Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band brought their ‘A’ game to T-Mobile

Chris Ortiz,
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Bruce Springsteen. // Photo by Chris Ortiz

Let me start off by being completely honest. It was 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 18, and I had just parked my car and headed down to the T-Mobile Center, not knowing what to expect for the night. This was my first time, and I heard a lot about what to expect, what not to expect, and more from those who had seen him live from the ’70s to early ’00s.

As I approached the main entrance, I could hear the street drummer hammering away his rhythmic tunes and the street preacher on his megaphone, damning everyone who was about to enter the Center that night. Across the street, the local hate group held up their signs of hate, which concert goes would scream back, “It’s fucking 2023 already, go home!” as they filed in one by one through the front gates and the new metal detectors that the security staff were very proud of. “We just got these things like a week and a half ago,” a guard told me with pride as I checked in for the night.

Heading down to the floor, to where the four of us photographers would be shooting from for the night, stories were exchanged about what could happen. One said that they heard that he actually crowd surfed at a show recently and that he could that night. Another said that he writes the set list every day just a few hours before the show, and the list went on and on. What wasn’t talked about however, was what was really to expect. A complete religious experience for every Springsteen fan that was in the sold out building that night.

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Bruce Springsteen. // photo credit Chris Ortiz

The E Street Band and E Street Chorus was perfectly in sync with each other, and Springsteen, who hit every note as well as he ever did. Each member of the brass section, which included a trombone, two trumpets and a sax/bari sax, got their own solo. Curtis King Jr., a member of the E Street Choir, had gorgeous duet on the cover of the Commodores song, “Nightshift.”

Bruce was feeling the crowd as much as they were feeling him, not only by making a cowbell joke during Johnny 99, to giving a young, elementary school aged fan, who was riding on his parent’s shoulders, a guitar pic, to momentarily stopping during his song “Wrecking Ball” during the line: “Here where the blood is spilled, the arena’s filled, and Giants played their games,” to say “Kansas City does pretty well,” which an enormous roar came from everyone in attendance. Even his beloved harmonica, which played on a few different songs throughout the night, was tossed into the crowd to an awaiting fan.

Throughout the night, Springsteen gifted the audience with a few different stories, from the shout and response spelling and chant of “FUCK COVID” after he informed the audience that saxophonist Jake Clemons was back in the hotel room eating cheeseburgers and watching porn after testing positive earlier that morning, to the first ever band that he was in. This band founded by his friend George Theiss, who invited a 15 year old Bruce to join, even though he had picked up the guitar not more than six months before hand. The band, named The Castiles (after the Shampoo), was active from 1965-1967. The story continued as Bruce stated that 50 years after that, George passed away from lung cancer, and that with that passing, Springsteen was the last surviving member of that band, which caused him to write the song “Last Man Standing,” which he played acoustically with the only other instrument being a single trumpet solo. Shortly after, during the next song, “Backstreet,” a few tears rolled down his cheek.

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Bruce Springsteen. // photo credit Chris Ortiz

With only one technical flaw of of a video screen, the show was like none that I could have imagined. The band went seamlessly from the main part to the encore, with the only hint of something changing when the house lights went on and stayed on as the band continued their performance.

Bruce Springsteen setlist
No Surrender
Ghosts
Prove It All Night
Letter to You
The Promised Land
Out in the Street
Candy’s Room
Kitty’s Back
Nightshift (Commodores cover)
The E Street Shuffle
Johnny 99
Last Man Standing
Backstreets
Because the Night (Patti Smith Group cover)
She’s the One
Wrecking Ball
The Rising
Badlands
—
Thunder Road
Born to Run
Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
Glory Days
Dancing in the Dark
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
I’ll See You in My Dreams (solo acoustic)

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