Arts & Culture

Who:  Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Where: Scotiabank Arena, 40 Bay St.
When: Sun., Nov. 3
Vibe: The Boss shares warm embrace with 20,000 friends
Highlight: Epic version of Commodores’ Night Moves
Rating: NNNNN (out of 5)

THE FIRST QUESTION with almost any legacy act is whether they can still do it, and after a six-year layoff from touring and being forced to cancel previous local shows because of illness in the band, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band proved Sunday night at the Scotiabank Arena that they remain masters of rock and roll.

Springsteen and the E Street band were joined by a squad of excellent singers and players bolstering the rock unit to 18 supercharged musicians who never let up during the show’s three-hour, 27-song run. Fifty years in, the 75-year-old Springsteen and the band he fronts can sculpt a perfectly crafted and performed night of inspired, bar band-infused rock with the precision of a skilled craftsperson.

Looking smart and trim in a vest, dress shirt and tie, The Boss was the friendly band leader or rock and roll circus conductor tightly leading his massive team of musicians splayed on risers across the stage, flanked by guitar heroes Nils Lofgren and Steve Van Zandt. Little Stevie looking as if wearing the contents of a thrift store blasted onto him through a T-shirt cannon — awesome. Springsteen would later refer to Van Zandt as E Street’s “musical director,” addressing a beef with The Boss that Little Stevie raised in the recent Disney+ Road Diary doc.

Seeing Springsteen just hours before perhaps the most fateful U.S. election in history loaded the show with extra meaning for me. Although The Boss only explicitly referenced it once, some believe — hope? — his choice of She’s The One as the opener was a nod to and endorsement of Kamala Harris.

An hour in, Springsteen noted that in “my country, we have a big day coming up on Tuesday,” urging the audience to” pray for us” before performing Long Walk Home.

His rolled-up sleeves wardrobe seemed like the mature update on his iconic Born in the USA look, a song whose message is doomed to be forever misunderstood as a pro-America anthem and which he didn’t perform Sunday. He was a soothing presence, an emissary from America to remind us that for the disturbing half of the U.S.A. that appears to support a sexual predator for president, there’s another half — hopefully more — dreaming of and working for something better.

It’s easy to have moments of cynicism about Springsteen over his five-decade career, but at its core, his music celebrates something good and aspirationally iconic about his country that is easy to forget as the tire fire burns. In many ways, his shows are a celebration of friendship and loyalty: for your pals, your community, “your girl,” your country and your values. It starts with a massive “gift” to his “friends,” the fans: his three-hour shows. Many of his songs celebrate friendships past or current, his new tracks honouring friends he has lost. Introducing the song Last Man Standing, a remembrance of pals he started his first band with at age 15, Springsteen noted, “Grief is the price we pay for having lived well.” He paid tribute to E Street friends he has lost, showing images on the four video screens of deceased band mates sax legend Clarence Clemons and keyboard player Danny Fedrerici during Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out late in the show.

Springsteen’s default move to his bandmates is a big hug, hands are held and he drapes himself on Clemons’s nephew, Jake, just like he did when the senior Clemons was in the band. He uses a ramp into the audience more to get closer to the crowd than for iconic poses, high-fiving and shaking hands with fans in the pit, many of whom themselves are friends who regularly attend Springsteen’s shows around the world.

And like a friend pouring through their record collection, Springsteen plays old-time favourites, including a spectacular cover of the Commodores’ Night Shift that showcases the vocal skills of Springsteen’s backup singers and first encore-closing take on Twist and Shout.

 Finally, Springsteen dismisses the band, closing the show solo with a quiet take on I’ll See You in My Dreams, accompanied only by his guitar. He ends the show pleased and at peace, sending the audience out into the night with smile on his face. Let’s hope he’s smiling this Wednesday, the day he returns to play his second Scotiabank show, a day after this week’s U.S. election