BRUUUUUCE: The Boss comes bearing gifts

by Thomas Dimopoulos

ALBANY - Bruce Springsteen gave an early Christmas present to the Capital Region with his appearance at the Pepsi Arena on Friday night.

Nearly three hours of music filled the arena on an evening simultaneously graced with
all the joy, intensity and celebration of a lifetime of emotion, and a tribute to the endurance of the human spirit, all rolled into one.

The buzz on South Pearl Street began in August.
Tickets for Springsteen and the E Street Band were gone in less than half an hour. Shortly after 8 p.m. on Friday, “The Boss” strapped on a sunburst Telecaster and led the 10-member ensemble with the rousing opener, “The Rising.”
More than half of the evening’s “regular” 17 song set came from his recent album of the same name.
Eight encore songs would follow.

The audience, meanwhile, was a perpetual sea of waving arms. Alternately, they either pumped in unison or succumbed to a series of goose-pimple shivers invoked during soul-chilling renditions of “Darkness On The Edge of Town” and “The Ties That Bind.”

Classic moments included the spirited raucousness of “No Surrender” and the frenzied, Bo Diddley-slung beat of “She’s The One.” When the band kicked into “Badlands” - the song now a quarter century old - the crowd stomped, clapped and chanted along, “It ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive,” they sang
.
“Sylvio, Sylvio, you’re still alive. You’ve made it through another season,” was how Springsteen introduced guitarist and “Sopranos” star Little Steve Van Zandt. Clarence Clemons, who drew some of the biggest cheers of the night, looked sharp in his dark pleated pants and black fedora.
To bandmate and wife Patti Scialfa, Springsteen gushed, “my personal savior,” as the pair soared on a duet called “Empty Sky,” inspiring the image of two doves circling over a ravaged Metropolis together in search of a hopeful clearing.

Springsteen mugged it up for the audience all night long. He hopped atop Roy Bittan’s white baby-grand piano, made a number of running feet-first slides across the stage mid-song and maintained a high level of energy throughout. A pair of giant video screens captured his gestures, from the serene to the intense, and shot them back up close and personal to those seated in the farthest balcony of the arena.

Two hours in came the set’s end, and a curtain call brought back the band for a number of encores. They revived their mid-1980s hit “Dancing In the Dark,” rocked through a spirited “Ramrod” that had Springsteen acting as a human pogo stick, leaping across the stage, then delivered “Born To Run” with the house lights burning in their full white heat.

A second curtain call brought back a somber Springsteen. Taking a seat behind the piano, bathed in majestic purple light, he launched into the opening bars of “My City in Ruins.” Dedicating the song to the supplemental food providers of the Capital Region, he bellowed through the song’s intense chorus, and it felt as if the building itself would be sent skyward in an emotional catapult.

The band then launched into “Born In The USA” - “I play this for you tonight, praying for peace,” he announced - then followed with “Land of Hope And Dreams.”
They eventually concluded with the Chuck Berry rocker, “Around and Around.” It was a spontaneous choice that comically had band members scrambling for instruments and frantically scaling musical notes for the appropriate key. Springsteen just pushed forward even more.
“We’re winging it,” he announced giddily, as the group found their sonic cohesion.

Moments earlier, taking what appeared to be their final collective bow, the band was besieged by a volley of Santa hats that reigned down onto the stage from the audience. “Is this a hint?” Springsteen asked, holding one of the red and white hats in hand.
“Are you trying to tell me something?” He summoned the band yet again and performed a raved-up version of the timely “Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town.” Many in the crowd
couldn’t be blamed for thinking that he had already arrived.

published in The Saratogian, Dec. 15, 2002