Concert Review: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Pittsburgh, PA, August 15, 2024

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I’ve never been electrocuted, but I imagine it probably feels a lot like it did tonight, when Bruce Springstreen and the E Street Band walked onstage in Pittsburgh and opened their set with “Seeds.” Instantaneously, my brain and my entire body were immediately shocked to attention. OH MY GOD THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE SONGS OH MY GOD HE IS OPENING WITH IT OH MY GOD HE IS PLAYING MOTHERFUCKING “SEEDS.” IS THIS REALLY HAPPENING

It was one of those moments every cell in your body is focused and vibrating and there is no other thought in my brain besides OH MY GOD, “SEEDS”

“Seeds” is one of my favorite Bruce Springsteen songs – hell, one of my favorite songs, period – because it is raucous and eloquent and angry and deeply, deeply political, and it rocks the fuck out: a gritty, dirty guitar riff opens the thing, Nils Lofgren at his expressive, textured best, with Bruce in full declaratory, full power vocal:

Well a great black river a man had found
So he put all his money in a hole in the ground
And sent a big steel arm driving down down down
Man now I live on the streets of Houston town

He sets up the rest of the story, two more verses, sketching it out, this story of this family who went down to Texas chasing the oil boom of the ‘80s, only to have their dreams shattered once they get there –  and then the horns kick in. It’s #66 on the list and at this moment, that seems far too low, but I am still literally vibrating over having seen this tonight. But more important than just the fact of “Seeds” showing up in a setlist (and it has been with more frequency, but still not enough) was that it was a phenomenal version. You can’t half-sell “Seeds,” it won’t work, he wouldn’t even try. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know the song (although Pittsburgh, god bless them, has always been a stronghold for E Street, so chances are high that most people did) because it is a statement, it is a declaration of intent, it is staking a claim. 

Welcome to the opening show of the North American leg of the 2024-2025 Springsteen Tour. Hot damn. This is not the 2023 tour. Friends who saw the US shows earlier this year made that assertion and the shows I listened to definitely sounded better but this is a step above that. This is a show that was 100% focused on music and performance and execution and very light on cowbells and other completely unnecessary and detracting gimmickry. And there is a magnificent narrative arc that you can tangibly feel and that is absolutely believable. You don’t have to work to try to figure out what he’s trying to convey, the setlist takes you with him. I’m not going to say that this is a perfect set but this run from tonight, for example, is solid gold:

Reason to Believe / Atlantic City / Youngstown / Long Walk Home 

“Reason to Believe” is a hybrid version, borrowing from the Devils & Dust bullet mic ZZ Top homage and every previous full band version, but it’s also this melange of backroads gospel and Chicago blues and the horns, and he lets the thing breathe, allowing for audience call and response (also accurate to all of the above!) without diluting it. There was a moment where Nils is hitting the riff, Bruce is leaning on the mic, Garry Tallent takes a moment to slick his hair back and adjust his sunglasses. We could have been in a Texas roadhouse. I was three rows behind the stage and could see the prompter for the singers and saw that Bruce deliberately skipped a horn break, which was the right call at that moment, but added one later in the song. Less spectacle, more blues. The same kind of control was present in “Atlantic City,” where he didn’t repeat the crescendo at the end because it wasn’t necessary. Sometimes it’s liberating to have the crowd keep singing that chorus back to you but sometimes it can go on longer than it needs to. 

Only in Pittsburgh will you get an audible cheer from the audience at the mention of the Monongahela valley in “Youngstown.” (I also noticed that Bruce changed his pronunciation of Appalachia to the accurate one.) But mostly, what you need to know about “Youngstown” starts and ends with Nils Lofgren. The thing about Nils that I appreciate the most is that he has – eliminated notes? He’s still playing the same general flavor of solo but his execution is tighter and more compact, more definitive. It’s something I noticed about Keith Richards the last time I saw the Stones. You can say the same thing with less. I do not feel bad comparing Nils Lofgren to Keith Richards.

I’m not trying to make this into a political thing but there was a day earlier this week where I got in the car and hit shuffle and the first song that came up was “Long Walk Home” and I burst into tears before I got out of my driveway; it has been a few weeks, you know? I was texting with friends before the show started and said, “I am expecting something from him. Don’t know what exactly. I’ll know it when I see it.” “Seeds” was part of it, this run of songs definitely, but “Long Walk Home” absolutely. Like "Seeds," part of it is, This is one of your best songs, dude. Own it. But also, motherfucker, say something. He did.

He’s slightly altered the arrangement of "Long Walk Home" since I last saw it, similar to what he did elsewhere, where he’s drawing on the band to finish the song instead of drawing things out with long crowd singalongs. Here he pulls on Curtis and the vocalists, which make the experience of hearing the song richer. We’re all still singing along anyway, but it’s too important of a song to risk it losing focus and momentum while you walk around the stage and try to get the crowd to engage. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

I hadn’t seen the reworked “Nightshift” and it is honestly a highlight of the show. But he does it by bringing the vocalists down front and making them part of the entire performance of the song, instead of what he was doing in 2023 where he only brought Curtis King down to the front platform. But that is, again, everything that was wrong with Only The Strong Survive. Out of all of the songs on that record, it makes sense that “Nightshift” is the one that has remained because it lets him pay tribute to his influences in a way that also lets him continue to remind everyone he put out that record. 

I spent a lot of time looking at tickets for this show because I wanted to see if I could make the market work for me after hearing the clamor of how easy it was to find something on the drop. I finally gave up and bought my seat about a month ago because I did not have the patience to spent two hours a day poking at Ticketmaster. Funnily enough I sat in the exact same section, six rows up, in 2016. I kept hoping the front row seats in the section would drop, and then they did, but would have cost me $377 -- to sit behind the stage! I was not paying almost $400 to sit behind the stage! In 2016, my ticket cost $128, which is what I think a ticket behind the stage should cost. In 2024, my ticket was $245, in the third row of the section behind the stage. That is the end of my rant about ticket prices. 

In any event, I am glad I decided to go with the same section as 2016 because this was my view for “Racing In The Street:”

I didn’t intend to record the whole thing but it was less work to just let it run than it was to try to excerpt it and once he began working his way through the solo I was trying to not breathe too hard, much less move. Roy’s never played a bad solo during “Racing” and they’re always dynamic and expansive, they’re never the same, sometimes they’re brighter, sometimes they’re louder color-wise, tonight I thought it was shades of grey and black and white, but then he hits those broad chords, it was purple and shimmering and he was building granite monuments right in front of us. I think my most recent favorite Roy Bittan solo for “Racing In The Street” was in Philadelphia in 2016 but tonight might replace it. Don’t get me wrong, Bruce delivered a great performance as well, he’s the one who’s setting the tone and pointing Roy in the direction he wants him to go in. But this was something I’ll always remember. “Racing In The Street” is such a poetic, lyrical, evocative song; it’s one that could have easily been put aside as Bruce and the band got older because the songs you write in your angry youth may start to feel disingenuous once you move past that. It’s not that Bruce has changed anything about “Racing” but it’s never felt dated or out of place. That’s phenomenal. 

I was grateful for “Last Man Standing” because I needed to sit down. I then promptly started sobbing quietly through the entirety of the song because I had a moment to breathe and process what I had just witnessed. But I will note that unlike 2023, the setup and the story and the performance for “Last Man Standing” felt more organic. There is still a narrative arc going on even after “Long Walk Home,” “Nightshift” into “Racing” into “Last Man Standing” into “Backstreets” is still very much an identifiable story, it was immersive, everyone was with him (the beer run song was “Nightshift,” I’m not judging but I’m judging. It’s a great performance!!).

“Backstreets” had me on my feet again but this was definitely a place where the entire band was a little off kilter – emotionally Bruce was still there but something went awry somewhere, and I did not think this was the best version of "Because the Night" I have heard, and wonder about its permanence in the setlist. “She’s The One” is another song that I had been wondering if it was time to retire because it has not felt 100% authentic and it’s really okay to drop things and move on, but tonight it had power and felt true. “Wrecking Ball” was my bathroom break song, I do not understand why it persists, and I think it dilutes the end of the set. “It ain’t no sin to be glad you're alive” hit particularly hard tonight, and “Badlands” felt like it had some of the oomph it had been missing for me. It felt essential, and not obligatory.

The prompter says “sways” for “Thunder Road.” I felt personally offended. I liked that he gives Stevie the solo, if there's anyone who knows about making a guitar talk it is Steve Van Zandt. I enjoyed "E Street Shuffle" and am glad one of the epics remains in the set; the interplay between Max and Anthony Almonte is fantastic and it's just the right amount of interest and energy.

Right before “Bobby Jean” it looked like Bruce audibled something to the band but then the prompter said BOBBY JEAN so I sat down and had a drink. It’s fine! It’s the encore. These are the songs you’re supposed to play in the encore. There were no dances during “Dancing In The Dark,” I appreciated that while Bruce went out to the center platform during “10th Avenue” he did not feel the need to artificially prolong the adventure nor did he need to do anything with ripping his shirt off or cowbells or whatever other unnecessary hijinx! had been part of the show. And I have made my peace with “Twist and Shout” because it is the one remaining element of E Street’s bar band days, but it also helps that it didn’t go on for 10 minutes  (Even “10th Avenue” was five minutes long, and yes I timed it), including the sweet “Do you want to go home? I don’t want to go home” shtick between Bruce and Steve, although I cannot believe that no one has thought to make the “Maybe we should write a song about that” joke. Also, shoutout again to Pittsburgh for sending the kind of energy that reminded me of seeing Bruce in the 80's.

“I’ll See You In My Dreams” was difficult. I was sitting next to a gentleman who was wearing a Backstreets Records t-shirt and when I commented on it, he said that he’d worn it for Charles Cross and did I think Bruce might say something before “Backstreets” tonight? He was not the only one wearing that shirt, and although I did not think there would be any acknowledgement. I appreciated seeing that there were people who remembered and wanted to pay tribute to the person who (among many other accomplishments) gave a voice to our fandom as the person who started Backstreets Magazine all those years ago.

My issues with the set are honestly minor. Do I wish “Promised Land” was before “Reason to Believe” instead of “Hungry Heart”? Do I wish “Hungry Heart” was somewhere else in the set? The answer to both of those questions is yes, but mostly I’m grateful that “Out In The Street” (among other offenders) was nowhere to be seen. I can kind of see a connection between “Seeds” and “Lonesome Day” but I would love to understand why “Lonesome Day” has remained in the set. I thought the opening connection after that, “No Surrender” / “Ghosts” / “Letter to You” was understandable, even if I feel like there are stronger ways to open a set, and by that I mean “Ghosts”/”Letter to You” but honestly the whole thing is so greatly improved overall and end to end that these are the minorest of quibbles. From a performance standpoint, I thought Jake Clemons didn't have the best night, and Bruce's voice seems stronger in some places and weaker than others. He's almost 75, this is something he can figure out how to modify, but he has to deal with this sooner rather than later.

But it was an absolute joy to be back on this 2024 version of E Street. If there weren’t 2025 shows already on the books I’d think about hitting another arena and even with that I still might try to find something I can afford. None of this is guaranteed, you know? None of this is guaranteed.

Setlist: SEEDS / LONESOME DAY / NO SURRENDER / GHOSTS / LETTER TO YOU / THE PROMISED LAND / HUNGRY HEART / REASON TO BELIEVE / ATLANTIC CITY / YOUNGSTOWN / LONG WALK HOME / THE E STREET SHUFFLE / NIGHTSHIFT / RACING IN THE STREET / LAST MAN STANDING / BACKSTREETS / BECAUSE THE NIGHT / SHE'S THE ONE / WRECKING BALL / THE RISING / BADLANDS / THUNDER ROAD / BORN TO RUN / BOBBY JEAN / DANCING IN THE DARK / TENTH AVENUE FREEZE-OUT / TWIST AND SHOUT / I'LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS

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