“GOOD evening, Deeeeeetroit!” Bruce Springsteen shouts at the top of his lungs, drawing out that excited greeting but barely even piercing the roar of “Bruuuuuuce!” that greets his entrance to the Little Caesars Arena. Strapping a guitar across his shoulder, he counts off “uh-one anna two…” before the E Street Band explode into “No Surrender”, a 40-year-old song about the promises we make to ourselves in our younger days. They play with focused energy and age-defying bravado, and for nearly an hour Springsteen doesn’t address or even acknowledge the audience of 20,000. Instead, he’s all business, running one of the finest rock’n’roll bands through their paces and barely allowing any daylight between the end of one song and the start of the next.
This is Springsteen in 2023, and it’s a slightly different version of the man than we got even six years ago when he last toured with the E Street Band. Rather than choose songs out of the air, he’s playing a similar setlist every night, with only a few changes between cities. Instead of telling stories between songs, he’s cut down the stage banter to only a few remarks. They’re playing roughly the same number of songs, but while the sets are shorter – clocking in at just under three hours – they’re even more intense than usual.
“In 2023, he’s still the greatest performer rock’n’roll has ever produced, period,” says Steve Earle. “The way he writes, he connects with so many different kinds of people – but especially whole generations of Americans that were promised something only to see it slip away. He sees that and has a lot of respect for his audience. He needs them. It’s an amazing thing to watch him break down that wall between them. Every time I see him, I walk away from it with something I’ll probably steal.”
The last chords of “No Surrender” are barely fading when Springsteen counts off the new song “Ghosts”, an upbeat number from 2020’s , which was an ode to bandmates past and present. It’s a chance to show off the E Street Band: the rhythm section of drummer Max Weinberg, bassist Garry Tallent and percussionist Anthony Almonte click effortlessly into place, while Soozie Tyrell at stage left adds swirls of violin and Stevie Van Zandt at stage right strikes poses with his guitar, his signature headscarf in place. Standing near Brucefor decades: “”, Springsteen sings. “”.
