Bruce Springsteen the E Street Band are in rehearsal mode. They’re on stage in the virtually empty Perth Arena when the side doors open and twenty-odd journalists from a variety of news outlets are led inside. This kind of meeting with the media has become something of a ritual for Bruce when he plays Australia.
As the press look on, the band impress immediately with a reading of ‘New York City Serenade’ that is performed with a full string section. Then it’s on to a rousing ‘Land Of Hope And Dreams’. Bruce leads the band through an alternate attempt at the ending and they segue into a rather appropriate take on Curtis Mayfield’s ‘People Get Ready’. When the music stops, Bruce gestures for the assembled media to move closer and ‘come forth with your enquiries’.
With Donald Trump’s inauguration less than twenty-four hours old, today, in Perth, one of the most, geographically, isolated cities on earth, Bruce admits that home feels ‘a long way away’ and then he let’s us know that, despite the distance, “Our hearts and our spirits are with the millions of people that marched yesterday and the E Street Band are part of the ‘new resistance’”.
An early question from one reporter asks what responsibility the ‘arts’ has in these turbulent times.
“The arts’ responsibility is always the same thing,” Bruce says while crouching at the foot of the stage, “it’s to witness and to testify … that is the basic job of the E Street Band. We observe and we report … we witness and we testify. And, hopefully, through doing so, we lift people up and hopefully inspire people in tough times. That’s been our job for forty years and it will continue to be so …”
Bruce admits that he was ‘up late’ and watched only ‘some’ of the inauguration.
“Plenty of good people voted for Donald Trump on the basis of something I’ve written about for thirty years,” he explains. “The de-industrialisation of the United States, globalisation, and the technological revolution have hit many people very, very, very, very hard.”
“A certain recovery that happened in the United States didn’t really get down to a lot of those folks. I think it makes it sort of easy pickings for a demagogue, which I believe Donald Trump is, [to make] some very, very powerful statements. I hope it’s a success, I hope he can bring some of those jobs back. I hope a big infrastructure program happens, I hope people get hired … I hope he keeps some of his promises.”
The last time Bruce was in Australia he covered a host of Australian bands with impressive results. Anyone who was there won’t forget his versions of The Easybeats’ ‘Friday On My Mind’, AC/DC’s ‘Highway to Hell’, The Saints ‘Just Like Fire Would’, INXS’ ‘Don’t Change’ and a Marvin Gaye like re-invention of the Bee Gees’ ‘Stayin’ Alive’. So, will there be any more?
“We did that once. I’m not sure we’ll do it again, I never know exactly what’s going to happen until we start rolling. [It] was a lot of fun. We haven’t learnt any so far … [but] then we didn’t learn any until we got here last time [laughs].”
And what about that treasure chest of rarities and outtakes from the River sessions and beyond?
“We pull them out every once and a while,” says Bruce of his selections. “[The show will] pick up where we left off in the USA [a few hours later the band play a mix of tracks that, among other things, go way back to Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J and The Wild, The Innocent & the E-Street Shuffle] and the set will develop as we play down here. It’s funny to pop those [songs] out and surprise people once and a while.”
The question of his memoir, Born To Run, comes up and a journalist enquires how its’ publication and insights into his psyche might now impact on his performance.
“Hopefully the idea of the book is … that it deepens [my] relationship with [my] audience. That has been my pursuit since I started [playing] and it continues to be so today. I’m trying to keep that conversation about life in general … [writing about] things that matter to me and hopefully matter to them.”
“Martin Scorsese once said ‘It’s the job of the artist to get the audience to care about your obsessions and to meet you in the middle and see what you have in common’. I think the book will deepen the concerts and people’s relationship with our band”.
So was writing the book as cathartic as writing a song?
“[It] was as equally satisfying. I didn’t start out with any big intentions, I just wrote about some of the things that happened to me that I thought my kids might be interested in many years down the road, about my job, … it ended up being a very satisfying project. I enjoyed it tremendously and I hope I communicated it well.”
And will the book impact on his future album projects?
“I’m always looking to make an album I haven’t made before. It might affect some of the projects I get into in the near future. I’ve got an album I’ve recorded, but I’ve been busy doing other projects so I’ll just wait … “
The ‘rich man in a poor man’s shirt’ lyric is offered up by another journalist who asks ‘How easy is it to be Bruce Springsteen?’ Bruce’s deadpan response ‘It’s pretty easy’ draws a big laugh from the room before he settles into a more considered answer.
“I have to say, you’re always questioning yourself. That’s what the artist is supposed to do, you’re filled with some doubt, but that’s good. A degree of being self critical and understanding where you came from, and the contradictions in your own work, make you a better artist. That’s what I aspire to.”
The affection Bruce feels for his Australian audience is mutual. This run, which takes Bruce and the band across the country, is seen as ‘round three’ in a stunning series of shows that played out in 2013 and 2014.
“About three tours ago we seemed to hit something down here,” Bruce admits. “We’ve always had a good time, but [then] we got something that felt like a deeper relationship … a deeper connection with our audience. Suddenly, it got very exciting, and it’ll be a regular stop on our tours from here on in. We’ve got a dedicated audience down here and it feels great.”
A few hours later the band are back on stage and the room is full. ‘New York City Serenade’ opens the show. When it concludes, the string section depart, and Bruce thanks us for coming and then leaves us in no doubt where he stands regarding Donald Trump and the times we live in.
“The E Street Band is glad to be here in Western Australia. But we’re a long way from home, and our hearts and spirits are with the hundreds of thousands of women and men that marched yesterday in every city in America and in Melbourne who rallied against hate and division and in support of tolerance, inclusion, reproductive rights, civil rights, racial justice, LGBTQ rights, the environment, wage equality, gender equality, healthcare, and immigrant rights. We stand with you. We are the new American resistance.”
Welcome back Bruce.
Words: Sean Sennett
Photo: Duncan Barnes
Tour dates: http://brucespringsteen.net/shows
