They Wanna Hear Some American Music

To paraphrase Jon Landau, "I have seen the past, and its name is Bruce Springsteen."

Last night, the Satanic Tuesday, June 6 -- 666, 06/06/06, or however you or the millenialists want to abbreviate it -- I witnessed a religious experience, a revival, if you will, out in the East Bay city of Concord that will stay with me for the rest of my days. Fortunately, I didn't have to handle any snakes -- Mrs. Generik did ask if we would have to before the show was over, and she wasn't being completely facetious, given the tenor of the show -- but I absolutely felt the spirit move me, and move me with great authority. Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band put on a show that moved me and a few thousand of my closest friends like few shows have moved me before.

Bruce came out late (rumor had it that he got lost on the way to the venue -- good thing, too, because my pal Marty and Mrs. Generik and I didn't get there until twenty minutes after the show was scheduled to start), but he still played for nearly three hours, and absolutely rocked the damn house. I mean, I haven't experienced a more powerful Bruce show since the first time I saw him in 1978.

"Good evening, sinners... and Concordians!" he said, to start off the show. Dressed like a revival preacher and playing the living hell out of his acoustic guitar, Bruce exhorted his fans to let him take them along on his latest musical and personal venture. The crowd immediately bought into the revival meeting atmosphere, and was well rewarded when the 76-piece band (it might have been somewhat smaller than that, but it sure seemed that big, if not bigger) overwhelmed everyone there with their immaculate chops. There were guitars, a banjo, keyboards, fiddles, a Dobro slide guitar, accordion, stand-up bass, percussion, backup singers, and more tambourines than a Salvation Army recruiting squad. One review I read called it the "Wall of Folk," and I think that might be the most apt description I've seen.

This show was all about America, and Americana. It was a show comprised not of Bruce's usual rock anthems, but of Pete Seeger's folk songs, tunes from the American songbook over the past three centuries, gospel, western swing, ragtime, rockabilly, boogie-woogie, traditional Celtic rhythms, radically reworked original tunes like Johnny 99, Atlantic City, Ramrod and Devils & Dust, and so much more. All of this was driven by an incredibly dirty -- and by that I mean fucking talented and absolutely KILLING, especially the trumpet -- horn section that put the New Orleans staple Dirty Dozen Brass Band to shame; a horn section that added a distinct raw and raucous Dixieland flavor to every song. It was almost an embarrassment of riches. No, it WAS an embarrassment of riches. It was an amazing and inspiring show. As my friend Marty said later, "I never would have believed that I would see an entire audience standing up and singing along to 'Froggie Went A-Courting' in my lifetime." And yet they did. And they enjoyed it.

Even better than the fact that he played all those American songs was that he turned so many of them into contemporary commentaries on the American situation today. He seamlessly connected the American songbook that so many of us are familiar with with the present-day situations we are faced with, from the oppression of the working class to the debacle in Iraq.

Here is the setlist from the show, and thanks to my good friend Marty for this:

John Henry
O Mary Don't You Weep
Johnny 99
Old Dan Tucker
Eyes on the Prize
Jesse James
Atlantic City
Erie Canal
My Oklahoma Home
Devils & Dust
Mrs. McGrath
How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?
Jacob's Ladder
We Shall Overcome
Open All Night
Pay Me My Money Down (w/ Joan Baez)
Encore:
Bring Them Home (If You Love Your Uncle Sam)
Ramrod
Rag Mama Rag
You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)
Froggie Went A Courtin'
When the Saints Go Marching In

It fucking rocked, and it rocked hard, and if you missed it, you missed one of the great shows of the early 21st century, and I feel sorry for you.