LIVE REPORT: Bruce Springsteen at Sea.Hear.Now

Bruce Springsteen returned to his home turf in Asbury Park on Sunday, September 15, to headline the second day of the festival. Sea.Hear.Now which was held on the beach in Asbury Park, New Jersey, the city where he began his career. Report on a home victory.

As our man turns 75 next week, he showed off his Olympic form: arriving early in the afternoon at the venue, Bruce Springsteen toured the venue, not hesitating to get on stage to join Phish's Trey Anastasio during his set for an impressive duet on his own song “Kitty's Back.” They hadn't played together in 15 years after Phish brought Bruce, a big prog rock fan, to Bonnaroo in 2009. At the end of the song, Anastasio said… “We're going to have to follow Bruce Springsteen to the beach in Asbury Park…” but it is on the stage of other local heroes of New Jersey that we find the Boss, who will arrive at the beginning of the set of The Gaslight Anthem for a duet on “History Books”, their collaboration taken from the eponymous album released last year. We remember that Brian Fallon, the singer had made an unforgettable duet on the famous live recorded in London in 2009 on “No Surrender”, thus returning his invitation to the Boss that he had invited when the group had invited him on stage at Glastonbury on “The '59 Sound”. But Bruce was not finished with the band and will return to sing “American Slang” before heading to the big stage installed on the beach, along the boardwalk. And we walked, walked, for miles or almost, trampling to reach the beach, a walk made complicated because many fans had settled on the sand with towels and picnic supplies.

Belkacem Bahlouli

The Boss in Asbury is not such a rare event, with or without the E Street, he has played there hundreds of times over the past 50 years, and it is not uncommon to see him on stage at the Stone Pony. However, with the full E Street Band, it is another story. In December 2009, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band played the entirety of Darkness on the Edge of Town at the Paramount Theatre, where Bruce's regular director, Thom Zimny, had filmed the band in the empty theater: this film, titled Darkness on the Edge of Town: Paramount Theater, Asbury Parkin the 40th anniversary box set of Darkness. But their last concert was on December 7, 2010, at the Carousel House, at the southern end of the promenade for a show filmed by Thom Zimny for the video “Songs from the Promise” and the recording of the EP. Live from the CarouselThe date is unfortunately easy to remember because it was the last appearance of Clarence Clemons.

7:30pm. Darkness falls. 35,000 fans are there, on the beach, feet in the sand, a cool wind from the ocean sweeping the crowd, No tour-style entrance, one by one, the E Street Band arrives as one and Bruce greets the crowd with a thunderous “Greetings Asbury Park”, as he takes the stage. The full E Street Band is there: Max Weinberg; Steven Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren; Garry Tallent; Roy Bittan and Charles Giordano; Jake Clemons; Soozie Tyrell accompanied by the E Street Band brass – Curt Ramm and Barry Danielian, Eddie Manion and Ozzie Melendez and the E Street Choir, Curtis King, Michelle Moore, Lisa Lowell and Ada Dyer with Anthony Almonte on percussion in support.

The show starts with “Lonesome Day” to get the momentum going. So far, nothing unusual, the song is one of the classics of the current tour. But from the second song, something happens: “A long time ago I wrote this song about 500 yards north of here in Loch Arbour,” explains Bruce Springsteen before attacking the riff of “Blinded by the Light”. The show is launched, we will be treated to a strong tribute to the city where he grew up and became a professional. He will follow with two other rarities taken from his first album Greetings From Asbury park NJ, “Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?” and the moving “Growin' Up” where the audience will sing along to the famous “But when they said, 'Sit down', I stood up” which closes the verses! Then it will be time for the first hit, with an essential moment of the Boss' tours since 1978, “The Promised Land” before the sermon “Can You Feel The Spirit” with the very apt “Spirit In The Night”. The time has come to draw on the real great rarities and to bring out from the archives the astonishing “Thundercrack” – “I wrote this song when I was 20 years old in a surfboard factory in Wanamassa” –, The “E Street Shuffle” to arrive at the hyper moving and appropriate “4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)”, in homage to the late Danny Federici, – and where Bruce put the emphasis on the famous cabin of Madame Marie, the clairvoyant of the Boardwalk –, two titles taken from his second opus The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle.

In all, Bruce and the E Street Band will play 30 songs, summed up in a show of three hours and 15 minutes: in short, a life, a career shared by all the members of the original group, who made their debut in this seaside resort that was then completely abandoned, before becoming local figures, Bruce will even sing a “Local Hero” for the occasion. The group is sharper than ever. A concert like a fireworks display on the beach on a summer evening 4th Of July !

Taylor Hill / WireImage

Suddenly, silence falls and Bruce's wife, Patti Scialfa, who has been absent from the tour for the past two years – we learned last week that she has blood cancer that she has been treating since 2018 – appears on stage for a duet with her husband on the moving “Tougher Than the Rest.” Bruce Springsteen's voice was incredibly beautiful, it has aged with the man but still retains its roughness and precision, especially on “Meeting Across the River,” a song that he blended into the huge surprise of the evening, the fantastic “Jungleland,” which came to light up this night of almost full moon that lit the stage on a windy night. Some fans had rented boats that were buffeted by the waves to watch the show from the choppy ocean to enjoy the sound of the festival, loud and clear and its giant screens.

The show is coming to an end, the audience is exulting and the Boss takes the opportunity to thank him, recalling what he owes to this city that saw him become the rock star he is today, and to have made all his dreams come true, a city that he skillfully put into perspective with an incredible, moving, gripping, and above all totally and definitively unexpected but long-awaited setlist: “The group was there, on the corner of this little street, when there was no one, and I didn't know when I would be able to see the people of this good city again.jokes Bruce Springsteen before continuing in a more solemn tone. I just want to take a moment to thank everyone who has been involved in bringing Asbury Park back to life. On the East Side, on the West Side – I want to thank the LGBTQ plus community for everything they’ve done for Asbury Park over the last 25 years. Danny Clinch, I want to thank you for this wonderful event, and most importantly I want to thank all of you for being here tonight.”

The reminders have been going on for a good hour, and it's time to launch the essential: “Heart-stopping, pants-dropping, earth-shocking, hard rocking, booty-shaking, earth-quaking, love-making, Viagra-taking, history-making, legendary E! Street! Band!…” and sending “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” with the Danny and Clarence tribute images and then pouring it into the riff of “Twist and shout.” “Wait, I have one more for you,” said Bruce Springsteen, after his extended version of “Twist and Shout.” From the first notes, we recognize “Jersey Girl,” the song by Tom Waits. Better than a grand finale, a true apotheosis of a day and especially of an unforgettable evening.