can Do - Human Touch, Part II.

This Life - It starts with a Pet Sounds introduction then slides into a Bily Joel cover, piano and all. It's very, very good but it is still BJ rather than BS. "A blackness then the light of a million stars / As you slip into my car..."

Good Life - Cream's live version of Spoonful meets Creedence Clearwater Revival's Born On The Bayou. Swamp rock that does John Fogerty proud. (Bob Ludwig mastered this album. He also mastered the JF/CCR The Long Road Home compilation.)

Tomorrow Never Knows - Not the Beatles song of the same name from Revolver. This starts with a CCR-riff then turns into a nicely instrumented Bob Dylan and The Band style song.

Life Itself - If the late, great, singer-songwriter Gene Clark had remained with the Byrds when they recorded the Fifth Dimension album, they would have come up with this.

Kingdom of Days - Still more Billy Joel, this time later-stage as on River of Dreams. Each time I hear this I think of Joel's Famous Last Words.

Surprise, Surprise - Back to the Byrds, like a track from Mr. Tambourine Man or Turn, Turn, Turn. There's a slice of George Harrison here, too... If I Needed Someone. '60s innocence.

The Last Carnival - More of a preliminary idea for a song than a song itself, like Paul's You Never Give Me Your Money on Abbey Road.

The Wrestler - Like a cross between Philadelphia and Paul Simon's The Boxer. You can hear why some thought that Springsteen should have, again, been nominated for an Academy Award. As with Philadelphia, the Boss proves that less is more.

Outlaw Pete - At first, it's more '50s era Marty Robbins (Outlaw Ballads) or Johnny Cash (Don't Take Your Guns to Town) than David Blue or the Eagles (Outlaw Man, Desperado). But halfway through it speeds up and sounds like a missing track from Long Road to Eden. Try as you might not to like it, it grows on you.

Conclusion: This is not Springsteen's most original album due to the many influences he drew upon in writing the songs contained on it. But for 90% of musicians it would be considered a career-crowning achievement, especially as it's the end of the trilogy that began with The Rising and Magic. The Boss himself called these the best three albums he's made "in terms of depth and purpose."

A note on the sound: Some have posted troubled comments on the sound. Let's just say that O'Brien compresses the sound so that it's the aural equivalent of looking through a keyhole. But if you're fine with The Rising or Magic, you'll be fine with Dreams.

A final note: For me, The Rising was one of the five best albums ever recorded by anyone. That this album can be mentioned in the same context is high tribute. Enough said.

(This was drafted on Tuesday, February 3, 2009, and posted on Wednesday, February 4th.)