Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Wrigley Field, Chicago, Illionis, August 9, 2023.

If it’s not official, it should be: since James Brown passed on, Bruce Springsteen live has to be The Hardest Working Man In Show Business.

Kicking off the second North American leg of his current world tour, Springsteen was in nonstop motion for three solid hours: counting in 26 tunes at the head of a supersized, 18-strong E Street Band — playing off wingman guitarists Stevie Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren, cueing “Mighty Max” Weinberg’s drum shots with his body, “conducting” the five-piece horn section (including featured saxman Jake Clemons), often to intentionally comic effect. And, oh yeah, he sang every lead vocal, took his share of guitar and harmonica breaks and rambled up and down multiple steps and ramps to engage the folks standing in front of the center field stage again and again. Whew!

But it isn’t just the 73-year-old Springsteen’s stamina that’s impressive; the body of work he brings onstage stacks up favorably against any classic rocker in his league. While some hardcore fans have complained of static setlists this go-round, the range and depth of what is being played would be pretty hard to beat. Almost half of second album The Wild, The Innocent And The E Street Shuffle — tunes that Bruce himself called “the soul children of the lengthly prog pieces” he’d written for a previous band; most of operatic breakout Born to Run; core songs from noir melodrama Darkness on the Edge of Town, mass culture beachhead Born in the USA and 2020’s elegiac Letter To You; and a choice cross-section from the rest of his catalog, including last year’s cover of the Commodores’ “Nightshift” (which spotlit his quartet of backing vocalists and percussionist Anthony Almonte). The 40,000-plus in attendance ate all of it up — cheering and “Brooooooce”-ing at will, dancing on the field and in the stands, singing along with everything from the monster hits to the funky Stones-alike deep track “Darlington County”. Even taking the first verse vocal of “Thunder Road” away from Springsteen while he stood there and smiled!

So there’s an alchemy at work at a Springsteen show; the fans’ determination to have a good time strikes sparks with the E Streeters’ ability to navigate endless twists and turns, stretch middle eights beyond their breaking point for maximum tension, build repeating riffs to towering heights and pile up enough false endings to make “Free Bird” seem like a punk-rock single. Presiding over it all, Bruce bounces between driven storyteller — eyes shut tight, straining as he belts out the lyrics with rough and ready voice — and genial MC — gazing out at the faithful in delight at what he’s stirred up, then turning back to his band to stoke up the fires one. More. Time!

And beyond that release, that feeling of freedom is the place where Springsteen can strike his deepest emotional vein; at the halfway point and the very end of the set, Bruce brought the volume down to address the heart of his subject matter, via solo acoustic takes on two songs that anchor Letter to You. Introducing “Last Man Standing”, dedicated to late bandmate George Theiss, he sharpened his message to a keen point: “Death’s final gift to the living is an expanded awareness of the possibilities of right now.” And after the final rave-up “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” incorporated video tributes to late E Streeters Danny Frederici and Clarence Clemons, “I’ll See You in My Dreams” looked ahead to what awaits us all, reveling in the memories made by those who have gone, yearning for a life beyond the grave.

It’s a paradox Springsteen has explored before, especially on his post-9/11 album The Rising. Both the title track and “Mary’s Place” were in the setlist at this show:

Meet me at Mary’s place, we’re gonna have a party
Tell me how do you live broken-hearted

“Mary’s Place”

Sometimes the best solution to the world’s pain and grief might just be a party, a timely reminder that life and love themselves are gifts. Here’s hoping the folks at Wrigley Field and on the rest of Bruce’s upcoming tour take that home truth along with them, long after their ecstatic night with Springsteen and the E Street Band has faded.

— Rick Krueger

Setlist:

• No Surrender
• Ghosts
• Prove It All Night
• Letter to You
• The Promised Land
• Out in the Street
• Darlington County
• Kitty’s Back
• Nightshift
• The E Street Shuffle
• Mary’s Place
• Johnny 99
• Last Man Standing
• Backstreets
• Because the Night
• She’s the One
• Wrecking Ball
• The Rising
• Badlands
• Thunder Road
• Born to Run
• Rosalita
• Glory Days
• Dancing in the Dark
• Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
• I’ll See You in My Dreams