Springsteen tour opener, crit tips

First off, the long-awaited new Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band album, “Magic,’’ is not a great record. It has great individual songs on it, but not enough overall magic for some Bruce diehards. It’s a return to rock, but Bruce recycles some riffs and ends up with an album that is more of a holding pattern than a breakthrough.
The real magic came in the opening night this week of the E Street tour in Hartford. Springsteen & Co. reached back for a comeback show that had the Bruce faithful in fist-waving ecstasy once again. The fans were thankful that he has gone beyond his last two, folk-flavored albums to revive the E Street Band and restore the thunder that’s been missing these last five years.
The E Streeters are getting older – Bruce just hit 58, while saxophonist Clarence Clemons is 65 and not the same ferocious force of yore, at least not consistently. But the chemistry was there when they needed it. The song selection was also a marvel, despite Bruce boldly tossing in eight songs from the new disc, which was too many for an audience that hadn’t yet digested it. But he packaged the new and old material beautifully, from the opening segue of fiery new single “Radio Nowhere’’ into the ever-communal “The Ties That Bind.’’ He’s still searching for faith.
“This is the first stop on our mystery train. Thanks for being with us,’’ Springsteen said to the sold-out crowd at the Hartford Civic Center.
Unlike past tours, he barely spoke, instead putting the focus on the music. There were no long stories or speeches. He threw out a few quick political shots – attacking the “illegal wiretapping’’ and “attacks on the Constitution’’ by the last administration (which he didn’t name) – but just as quickly he followed with his classic “Promised Land,’’ with its insistent refrain of “I believe in the promised land.’’
He also believes in shaking up the arrangements of some of his older tunes. The venerable “She’s the One’’ was given a more pronounced Bo Diddley beat, while “Darlington County’’ became his hardest-rocking tune of the night. The show’s highlight was a whomping transition from “Darkness on the Edge of Town’’ into “Darlington County.’’ It was the Bruce message in a nutshell: Confront the darkness, then break out of it.
The darkness was there in some of the new songs, including “Last to Die,’’ an apparent knock on the Iraq War (“Who’ll be the last to die for a mistake?’’ he sang) and “Gypsy Biker,’’ about a son finally coming home, but to a grave. Some new songs were less effective – the gushy “Girls In Their Summer Clothes’’ was a trifle that sounded like a Beach Boys outtake.
But the show built up with patented Springsteen energy, as he strung together the new “Devil’s Arcade,’’ his 9/11 song “The Rising,’’ and aforementioned “Last to Die,’’ then blew it all open with the set-closing “Badlands.’’ The band, notably guitarists Steve Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren, along with drummer Max Weinberg, followed his lead and cut loose.
Springsteen lost me on the first two encores (“Girls in Their Summer Clothes’’ and a flat version of “Thundercrack’’), but then pushed the right button with a tumultuous “Born to Run.’’ He then returned for another dual encore of the poppy “Waiting On A Sunny Day’’ and the high-octane folk of “American Land’’ from the re-released version of the “Seeger Sessions’’ album. E Street keyboardists Roy Bittan and Danny Federici both switched to accordions for this Celtic-grooved tune, which was played with the same incendiary passion as the earlier rock tracks. Night one of the tour was in the books – and the crowd went home as deliriously transported as ever.


CRITIC’S TIPS

* Josh Ritter – at the Somerville Theatre Thursday-Friday, Oct. 4-5. The Idaho singer-songwriter, who lived for a while in Somerville, returns to familiar terrain.

* Session Americana – at the Brattle Theatre on Thursday, Oct. 4. The wonderful, local, floating-cast, roots-music ensemble performs a benefit for the Brattle Film Foundation.

* Bob Dylan/ Elvis Costello – at the Verizon Wireless Arena on Friday, Oct. 5. The frog-voiced Dylan has become a crapshoot in concert, but adding luster to the bill is Elvis’s first solo acoustic tour in quite a while.

* Brandi Carlile – at the Orpheum Theatre on Friday, Oct. 5. The Seattle wunderkind, who opened the WBOS Copley Square series this summer, is back as part of VH1’s “You Oughta Know’’ tour.

* Paolo Nutini – at the Orpheum Theatre on Saturday, Oct. 6. Meteoric star Nutini is due to open the Led Zeppelin reunion show in London, but not before conquering the Orpheum.

* Harvard Square Oktoberfest – on Sunday, Oct. 7. The annual Harvard Square outdoor festival still features multiple stages with something for everyone, from the rock of Teenage Prayers and the Steve Smith Band, to the Latin stylings of Mango Blue and the singer-songwriter talents of Meg Hutchinson and Rose Polenzani.

* Phil Lesh & Friends – at the Orpheum Theatre Tuesday-Thursday, Oct. 9-11. Lesh is still being accompanied by ex-Dylan guitarist Larry Campbell and ex-Bruce Hornsby drummer John Molo, but he’s also out this time with singer Jackie Greene and keyboardist Steve Molitz, who has played with Particle.