Bruce Springsteen

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) To this day, I can’t go to a Springsteen show without someone telling me a tall tale about how they saw Springsteen “play an eight-hour show…and then he took out a broom and swept the floor of the club”. It’s almost laughable, but understandable. In 1978, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Ban...

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) It’s hard to balance one’s legacy with keeping your feet planted in the future. These days, the amount of money fans fork over for tickets is staggering and if acts want the money, they need to deliver. The current KISS show in many ways is similar to the current tour Bruce Springsteen and the E...

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) Bruce Springsteen in St Louis the next night. In short, a disappointment. If you had never seen him before, it would have been splendid, but considering how phenomenal the show was the previous year, this one fell flat on all accounts. The biggest issue was the holdover of the same songs from l...

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) Forty-minutes into Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s recent Chicago show, Springsteen began to tell the crowd how he was about to be dropped by his record label after two unsuccessful records back in 1974. Everything was on the line and they knew they had to deliver a tremendous rec...

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) Sorry for disappearing. I had to finish up Pearl Jam month over at antiMusic. Now that it is done, I will be posting a slew of reviews and commentaries in the coming weeks. Look for reviews of Bruce Springsteen, Anvil, Pearl Jam, Will Hoge, Nick Hornby's latest book and tons more... xT

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) Hackensack Riverkeeper is auctioning off two sets of TWO TICKETS to Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's Concert on Thursday, October 8th at the OLD Giant's Stadium (before it's knocked down!), including passes to the E-Street Lounge before the show!

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) Jamsbio Magazine has a great review of the new Bruce Springsteen record at this link. I don't agree with it and am sticking to my 2 1/2 star review, but this is a good read and well written. It's worth checking out. Bob Dylan appears to be shocking everyone with the release of a new record in April.

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) Bruce Springsteen – Magic “Radio Nowhere” When Springsteen created his masterworks from 1975 through 1987 he sung from what appeared to be a vivid first-person experience. He was revered because of his authentic voice. After the critical slamming Human Touch and Lucky Town took in 1992,...

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) By Anthony KuzminskiBack in 2006, shortly after Bruce Springsteen released We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, I was trying to convince a friend of mine to go and see the concert tour in support of the album. He was defiant in his negativity. I asked him if he had listened to the album. He re...

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) After completing The Rising tour in October 2003, Springsteen laid low for the better part of a year. In 2004, he did two significant things. First he took the E Street Band out on the controversial Vote For Change tour raising money and awareness for the upcoming presidential election. Seco...

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) Bruce Springsteen-Tracks By Anthony KuzminskiSo now that you’ve seen Springsteen’s Super Bowl Half Time performance it’s awoken your inner rock star and you want to revisit some of his music. Where to start? Well, Best Buy has his 3-disc Essential collection this week for $12 ($2 more th...

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) The official Counting Crows message board talks some smack about me at this link. It is in regards for me putting the Counting Crows on my most disappointing list at this link. This was my favorite quote:The problem with the internet is any asshole with a computer is now a "critic". There's a re...

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) The evening was a jukebox full of rarities and classics where Springsteen beautifully weaved his past and present into collective whole where no one song felt out of place. I can’t say the same about every concert I’ve ever seen, but the band hit all the right notes this night. “Drive All Nigh...

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) The disc is missing a number of high profile songs including “Blinded By The Light”, “Jungleland”, “Prove It All Night”, “The Promised Land”, “The River” and four top-ten hits from Born in the U.S.A.. Then there’s assorted live tracks and close to thirty songs from this decade they could have...

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) Bruce Springsteen’s music has always had a cinematic arc to it. Over the course of his career he has given life to visceral characters we invest in. As you listen to a Bruce Springsteen song, you play it out in your head imagining it as a scene in a larger than life poignant epic. It’s this exact re...

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) By Anthony KuzminskiWhen Bruce Springsteen emerged with Born To Run in 1975, he was put on an altar by the rock press. He embodied all of what rock n’ roll had stood for its inaugural generation and everything they hoped it would be in the future. For the better part of the last few decades, Spri...

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) If Bruce had decided to take the songs from The Rising down the same road as he did with Joad, this would have been a tough album to listen to. However, the E Street Band ventilates life to these songs. Instead of hearing defeat, you hear victory through Max Weinberg’s roaring drums, Clarence C...

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) One other striking aspect is that despite the fact this is an E Street Band record, one doesn’t get the sense it is a true return to form. The Rising probably has more in common with Tunnel of Love than The River when it comes to aural audaciousness. The E Street Band do not appear to add anything t...

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) Guilty by association. These three words explain the predicament of Lucky Town better than any other in the English language. I had initially planned on reviewing both Lucky Town and Human Touch in one review (like everyone else did in 1992) due to a tight schedule that would allow for Sprin...

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) Between the release of Tunnel of Love in October 1987 and the release of Human Touch in March of 1992, Bruce Springsteen did the following: • Toured with E Street Band in 1988 • Disbanded the E Street Band providing them all with (rumored) seven-figure severance checks. Human Touch"

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) Bruce Springsteen-Tunnel of Love Things got even more interesting on 'Tunnel of Love’…a remarkable bunch of tunes, where our leader starts having a go at himself, and the hypocrisy of his own heart, before anyone else could. But the tabloids could never break news on Bruce Springsteen. Be...

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) Bruce Springsteen – ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ By Anthony KuzminskiThe granddaddy of all Bruce Springsteen albums, Born in the U.S.A. was where he finally broke through to the mainstream in an immense fashion. Back in the mid-1980’s, I was too young to appreciate the music of the time, but even I knew wh...

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) Bruce Springsteen – Nebraska By Anthony KuzminskiWhat happens if life doesn’t work out the way you planned? That was the question Bruce Springsteen pondered as he began to write his sixth album, the noir-like Nebraska. Recorded (mostly) on January 3, 1982 in his home bedroom, the end res...

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) The Bruce Springsteen who wrote and recorded Born To Run was a ghost by the time his fourth album, Darkness on the Edge of Town was recorded and released in 1978. The wide-eyed virtue previously found on tracks such as “Night”, “Born To Run” and “Thunder Road” was long gone. In its place was no l...

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) Ironically, one of the biggest discussions around this debut record was whether it should be a solo or band album. Springsteen wanted a band record, but John Hammond (who signed Springsteen, plus Aretha Franklin and Bob Dylan as well) and manager Mike Appel wanted more of a solo project. Ev...

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) Early in my freshman year in college, I was lost (literally and figuratively). I drowned myself in music seeking solace, but little was providing me with the ease or answers I was looking for. One day while I was seeking these answers, I dug out Darkness on the Edge of Town, which I had picked up...

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) “Tenth Avenue Freezeout”, “Born To Run”, “Glory Days” and “Rosalita” showered down on the crowd as the band gleefully tore through them with a vengeance and awakening those who were still there. Even the unknown “American Land” managed to evoke a strong reaction. The encore raised a rucku...

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com)

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) I saw my rock'n'roll past flash before my eyes. And I saw something else: I saw rock and roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen. And on a night when I needed to feel young, he made me feel like I was hearing music for the very first time. “Thunder Road”-Bruce Springsteen

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI(noreply@blogger.com) Setlist: Say It To Me Know All The Way Down Lies This Low Heartstrings When Your Mind's Made Up Drown Out Moving Slowly Leave I Want My Life To Make More Sense (Frames) Fake/ Private Dancer Astral Weeks (Van Morrison cover) Once If You Want Me Instrumental Violin Piece ENCORE: Star, Star

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI Three songs into Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's St. Patrick's Day show in Milwaukee, I found myself nervous I would see a solid show, albeit one where the band coasted on material they knew like the back of their hand. As the ever conventional "Lonesome Day" ended, Springsteen sto...

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI When I see a concert, I hope that the artist resonates in a way that moves you beyond the two or three hour performance. There are nights where you want to be entertained and other nights where you NEED to be taken to a higher plane. As the E Street Band descended on stage at the Conseco Fieldhouse...

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI Proving they don’t fully relegate themselves to nostalgia the band delivered a spare performance of “Streets of Love”- one of the best tracks on A Bigger Bang (2005). The band did not begin to perform this number until Europe this summer and now they have found their stride with this song. Ro...

By ANTHONY KUZMINSKI