Rock, and pop music in general, is generally kid stuff – literally. Even seven decades into rock and five into hip-hop, most artists still deal with teenage and 20-something concerns – finding love, making money, feeling like you’re going to live forever and romanticizing the fact that you won’t. There are plenty of songs about burning out; damn few about growing old.
Bruce Springsteen has spent much of the last quarter century chronicling an adulthood tinged with a fervent belief in the power of music – both on albums and in cathartic live shows. Since last spring, he’s been on tour with a show that followed the release of his soul covers album, Only the Strong Survive, but focused more on the rocker-looks-back theme of Letter to You. His shows with the E-Street Band are always celebratory, but those since last year are freighted with a sense that he might not be able to do this forever.
Then again, judging by his three-hour powerhouse of a concert July 18 at Strawberry Arena near Stockholm, who knows? Springsteen’s energy never seemed to flag, and he closed a six-song first encore with a version of “Twist and Shout” that included a who’s-tired? schtick that could have come from one of the soul greats whose songs he performed on this last album. His only concessions to age seem to be holding shows to about three hours, with a fairly stable setlist, although as this tour reaches its second year, he’s changing that more as well.
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The bones of the show were the same as last year: New songs “Letter to You” and “Ghosts” early in the show; “Nightshift” and “Last Man Standing” in the middle, with a story about how he’s the only surviving member of his first band; a main set that ends with “Badlands” and “Thunder Road, followed by an encore of some big hits; and a second encore of a solo acoustic performance of “I’ll See You in My Dreams.” But as the tour goes on, Springsteen has changed things up a bit, as he tends to, and the band feels loose enough to handle anything he throws at them.
Back before the pandemic, Springsteen would sometimes bring a kid up on stage to sing a chorus of a song – a cute gesture but also a nod to the fact that he’s on his second generation of fans. He did it again in Sweden on “Waitin’ on a Sunny Day,” then lifted the kid back into the audience, which isn’t something most 74-year-olds can do. But there were shadows, too: “Long Walk Home,” introduced as “a prayer for my country,” and a downcast “Racing in the Street.” So many of Springsteen’s songs are about looking back that he could have written some of them recently.
At this point, most Springsteen fans are dedicated – even some of their kids apparently know the words – so the band has the freedom to open with “Seeds,” which was never even released as a studio recording. People knew it. “The E Street Shuffle” came out 50 years ago, before Springsteen became a star, and everyone seemed to recognize that, too. So Springsteen changes the set list and throws in some surprises, but he also plays the hits – literally as well as metaphorically. The audience expects a few rave-ups – here on “Sunny Day,” “Backstreets,” “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out” and “Twist and Shout” – as well as shout-outs to late E Streeters Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici and a riff on the enduring power of the band. Hearing him introduce the band once again has a reassuring familiarity.
Maybe that’s part of the point. Springsteen has always seemed to think of playing concerts, especially with his band, as a kind of calling. It’s what he does. Sure, he can look ponder mortality on “Last Man Standing,” which retains its power as a goodbye to old bandmates, or send people home with “I’ll See You in My Dreams” instead of closing on the more upbeat note of “Twist and Shout,” as he might have years ago. Nothing lasts forever. But the kind of music Springsteen loves, as well as the music he makes, still retains its power – and so does he and his band.
See him while you can; based on the energy he expends onstage, he looks like he might only be able to do this for another few decades.