Bruce Springsteen - London Wembley Arena - 12/11/06
5/5
By: Matt Tomiak
This might not read like your typical rockfeedback review. But then again, Bruce Springsteen is not your typical performer- and nor is tonight's performance. Cramming a full band on stage to reprise his latest LP 'The Seeger Sessions', a joyous, invigorating tribute to the music of the political activist and folk singer Pete Seeger. It's an apposite project, following in the footsteps of 1982's 'Nebraska' and 1996's 'The Ghost of Tom Joad.' Quite simply, Springsteen exemplifying the very best in the American psyche. Mercilessly damming of the corruption and deceit in the upper echelons: yet with an inextinguishable optimism burning at the core.
Not just musical antecedents like Woody Guthire and Bob Dylan but journalistic pioneers like the sleaze-exposing Muckrakers, social realist author John Steinbeck, and the American Progressive movement of the early 20th century. Anyone who recognises and speaks out against injustice, and understands that nothing is more patriotic than dissent. And how many toilet circuit indie bands can you say that about?
The show opens with a pair startling, stately re-interpretations from Springsteen's wide-eyed, now 33-year old debut 'Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ', with the latter's memorable, boldly affirmative line 'man, the dope's that there's still hope' epitomizing Springsteen's legacy and belief in the future. And although there can be few artists with a more enviable back catalogue (seriously, we could instantly reel of 50 songs off the top of our heads we'd love to have heard tonight but didn't), it's the robust, communal splendour of the folk classics- 'John Henry', 'This Little Light of Mine', 'Pay Me My Money Down'- that shine brightest this evening, removing the spiritual from the poisonous hypocrisy of the American religious right and creating something inclusive and celebratory.
Still, this being Bruce, we're getting our money's worth over the course of his traditional 3 hour epic set. 'Johnny 99', the bleak story of a desperate man whose downward spiral culminates in a death sentence takes on a chilling new resonance in the post-Hurricane Katrina American landscape and highlights Springsteen's ever- enduring back catalogue. 'The River' , previously a grand, explosive narrative of unrequited childhood ambition is given a sombre, but equally affecting makeover. We even get an entertaining version of 'Man on the Flying Trapeze': hell, if every two-bit indie band is doing the 'novelty' cover, why shouldn't Bruce have a go?
'Thanks for taking a chance on us tonight!' he commends us at the close. It's simultaneously ludicrous, yet touching: Bruce Springsteen is surely the last performer on the planet for whom going to see live represents any kind of gamble. But that comment reminds me of an interview Tony Parsons conducted with Springsteen way back in the 70s, in which The Boss promised he'd never let any of his fans down, never ignore them, never deny an autograph or a word of greeting. As Parsons sagely noted, this would sound preposterous coming from anyone else. But as Wembley bears witness to tonight - when it's Bruce, you believe.
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