For seven lengthy years, the one Bruce Springsteen concerts in NYC have been stripped-down reveals with the New Jersey legend performing solo and telling tales in a Broadway theater.
It was virtually as if he was accepting that his glory days have been lastly over.
However on Saturday evening at Madison Sq. Backyard, the Boss was again in all his arena-rocking glory — with the E Avenue Band by his aspect as soon as once more.
Within the first of his space concert events on a 2023 trek that kicked off in February, Springsteen and his beloved backing band performed collectively in NYC for the primary time since “The River” tour in August 2016.
And you possibly can really feel the thrill and anticipation within the air even earlier than Springsteen and crew took the stage simply 10 minutes after the scheduled 7:30 begin time — the higher to play these marathon, three-hour-plus concert events they’re well-known for.


Chants of “Bruuuuuce!” rippled by means of the world till the band hit the stage, one after the other, however they reached peak roar when Springsteen himself lastly made his entrance.
“New York Metropolis!” he shouted as if he was simply as blissful to be again house together with his musical household.
And as he launched into the “Born within the USA” anthem “No “Give up,” it was clear that the ever-buff Boss was not backing all the way down to Father Time — even at 73.
Even when he went into “Ghosts” — from 2020’s “Letter to You,” which discovered him confronting his personal mortality — Springsteen sounded as very important as ever.
And you possibly can really feel some love from the opposite aspect when Clarence Clemons’ nephew Jake channeled the spirit of his late uncle on saxophone.


Though Springsteen’s latest album, 2022’s “Solely the Robust Survive,” is a solo affair — which he nodded to with the soulful swagger of his Commodores cowl “Nightshift” — this tour is unquestionably all about these particular E Avenue moments like him sharing the mic once more with ace sidekick Steven Van Zandt once more on classics resembling “Show It All Night time.”
Which is precisely what they did —till the live performance reached its crescendo with an epic encore beginning with the dramatic duo of “Jungleland” and “Thunder Street” After which there was “Born to Run,” which, with the home lights turned on, was nothing in need of a spiritual revival for “tramps like us.”