VIDEO: Sugarland covers Springsteen's "Atlantic City"

Rare chance to hear Kristian Bush (the guy in Sugarland) in concert with the band, doing an inspired take on Springsteen’s “Atlantic City”.  Great audio, and the version, especially the final third of the song, channels some of the Bruce magic.  The version is similar to how Springsteen and the E Street Band play it on their tour, with a bit of a quicker pace.  Bush says this was the first Springsteen song he ever learned, and Nebraska was his first Bruce album.

Review – Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in Louisville

After his last trip to Indianapolis in 2008, and only drawing 12,000 or so fans to his show at Conseco Fieldhouse on his “Magic” tour, it was pretty clear Bruce Springsteen would not be making a return appearance in Indy.

And that has, sadly, been the case.

While he’s playing nearby Midwest cities (Chicago, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Detroit, Omaha, Neb.) on the current tour promoting the Wrecking Ball album, Indiana fans of the Boss found Louisville to be the closest stop.

On Saturday night, he brought his 17-piece E Street Band to Kentucky’s largest city, and was met by a full house, and gave back with a 26-song, three-hour performance equal parts gospel music, bone-crunching rock and loose-limbed rock and soul. In his first six songs, he and the band played four songs from the new album, including an explosive “Shackled and Drawn” as the opener.

Making his first appearance at the new downtown KFC Yum Center, Bruce was greeted by a boisterous, ready-to-participate crowd.  He and the band rewarded them with no less than five tunes not on the printed setlist, and invited fans on four different occasions to jump, sing, dance on stage and bask in the once-in-a-lifetime thrill of being under the lights with the band.

It was those moments of unscripted joy and the inherent danger that comes with pulling people out of the crowd to share the moment in front of 20,000 people that set this show apart from others on the tour.  He had a pack of pink cowboy hat-adorned young women on stage to dance during “Darlington County”, honored a request to perform “Growin’ Up”, and allowed the 20-year old birthday boy to maniacally duet on the final verse and chorus. He  invited three young brothers up, and they nailed the chorus harmonies during “Waitin’ on a Sunny Day”, and allowed a pair of women get up and shake it during “Dancing in the Dark”

Smiling broadly when each group left the stage, Springsteen showed he has mastered the art of keeping a scripted show loose while reveling in the places that don’t go as planned.  Late in the concert, he and the band lost their place during a song for a moment, and he bellowed “We fucked that part up!  But the E Street Band is at it’s best when we are fucking up!”

In between the audibles, the brought forth a modern-day version of a rock and roll review.

He crowd surfed during “Hungry Heart”  to the front of the stage from a small riser midway back on the no-chairs, general admission floor.  He and sax man Jake Clemons (who joined the band after his uncle Clarence’s death last year) faced the large contingent of people in the seats behind the stage during “Spirit in the Night”.  Bruce played preacher during “My City of Ruins”, talking about New Jersey, the hurricane and how we are all connected.

Midway through the set, the show turned from really good to transcendent with an eight-song flurry, beginning with a rarely played “Street of Philadelphia” (never outside of Philly in the past 13 years).  “Because the Night was the hardest rocking song of the night, lit by a Nils Lofgren guitar solo, and followed by a roof-raising version of “She’s the One” from his Born to Run album.

By the time he turned in a heartfelt version of “The River” to close this mini-run, the show was already a winner.  And this was before he had let loose with crowd favorites “Badlands, Born to Run”, and spirited version of “Rosalita”, the aforementioned “Dancing in the Dark and encore-closing “10th Avenue Freeze-out.”

The show concluded a four shows in four days run, necessitated by a date change of a New York show because of Hurricane Sandy, and the addition of a performance in New York City the previous night as part of an NBC benefit.  It’s simply amazing the stamina, sweat and passion Springsteen delivers, 40 years after releasing his debut Greetings from Asbury  Park” album.

Why doesn’t Indianapolis embrace Bruce as it does other rockers like Bob Seger, Tom Petty and John Mellencamp? Politics?  Anti-East Coast bias?

It is odd.   It is sad. But who did I stand beside on the floor of the arena?  Two people I had never met.  One guy from Indianapolis, and the other from Fort Wayne.

It is our city’s loss, because many Indy fans don’t get to experience the joy of watching one of the greatest rock and roll performers bring the power to Indiana.

So we drive 100 miles to get it.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZaQSJAvBgo]
Setlist:
Shackled and Drawn
Lonesome Day
Hungry Heart
We Take Care of Our Own
Wrecking Ball
Death to My Hometown
My City of Ruins
Spirit in the Night
The E Street Shuffle
Streets of Philadelphia
Atlantic City
Because the Night
She’s the One
Growin’ Up
Open All Night
Darlington County
Waitin’ on a Sunny Day
The River
The Rising
Badlands
Land of Hope and Dreams
* * *
Rocky Ground
Born to Run
Rosalita
Dancing in the Dark
Tenth Avenue Freeze-out

From the Archives: Untold Stories Series – BoDeans return to Indy, minus a founding member

NOTE: For whatever reason, there are columns/stories I write that never get published on the Rockforward blog.  Why is that?  I have no good explanation.  I mean, it’s my blog.  All I have to do is write it, spell-check it and hit publish.  Weird, don’t you think?  In the face of such insanity, I have created a series called Stories Untold: The Mysteriously Unused Works of Rob Nichols  (I am nothing if not a little bombastic when it comes to series titles).  So enjoy the first in the series.  It’s one written last fall, preceding the first Indy appearance by the BoDeans since Sammy Llanas had abruptly left the band.  We came to find out it was a long-simmering breakdown between Kurt Neumann and Sammy. (Read Kurt’s terrific Q&A with the Pollstar website or Chicago Tribune’s interview for  Sammy’s version)  The band soldiers on, embracing the name and the history, and released an album (American Made) this year – the first minus one of the two distinct voices of the band’s 25 years together. Take a listen here.
And if the story below feels a little dated,  it is. But it’s now part of a series, man.
(originally written October, 2012)
When the BoDeans make an appearance at the Vogue on October 6, it will be the first time that the band will play an Indianapolis show without founding member Sam Llanas. The singer – one of band’s two singers, along with Kurt Neumann – is no longer part of the group.
Llanas, a high school friend of Neumann’s, didn’t show up for a BoDeans show in Winter Park, CO, and officially left the group five days later.
According to their Wikipedia entry, the split was due to “differences of opinion” that had been “going on for years”, said Neumann.
Nuemann will continue under the BoDeans moniker, and has added Jake Owen to take the spot of Llanas. Their website (bodeans.com) has new pictures of the band – minus Llanas – and have five shows scheduled through November 4.
According to the web, the group is working on a new studio album for 2012. Llanas has a new solo album titled 4 A.M., which came shortly after the latest BoDeans album, Indigo Dreams, was released this summer.
So what do we make of the split? As I wrote in Nuvo in July, 2010, “I can’t remember walking away (from a show) thinking that the band hadn’t worked hard at making a connection. The sound they make is unique.”
At the time, I wrote that the new album, Mr. Sad Clown, was thoroughly BoDeans, and the unique blending of two voices the reason they survive.
REVIEW – Mr. Sad Clown – Rob Nichols – July, 2010
Without the Everly’s like harmonies, it is difficult to imagine the band not changing it’s sound; the BoDeans morph into the Kurt Neumann Band. And I am good with that.
But the BoDeans in my head is Sammy and Kurt, teaming up to harmonize through “(She’s a) Runaway” and “Don’t Pass Me By” and “Good Things”.
That will be gone.
We will get a chance to see an early version of the new lineup, with the Indy show the first of the aforementioned five shows. The band has used Indianapolis as one of their regular stops over the past 20 years and the local fan base seems loyal and always appears by showtime to fill up the Vogue.
It is BoDeans name on the marquee.  In Indy, there is value in that brand.  It will be up to the remaining membesr, especially the remaining, likeable frontman Neumann, to make the new lineup work.
The show will surely contain the rock and rolling deep catalog of familiar, midwest-flavored BoDeans songs, and it will probably be a little bittersweet for fans
But carry on, my man.  Carry on Kurt.  Because we still need American rock and roll.  It will be different, and it will be the same.  Played with some heartland passion and with a band that is a little sweaty and confident, it will work.
Check back in a year.  My guess is you will still be on the road, and just maybe, happier than ever.
(editor’s note: The band has continued to tour, and came back around to Indy for a show in June, 2012  -still rocking and still singing BoDeans songs.  And that’s a good thing.)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zflA0uTOL4E]

VIDEO: Springsteen with The Roots at Roskilde Festival – July 7, 2012 – "E St. Shuffle"

Springsteen’s current tour continues to amaze the rock critic/fan in me.  The E St. Band’s combination of majesty, soulfulness and power seemingly grows with each tour – defying the laws of getting old.  Bruce’s performances this trek rivals the sustained energy of the Darkeness on the Edge of Town tours of 1978 and the sometimes overlooked fireworks during the subsequent tour from 1980-81, supporting The River album.
Factor in his age (62), the loss of his musical soulmate Clarence Clemons, and that he continues play six cuts off a new record, the consistant excellence of the shows (YouTube is awesome) and the palpable passion that Springsteen invests makes the Rolling Stones at the same age look a bit mellow (though Mick was/still seemingly taking his own age-defying, dance moves-inducing supplement.)
After a run of At a huge (85,000+) festival in Denmark, Bruce invited The Roots,  his friends from the Jimmy Fallon late night show, on stage to honor their incredible, best-ever-TV-studio performance of the same song from earlier in 2012.  In front of many thousands, with a band swelled to nearly 25 members for this song, they blow it out again.  Dig the Sly Stone refrain in the middle, and the crunchy rock and roll mixed with Santana-esque rhythms.  A joy to watch…
(More pics from the show from brucebase.wikispaces.com)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn5ZRgJEGd8]

Today's Rock Rewind: Springsteen signed to Columbia 40 years ago

Bruce Springsteen signed a record deal on June 9, 1972.  Forty years ago.  And he is still with the same record company. 
For all of the things that Springsteen is noted for (his songwriting, The E Street band, his marathon, gospel-fervor rock and roll show, his ass on the cover of Born in the USA), one that never gets talked about is his long relationship with one (albeit owned now by Sony, since 1988) record label – a tenure nearly unheard of in 2012. 
John Hammond famously “found” Bruce and had Springsteen play for him in the office, and set up a quick showcase gig at the Gaslight Club in NYC. 
Since Hammond discovered Dylan, and Springsteen was playing acoustic guitar for Hammond, and there were a lot of words in Springsteen’s songs, is it any wonder how the “New Dylan” label got slapped on his forehead?
Instead, Springsteen became known, with the E Street Band behind him, for  the best live rock and roll concerts – argue if you want – of the era.  Blending music styles of every decade since the 1950’s, conquering multiple genres (rock, pop, gospel, folk, tc…) and doing it while flat-out rocking out, nobody has ever done a better, more  thrilling job than Springsteen. 
This week, he played a  three hour, 40-minute show in Italy.   Non-stop. He is 62 years old.  No breaks.  And he did it in front of  more than 80,000 people in a huge soccer stadium. 
 And you want one more?  I believe this Wrecking Ball tour is his most fun, most intense, best-sounding trek since The River Tour in 1980/81.  And there have been a lot of good tours since then.  (1984 arena leg, 1999 Reunion Tour and even Working on A Dream tour with the loose setlists).  While the addition of the horns, the subtle use of background singers, and 17 people  making the E Street sound would seemingly to change what his shows feel  like, it has somehow made it better.  And while the sound is altered, it is absolutely more powerful and built to make arenas and stadiums feel more intimate – something they have proven adept at for more than 25 years.
So we note June 9, 1972 for the signing of the contract, and we note today, because Springsteen  continues to rock – watch the evidence on YouTube.
VIDEO – 1972 at the Gaslight Club (audition/showcase)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kktCUIWd5Ng]
VIDEO: San Sebastian, Spain / June 2, 2012 – with the “rare” hat version of “Spirit in the Night”, done in full-blown 70’s R&B style.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twiszmWxN9w&feature=related]
VIDEO: “Ramrod” – Meadowlands -New Jersey-2012
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbF5KZh3yO4&feature=BFa&list=ULQzc5hXJaH8g]