WHILE the Bruce Springsteen tour featuring his recent CD “Magic” has been anything but, the Boss and his E Street sidekicks found their mojo last night at Madison Square Garden.
Compared to the spotty concert last week on home turf at the Meadowlands, peppered with technical bugs and derailed by a lackluster audience, the Garden gig was a total triumph for E Street – together with the Boss for their first full-scale tour in five years.
At the Garden, the band was all confidence; the concert flow was powerful and steady; and everyone from Bruce on down was determined to make a great show.
They did.
As he has at most of the stops on the tour, Springsteen checked the Garden’s vital signs at the start of the show with the screamed-out question: “Is there anybody alive out there? Is there anybody alive?”
On cue, the sold-out house roared. and the band launched into “Radio Nowhere” the power rocker off of “Magic.”
That opening number was a near-perfect introduction to what followed during the 21/2-hour performance. All the elements of a classic Springsteen were in place, from the muscular musical interaction between band and man, to the Boss’ gut-busting vocals, during which he clamped his eyes shut and contorted his mug.
As “Radio” raged, drummer Max Weinberg was a machine who tracked Springsteen’s moves so precisely that each of the Boss’ steps landed on a beat. Guitar ace Steven Van Zandt showed he’s more than just a pretty TV mobster, with some very flashy six-string fretwork.
He also sang well, even as he suffered the spray when he and Bruce shared a lone microphone center stage.
Then there was the Big Man – Clarence Clemons – who did a Gabriel-sax solo that brought the house down.
And that was just the first song.
The rest of the set was as good or better, from “The Ties That Bind” to “Adam Raised a Cain” to one of the best versions of “Promised Land” that’s ever battered the Garden.
The set also mixed in a load of new “Magic” material, some of it familiar enough to conjure a sense of déjà vu. That happened when the band played the very political “Livin’ in the Future,” which, in concert, sounded remarkably close to the Bruce classic “Tenth Avenue Freeze-out.”
When Bruce and company are hitting on all cylinders, as they did last night, few acts in music can come close to matching their ability to rock an arena. It was as if 58-year-old Springsteen was trying to prove all night that he and his pals can still stay tightly wound for an entire concert – just like when they were kids.