Bruce Springsteen played for three and half hours on Thursday night, covering nearly every phase of his Rock Hall of Fame career
HARTFORD – Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have traveled thousands of miles around the world presumably in search of the answer to just one question?
Can you feel the spirit?
Springsteen asked the question half way through his sold out show at the XL Center on Thursday night, and it’s a question that might best be answered with another question;
How could you not?
Springsteen played 26 songs over three and half hours, infusing the arena with an energy and urgency that is no doubt still ringing in the hearts of the 17,000 in attendance.
Springsteen said the band was on a mission, and while he wasn’t quite sure what it was he seemed to piece it together through the songs. It was about that elusive spirit, awakening it in some, invoking it in others, and paying homage to the spirits that had past and are now companions “walking beside us always.”
For true, longtime fans, this show was one for the ages with a set list that dipped and swerved across the B-sides and rarities of Springsteen’s illustrious career.
He opened with “Held Up Without a Gun,” which first surfaced as B-side to the “Hungry Heart” single. He followed with “Radio Nowhere" and a another rarity from “The River” era “Jackson Cage.” Those songs joined a throwback version of “Incident on 57th Street,” a solo piano rendition of “For You,” and a wild 15 minute jazz-rock jam of “Kitty’s Back” to open the encore as songs you might not consider typical fare at a Springsteen show.
Despite the loss of Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici who have passed, and Springsteen’s wife Patti Scialfa who was traveling with the pair’s daughter, the E Street Band has not diminished in size or stature. A total of 16 musicians packed the stage with horns, backing vocals, keyboards and percussionists supporting the core group of Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt (guitar), Nils Lofgren (guitar), Gary Tallent (bass), Roy Bittan (piano), and Max Weinberg (drums).
Springsteen worked the room all night, making three separate trips through the crowd to a stage set up in the center of the hall. He was mobbed by a group of women at one end of the arena and joined at the other end by a young fan that helped to close out “Waiting on a Sunny Day.”
After “Spirit in the Night,” Springsteen started taking requests, collecting a handful of signs with song titles from the audience. The impromptu portion of the evening led to a version of “Pink Cadillac” with Springsteen teaching the horn section the parts on the fly.
It also spawned “Incident on 57th Street,” which featured a memorable Bittan piano solo and bled into another rarity, “Point Blank.”
Springsteen delivered “Shackled and Drawn,” and sandwiched “Badlands” between “The Rising” and “Land of Hope and Dreams” which closed out the set. Along with “Kitty’s Back,” which featured solos from every member of the horn section, the encore included “Born to Run,” “Bobby Jean,” “Dancing in the Dark,” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out.”