| Austin Rogers | Probably the best Springsteen concert I have ever seen. You can't explain how incredible that show really was. You have all of these people crying and praying around you while Springsteen is right in the middle of "My City of Ruins". All I can say is you missed one hell of a show. |
| Teddy Rice | I have seen a lot of Bruce shows in the past 7 years, but I have NEVER seen anything like what happened at JazzFest this past weekend. It was easily the most emotional show I've ever witnessed, with people crying all around me and Bruce at his very best with an incredibly tight, rollicking Seeger band. It was perfect music at the perfect time. |
| Rob Carnachan |
There was a lot of skepticism from Jazz Fest goers over Springsteen's presence there, but, with this performance, you could almost hear their minds being changed en masse over the space of 5 or so minutes. This type of music was very much in line with everything that Jazz Fest had come to represent by the mid-2000s (of course, it's a very different beast now - not nearly as unique and special as it once was). It was unusual in many regards, but Springsteen is on record as saying it was one of the best and most memorable performances of his entire career. Few who were there in person would disagree. It was the first public show he played with a new band, playing a very different type of music from that which he was known for, playing mostly well-trodden covers, performing at a famous cultural event for the first time in a city where he had never gained huge popularity, and performing as THE headliner at a festival whose very future had been in grave doubt just a few months (and even just weeks!) before in a city that was still half in ruins, with about 60% of its residents (100,000s of people) displaced to other parts of the country. The pressure must have been tremendous, knowing what we know of Springsteen's personality. Yet, he and the musicians delivered spectacularly. The necessary political points were made (the federal government's terrible response to the disaster was something that was still top of mind to New Orleanians) but the focus was on resiliency, rebirth, sorrow/mourning for those lost or scattered, community, and the power of shared culture to buoy the human spirit. New Orleans culture is unlike any other in the United States and, although it is very provincial, it's truly welcoming to outsiders who seek to engage with it and meet it without judgment on its own terms. Springsteen was clearly an outsider but this performance revealed a willingness to come to New Orleans, hat in hand, and offer what he could - in a musical language that was very much of the region - to provide support and empathy. I think he succeeded beyond his wildest dreams, and this performance is still spoken of in hushed, reverent terms by locals nearly 20 years on. There is no way that a "regular" E Street Band performance of typical Springsteen songs/hits would have had even half of the impact that this specific set of songs and musicians did. |
2006-04-30 New Orleans Fair Grounds, New Orleans, LA