The "Magic" is missing

Very well-done piece in the Wall Street Journal today, by a guy who took his teenage son to the Hartford show. More of an essay on fatherhood than a review, but one thing he said, and I think it's true, is that the recent albums have been overproduced on the studio version, but awesome live. I'll find out in Chicago, two weeks from tomorrow.

 

would love a link for the wall street journal piece. when he was 13, i took my oldest son and his best bud to see bruce at giants stadium in '03. i wanted him to see why his father has raised him on springsteen. although he's more into his own generation of stuff like john mayer, jack johnson and green day, it was cool to see the boys display some awe and appreciation.

then a young 53, bruce still did close to three-hour shows. it was rewarding to see them understand bruce-mania so much more after the live show. i was a skeptic, too, until i finally saw him live. 8) 8)

 

Interesting take, since I think both The River and BITUSA have more filler on them than any other of his records. (Don't let gets started on Glory Days again.)

 

Does this link work if you're not a subscriber?

http://online.wSportsJournalists.com/article/SB119162043197450568.html?mod=todays_us_nonsub_weekendjournal

 

thanks! my experience with my son in '03 was almost precisely the same. a special bonding experience.

it was much like when i, a longtime naysayer, finally saw bruce in the "no nukes" shows. i told one of my buds as we were leaving, "now i understand."

i made up for wasted time, seeing him about 50 times since coast-to-coast. never a bad show. as my most fanatical friend among springsteen devotees says, his albums and shows range from "least great" to "most great." 8) 8) 8)

the best experience: bringing a bruce virgin or virgins to a show. gives me goosebumps.

 

Not surprisingly, Rolling Stone (and the LA Times) goes all brown bunny over the album giving it five stars. (I'm sure a Boss cover story will be on its way.)

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/16587992/review/16682049/magic

Metacritic provides some dissenting views:

http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/springsteenbruceandestreet/magic#critics

 

just three shows in, bruce seems to be hitting a stride before coming to jersey on tuesday: ;D ;D ;D

http://blog.nj.com/springsteen/2007/10/wow_what_a_saturday_night_in_p.html

i know my buddy stan is blinded by adoration, but he's also seen about a thousand bruce shows, so he knows from "most great" to least great." sure sounds like this was right up there with the best in every way except length. 8) 8) 8)

a friend caught the first show in philly. this pal is a highly-critical type. he was amazed at how good the band and bruce sounded. i figured he would cry for the bygone days of three-and-and-half hour shows, but he made me laugh by admitting: "i'm probably too old to sit through one of those anymore, so how can i expect him to perform for that long?"

good point. besides, those shows included 30-minute intermissions, so it's really 3 hours vs. 2:20. 23-song shows are pretty darn good. i respect that bruce doesn't satisfy everyone by doing oldie shows. when you do 7 new songs and 16 older ones, with his catalogue, many tunes are ignored.

personally, i'd prefer "thunder road" to "born to run." but others might disagree. i stopped rating shows based on what wasn't played a long time ago. that's what my dvd's are for. 8) : 8)

 

Granted, it was my first Bruce concert, but I thought his first show of the tour at Hartford was pretty amazing.

 

I believe that he's going to be on 60 Minutes tonight.

The album is growing on me, but not that much. I just think that the ground has already been covered by him with respect to the anti-war stuff. Shit, I'll take a song like Shut Out the Late over Last to Die or Gypsy Biker (and I assume that the stealing of the lyrics from SOTL was wholly intentional) any day.

 

Both Philadelphia shows were hot, but last night's was off the charts. It is amazing just how "on" the band is this early in the tour. They were on fire last night. A word to the wise for the upcoming shows ... the sound this tour has been horrible, however I found those cheap foam earplugs you can buy in the drugstore make things sound clearer. Also it seems like the second night in a venue they're able to tweak the sound to make it a little better. I can't wait for the Meadowlands shows and if anyone has an extra in the lower levels for either MSG show let me know. It looks like I might have an extra for each night at the Meadowlands.

 

If you want to catch a glimpse of what the Saturday night show in Philly was like, go here: http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=cgb77&p=r
someone posted 14 songs from the show (shot from a distance with the aid of a zoom lense)

 

How in the name of god can Bruce Springsteen not have the mix right on a tour?