Tan and muscled, 73 in the books but 53 in the looks, Bruce Springsteen sauntered onstage Wednesday night (February 1st) with nothing to prove and all the determination to prove it anyway.
The Garden State Bard and his E Street brethren opened their much-anticipated 2023 tour (grab tickets here) at Tampa’s sold-out Amalie Arena with a show high on highs and prove-it-all-night uplift.
This was a grinning Bruce for the masses, a carefully curated retrospective for all, from young TikTok-ers who just discovered “Dancing in the Dark” to the obsessives trading dorky high-fives during a stompy jazz mash of “Candy’s Room” and “Kitty’s Back.”
Will diehard Backstreeters grumble that the Boss was stingy with the rarities? Maybe. Probably. There was nothing from Greetings From Asbury Park, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in January 2023. That said, his ferocious reclaiming of pop classic “Because the Night” is the sort of life-affirming moment for which you will gladly pay too much money.
But hold on, wait a second, we’re burying the lede: 2:42.
That’s how long the Boss and Nils and Little Steven (combined age: bicentennial-ish) played on opening night. 2 hours and 42 minutes. From 8:00 p.m. sharp to a 10:42 close. Twenty-eight songs total, starting with a bombastic “No Surrender” and ending with the somber solo acoustic “I’ll See You in My Dreams.”
Bruce Springsteen, photo by Rob DeMartin
