Review: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Ford Amphitheatre, Tampa

 Springsteen performs at the Ford Amphitheatre in Tampa. [DANIEL WALLACE | Times]

TAMPA – Bruce Springsteen turns 60 on Sept. 23, which means Jersey’s blue-collar bard probably only has, oh, another 60 years of touring left in him. Immortals are stubborn like that. There’s just no quitting with those people.

But as the Boss took the stage at Ford Amphitheatre on Saturday, the three-hour show's most poignant plot line involved the players behind him, who of late have proved all-too-painfully human. If Springsteen is a superman, the venerable E Street Band -- founded in1972 -- is the collective cape that helps that dude fly higher, faster. But for how much longer?

Last year, E Street lost resident organ maestro Danny Federici, a victim of melanoma; the first show without him was an emotional haymaker in Tampa. The “Big Man” Clarence Clemons, 67, is racking up more surgeries these days than tasty sax solos. And there are now whispers that drummer Max Weinberg, 58, could bid adieu in a few months.

Seeing as how Springsteen & Co. have set up shop on our shores a bunch lately – including that 12-minute stomp at the Super Bowl -- this one felt like a loose, chummy tumble in our ongoing affair. But it was also a fitting time to appreciate, possibly for the last time, the greatest backing band in pop history. (Commence debate over your Fruit Loops.)

Flanked by trusty guitarmen "Little Steven" Van Zandt and just-plain-little (but wicked!) Nils Lofgren, Springsteen opened with the thunderous "Badlands," which featured a clean plump solo by Clemons. The crowd of 15,500 roared...and roared...and roared. Next up, "Out in the Street" then the new "My Lucky Day."   

The "Working on a Dream" tour has been trucking since April, but Bruce drove his crack staff like a football coach in the heat of camp. He ran here, hollered there, stringing together "Spirit in the Night," "Outlaw Pete." Weinberg looked tired but sounded triumphant, adding classic rumble to "She's the One." Violinist Soozie Tyrell, taking Patti Scialfa's spot on the stage (have at it, gossip hounds), added lovely work to "Waitin' on a Sunny Day."

Casual fans might have grown a little restless in the middle of the show (although they eventually got their "Born to Run," their "Hungry Heart," their "Thunder Road"). But all those diehard Backstreeters must have left tizzied and spent. The gritty "Seeds"! The driving "Johnny 99"! The pensive "Point Blank"! Deep glorious album cuts!

Springsteen likes to pull homemade requests out of the crowd, and Saturday was a veritable barrage of stump-the-band: "All or Nothing at All" ("a lost masterpiece!" Bruce joked), "Growing Up," and "Jole Blon" ("hasn't been played since 1981!" Bruce promised the collectors). One poster had a picture of his old car and fat bold letters: RACING IN THE STREET. Wistful and poignant, it was the song of the night.

And through it all, Bruce's band just couldn't be stumped, couldn't be brought to their knees. Why? Because they're the flippin' E Street Band, that's why. They do what their Boss tells them. And heck, maybe if he keeps barking orders, they'll have no choice but to stick around a little bit longer.

 

The Boss and E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons. [DANIEL WALLACE | Times]

Questions for Nils Lofgren?

The Boss & Co. are coming to Tampa's Ford Amp on Saturday, Sept. 12. (TICKETS) And although Bruce isn't knocking on my office door, his E Streeters are. The last time the tour blew through town (well, not counting their halftime shenanigans at the Super Bowl), I interviewed the Big Man Clarence Clemons. This time, I have my tape recorder aimed at Nils Lofgren, who just might be the best musician in the band. (When I saw the show in 2008 -- the first show after the death of Danny Federici -- Lofgren's solo on Because the Night was flat-out incendiary, maybe the best guitar theatrics I've ever seen live.) Anyway, I know I have a lot of Backstreeters out there in Pop Life Land, so here's your chance:

QUESTIONS FOR NILS LOFGREN?

Photo courtesy of the Associated Press

PODCAST! Joe Elliott interview debunks Def Leppard debauchery (well, sort of)

This is it.

This is the one.

I might have had more fun recording this week's Stuck in the '80s podcast than any other. It's safe to say that Joe Elliott, the Def Leppard frontman and world-class rocker, is my new best friend.

Def Leppard, Poison and Cheap Trick play Ford Amphitheatre this Friday, Aug. 14. To hype the gig, my boy Joe called in to talk the mastery of Mutt Lange, the titillation of Taylor Swift and just how many hookers were actually backstage on the Pyromania tour.

Listen and learn RIGHT HERE. (Also availble on iTunes!)

Kenny Chesney Hot Tub Party, Tampa, Aug. 8

I snapped this picture -- nay, richly textured photo essay -- at Saturday's Kenny Chesney show at Ford Amphitheatre in Tampa. Notice how it captures both the fear and optimism of Young America. Those aren't just suds from a makeshift hot tub -- they are the figurative clouds their dreams rest upon.

If you'd like to read my heart-tugging opus on the Chesney phenomenon, GO HERE.

If you'd like to see the work of a real photographer, my new best buddy Kainaz Amaria, check out her spectacular photo gallery RIGHT HERE.

And if you'd like to read other chit-chat on Saturday's show, come see me on my Facebook page. All "friends" are welcome.

Questions for Joe Elliott, Def Leppard?

Hey kids, tomorrow the crack staff of the Stuck in the '80s show will be interviewing Joe Elliott, frontman for Def Leppard. The bawdy Brit boys are coming to Ford Amphitheatre Friday, Aug. 14 with Poison and Cheap Trick. (TICKETS) There's a lot of history with these blokes, both on the stage and under it. The Forever Fiancee is a raving fan, so I knew she's gonna pepper me with queries. But what about all of you Pyromaniacs?

WHO HAS QUESTIONS FOR DEF LEPPARD?

From Cheap Trick's 'Latest' album, here's new song 'Sick Man of Europe'

The playfully spastic glam-poppers from Rockford, Ill., haven’t changed much over 15 albums — and that’s a good thing. The quartet’s innate Beatles buzz is even more enhanced on new album The Latest, especially since world-class singer (and Tampa Bay res) Robin Zander & mates have been focused on live re-creations of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. (CT will play a series of Pepper gigs at the Las Vegas Hilton in September.)

As well as being available digitally, on CD and on vinyl, The Latest can also be had in 8-track form. How cool is that?! That’s a slick marketing ploy, but it makes some artistic sense. The 8-track was a clunky king in the ’60s and ’70s, and first single Sick Man of Europe has a reckless retro feel, multilayered harmonious edge. Zander’s voice hasn’t lost any of that high-reaching sex appeal, Rick Nielsen shreds aplenty and drummer Bun E. Carlos and bassist Tom Petersson can still drive a song hard and fast.

By the way, Cheap Trick rocks Ford Amphitheatre (with Def Leppard and Poison) on Aug. 14. (TICKETS)

Stephanie Hayes wants to smash a proverbial pie in your face (then give you prizes!)

My impish cohort Stephanie Hayes is having a big contest over at her Deal Divas blog. It seems if you send her mortifying pix of horrific concert fashion miscues (a nippleless mesh shirt at a Judas Priest show, that conical bra you strutted for a Madonna gig, etc), you have a shot at winning killer Rascal Flatts tix + meet-and-greet passes. I promised her I'd hype this sucker, and so I am. Sounds like a fun contest. But for the record, I spiritually upchucked when I typed "killer Rascal Flatts tix." Anyway, GO HERE for all the excitement!!

Springsteen & E Street Band coming to Tampa's Ford Amphitheatre Sept. 12

Bruce Springsteen and his "Legendary" E Street Band will play Tampa's Ford Amphitheatre on Sept. 12. Tickets go on sale July 24 at ticketmaster.com. This is one of 25 brand-new U.S. dates added to the long-running "Workin' on a Dream" tour. The only other Florida date so far is Ft. Lauderdale's Bank Atlantic Center on Sept 13 (tickets for that also go on sale July 24). For more information, go to www.brucespringsteen.net.

Why I might go to the Aerosmith-ZZ Top show at Tampa's Ford Amphitheatre July 11

I used to hate Aerosmith. While my high-school chums were driving to Dream On, I was scanning the radio for something other than Sweet Emotion. I just didn't buy what Steven Tyler & Co. were selling, I guess; maybe I was just a Stones guy, happy to take my white-boy blues from a rock band that sold it better.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the snobatorium: When the Boston crew comes on the radio these days, I leave the dial alone. I might even tear off a Joe Perry air-guitar riff. It's not that my tastes, my snobbery, has softened. After all, I still despise the Doors and Spandau Ballet (to name just two intolerables).

But all of a sudden, I'm hearing something in Back in the Saddle or even The Other Side that now totally does it for me. It could have something to do with Aerosmith's totally badass Rock 'N' Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios; after all, I'm a giant Disney nerd who's willingly manipulated by the Mouse House. But no, I'm thinking it's more than that, something regional, something in the FLA air perhaps. Aerosmith is all about loud, swarthy hedonism, a break from the rigors of the grind -- and so is a good chunk of Vacation Wonderland. Tyler's American Jagger impression is totally nuance-free, pure humpy id. You know where they're going -- and hey, you might as well go along with them.

Aerosmith and ZZ Top play Saturday 7:30 p.m. at Tampa's Ford Amphitheatre. Tickets range from $35 to $175. TICKETS

Steven Tyler: Associated Press
 

Reinvention, rebel yells and the art of the chug: Kid Rock, Lynyrd Skynyrd and YOU

It looms on the concert calendar like a call to arms.

This Saturday at Ford Amphitheatre: Kid Rock and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Oh yeah, this show is special.

This sucker is deep.

This one is us.

Look in the mirror, Tampa Bay: This gig will have beer and bongs and bikinis and more beer. Confederate flags will flutter in the same breeze as rap music; hip-hop fans will high-five Joe Six-Pack. Florida natives will mingle with transplants from the Midwest — much as Jacksonville’s Lynyrd Skynyrd will take a stage with Michigan’s Kid Rock.

Look familiar?

The show will be hot. It’ll be hairy. It’ll be really, really LOUD.

Just like you. Yes, you.

In a classic-rocking town where Eddie Money could run for mayor, this show is like the arrival of ape-draped royalty.

Not so much a melting pot as a melting keg, the local crowd will mix the employed and the jobless, pickups and Porsches. And everyone will cut loose together on a Saturday that’s been circled on our autographed Hooters calendar for weeks.

Speaking of which: Kid Rock is famous for bringing strippers onstage. Dude is all about gentlemen’s clubs and...well, you know where I’m going with that.

On Saturday, hollers for "Freebird!" will be earnest and, alas, they will be answered. And when our unofficial Florida anthem is played — If I leave here tomorrow . . . — the shed will light up with Bics and BlackBerrys, tradition and today.

There might be a fistfight or two, and the cops will be lurking. But for the most part, the vibe, of the show and the crowd, will be loose, fun, sexy — as if we’re all on vacation, as if we live in a tourist wonderland.

What’s your name, little girl?

What’s your name?

There are bigger concerts coming to town this year: Kenny Chesney, U2, Green Day. But Saturday’s is different. This show is about reinvention, rebel yells, remixes. It is about the art of the chug, of the inhale.

In other words, Tampa Bay, they’re playing your song.

****

"This show is great for our community" says David Harb, the general manager at Ford Amp. The 40-year-old is also a muckety with Live Nation, the concert and events company. But more than that, Harb is a native, raised in St. Pete and running one of the major venues in Tampa.

Harb sees the Kid-Skynyrd bill as a natural fit for our town and our times. "This is the biggest little city you’ll ever live in," says Harb. "It’s cosmopolitan, but at the same time, that Old Florida feel still exists. There’s just a great balance here. There’s nowhere else like it."

Rickey Medlocke, guitarist for Skynyrd and an 18-year resident of Fort Myers, agrees. "There’s a cool vibe about a show here, it’s about that hometown vibe," he tells me. "You’ll have fans from all walks of life: cowboys, motorcyclists, gold-chain hip-hop guys. But the common denominator is music, rock and roll."

Saturday’s show also runs "across our radio dial," says Harb: rock, country, hip-hop, pop. "The people coming for Skynyrd and Kid? Some of ’em came for No Doubt, too."

When Skynyrd broke big in the ’70s, Ronnie Van Zant & Co. waved the Battle Flag and let Neil Young know a "Southern Man don’t need him around anyhow." But over time, Skynyrd, while still capable of throaty jingoism, has become a party band, hollering for shaggy independence, turn-it-up freedoms.

Spring break and Skynyrd — a match made at Shephard’s.

"We now have three generations of fans watching the show," says Medlocke, referring to Skynyrd Nation, a song on the band’s upcoming album, God & Guns. "You can be hip-hop to the max, but you still know Sweet Home Alabama."

Kid Rock was once a Motor City street punk named Bob Ritchie. He was a rapper, a Run DMC disciple. But he’s gone from Midwestern MC — Give a toast to the sun, drink with the stars / Get thrown in the mix and tossed out of bars — to Southern transplant, Devil Without a Cause to Rock N Roll Jesus.

One of us, one of us.

"My dad used to pay me to collect apples," Rock told London’s Daily Mail. "But from the moment I heard rap I didn’t want to be in the orchard any more. I wanted to be a hip-hop DJ in Detroit." But now, he says: "My songs still seem to relate to working-class people. If you ever wanted to rob a trailer park, do it during a Kid Rock concert."

In 2007, Rock scored a hit that blended Michigan memories with the hook of Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama, a merging of new school and old, North and South. The song was a No. 1 smash — escapist fare perfect for a beach day — and it especially sounded good here:

Catching walleye from the dock / Watching the waves roll off the rocks / She'll forever hold a spot inside my soul / We'd blister in the sun / We couldn't wait for night to come /To hit that sand and play some rock and roll.

The song is All Summer Long. And when they play that Saturday, look for Tampa Bay to sing louder than anywhere else.

After all, it's all ours.