sweetcharmedlife wrote on Apr 22^nd, 2012 at 2:08pm:


Have fun California boy! You know Bruce is from the 'right' coast and he will be out to prove it! Just some friendly east-coast west-coast rivalry!

Bitch wrote on Apr 22^nd, 2012 at 4:37pm:

Some of the best shows in his career have been done in LA my dear sweet Bitch. For some reason I just think that the second show in LA this week is going to be something very memorable. Either way. They're never bad. Work one of your many Connections back there Jersey Girl and get your self to a Bruce show!

Edith Grove wrote on Apr 22^nd, 2012 at 1:59pm:


expect your review, Edith!!!

I will probably be attempting the first LA show.

Enjoy the shows, west siders!   

Another day.Another city.Another Bruce show.

After attempting to find one of the good close risers - the kind that never even made it stub hub, then I bought a high up Concourse ticket for $20, like parallel to Bruce's mic.

I was going to skip tonight to go see Prima Donna who always totally kill live and playing my all time favorite venue but I just found out they are scheduled for 12:15am which kinda has the wheels turning. I might make it there around 12:15-12:20-ish between the bus and concert traffic. Guess I won't be seeing Bill German at the bookstore down there, someone tape it for me I would love to hear it.

Nellcote wrote on Apr 27^th, 2012 at 11:36am:


Thanks a lot, I watched the whole thing today. Now I don't feel so obligated. And I scored a killer ticket in the drop which I will talk about later because I gotta start getting ready.

Bitch wrote on Apr 27^th, 2012 at 5:52pm:

2 of the funnest weeks of my life. A different adventure every night. Some nice nuggets pulled out by Bruce the last couple of nights. A lot of Darkness love this weekend in LA.....And that's always a good thing.

Edith Grove wrote on Apr 28^th, 2012 at 7:36pm:

Umm,no. Some thing about me and Bluzdudes combined age being triple digits and our knees being even older kept us from going in earlier. But saw the vid. Really cool. You're going tomorrow right?

ijwthstd wrote on Apr 27^th, 2012 at 5:44pm:

it's what we do.

If you were not in front of the Acura Stage at the New Orleans Jazz Fest late on the afternoon of April 30, 2006...well, I'm sorry. On that day, Bruce Springsteen and his Seeger Sessions Band presided over a mass wake/therapy session/group hug/house party that touched nerves still raw eight months after Hurricane Katrina and its levee breaches rendered New Orleans a sodden ghost town.
 
Against long odds, festival staffers, sponsors, musicians and fans came together to stage a Jazz Fest for the ages, a shining signpost on the road to recovery. And the consensus highlight of that first festival after Katrina was Reverend Springsteen preaching to his hot, dusty, newly converted congregation as only he could.

Among other moments, "When the Saints Go Marching In" was reborn as a hushed prayer delivered in the darkest hour. Throughout the set, there was laughter and tears, joy and pain, anger and acceptance. C'mon, rise up, he implored all in attendance. Rise up.

Not a few emotionally spent, exhausted and uplifted onlookers left the Fair Grounds that evening thinking, "That was the greatest musical performance I have ever, and may ever, see." I was among them.

Fast forward six years. Today, Springsteen finally returns to New Orleans and Jazz Fest, the result of a last-minute request by his representatives. Once again, he'll close out the Acura Stage on the festival's opening Sunday, this time with his formidable E Street Band.

If you were there in '06, don't expect today to be a reprise. And if you missed '06, don't think today will make up for it.

New Orleans Jazz Fest preview for first Sunday: videoTimes-Picayune music critic Keith Spera offers up three acts to see Sunday at the New Orleans Jazz Fest - that aren't named Bruce Springsteen. Stay tuned to nola.com/jazzfest for reviews of the shows later this afternoon.Watch video

Because, logistically and realistically, it can't.

As many reviews noted, 2006 was the perfect intersection of music and moment. Happily, New Orleans in a much better place than in 2006. We've traveled a long, long way down the healing road. The raw ingredients with which Springsteen will work today aren't quite so raw.

That said, the E Street Band is counted among the greatest in rock 'n' roll history for a reason. To borrow a Springsteen lyric, they prove it all night, every night.

If anyone can aspire to match Springsteen's previous triumph, it's Springsteen.

In '06, he toured New Orleans' devastation before his performance. The "criminal ineptitude" he witnessed, and referenced from the Acura Stage, obviously left a lasting impression. "We Take Care of Our Own," the scorching lead single from his new "Wrecking Ball" CD, name-checks New Orleans from "the shotgun shacks to the Superdome." We New Orleanians, in those terrible days after the storm, took care of our own, because the powers-that-be did not.

"We Take Care of Our Own" has turned up at or near the start of most shows on the "Wrecking Ball" tour. Jazz Fest is, technically, another stop on that tour.

Every E Street concert is different, but more than half of the 25 or so songs in the set remain unchanged from night to night. The Boss does, however, tailor some concerts to special settings or occasions, as when the E Street Band visited Harlem's historic Apollo Theater or showcased during the South By Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Tex. 
E Street guitarist Nils Lofgren said in a recent interview that he expects to be assigned some "homework" before New Orleans in the form of new songs to learn. Whatever Springsteen selects will likely be in keeping with his prevailing themes, which he spelled out during his keynote address at South By Southwest.

He sang the chorus of the Animals' "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," with its longing for escape and the promised land: "We gotta get out of this place, if it's the last thing we ever do/We gotta get out of this place/Girl, there's a better life for me and you."

He then admitted, "That's every song I've ever written. That's all of 'em. I'm not kidding either. That's 'Born to Run,' 'Born in the USA.' Everything I've done for the past 40 years, including all the new ones."

The "new ones" would be "Wrecking Ball." Syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts pronounced "Wrecking Ball" a musical state of the union address. It does what Springsteen did so well at the Fair Grounds in 2006: Call out the bad times, but also offer a shot at salvation.

Songs do not seem to impact society at large as directly as in the 1960s and '70s. Springsteen played his "American Skin (41 Shots)" for the first time on the "Wrecking Ball" tour in Tampa, Flor., not far from where Trayvon Martin died. Whatever the song's relative merits, it will not resonate across the collective consciousness as thoroughly as, say, Neil Young's "Ohio," another song about a tragic shooting. Conversely, it's difficult to imagine Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" having the same impact today as 40 years ago.

But that doesn't mean Springsteen won't try. "Wrecking Ball" and 2007's invigorated "Magic," especially, stand in defiance of those who dismiss him as past his prime. They are among the strongest albums in his canon. Very, very few artists this deep into a career are capable of still making music so vital.

The E Street Band itself is 40 years old; the mortals who comprise it have made some concessions to advancing age. After undergoing a double hip replacement, guitarist Nils Lofgren can no longer catapult off pianos and drum risers. The band's after-show parties are likely a bit more tame these days.

An unpleasant side effect of longevity is attrition. Team Springsteen has lost key members, including organist Danny Federici, Terry Magovern, Springsteen's longtime assistant, and, most recently, saxophonist Clarence Clemons.

Springsteen has stated that Clemons didn't leave the E Street Band when he died -- "he leaves when we die." In other words, as long as the band exists, Clemons is part of it.

He found an elegant solution to the question of how to replace the Big Man: You don't. Instead of one horn player, Springsteen added a five-piece horn section, thus sparing any one individual from the pressure and scrutiny of stepping directly into Clemons' shoes. That the horn section includes his nephew, the saxophonist Jake Clemons, makes it all the more appropriate.

The Washington Post recently took Springsteen to task for using a TelePrompTer onstage. To me, lyrical cues seem like a permissible concession for an artist that calls out songs from a catalog with more than 100 options.

And TelePrompTer or not, he and the others invest performances with flesh and blood. Squeezed onto the stage of "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" earlier this year, the Boss and his boys mugged, shrugged and plugged away as if projecting to the cheap seats in a stadium. Springsteen slashed and chopped his electric guitar like it owed him money.

Regardless of whether or not today's set lives up to Springsteen's previous Jazz Fest visit, you can bet he'll be equally engaged and fully committed.

Recent shows on the "Wrecking Ball" tour have included "My City of Ruins," a devastating highlight of the '06 sermon. Six years later, that particular eulogy likely won't hit quite so close to home in New Orleans. Locals likely won't relate to it so directly, or respond to it so emotionally.

And that is a good thing.

Nellcote wrote on Apr 29^th, 2012 at 11:32am:

Well rating the 4 shows. I think Cleveland still gets the edge as the best show. May not be a fan of the city. But the show was the best. LA #2 might have been the best had we got in at 7:30 instead of 8 and seen the solo For You. Oh well. That setlist was similar to Cleveland anyway. With both Youngstown and Racing being repeated. But both still great. Plus I got Darkness. A longtime classic that has eluded me. San Jose was real fun. No tour debuts. But went with some fun people who weren't die hard Bruce fans. But are now converts. LA#1 gets the lowest rank. Mainly becasue of travel hassles and being in the nosebleeds. I can always quibble about this or that. But it would be about setlists and scheduling. The shows themselves were all solid. How he does it I don't know. He pours every ounce of energy into the show. He tells you your'e going to be hurting tomorrow and you are. But how he does three hours a night every night is amazing. I'd dare say he can give Mick a run for his money in the energy dept.