Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band Night One at PPG Paints Arena: Worth the Wait

Bruce Springsteen with guitar. (File Photo: Bill Ebbesen and Wikipedia.)

Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band played the first of two Pittsburgh makeup dates originally scheduled for last September, Thursday night. Springsteen had to cancel them due to a peptic ulcer. Springsteen concerts have long been a spiritual celebration of life, love, and rock and roll. And like a spiritual leader, for this concert, Springsteen was dressed in his Sunday best—dress shirt, tie, and vest. The congregants assembled at the house of worship (PPG Paints Arena) at the appointed time.

What a joy it is to hear Springsteen and the E Street Band live. They create a hard to match wall of sound. Springsteen seemed in regular form—voice strong, guitar playing solid, and good physical stamina. Each performer, both collectively and individually, seems to activate a musical joy spot in the brain. First and foremost there’s Springsteen for all the aforementioned reasons. Then you have the mainstays: Max Weinberg (drums), Roy Bittan (piano and keys), Nils Lofgren (guitar), “Little” Stevie Van Zandt (guitar and musical director), Garry Tallent (bass), with Jake Clemons (saxophone). I didn’t notice Patty Scialfa (Bruce’s wife and E Street Band member) so she may not be touring currently. Springsteen and band played an amazing show pulling from their rich catalog of hits and eras. 

Bruce opened the show with “Seeds,” “Lonesome Day,” “No Surrender,” “Ghosts,” and “Letter to You,” calling out to the audience several times, “Hello Pittsburgh!” The crowd throughout the night called out “Bruuuuce.” Next was “Promised Land” which really got the fans going. Springsteen opened the song on harmonica which led into some great keys, drums, and guitars. Jake Clemons (the original E Street Band’s saxophonist Clarence Clemons’ nephew) joined in with his sax.

The group continued with the hit song from The River, “Hungry Heart.” Springsteen let the audience take over the opening vocals. The song featured some fat sax notes, organ, keys, and drums. Clemons was up on top of the highest riser with Bruce, who got the audience’s hands swaying in unison. “Reason to Believe” followed. “Atlantic City” had some good horn parts and Springsteen sounded great singing the colorful lyrics. “Youngstown” featured an accordionist (Charlie Giordano) and violinist (Soozie Tyrell) as Springsteen, lit in an eerie, red light, sang about steelmaking with lyrics that mention the Monongahela Valley. Nils Lofgren played some scorching guitar parts on his Fender Stratocaster. Springsteen sang very intensely while playing a black and white Telecaster for “Long Walk Home.” 

“E Street Shuffle” opened with a New Orleans jazz brass band sound from the horn section with Springsteen fast strumming his guitar. There was also a fun percussion duel between Wineberg and the percussionist Anthony Almonte. It sounded like drums versus timbales. “Nightshift” is a Commodores’ song Springsteen recorded for his 2022 album, Only the Strong Survive. It featured a sweet lead vocal part from backup singer Ada Dyer. “Racing In the Street” had a beautiful piano intro by Bittan and was later accompanied for a lot of the song by organ (Girodano).

For “Last Man Standing” Springsteen sang about a band that invited him to play when he was a mid-teen. He said he didn’t know much about guitar playing then, but they brought him in and he continued to grow musically. He said that with the loss of one of his bandmates from that group, he is now the last man standing and that “Death gives us an expanded vision of life.” There was a very fine trumpet feature on the song.

As “Last Man Standing” faded out, Bittan started playing the very distinctive piano opening to “Backstreets” (one of this reviewer’s favorite Springsteen songs), Weinberg’s distinctive drum notes came up accompanied by organ. The song rolls along as Bruce intensely sings the poetry that is the lyrics. The crowd loved it. The song also has great guitar play, bass lines, and melodic backing vocals. Bruce played a tan wooden Telecaster. 

Next up was “Because the Night,” followed by “She’s the One,” “Wrecking Ball,” “The Rising” (a response to 911), and “Badlands.” “Thunder Road” was a wonderful way to close out the set. Springsteen played harmonica and emphasized the line “We ain’t that young anymore.” When he came to the line “Well I got this guitar and learned how to make it talk” Springsteen pointed to Van Zandt. When the song ended, the band took their bows and left the stage to a roar of applause. Van Zandt, dressed in a vest and shirt with his trademark bandanna head covering, had a great show playing several different guitars throughout the night including a Gibson and Fender Stratocaster.

Encore Set: Running, Freezing, and Twisting and Shouting

Springsteen and company came back quickly and with a vengeance launched into “Born to Run.” Always a huge crowd favorite. Next up was “Bobby Jean.” This was followed by the mid-eighties hit “Dancing in the Dark” from Born in the U.S.A. “Tenth Avenue Freeze-out” had all the band playing at the highest level with a tribute to the late great saxophonist, Clarence Clemons and the other dearly departed E Street Band member, Danny Federici. The song contains the line “When the big man joined the band” which was a reference to Clemons. Springsteen went into the audience, dancing on a platform about halfway out as he sang. 

The closer was a cover of The Isley Brothers’ “Twist and Shout.” The house lights had been up for a few songs now and Springsteen was playfully toying with the audience, asking the audience if they were tired and wanted to go home. Of course everyone shouted back “No!” This continued once or twice more and Springsteen then asked if they thought they could outlast the E Street Band. And the crowd shouted back, “Yes!” Springsteen and the band continued to rock hard through to the end of the song. Amid loud cheering the band left the stage. Springsteen stayed on and performed the solo acoustic number, “I’ll See You in My Dreams.” The concert lasted for almost three hours. It was another fantastic Pittsburgh concert by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. 

Those not mentioned previously are horn section members: Pittsburgh-area resident Eddie Manion (saxophone), Barry Danielian (trumpet), Ozzie Melendez (trombonist), and Curt Ramm (trumpet). Backing vocalists also included Lisa Lowell, Curtis King, and Michelle Moore.

See our recap of Springsteen’s Sunday night concert at PPG Paints Arena.

Rick Handler is the executive producer of Entertainment Central.

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