Bruce Springsteen - Boston, MA

To be as objective as possible, Springsteen fucking ruled, and to see him at half court of the garden, separated by only a few inches of mat from the parquet floor where Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce was doubly awesome.

Bruce, who is 63, slid across the stage on his knees, jumped up on top of the piano, crowd surfed, and gyrated his ass off like he was 19. Max Weinburg, who is 61, also killed it, pounding the drums with fury and precision. The rest of the E Street band at 15 members strong was also amazing, always on point.

The show started with Springsteen’s new single “ We Take Care of Our Own” and “Wrecking Ball,” the title track off of his new album. Bruce took time every couple of songs to pump up the crown like a fire and brimstone preacher, or lowly mumble rambling stories. He even did that awesome thing where mid-song he introduced the entire band and they each soloed on their respective instruments, something only bands of E street caliber can pull off/deserve. (I mean it’s not really like Skrillex can just stop one of his songs shout “And on bass drop AVI file 74!” Womp womp womp womp) At one point much of the E-street band came up and doo-wopped while told the story of the Apollo theater and his forefathers who played there before launching into a medley of “The Way You Do the Things You Do/634-5789.” He then surprised the crowd with not often played “American Skin (41 shots)” possibly in response to the shooting of Trayvon Martin.

The set included a lot of classics (many of them coming in the last third of the show) including “Badlands”, “Thundercrack” spine tingling renditions of “Thunder Road” and “Born To Run,” and “Dancing in The Dark.”

A wild Peter Wolf appeared for the second to last song, “Raise Your Hand” an Eddie Floyd cover.

Bruce played for almost three straight hours, and was captivating the whole way through, something very few can pull off, (sorry Radiohead.) The set ended with “10th Avenue Freeze-out” and right after the lyric “And the big man joined the band” the entire band stopped and there was a 3 minute standing ovation for Clarence Clemons (pour some out for the big man) who died last year, and very sweetly was replaced by his afroed nephew.

Well, in summation Springsteen fucking rules, and made my life last night.

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Check the article out in the Phoenix