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Sunday, April 5, 2009
Review: Bruce Springsteen at the Frank Erwin Center
Rodolfo Gonzalez AMERICAN-STATESMAN
- Photos: Bruce Springsteen at the Erwin Center
- Interactive: Explore Springsteen’s musical catalog
There is nothing cool about Bruce Springsteen.
This is, of course, the key to his genius. He always lets you see him sweat, the Boss who works as hard as anyone on stage with him. A Zen master of the simple riff and the piano hook, he and the E Street Band never met a tunelet they couldn’t turn into a tall tale and blow out and spin around until it begged for mercy.
Sunday night on a bare stage at the Frank Erwin Center, in front of well over 10,000 fanatics, Springsteen did all of that and more.
Not much more, but enough more.
This was just the third date of his tour supporting “Working on a Dream,” the quickly written and recorded follow-up to the holy-cow,-the-Boss-is-back monster “Magic.”
And though that album’s John Fordish “Outlaw Pete” and “My Lucky Day” were the second and third song played, opener “Badlands” set the tone for much of the evening. “You wake up in the night/ With a fear so real,” Bruce sang. These are scary economic times, harsh and mean. Bruce’s music is full of characters trying hard and dreaming big and losing control and making do.
Which meant there was a little preaching, with Bruce asking us to “build a house tonight in this very room,” a house of hope that would turn doubt into faith and fear into love. Fortunately, he let the songs do the sermonizing for the rest of the night.
Which also meant there was a lot from “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” from “Badlands” to the romance of “Prove It All Night” to dying-light rage of “The Promised Land.” Elsewhere in the catalog, “Seeds” slipped into that darkness and “Johnny 99” still sounds better on “Nebraska.”
All this was off-set by some fun ones from “The River:” “Out in the Street” reminded you these guys do epic outros better than anyone, the rarely played “Sherry Darling” gave Springsteen nerds something to talk about and “I’m a Rocker,” in the encore, was pure bar band slop.
There was even music, though the Erwin Center’s brutal acoustics don’t allow for much. On “Youngstown,” guitarist Nils Lofgren kicked up the energy with the solo of the night, a melodic, powerful run that left him spinning in circles. From his lap steel playing to his rhythm work, the musicality jumped a notch whenever Lofgren came to the fore. More of him and less of Steve Van Zandt’s telegraphed solos wouldn’t have killed anyone.
“The Wrestler” and “Kingdom of Days” reminded everyone that “Working on a Dream” is in stores now, “Radio Nowhere” put in a good word for rock ‘n’ roll on the dial, while “Lonesome Day” and “the Rising” aimed for hope over everything else. Set closer “Born to Run” embodied an America that everyone loves, even if it never really existed.
For the encore, Stephen Foster’s “Hard Times Come Again No More” bled into “Jungleland,” a colossally pretentious and baffling stew of prog-rock rambling and cars and the Magic Rat that is somehow a sing-along. “American Land” is a corny reel, but the messy show closer “Glory Days” didn’t fail to push the buttons that Springsteen fans go to his shows to have pushed.
“I’m not kidding,” Bruce said during his sermon. Brother, trust me, nobody has ever accused you of kidding and they aren’t going to start now.
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Setlist for Bruce Springsteen at the Frank Erwin Center, April 5, 2009
Badlands
Outlaw Pete
My Lucky Day
Prove it All Night
Out in the Street
Working on a Dream
Seeds
Johnny 99
Youngstown
Working on the Highway
Sherry Darling
She’s The One
Because the Night
Waitin’ on a Sunny Day
The Promised Land
The Wrestler
Kingdom of Days
Radio Nowhere
Lonesome Day
The Rising
Born to Run
* * *
Hard Times
Jungleland
Tenth Avenue Freeze-out
I’m a Rocker
Land of Hope and Dreams
American Land
Glory Days
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ACL Fest advance tickets rise to $160
Apparently, Pearl Jam ain’t cheap. The lowest tier of three-day passes to ACL Fest Oct. 2- 4 in Zilker Park will be $160, which includes all service charges. Once an undisclosed alotment sells out April 7, when tix go on sale at 10 a.m., the next tier’s pricing will go into effect. That will be $185.
In 2007, advance tickets started at $120 for three days. Last year the first tier went up to $150. Three-day passes have sold out at least a month before the festival in the past two years. The Zilker Park capacity is 65,000 per day.
Last year’s top price for three-day passes was $170. If past patterns are followed, this year’s top tier looks to be headed to $185- $195.
In the worst-kept secret since Metallica’s SXSW showcase, Pearl Jam is expected to be announced as the ACL Fest headliner on April 28. Beastie Boys, Dave Matthews Band, Kings of Leon, Levon Helm and Ghostland Observatory are other names confirmed by an ACL Fest insider.
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Urban Music Fest: Scene report 2
As the sun dipped below the horizon and a hot day cooled into a perfect Spring night, the crowd at Auditorium Shores grew thick. At fifteen dollars, Urban Music Festival ticket prices this year were significantly lower than in the past and, in its fourth year, the festival’s audience finally seemed to swell enough to fill the massive, somewhat daunting, venue field at Auditorium Shores. Families clearly took advantage of the free admission for children twelve and under and the junior set was well represented. As the grown folk got their groove on, kids entertained themselves dueling with five dollar light sabers hocked by roving vendors and dancing with abandon at their parents feet. A football game featuring members of the under thirteen set even broke out in one corner of the field. At the food court, lines at many stalls, notably, that of Mr. Catfish, were long. On the other side of the field, a woman selling cowry shell earrings and Obama gear printed on imported African cloth reported a slow day of sales.
While I wasn’t able to stay long enough to catch Cameo’s headlining set (tiny baby at home, etc.) the evening’s theme was established by the two opening acts. The emcees from the Sugar Hill Gang, the “world’s first successful rap group” declared at the beginning of their set, “We want to turn this into an old school basement party.” And so it went. They shouted out the over thirty, over forty and the over fifty crowds to wild responses, paid tribute to fellow hip-hop originators Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five with a cover of “The Message,” and hosted a dance contest accompanied by beat-boxing when the sound system gave out briefly during their set. The audience rapped along with most of their material and when they closed their set with the seminal hip-hop hit “Rapper’s Delight” even another sound issue couldn’t quell the crowd’s enthusiasm.
Later, as darkness enveloped the field, r&b superstars Boyz II Men continued the evening’s old school motif with a set comprised largely of classic Motown hits, executed with smooth vocals and debonair Temptations-style dance moves. The screaming female contingent was particularly delighted, crowding the front of the stage in the V.I.P. section and passionately singing along throughout the crowd.
All in all, a festival that has grappled in its early years with everything from an inopportune Easter weekend event date to a freak April ice storm finally seemed to hit its stride. If the event’s goal is to provide Austin with a definitive family-friendly celebration of urban culture imbued with an exuberantly positive vibe, that was certainly accomplished tonight.
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