Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are Everlasting in Cleveland: Review

As Bruce Springsteen sang the first lines of a fast, Born in the USA-era “No Surrender” — Well we busted out of class, had to get away from these fools — my mom, dad, sister and I were sprinting through the concourse of Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse trying to get to our seats. 

“7:35, Dillon,” my dad exclaimed frustratedly. I had claimed we had plenty of time for another beer at The Clevelander. I was wrong. “I told you he starts right at 7:35 p.m.”

But it wouldn’t be a Springsteen concert without a little drama. 

Our seats were directly behind the stage, a location we were unsure about, but ended up being really cool. It felt like you were getting Bruce’s point of view, seeing what it’s like to command a stadium in front of you. I thought back to my first show in this same arena, sitting directly across from where we were located now. My parents brought me to the 2004 Vote for Change concert, with REM, Bright Eyes and John Fogerty. The cause of the day was heavy, but it was also dramatic, at least for an 11-year-old, when the guy next to me was removed for filming the show on a camcorder. (Maybe he's the one who took this video on YouTube. If so, thank you sir! Also, make sure you check out our clips from the show on Instagram and Twitter.)

Back then, though, the main adventure was in securing your tickets. Fans would sleep in tents or take off work to wait in line for a chance at a general admission ticket, only to then be placed in a lottery to find out just how close you’d be. Now, securing tickets means sitting in an online queue and battling Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing — which drove some of those good tickets up to as expensive as $5,000 in certain cities — but pretty much the same level of drama. Luckily, Cleveland didn’t have to deal with that drama, with Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse selling tickets through SeatGeek instead of Ticketmaster. 

Things change; things stay the same. A Springsteen show is a good reminder of that. But at 73 years old, still rocking like it’s 1973, Bruce serves as a reminder that some things are constant and everlasting, like the power of family, friendship and music. A Springsteen show is a three-hour testament to love and community prevailing.

By “Prove It All Night,” a song from Darkness on the Edge of Town which features a shredding guitar solo overtop a base of twinkling piano, all frustration was gone in my group. For three hours, we danced to hits like “Rosalita,” “The Promised Land” and “Glory Days.” All the familiar, iconic moments you remember are still there — even the bright arena lights illuminating the crowd during “Born to Run.” 

Bruce definitely played to the hardcore fans with this setlist. I think of this tour not unlike Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, in which they’re both highlighting all the different moments from their careers. Springsteen’s setlist, which is pretty static night over night with some deviations, is designed for fans that have seen him through his many musical moments, from The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle’s “E Street Shuffle” to Nebraska’s “Atlantic City” to the triumphant “Wrecking Ball.” 

“Atlantic City” was a tour debut and mimicked much more closely the version done in the ‘90s by The Band — a cover that helped slowly grow that song into one of Springsteen’s most iconic hits. “Pay Me My Money Down” from The Seeger Sessions was another great deep cut of swampy, New Orleans fun.

One benefit to being behind the stage was getting to see fans react to each song. One front-row fan held a sign that read “I came all the way from South America to hear ‘Bobby Jean!’” When the E Street Band busted into the opening chords of that song, the young fan buried his head in his hands and wept onto the stage where his idol played. That was worth the price of admission alone. 

Yet, like a family gathering as you get older, even when all the same notes are there, something feels just a little bit different. Bittersweet. Like a family party — at least in my family — there are moments of joy, laughter and even tears.

Laughter came in moments purposeful — like Spingsteen, saxophonist Jake Clemons and guitarists Lil’ Steven Van Zandt’s Three Stooges imitation — and accidental, when Springsteen fumbled the mic as he attempted to sing and sign a young fans’ arm cast at the same time. 

Heavier moments came during “Last Man Standing,” a song about being the lone survivor from his first band, the Castiles. Over an acoustic guitar, in a storytelling moment not unlike the ones seen in Springsteen on Broadway, Springsteen shared a tender story of sitting by his friend and former bandmate’s bedside in his final moments. You’d be hard pressed to find a dry eye in the house. 

And then you get to that iconic line in “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out”: When the change was made uptown, And the big man joined the band. The Big Man Clarence Clemons, who died in 2011, leaves a glaring hole in this family reunion. A video montage of moments over the nearly three decades of friendship between Springsteen and Clarence plays over monitors. But like that family party, new members step up to fill the gaps. Jake Clemons, the current saxophone player and Clarence’s nephew, fills those big, big shoes amazingly — and he gets an extra boost when he needs it from the brilliant four-piece horn section. 

Fun. Hilarious. Sad. Powerful. Bittersweet. A Springsteen concert is a lot like life. Maybe that’s why so many fans keep on coming year after year to see him perform. To be reminded that hard times come and hard times go, as he sings in “Wrecking Ball.” Even when the universe seems insane, everything ends up alright on E Street. 

The show’s closer was a solo acoustic version of “I’ll See You in My Dreams” that could read like a final goodbye; and at 73 years old, no one would blame him. But if I had to guess, we haven’t seen the last of Bruce Springsteen and the E. Street Band.

Full Setlist:

No Surrender
Ghosts
Prove It All Night
Letter to You
The Promised Land
Out in the Street
Candy's Room
Kitty's Back
Nightshift (Commodores cover)
Atlantic City
The E Street Shuffle
Pay Me My Money Down
Last Man Standing 
Backstreets
Because the Night
She's the One
Wrecking Ball
The Rising
Badlands

Bobby Jean
Thunder Road
Born to Run
Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
Glory Days
Dancing in the Dark
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
I'll See You in My Dreams