Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band @ Hampden Park, Glasgow, 18 June 2013

I wonder how many of the 45 thousand plus who descended on the National (Football) Stadium here in Glasgow to attend the visit of the Boss and the E Street Band were aware that the date was an auspicious one. 18 June 2013 was two years to the day that the "big man" Clarence Clemons passed away and his presence was all over this one, which was a good thing, although it must have been tough for Bruce and the gang, no less so for young Jake Clemons, Clarence's nephew.

Jake Clemons

On my walk up to Hamped Park I couldn't help but notice the proliferation of Bruce Springsteen memorabilia. There were  numerous T-shirts, bandanas, wrist sweat bands, head scarves and so on. Were they really any more noticeable than at other similar gigs? Who can say, but there is one thing  one can say about a Springsteen fan, once you have seen him you don't forget him, as was evident by one original T-shirt I saw from the 84-85 Born In The USA tour. That was my introduction to the phenomenon that is Bruce Springsteen; an overnight bus journey from Glasgow to London; a day hanging about the capital and the unforgettable gig at Wembly on the night of 4 July 1985. Oh, and I still have my T-Shirt from that gig! (I have heard it said that, as he didn't attend Live Aid, which took place at the same venue on 13 July, he gifted the stage for the event but, again who knows!) Many of the albums released over the years were also represented at Hampden in the T-shirt stakes and I specifically recall a 75's Born to Run and 78's Darkness on the Edge of Town T-shirt.

Being Glasgow, there was a smattering of tartan 'bonnets', the odd "see you Jimmy" wig (Google it!), a few ill advised bandanas and a surprising number of empty seats at 18:54 (ticket stated a 19:00 kick off!). However, these were corporate tickets and their bar service would have been fairly abundant! Actually, on that note, down on the 'pitch' we were pretty well served by copious numbers of young lads with 24 pint packs on their backs. No end to necessity being the mother of invention!

Stars & Stripes

Saltire

As 19:27 approached there was a murmuring in the crowd then Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, all 16 of them, appeared on the vast stage and charged into the thunderous, thumping intro to We Take Care of Our Own, the first song on the current album Wrecking Ball. The song includes the line " wherever this flag is flown" and appropriately the Stars and Stripes was fluttering high up to the right of the stage with the Saltire, a local counterpoint, to the left. And so the journey had begun!

The view of the stage and screens

As well as flags, the huge stage was flanked by two sets of screens which afforded us a great view of the band who were some 75 meters (80 odd yards) away from where I was. I am not a fan of large venues and in Scotland they don't come much larger than this, however, technology seems to have caught up now and the quality of screen at the gig was outstanding. When the big screen behind the band came on, it was a real WOW factor. The clarity was phenomenal and it often afforded us a view of what the band saw, i.e.  us, the paying punter! It also allowed us to see the band members in extreme close up and I was impressed at how good the 63 year old Springsteen looked, however, I have to concede that I felt a tad relieved that even he is succumbing to the ravages of time with a hint of grey in his side burns and eye brows. He is human after all!

The Boss

Max Weinberg

For those of you  who have been to a Springsteen gig, you will know that he goes to the front of the stage during the early part of his shows and scans the assortment of placards, signs and cardboard cut outs. He then selects a few and returns to the stage to direct the band through a few of 'the people's choices'. This makes the early part of his shows somewhat unpredictable and also has the effect of keeping the band on their toes. You need to know your Springsteen back catalogue in its entirety to be in the E Street Band it would seem! On this occasion it also had the effect of throwing up a song new to me, a veteran of five shows. Jole Blon, is a traditional cajun waltz, often called "the cajun national anthem" because of the popularity it had in cajun culture and this rendition was only the second time that it has appeared on this tour, so a rarity to savour early on.

The band's view

Then after a few numbers off the set list we had My City of Ruins which in this case was dedicated to the memories of Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici and was prompted by a placard from the audience in memory of the two former band members. Daniel Paul "Danny" Federici, who sadly passed away on  April 17, 2008, was the long standing organ, glockenspiel, and accordion player in the E Street band, whilst Clarence Clemons was the saxophone player and one of the Boss' closest friends. Springsteen asked us if we "were missing anybody tonight?" and went on to say that "if we were and we were here, then they were here too". It was an extremely emotional moment, especially for me as I lost my wife of 24 years recently and I am not ashamed to admit that the tears were running down my cheeks (thanks Paul for the much needed hug, by the way!). At this point I happened to notice that the sun had dipped below the Western Enclosure roof, bringing shadows to the event and our thoughts. Then, several songs later, the Boss picked a card from a woman which was dedicated to her late father "Tougher Than The Rest, Shug 23 July 1951 - 16 March 2013" and sang the song of that title from 87's Tunnel of Love album. Then, having sung the song, he showed his genuine kindness by going back down to the audience and giving the card back to Shug's daughter. A sincere action of kindness by a selfless individual. 

"Lest we forget"

The brass section

On a lighter note, a few friends asked me why they heard a lot of people booing throughout the gig! I explained that they weren't booing, in fact they were shouting "Bruuuce, Bruuuce"! 


I suggested that perhaps he should change his name to Brian or some other Monty Python character! 

Bruce & Stevie hamming it up

Bruce & Stevie

There were other moments of levity too, for example when consigliere Silvio Dante from the recent TV series the “Sopranos”, aka Stevie Van Zandt and the Boss 'mugged' for the camera and again during 84's Dancing In The Dark when an audience member got her wish and got to dance with Jake before being asked to play guitar with Springsteen. Indeed, there is a quasi religious feel to these event at times, it often feels as if you  have wondered in off the streets and into some kinda evangelical get together of fascinating intensity. The lyrics are sometimes religious in nature and, obviously there is the ubiquitous "Mary" who takes the role of almost all the important women in Springsteen's songs, but also, and to pick just one example, the lyrics from The Price You Pay from The River back in 1980 include the following:

Little girl down on the strand / With that pretty little baby in your hands / Do you remember the story of the promised land / How he crossed the desert sands / And could not enter the chosen land  / On the banks of the river he stayed / To face the price you pay

Cindy Mizelle

Nils Lofgren

Bruce, Stevie & us

Also, Springsteen dominates the stage in a reverential manner, delivering many of his inter song chats as if they were homilies and we, the audience, were often exalted to raise our hands heavenward. If this is a new religion, I for one would be looking to sign up on the dotted line! It is exciting, exhilarating  exhausting, energising,  enticing and exuberating. Too many E's for a religion? May be, but maybe not! However, how ever you look at it, it is a "come one, come all" ethos, all encompassing (more E's!) and your wishes can come true, you can get up on the stage and sing, dance, play guitar with the Boss. Indeed, we witnessed a moment when a Gram Parsons look-a-like held aloft a piece of cardboard asking for the boss' guitar pick, and the boss duly obliged. Your wish is my command. Fantastic!

Girl on guitar with Bruce

A point of local interest, but also indicative of how popular this gathering was, the evening paper ran with a headline stating that "Rocker Bruce Springsteen today turned Glasgow into a £1 million sell-out" and went on to report "Every available hotel room within a 10-mile radius of the city centre has been snapped up by fans as the American singer songwriter known as the Boss gets set to perform tonight at Hampden Park. More than 9000 rooms are fully booked and today frantic tourism chiefs were having to tell visitors desperate for a bed to try local hostels and student accommodation". Also, it has to be said that matters were made worse by the "1000 occupational therapists who arrived in Glasgow the night before in time for a three-day conference at the SECC"!

Bruce relaxing!

But back to the gig! It was by now about 20:40 and I know from a close friend who is a 'casual' fan that he thought that things didn't really take off and I guess that that is one of the by products of the Boss' approach in the early part of the show, i.e.  taking 'requests', that is to say it can be a bit hit and miss. Looking at the set list, we were by now about 16 - 17 songs in and there had only been a couple of big hits. However, for the aficionado (sorry Bill!) that is what it is all about. As the saying goes "you pays your money, and you takes your chance". Down on the floor, we were absorbing each other's enthusiasm and delight whilst up there in the seats folk were aware of their neighbours reluctance to 'get on down'. I know, I've been there!

Stevie Van Zandt, Bruce Springsteen & Jake Clemons

However, no matter where you  were, or what your conscious state of mind, I'll wager (money changer in the temple? Dodgy!) that when the band struck up Open All Night, which first appeared on the Boss' career high '82 solo album Nebraska, you just had to get up and, to use the Boss' words, get "your brain to tell your ass" that it needs to be shaken! So, much ass shakin' was in evidence whilst the entire back line of the band stormed the front of the stage and boogied. They gave it 'laldy' as we say around these parts, meaning 'putting their hearts and souls into it'! Incidentally, the E Street Band were so named because on a journey home the band were trying to come up with a name when in the early hours they got back to the Jersey shore and they were headed to  1105 E Street, Belmar, New Jersey, when Springsteen saw a street sign for E Street and he liked it. There was another street in the neighbourhood that Springsteen made famous, it was Tenth Avenue! Things were really taking off now and next up we had Darlington County from the ground breaking 84 album Born In The USA. Around me, folk began shouting out the words and were really starting to 'get into the groove', the party had started and we were going to enjoy it!

'Professor' Roy Bittan

By 21:30 the last rays of the sun were fading in the western sky and an anointed young lad was lifted up onto the stage to sing along with Bruuuuce on the 2002 song from The Rising: Waiting on a Sunny Day. Serendipitously we had been hoping, and some probably praying, for a sunny day and, lo and behold, we were granted one. What more could we ask for? How good could things be? Well, as it happened, a wee bit better! Meanwhile, on stage Nils Lofgren was playing slide guitar and 'Professor' Roy Bittan was tickling the ivories to magnificent effect, whilst Garry Tallent and Max Weinberg were keeping things so tight that it would have been impossible to slide a rizla between them! Then as the band broke into Land Of Hope And Dreams, the studio recording was released for the first time on Wrecking Ball in 2012, I happened to look up and saw a clear blue sky above, not a cloud to be seen in the firmament. It was 21:55 in the northern hemisphere and there were many around me who truly believed that they were indeed in the land of hope and dreams.

The screen and stage

Then, bang on the stroke of 22:00, the first encore got under way as the thunderous, thumping  tumultuous drum and guitar intro to the brilliant, bouncing, bountyful sound that is Born to Run, off Springsteen's 3rd of 17 albums to date, ripped through the sound system and flooded around the stadium, encompassing and enveloping us all and bringing us to a new high. By now we had lost our inhibitions and were groovin', gesticulating, grinning, gyrating', "gettin' it down", shimmying, swaying, shaking, singing and swallying! (For you non-Scots, that means 'Imbibing'!) We were in the zone, we had been "sprung from cages out on highway 9......'cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run"! The harder we danced, the harder the band worked, still playing with zest and vigour. I was finding it hard to keep up, and many of them have a good few years start on me! And so, as the night drew to a close, we boogied with Rosalita, who had come out for the night, we danced in the dark and twisted and shouted our way to the grand finale. But first a special mention for Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out from 75's Born to Run album. When it got to the part where Springsteen sang  "Big Man joined the band", there was a pause, where in the song, Clarence's sax solo would have been performed and we cheered, and I for one, was doing so in honour the big man's memory.

Springsteen and Clemons met in 1971 and became life long friends, at the time Clemons was playing with Norman Seldin & The Joyful Noyze at The Wonder Bar in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Clemons was encouraged to check out Springsteen, who was playing with The Bruce Springsteen Band at the nearby Student Prince. Clemons recalled their meeting in various interviews as follows (at this point I would like to quote from a French Springsteen fan site via Wikipedia): 

"One night we were playing in Asbury Park. I'd heard The Bruce Springsteen Band was nearby at a club called The Student Prince and on a break between sets I walked over there. On-stage, Bruce used to tell different versions of this story but I'm a Baptist, remember, so this is the truth. A rainy, windy night it was, and when I opened the door the whole thing flew off its hinges and blew away down the street. The band were on-stage, but staring at me framed in the doorway. And maybe that did make Bruce a little nervous because I just said, "I want to play with your band," and he said, "Sure, you do anything you want." The first song we did was an early version of "Spirit in the Night". Bruce and I looked at each other and didn't say anything, we just knew. We knew we were the missing links in each other's lives. He was what I'd been searching for. In one way he was just a scrawny little kid. But he was a visionary. He wanted to follow his dream. So from then on I was part of history." 

The late, great Clarence Clemons

"Good night and thanks a lot"

And so to the final encore, by now the band had left the stage, each one was greeted by Springsteen as they trooped off, and then he walked to the microphone front and centre stage and sang a solo, acoustic version of Thunder Road. This was the third time in a row that he had finished a gig with this song, and I got the impression that the Boss had been getting ready for this one. The performance was sublime, and the choice of song inspired, being as it was the first song on the seminal album Born To Run which is considered by many to be the pinnacle of Springsteen and Clemons' work together. So perhaps on this night, this night of all nights, it was deliberate, but if not, it was fitting that the band were all dressed in black in memory of two dear departed friends, colleagues, magnificent musicians and men whom many in the audience will have grown up with and grown to love from afar. Everyone sang along and some of us wept, yes it was that emotional. I have to say that leaving an audience with such a song, such magnificent lyrics and such a performance guaranteed satisfaction, to steal a Stones line. Will I see a better gig? Possibly, and it will probably be when the Boss and the E Street Band roll their particular brand of energetic, enthusiastic, high octane rock and roll back to my neck of the woods. A truly  heartfelt thanks and 'haste ye back'.

Stevie Van Zandt

The E Street Band:

Bruce Springsteen - guitar & vocals

Stevie Van Zandt - guitar, mandolin & vocals

Patti Scialfa - vocals (not on stage) 

Max Weinberg - drums & percussion

Garry Tallent - bass

Roy Bittan - piano, keyboards & accordion

Nils Lofgren - guitar, mandolin & accordion

Soozie Tyrell - violin, acoustic guitar, vocals & accordion

Charles Giordano - organ,keyboards & accordion

Everett Bradley - percussion and backing vocals

Jake Clemons - saxaphone

Eddie Manion - saxaphone

Barry Danielia - trumpet

Curt Ramm - trumpet

Clark Gayton - trombone

Curtis King - backing vocals

Cindy Mizelle - backing vocals

Michelle Moore - backing vocals

The Set List:

Gig started at 19:27

1. We Take Care of Our Own

2. The Ties That Bind

3. Jole Blon (sign request)

4. It’s Hard To Be a Saint In The City (sign request)

5. Radio Nowhere

6. No Surrender

7. Wrecking Ball

8. Death To My Hometown

9. My City of Ruins

(Moment of silence for the E Street Band’s “missing brothers”)

10. Spirit In The Night

11. E Street Shuffle

12. I'm On Fire (sign request)

13. Tougher Than The Rest (sign request)

14. Atlantic City

15. Murder Incorporated

16. Johnny 99

17. Open All Night

18. Darlington County

19. Shackled and Drawn

20. Waiting on a Sunny Day

21. The Rising 

22. Badlands

23. Land of Hope and Dreams

Encore

24. Born To Run

25. Rosalita

26. Dancing in the Dark

27. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out

28. Twist & Shout

29. Shout

Encore

30. Thunder Road

Gig ended at 22:57