Katie Cameron
A&E Editor
Last week, Bruce Springsteen and his famous E Street Band performed at Columbus’s Schottenstein Center. The show was part of Springsteen’s The River tour, the 1980 double album that was rereleased last year. It was his first stop since cancelling his performance in Greensboro, North Carolina in protest against the state’s controversial HB2 law, which restricts the rights of gay and transgender Americans. Springsteen regrouped in top form, playing a high energy four hour set without break; it’s worth mentioning here that Springsteen is 65 years old (a fact that will haunt me every time I wheeze through track practice at age 21).
The River is Springsteen’s fifth studio album. The album is nearly an hour and a half long, and its 20 tracks sprawl across a wide range of themes including love, pain, desire, frustration and, most notably, growing up and understanding adulthood.
“The River was my coming of age record,” Springsteen remarked on stage. The tracks feature narrative threads on difficult aspects of blue collar life, as many were extra songs from his previous album Darkness on the Edge of Town, which explored similar themes. He and the E Street Band went on to play through the entire album, romping through rowdy upbeat tracks like “Crush on You” and “Hungry Heart” and slowing down during more poignant moments like “Stolen Car,” “Drive All Night” and the album’s title track.
Springsteen would occasionally pause to reflect on some of the tracks, like “Independence Day,” a song written from the perspective of a son to a father, as he prepares to leave home. “I wrote this song when I was 23 or 24,” Springsteen said, an age when he felt more akin to the son. Now, as an older man, Springsteen discussed realizing that parents are people like anyone else, with dreams sacrificed and hopes lost.
Moments like this, where Springsteen acknowledges his age, make some of the songs on the album sound dated — “I Wanna Marry You” doesn’t work as well when you’re 25 years into your second marriage — but overall, I was too impressed with Springsteen’s stamina to really care; I could barely stand by hour three, and the only time he got off his feet was when he crowdsurfed across the mob in front of the stage.
Yes, there’s something so dramatic about Springsteen’s music that it nearly comes off as cheesy. I mean, his songs feature so so so many saxophone solos. But underneath all the bravado that comes with the territory of classic rock, there’s a lyrical, almost poetic quality to Springsteen’s music that connects with people and moves them.
During the concert, that connective quality was reflected in the exuberance of the crowd dancing in the dark (get it, like that Springsteen song), but more significantly, also in the emotional resonance that the songs elicited.
Revisiting The River 36 years later in this tour not only allowed Springsteen to reflect on youth and adulthood, but also reflect on the audience that he so actively worked to incorporate into his show as well.