After an April appearance at the Guggenheim, Cold Cave announced they would be taking a short break from shows in New York. Their hiatus took a hiatus of its own for a one-off Thursday night as part of Brooklyn’s Northside Festival. Opening with “Underworld USA”, the live duo of Wes Eisold and Dominick Fernow plowed through a set of the songs they are least sick of playing after a year on tour behind “Cherish the Light Years”, the second Cold Cave LP.

Most of the early songs in the set were from either of their first two LPs. “Icons of Summer” sounded strongest with its pounding synth lines that are sent swirling by the time the chorus hits, in a haze that falls somewhere between early Ministry and a Disney score. The duo played a couple new songs before bringing up Dee Dee from Dum Dum Girls to accompany on the night’s closers “Theme From Tomorrowland” and “Confetti”. On the former, Eisold stuck the mic towards the crowd like he momentarily thought he was on stage with his past American Nightmare. While much of the music was being heard through playback, “Confetti” climbed the walls of the show space with an aggressive bite that could only be captured in the calculated dark of this live setting. The overdramatic lyrical content of their tracks was only expanded upon by Fernow’s constant movement about the stage. Through the duration of Cold Cave so far, I don’t think Fernow has really ever stopped dancing to the music he clearly idolizes and is grateful to be apart of. Both Fernow and Eisold seemed completely in control through their set, and even the occasional collision by both men responding so physically to their music seemed premeditated, but more theatrical than contrived.

After a set of less than ten songs, the band was gone with the crowd in chaos demanding an encore that would never come. A respectable choice, and a common one from an act with roots in punk. Play the set and get out of there; encores are for classical concerts. Few other pop performers can claim attention to set length as a strong suit. Cold Cave’s knack for knowing how long is too long contributes greatly to the band being responsible for some of the best sets I’ve seen over the last four years. It’s a guarantee with them that they won’t top the forty-five minute mark, and you will leave wanting more. Hopefully next time in New York will be behind their third LP, but regardless of the material they’re playing, they’ll be putting on a great show.

ES

Potential person of the year, Fiona Apple (neck-and-neck with Lena Dunham at this juncture) now has her album up for streaming at npr. “The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do” is Apple’s first album in over seven years, and comes in the dull early days of summer, at a time when we all need it most.

Listen to “The Idler Wheel…” here and rid yourself of the summertime blues.

As Radiohead indulges in the least accessible sound of their career, they seem to just be getting more and more popular. Serving both as electronic pop group, and background fodder for corporate clients and frat dudes in hats, Radiohead has nestled into a niche some artists would envy, and others would pity. Regardless of an outsider’s stance on the band, they seem to be doing exactly what they want on records and doing it well. Live is another story, what with playing to arenas with demands to be met from casual fans who might only know their major works.

Radiohead ought to take the high road by completely ignoring their back catalog, making a full-on Animal Collective move, only playing their latest yet unrecognizable songs. The band’s energy reached top levels when playing songs that are not yet released. It’s reassuring that the group’s newest material can still light a fire inside them as the members reach middle age. There’s no reason for them to pull out a “Karma Police” or god forbid a “Creep” if they’re just going to phone it in (no Greenwood on switchboard reference here) like they did to the former last night. Very rarely on anything pre-“In Rainbows” did it seem like they really wanted to play those songs rather than they felt an obligation to cover their bases with the shortest interruption possible. It didn’t take too much away from the main focus, showcasing their latest “The King of Limbs” and some songs expected to find a home on future releases.

“Staircase” and “The Daily Mail” back-to-back brought the show to life early on, with the latter giving the band a chance to turn the guitars up to “The Bends” levels without even having to dip into that material. Two tracks from my favorite Radiohead record “Hail to the Thief”, ”Myxomatosis” and “The Gloaming” came up next. “There There” from this record was played later in the set, and all three “HTTT” tracks felt more restrained than usual. It would be nice to see them try something new on these songs they have been playing for over ten years at this point. It would probably also make it feel like less of a chore for them.

“Supercollider” and “Give Up the Ghost”, in the first and second encores respectively, were two more highlights coming near the close of the show. “Supercollider” with its frantic pacing and paranoia like Radiohead does best, and “Give Up the Ghost” in its stripped-down yet so hungry-sounding state, both showed two sides of the great twenty-sided die that is this band in 2012. When sic’ed on a style, they always prove themselves worthy of working outside of what the suit and tie crowd expects. Seeing Radiohead in 2012 is like going to a professional sporting event; the fanatics are overbearing, the majority of the crowd is seemingly there just to have dull conversation throughout, and people lose their minds for the classics, even when they don’t play as well as they once may have. You are constantly caught trying to convince yourself you have got something so many of these suckers don’t: relevance. Rest assured, you can still enjoy the performance guilt-free as long as you are there more for the music than the camaraderie, and still willing to leave during the mediocre “Reckoner” to catch that good 11pm NJ Transit back home.

Once you play “The National Anthem” with horns, you should never again play it without horns. It sounds worse. 

No matter how many times you readjust that faux-radio signal.

SETLIST FOR 05/31/12:

• Bloom
• 15 Step
• Bodysnatchers
• Staircase
• The Daily Mail
• Myxomatosis
• The Gloaming
• Separator
• Nude
• Morning Mr. Magpie
• Identikit
• Lotus Flower
• There There
• Karma Police
• Feral
• Idioteque

FIRST ENCORE

• You and Whose Army?
• Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
• Supercollider
• Everything In Its Right Place

SECOND ENCORE

• Give Up the Ghost
• The National Anthem
• Reckoner

ES

“SLY CURSE. I’M SPIRALING.”

Backed by string arranger to the stars, J.G. Thirlwell and his Mivos Quartet, Zola Jesus played a concise nine song set Thursday night at Guggenheim. Singular force behind the Christ-like moniker, Nika Danilova, pulled the songs from her last couple years of recording that would most benefit from new arrangements with a string quartet. This was the first collaboration between Danilova and Thirlwell, who has in the past worked with Hollywood types Trent Reznor, Nick Cave, and London’s Nurse With Wound. 

The setlist contained mostly songs from 2011’s “Conatus”. This is the album that saw Danilova really break away from her lo-fi fuzz-blasted past. The electronic warmth of “Conatus” translated just fine in this performance with live strings. Thirlwell played conductor as well as laptop engineer, though the electronic elements (drums, synths) of each song were lowered in the mix to cast attention on the strings and Danilova’s vocals. “In Your Nature”, which on record glows with a pristine pop polish, was played in this setting with the drums dialed back, giving the strings space to float in and out against Danilova’s commanding voice. These restrained arrangements helped Danilova find space in her songs that didn’t previously exist in their recorded versions. “Sea Talk” and “Night”, both recorded in her late-2009 “Stridulum” sessions, abandoned all background noise, and came across as legitimate contemporary classical compositions. For an artist who has relied so heavily on experimentation, it’s almost more unexpected of her to forge tradition by simply going for it at this point. It is an expansion that will help her music, regardless of the medium she uses in performing.

Playing in the atrium of Guggenheim with the iconic design of the museum spiraling above, the crew had a ceiling that must have felt like infinity to deal with. The strings’ sustain echoed throughout, but never to the point where it seemed unintentional or obnoxious. Thirlwell had clearly thought of the space before working out the arrangements. This added touch made the sound radiate in ways that made this one-time show feel even more special.

zolajesus.com

ES

“POWER MUSIC. ELECTRIC REVIVAL.”

Playing a selection of songs not heavy enough on the new material, Spiritualized came to Terminal 5 on Monday night behind their latest “Sweet Heart Sweet Light”. After a run of shows in the UK last year showcasing the 2012 LP in full, it was disappointing to see the band playing a career-spanning set when they would have won the mostly oblivious crowd over all the same focusing on their recent work. Personal quarrels with the setlist and lame crowd concerns aside, the band alternated between two sides: tight brit-pop ensemble and loose psych-rock outfit. All songs old and new, loud and quiet, towered in the hard-to-conquer Midtown West venue.

“Hey Jane”, the opening track on “Sweet Heart”, started the set off. Spiritualized in its five-piece plus two back-up singers formation played through their songs with guitar and keyboard noise filling in for the missing horns, strings, etc. excessive instrumentation that works on record but would seem inappropriate in this club setting. Allowing for these freak-out moments to takeover at the end of songs more often than not gave the set an added rush of energy. It also left for the back-up singers to fend for themselves as their once synchronized dance moves erupted into something resembling an out-of-body experience. Moments like these allowed the show to reach points of revival, or what I would imagine exaggerated salvation in the church is like.

Sending the disco ball a-spinnin’ came the title track to the group’s definitive record “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space”. It was odd seeing the entire space covered in reflected light from the mirror ball. Business types talking, heads hovered over phones texting, couples cuddling, all treating this show as social event as Jason Pierce and band played on. Often it was unclear who was less interested in the other, the crowd or the notoriously alienating Pierce. Acknowledging the audience but once at the very end, Pierce proves socialization is necessary in captivating an ADD-addled crowd. Those who were willing to give the show their full attention were ultimately rewarded by a complete statement of who Spiritualized both is, and has been.

“I Am What I Am” slammed forward mirroring the equal parts aggression and anguish of its twin “Cop Shoot Cop”, which itself stole the show in the encore. Both songs were co-written with Dr. John fifteen years apart from each other, and both capture that old Delta sound and lyrical content. It was surprising hearing songs so insanely similar both in the setlist, but they wound up serving as a nice complement, with “Cop Shoot Cop” coming as almost an extended reprise of the newer “I Am” at the tail of the set. “So Long You Pretty Thing”, formerly named “Poppy” after his daughter who shares a writing credit on the track, was another stand-out that showed off the vocal work of Pierce and the two female vocalists. The build is where Spiritualized excels, and they pulled this off even at Terminal 5 where layers of feedback often amount to a ball of noise tossed off to radiate in just one corner of the room. “So Long” saw the pinnacle of everything the band can do, soaking all the charm and catharsis possible out of Jason Pierce’s bitter misery. He has dragged this band through break-ups, battles with addiction, extended hospital stays with pneumonia, and now he’s got the art of each era to look back on and think, “man, I’ve been through some shit.”

ES

Setlist for 05/07/12 at Terminal 5, New York, NY

• Hey Jane
• Lord Let It Rain On Me
• Headin’ for the Top Now
• She Kissed Me (It Felt Like A Hit)
• Lay Back In The Sun
• Oh Baby
• Rated X
• I Am What I Am
• Born Never Asked
• Electric Mainline
• Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
• Mary
• Stay With Me
• So Long You Pretty Thing
• Come Together

ENCORE

• Cop Shoot Cop

Jack White has played New York in a myriad of bands. Until Friday night at Webster Hall, he hadn’t played a show in the city simply under his own stagename. This solo debut came just days after releasing his latest “Blunderbuss”, also the first LP released under only the Jack White moniker. Performing two sets with two separate bands (one all-female, one all-male), White pulled tracks from all over the place with an obvious focus on his newest record.

For an artist to start a show with a song he released over a decade ago, you’d think it would be a sure sign of lack of confidence in the new material. For White and his crew, it seemed more like they wanted to quickly present what this lineup was capable of when reworking older material. Whether it was a White Stripes track from ‘02, or a prewar Hank Williams number, both bands of White’s took to them in keeping with the stylized full-band feel of “Blunderbuss”. This created an atmosphere that celebrated both White’s career in music and his influences, with “Blunderbuss” always at the center.

“Missing Pieces” and “Hypocritical Kiss” stood out as new tracks that already felt fully fleshed-out. The bands played both with such precision and relaxation that it felt like the middle of a tour, and not a one-off on the eve of beginning a long haul across the world. Others like “Love Interruption” and “Weep Themselves to Sleep” stumbled along sounding like they needed an extra kick to really work in with the performance. While stylized similarly to the rest of the show, sections of these two tracks felt too focused on getting it right and did not play smooth enough to carry out just yet. This slowed down the pace of what otherwise ran like a well organized Vaudeville review, though more coherent maintaining a consistent arc.

It was endearing to watch White revert constantly to his base two-piece state by facing squarely towards the drums during especially noise-heavy sections. It will be fascinating to see where White’s act stands a month from now when they return to the city and play the larger Roseland Ballroom. I suspect they will tighten up the segments that didn’t play as well, and that we just witnessed the start of one of the best tours of the year.

The entire show, minus for whatever reason the closing Leadbelly cover “Goodnight Irene”, had been live streamed, and can now be viewed in full at the link below.

Jack White - Live at Webster Hall, Directed by Gary Oldman

Setlist:

Set one backed by The Peacocks

• Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
• Missing Pieces
• Freedom at 21
• Love Interruption
• Hotel Yorba
• Two Against One
• Top Yourself
• I’m Slowly Turning Into You
• Blue Blood Blues
• Take Me With You When You Go

Set two backed by Los Buzzardos

• Sixteen Saltines
• I Cut Like A Buffalo
• Weep Themselves to Sleep
• Trash Tongue Talker
• You Know That I Know
• We’re Going to be Friends
• Hypocritical Kiss
• Hello Operator
• Carolina Drama
• Seven Nation Army
• Goodnight Irene 

ES

From The Nanny to the Zulu Nation, it seemed like the whole city was craving a cut of Kraftwerk over the electronic quartet’s eight night run at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. After every show sold out instantly, leaving thousands stranded, tickets began toppling the $500 mark on the secondary market. Keeping a close watch on Twitter would have told you just how easy it was to find a way into these Volkswagon-sponsored shows. I was shut out in the initial on-sale and wound up winning three contests to attend the nights of full album runs through “Trans-Europe Express”, “The Man-Machine”, and “The Mix”.

The band’s setlist remained practically unaltered for the last hour of each show, getting through the hits, but it was the first hour that showcased music played live exclusively in MoMA’s series. Playing “Trans-Europe Express” forced the band to confront a trio of tracks not normally performed live: “Europe Endless”, “Hall of Mirrors”, and “Showroom Dummies”. These, like everything they played, were accompanied by 3-D visuals put into action using the glasses handed out upon entering MoMA’s Marron Atrium. Whether it was plates of glass being punched out, with shards sent towards you on “Showroom Dummies”, or a spaceship straight out of “Tron 1”  seemingly soaring over the crowd on “Spacelab”, the crowd “oohed” and “aahed” at the more impressive among the graphics. The four players remained tight and focused, keeping with the robotic aesthetic the band has played up since its inception. Still, this allowed for each member to express music-influenced movement (not quite dance) in their own subtle way. Only once were a couple wrong notes hit, proving that the Kraftwerk four are more man than machine, and were certainly playing live instruments.

This marriage of pop music to a home of pop art is one that has been happening more frequently in the city. The ongoing Divine Ricochet series will soon see Cold Cave and Zola Jesus both performing at the Guggenheim, and MoMA last year held shows from St. Vincent to Kanye West in their garden. This Kraftwerk series has been the most ambitious yet and it’s nice to see museums headed this way in terms of what can be done with their funding and bringing bands like this to spaces so fine-tuned to their style. Nowhere else would this kind of performance have been able to happen working as well as it did in MoMA. Performing eight consecutive nights in one city is a bold move for both artist and promoter, but all parties came through in an event that won’t soon be forgotten. The demand was high and the high bar set by hype was met. Not one Kraftwerk track went unplayed and not one showgoer went home unhappy.

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ES

UK independent pop is known for churning out some of the most iconic and enigmatic frontpersons in music. From Morrissey to Damon Albarn, Joe Strummer to Ari Up, a stand-out personality is developed over there as a necessary part of the band. Possibly none of these stand out beyond their band more than Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker. By the sixth song in the band’s set at their Radio City show this week, Cocker had scaled the left of  the massive venue close to the lowest balcony and led the crowd in a dance intro to “Disco 2000”. By “This Is Hardcore” later in the set, he had gyrated his way into the arms of the right side of the space nearing the balcony yet again. It was clear he was going to find his way around as much of the venue as would be permitted. This rejection of barriers between audience and performer does not come off with Cocker the way it does with punk bands. It seems clumsily forward and adorable, cartoonish and charming. This act runs through the veins of a Pulp live show and sets it all the higher for how enjoyable it is watching him cavort about.

In the US for the first time since the late ’90s, Pulp, in a close-to “Different Class” formation, played a set heavy on that album, only featuring three tracks from “His ‘n’ Hers”, and a pair each from “This Is Hardcore” and “We Love Life”. “F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E.” saw the band accompanied by a dance troupe as the show reached its most dynamic moments as the super-quiet verses led into the super-loud choruses of the track. The show was most effective when Jarvis was not restrained by having a guitar strapped on him, and was free to roam about the stage. “Common People” came towards the end and while it didn’t feel anything like I imagine Glastonbury ‘95 feeling, it was nice to hear the old band running through the old hits. They ended the show on “Mis-Shapes”, dedicating the track to the mid-’00s NY dance night that got its name from the song. They tore through the last song of the night like a band that never went away. Before their breakup Pulp had been a band in various lineups for over two decades. Another reunion show in NY this week was headlined by a band that was around for under two years, recorded only a handful of tracks and has even now, played under ten shows.

Black Tambourine was announced as the headliner to seminal punk zine Chickfactor’s twentieth anniversary shows. Vocalist Pam Berry along with Gail O’Hara started the zine in 1992 and the writing quickly took precedence over the music as Black Tambourine called it quits so Berry could focus more on developing Chickfactor. I first heard Black Tambourine in high school while sinking deeper into local bands that had existed decades before in the same subculture I was involved in. They were an elusive band to me, one that I never imagined seeing play, one that I would always hold near to my Montgomery County, MD heart. Then with the onslaught of bands like Vivian Girls and Dum Dum Girls finding popularity and attributing their sound to Black Tambourine, there came a greater demand for these songs to be heard. The eBay value for their 7”s shot up, and Slumberland pressed up a compilation of all their tracks. A reunion, albeit a short-lived one, was inevitable.

Pam Berry took to the stage at Brooklyn’s Bell House and began the set with a dedication to her writing partner O’Hara saying she was the only one who could convince Berry to perform again. The band sounded loose and unfit for live shows, exactly as they did on record. Layered in noise coming from a small Fender combo amp, a drumset without a bass drum, and a static vocalist, the band played a set that covered just about everything in their catalog. Placing “For Ex-Lovers Only” first on the setlist served as both a gift and a curse since it sent the crowd into a frenzy early on but also gave up the best song first. Suicide cover “Dream Baby Dream” was introduced as a Bruce Springsteen cover since he too has covered the song at some point in the last twenty years of Black Tambourine not being a band. The set chugged along, at some points dragging even though it in total clocked in at under forty minutes. Ballad “Black Car” left some teary eyes, and closer “Throw Aggi Off the Bridge” sent the room bopping about in its relationship revenge fantasy turned pop song that this style of music does so so well.

Also playing night one of the Chickfactor celebration were Small Factory, Versus, and The Lois Plus. Small Factory played the strongest set of the night. Singer and guitarist Alex Kemp (brother to Elias Arts’ composer Chris Kemp) still had the same pop-friendly voice and sensibility that made their records so accessible even outside of the immediate indie-pop world. Drummer Phoebe Summersquash was maybe the only drummer of the night qualified to be playing anything other than indie-pop as she kept consistency and held the band together and tight in their first show in seventeen years. They are one reunited band I could see still writing together and releasing material worth checking out. The chemistry was all still there and maybe it was just because it was their first show in seventeen years, but there I saw zero sign of burnout status. Lois Maffeo and Heavenly guitarist Peter Momtchiloff played a short set at the start of the night as The Lois Plus. Lois played a few tracks from her first band Courtney Love with “Motorcycle Boy” being the highlight. It was a nice run through the Lois years, and its half-hour running time was just enough time to pack in exactly what the crowd wanted.

One of the coolest things about this show was the attentiveness of the crowd throughout the night. Hardly anyone left the room between bands, and all was quiet with no iPhones in sight. It would be even nicer if current bands were attracting this kind of seemingly magical concentration, but baby steps I suppose. I did feel kind of guilty for attending so many reunion shows this week with no shows of active writing bands. It seemed though that most of the audience was there for the present-day enjoyment and not nostalgia as many reunion shows serve to exist for. As long as it’s good now and not just a look back, then it’s still something worth getting excited over. This whole decade-long reunion craze has to be coming to a close. I mean who is even left to comeback, really?

ES

The best cover art of the year might also be the face of one of 2012’s best records.

Spiritualized - Sweet Heart Sweet Light

Wild Flag: Year Two is in in effect. It’s been thirteen months since the band played NY for the first time at Brooklyn’s The Rock Shop to a crowd of eighty. They’ve since managed to sell out their three following headlining shows in the city. Webster Hall is a big room but for a band that has played Radio City and outdoor spaces like Williamsburg Waterfront, it seems the proper containment for their sound. I used to call Webster Hall my least favorite show space in New York, but their sound system has vastly improved and their crowds have shut up, at least the few times I’ve been back over the last couple years. Wild Flag at Webster Hall last week showed a band on close to the last leg of their tour behind their self-titled debut, and already you can see the band itching to get back into a studio.

Subtle additions to songs from their 2011 LP made for an interesting turn to songs I’ve now seen played four times. Whether it’s Rebecca Cole’s keys making more prominent and much appreciated appearances in nearly all the “old” songs, or the vocal harmonies they’ve managed to add into a few of their catchy choruses, the band is all for finding new ways to present the songs they’ve been playing for the last eighteen months. Cole incorporates a lot more left-hand keyboard playing, filling in the low-end void left by the band’s conscious decision to not have a bass player. Drummer Janet Weiss is on some songs playing entirely different things. The only other pop drummer playing as interesting and innovative as Weiss is The Roots’ ?uestlove. While both drummers come from completely different schools of learning, their sounds both stand out in an instrument that is often underrated in importance. Particularly the middle of “Glass Tambourine” where Weiss plays a completely interesting drum section that serves as the lead as the song approaches its ending, she is now playing a series of fills that differ greatly from what she played on record, and it still works perfectly.

Even the guitars which stand out as the lead instrument and the band’s most blatant element have found new variations through usage of different pedals or simply new strum patterns. Mary Timony’s fingertapping on “Short Version” has gone from a novelty to a revelation of what can be done with cliché in rock music when played in exactly the right way. Timony and Carrie Brownstein’s dual guitar chemistry is a part of their band that has only grown greater with every show. With so much innovation in electronic music, it’s sometimes hard to get excited about someone seemingly reinventing the wheel with guitar rock, but beneath the surface there’s a lot more going on with Wild Flag, and all these performances are helping to unravel talents of this band that even they were unaware of coming into their newest project. While often coming off as outdated and anachronistic, guitar rock has its place in modern music and when it’s well thought out it can still be riveting. Even older acts breaking in new ideas with their signature Telecasters can make significant records and put on shows rivaling those they had put on decades ago. I am of course talking about Bruce Springsteen and his latest effort “Wrecking Ball”.

Springsteen and an XL E Street Band have been out this year in support of their leader’s latest “Wrecking Ball” LP. With an added horn section in one corner and a couple of vocalists in the other, excess seems to be The Boss’s preferred method of coping. There’s no replacement for the presence that was Clarence Clemons, best friend to Bruce and one of the few who knew how to work a saxophone into rock music. Springsteen’s lyrics leak with instability and insecurity, and Clarence was always there to patch things up, a shoulder to lean on, most popularly and literally on the cover of the band’s “Born To Run”. “Losing Clarence is elemental, it’s like losing the rain” has been one of Bruce’s few quotes on the passing of their bandmate and both figurehead and backbone of The E Street Band. His absence prevailed over the entirety of the three hour show Friday night at Madison Square Garden, and more than ever a Bruce Springsteen show felt like the wake it truly is, rather than the overt celebration some interpret it to be.

The setlist concentrated heavily on “Wrecking Ball”. This record is dark even by Springsteen standards, and looks at the current state of the working class United States and supposes an even grimmer future. Eight of twenty-five songs came from the March release, and all worked better in the live setting than the record did them justice. Of the near dozen Springsteen shows I’ve seen, the 2006 “Seeger Sessions” show stands out as one of the best, and this latest incarnation of The E Street Band playing tracks from “Wrecking Ball” comes closest to that sound as ever before. Not only has he brought back the upbeat folk that made “The Seeger Sessions” so refreshing from a post-9/11 Bruce, but he brought back the lyrical content that made it known that he’s keeping up with the long struggle to get this country back on track after Reagan nearly decimated the whole thing. “Death to My Hometown” and “Shackled and Drawn” are two standouts with this combination, both live and on record with their personal and political battle cries for vengeance after a lifetime of being wronged. Bringing back “American Skin (41 Shots)” as the Trayvon Martin tragedy unravels, and especially playing the song in New York where the original influence of the song Amadou Diallo was murdered by four cops, was another smart move on the political side of Springsteen.

Outside of “Wrecking Ball”, Springsteen put on a performance any fan could be satisfied with. The obvious “Badlands”, “The Rising”, “Born To Run”, “Dancing In The Dark”, and the unbearable bathroom-breaker “Waiting on a Sunny Day” were all played. There’s not a conscious head in that crowd who wouldn’t say “Kitty’s Back” was the best of the night. With the horn section pumping out whatever they had left in them, and a Roy Bittan piano interlude that neared the three-minute mark, this was one of the single best song performances Bruce has graced the Garden with in his storied history with the arena. The last time I saw him there he played “The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle” in its entirety. That setlist is real hard to beat, but the energy on Friday night now sets a new precedent for a future Bruce show to beat. “Nebraska” album cut “Johnny 99” was played in an arrangement similar to the full band setup he normally does, but again with the addition of the horns it turned it up even higher.

Bruce had mentioned how playing at The Apollo earlier in the tour had helped the band find an even greater appreciation for soul. This benefitted the energy of the arrangements, but made the acoustic tracks like “Jack of All Trades” seem even more out of place. If he can find a way to pull off the slower ballads like the soul heroes of The Apollo’s past, then this tour will end up another truly unique Springsteen experience. The soul came out on show ended “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out” where Springsteen crawled around the stage and stormed about the arena. At the line “…and the big man joined the band”, the band pulled off a hard stop while a video of Clarence played out over the Garden’s screens. Springsteen stood in the middle of the crowd, head bowed, arm in the air, acknowledging the monumental presence he’ll never get back. In the midst of this, he seems especially grateful to the audience for being there with him to help his grieving process the only way he knows how. If the band in this setup sounds this good after less than dozen shows, I anticipate seeing them at the end of the summer when they inevitably return for a run at the new MetLife Stadium.

ES