My dad, Bruce Baltin, took me to my first Bruce Springsteen show at the L.A. Sports Arena in October, 1984, on the Born In The U.S.A. tour. Over the next nearly 40 years I’d estimate we saw almost 30 Springsteen shows together.
My dad, who passed away March 9 at the age of 79, was great about taking me to concerts, from the Rolling Stones at the Coliseum and the Us Festival to Jackson Browne in Santa Barbara. But there was always something special about Springsteen shows.
So seeing Springsteen for the first time on this tour, this past Saturday night alone at Madison Square Garden, just three weeks after my dad’s passing, took on a very different meaning for me. It was an experience of catharsis, of sorrow, of joy, of mourning, and mostly of celebrating life.
There is, of course, no better show to celebrate life in the history of rock and roll in my opinion. Every Springsteen and the E Street Band concert is a tribute to the power of rock and roll, to a sense of community, to embracing and living in the moment. And in recent years, following the losses of E Streeters Danny Federici and Clarence “Big Man” Clemons, that has been even more true.
For many of us long time devotees every member of the E Street nation has felt like family as they have been with us most of our lives. So those losses were mourned, in their own ways, by fans. But it’s only made the joy of the shows stronger.
Springsteen spoke about that Saturday night introducing a beautiful rendition of “Last Man Standing.” He spoke about the 2018 death of his Castiles band mate George Theiss and how that left him the last living member of his first band. “It just makes you realize how important it is to live every moment” Springsteen said. But the most powerful message from his introduction was this: “The dead’s great and final gift to the living is an expanded vision.”
Leave a Reply