Looking back today, as Springsteen winds down over a year of solo shows in a 975-person theater, the 2012-13 Wrecking Ball tour stands in stark relief. Far from going it alone, Bruce augmented the first E Street Band tour of the post-Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici era with a horn section, back-up singers, and a percussionist for his biggest on-stage line-up since Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom. It was a band built for stadiums, and many did it play, including two runs through Europe in consecutive years.
But upon his return to the United Kingdom in the summer of 2013, it is said Springsteen himself requested that he and the band christen the newly constructed First Direct Arena (also known as Leeds Arena). The 13,000-seater is configured so all seats face the stage, and it boasts superior acoustics because it wasn’t designed for basketball or hockey like most arenas. “This is a great room,” Springsteen tells the Leeds faithful. “You play anything in here, it’s gonna sound good.”
Moving his biggest band indoors from stadiums and in doing so becoming the first artist to play the state-of-the-art “super amphitheatre” would prove to be a tasty recipe for a memorable performance. Leeds 2013 is not only chock full of treats, but it captures Bruce and the band at their road-tested yet relaxed best.
Bruce fires the special-setlist flare right from the start, opening the show with a rare and potent “Roulette.” It’s the first shot in a staggering top of the show that continues with “My Love Will Not Let You Down” into “No Surrender.” With the final note of “No Surrender” still sustaining, the set slides down gorgeously into “Something in the Night,” a performance that reinforces the song’s beauty and majesty. The same can be said for “American Skin (41 Shots),” a tale as relevant, a crescendo as cathartic today as ever. Perhaps it is going too far to call both songs underappreciated, but the pairing here reinforces their stature in Bruce’s songwriting canon.
The mood lightens through “The Promised Land” and “Hungry Heart,” leading to a trio of tour premieres, the kind of sequence many fans dream of, where it feels like anything can (and will) happen. It commences with the delightful “Local Hero” from Lucky Town, a song rarely performed with the E Street Band and arranged here (in its only Wrecking Ball tour appearance) as a best of both worlds, matching E Street muscle with backing vocals a la the 1992-93 tour courtesy of the E Street Choir.
Turns out fans aren’t the only ones who appreciate rare tracks. “Steve always complains that we don’t play anything off this record,” Bruce admits, introducing “Gotta Get That Feeling.” “This is an outtake from Darkness on the Edge of Town…for Steve Van Zandt.” As Springsteen counts the song in, he is interrupted by a spontaneous chant of “Steven! Steven!” as the crowd voices their support for the man and his request. A Stone Pony benefit set and the 2010 promo shoot at the Carousel in Asbury Park notwithstanding, this is the only tour performance of “Gotta Get That Feeling” to date, and the expanded band does it justice, with horns soaring and Steve’s harmony vocals pure soulfire.
Surprises continue, as Bruce heeds a sign suggestion from a traveling Spanish fan for Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising,” arranged on the fly and performed with exuberance and fearlessness earned through months and months of successful rounds of “stump the band.”
“We’re gonna try one more crazy request,” Bruce says, extending the controlled chaos. “‘Thundercrack’…was written to be our first showstopper. This used to end our set when we [would] play for crowds who didn’t know us at all.” After name-checking some of the acts they once opened for (among them Black Oak Arkansas, Sha Na Na, Mountain, and Aerosmith) and warning the audience the middle of the song could prove tricky, Bruce and the band confidently crush “Thundercrack” in its only 2013 outing.
While Leeds boasts ample rarities, Wrecking Ball material gets its due as well, with robust versions of the title track, “Death to My Hometown,” “Shackled and Drawn” (aided by a fine gospel-tinged solo from Cindy Mizelle), “Land of Hope and Dreams,” and “This Depression.” Making its last appearance to date this night (and one of just seven performances ever), “This Depression” impresses through its admirable lyrical candor, gripping arrangement, and affecting musicality. It’s a performance that should win over a few converts, and the coupling with “Because the Night” is another slice of Leeds’ setlist genius.
To the encore, and Springsteen has one more trick up his sleeve, bringing “Secret Garden” back to the set for the first time in 13 years, moody, measured, and matrimonial. Credit Jake Clemons for doing right by his uncle with a poignant sax solo to bring the song to conclusion. Sublime.
A marvelous night in Leeds concludes with a scarce Wrecking Ball tour airing for “If I Should Fall Behind” followed by “Thunder Road,” both performed solo acoustic. Towards the end of “Thunder Road,” Bruce invites the audience to join him in singing, “La da, da, da, da,” which they do in full voice, giving back generously to the performer who gave so much to them all night long.
Leeds may be the fourth archival release from the Wrecking Ball tour, but it stands strongly among those peers on the strength of its distinctive setlist, stellar performance and the sense of Springsteen’s personal motivation to showcase his expanded band in this optimal indoor venue.
LIVE AT LEEDS WITH THE E STREET ORCHESTRA
A rare U.K. arena show from 2013 for November's "Second Friday"
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Such is Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's popularity in the U.K. that they typically appear in large outdoor venues to meet demand. For the Wrecking Ball tour in 2012, it was business as usual: four stadium and festival appearances that summer. It was a big show by a big band in big venues: with many open-air dates, Springsteen and his 16-piece band would cover North America, South America, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, and tour Europe twice in consecutive summers.
Near the end of that 18-month trek, however, on their 2013 European "victory lap," they scaled things down for a comparatively intimate night, christening a brand-new indoor arena in Leeds.
It was Springsteen's first concert in this northern city since 1985, when he played for 80,000 people at Roundhay Park; the new arena had a capacity of 13,500. Tickets sold out in minutes, and fans began arriving several days early to secure a place at the front. Today, Leeds, July 24, 2013 joins Wrecking Ball-era recordings from the Apollo Theatre, Helsinki, and Rome, making a worthy addition to the archive series.
When Springsteen and the E Street Big Band (including five horn players and three backing vocalists but without Patti Scialfa) walked onstage at the First Direct Arena, it had yet to officially open. Elton John was due to perform the inaugural show in September, but press reports suggested that Springsteen requested this special "pre-launch concert" at the £60 million venue.
After more than 120 shows, the band was firing on all cylinders. The concert began with Max Weinberg's pounding introduction to "Roulette," and the barrage continued with "My Love Will Not Let You Down" and "No Surrender." The tempo slowed for a deep-cut pairing of a majestic "Something in the Night" and the U.K. debut of the brooding "American Skin (41 Shots)."
As a tour progresses, Springsteen shakes up the setlist, throwing in rarities, curve balls, and one-offs. Leeds was one of those nights, with four tour premieres, five U.K. debuts, and two European debuts.
Three tour premieres in a row came after Springsteen scooped up armfuls of request signs. The first selection was already on the setlist. "We knew this was coming, and we've done a little bit of rehearsal on this," he admitted. With the relevant sign ("Local Hero – We Dare U!") placed in front of his microphone stand, he began the first performance of the song in a decade. Extended to six minutes and driven by the horn section, it reinforced the argument that all those early-'90s albums needed was some serious E Street muscle.
The only tour performance of Darkness outtake "Gotta Get That Feeling" from The Promise ("Steve's always complaining that we don't play anything off of this record…") was followed by the Creedence classic "Bad Moon Rising," last played with John Fogerty on the Vote For Change tour in 2004. This two-and-a-half-minute classic was flawless, a reminder that the E Streeters have always been a top-notch covers band.
"We're gonna try one more crazy request here," Springsteen announced, adding, "We may not get through the middle of this, because it gets tricky…." With multiple twists, turns, and shifting tempos, the U.K. debut performance of 1973's "Thundercrack," a quirky ten-minute opus, made for a joyous blast from the ancient past.
Five songs from Wrecking Ball dominated the show's second half, including the exuberant, gospel-flavored "Shackled and Drawn" ("Preach it, Cindy!"), the set-closing "Land of Hope and Dreams," and the rarely played "This Depression," one of the record's superior cuts. It's a song of quiet desperation that many can identify with, and it always deserved greater exposure.
Returning for the encores, with just a few stops left on the tour (two shows to come in Ireland and four in South America), Springsteen took a moment to acknowledge the efforts of his travelling army of diehard followers. "They're there every night, and they provide a tremendous amount of fuel and inspiration for our band."
"Secret Garden," a surprise request, led the encore, performed for the first time since June 2000 in New York. "A song we might have played once or twice," Springsteen rightly noted — and they've only played it a few times since. "Atlantic City" preceded a string of greatest hits that ended with "Tenth Avenue Freeze-out."
The band left after a climactic, eight-minute version of the Isley Brothers' "Shout" — but Springsteen wasn't finished. He returned alone, his T-shirt soaked with sweat after nearly three-and-a-half hours onstage. "Nothing to it," he said, pausing to take a breath. Ending the 29-song show with solo-acoustic renderings of "If I Should Fall Behind" and "Thunder Road," he added, "Thanks for a great night. This is a beautiful building! It's a great place to play. Really loved it here."
Local press concurred: "If last night's opening showcase was anything to go by, the future looks bright for the city's First Direct Arena," said the Yorkshire Evening Post, describing the concert as "the most anticipated gig of the year in Yorkshire" and emphasizing that it was "one of the most intimate shows that Springsteen will play on his global tour."
The indoor setting allowed us to fully appreciate the power of the E Street Orchestra, the contributions made by the horns and singers, and the amazing energy that Springsteen exerted. It's bound to come through in the recording. This was truly one for the ages: a show that had apparently been organized at Springsteen's request, in a venue that was half the size of most American arenas, with a setlist to die for.
