Bruce Springsteen at AMI Stadium (21/3/17)
The Boss was a Long Time Comin' to Christchurch but he blast into town like a Wrecking Ball.
Despite the Garden City's quakey concerns and recent fires, Springsteen brought some rhymic relief with My City of Ruins, the city's unofficial post-quake anthem.
An artist of God-like standing- Jon Stewart called him the musical "birthchild of James Brown and Bob Dylan"- people come to a gig like this with very High Hopes (!).
One of the qualities of artists like Bruce is the breadth of their catalogue. A lot of his audience come wanting three things:
*Born in The USA
*Glory Days
*Dancing in the Dark.
It seems as if Bruce has left his audience back in the 80s and they cling to those Glory Days and refuse to catch up with his recent material.
Springsteen's distaste for Trump saw a deliberate exclusion of Born in the USA, conspicuously missing, and I don't think fire-ravaged Christchurch would have appreciated I'm on Fire.
I genuinely see "Born To Run" (1975, ironically too old for his general audience) and "Wrecking Ball" (far too fresh for most fans half his age) as his finest albums.
After watching older Springsteen shows online, I really missed the late Clarence Clemons (saxaphonist ie. the most exciting bit of Born To Run) but his nephew rides that sax like Ella shatters glass. Very good fit.
