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Bruce Springsteen brought his long-awaited, oft-promised show to Mohegan Sun Arena on Friday night. The last time he played the intimate venue, at the end of the High Hopes tour in 2014, the “Born To Run” singer was running on fumes. There, he put on a legendary show, dishing out sign requests and obscure B-sides like candy. Still, the official live recording is no longer for sale, perhaps due to Springsteen’s fading vocals.
Springsteen was relatively well rested when he returned ten years later, but not untested or unweathered. In 2023, he launched his comeback tour, and was met with ticket price controversies, COVID complications, concert postponements (including Mohegan Sun, twice), a bout with peptic ulcers that threatened to end his career, and the loss of his mother. The road to Mohegan had not been an easy one, but few can demonstrate resilience better than the 74-year-old rocker.
Sporting a black tie and a good-natured grin, Springsteen leaned into the gambling motif right away. “We’re back! Did you lose your money?” he quipped. “Someone must have lost their money to pay us to get here.” The band launched into “Roll of the Dice,” a gambling-themed love song from Springsteen’s lost weekend (in 1992, he dissolved the E Street Band and put out two albums with a different outfit). They followed up with “Lucky Town,” a twangy roots rocker from the same era.
As it turns out, Springsteen has thrown out the rule book for this leg of the tour. Whereas last year he stuck to the same setlist for months on end, making some fans cranky, he’s now back in random mode, and playing some of the best shows of his life.
In addition to “Roll of the Dice” and “Lucky Town,” Friday night’s deep cuts included “Seeds,” an electrified 80s rocker about a family sleeping in their car on account of the economy. There was also the tour debut of Born in the USA’s “I’m on Fire,” which quickly became a group sing-along before ending with Springsteen’s high lonesome wail.
Then there was the new material, which, in the case of Letter To You, is as strong as the old material. The 2020 album is Springsteen’s magnum opus on aging, love and death. Four of its songs were included tonight. “Ghosts” stands tall with Bruce’s other recent arena anthems. “I”m alive,” he bellows, “I can feel the blood shiver in my bones.” The solo acoustic “Last Man Standing” hit harder in the intimate arena.
“Lonesome Day,” with its chorus of “It’s alright, yeah!” had the crowd thrusting their hands up in unison, the ecstasy building. During “Spirit in the Night,” Bruce leaned into sax player Jake Clemons’s shoulders in a symbol of brotherhood. The show reached a heady peak with “Trapped,” a setlist staple of the ‘80s; many fans were able to scratch it off their Bruce Springsteen bucket list.
As the band settled into a soulful “My City of Ruins,” Springsteen addressed the audience. “It’s great to be here in Uncasville. Are we having fun here tonight? We’re here to bring the power of rock and roll into your life. We are here to have some fun!”
A few verses later, after he’d introduced the band, the mood shifted. “Are we missing anyone tonight?” he began. “Yes, we are. I look out into your faces and I know there’s a lot of us who are missing someone special, who we would have wanted to have had with us in our lives, who are here tonight. Now I don’t know where we go when all this is over. But I know what remains. The only thing I can guarantee tonight is that if you’re here, and if we’re here together, then they’re here with us.”
Springsteen called an audible and played The Commodores “Night Shift,” although it wasn’t on the set list. It was a particularly strong performance of a tune that’s appeared every night since the tour began. The song imagines singers Jackie Wilson and Marvin Gaye performing In the afterlife. Classic 70s-era songs like “Badlands,” “Thunder Road” and “Born to Run” came in quick succession, offering everyone the catharsis they were looking for.
During the party anthem “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” a pink bra was thrown on stage, which guitarist Steven Van Zandt picked up and draped around the neck of Bruce’s guitar. The Boss chuckled, and appeared to be temporarily flustered. Which was funny. It’s not like he was being attacked by stage-crashing girls trying to kiss him to the ground, like he is in the video.
Everything built to a climax with “10th Avenue Freeze Out,” the E Street Band’s unofficial theme song. Springsteen surveyed the riled up crowd, shouting, “Uncasville! Connecticut! Where the hell am I?”
Now that he’s gone viral for ad libbing on Curb Your Enthusiasm, he has a new line to add to his traditional rap. “I want you to go home tonight, and I want you to put on your pajamies, get on the phone and call up every single person that you know, and I want you to tell them that you’ve just witnessed the heart stopping, pants dropping…. Viagra taking, floor fucking, history making, legendary E Street Band!”
As the three-hour mark neared, it was clear that Springsteen had found the fun he was looking for. “Hell yeah!” he exclaimed. “You guys are great. You made the whole evening fun! I love Uncasville, wherever it is! Matter of fact, I’m moving to Uncasville tomorrow!” It seems as if that bra really rattled him.
He remained on stage to play “I’ll See You In My Dreams,” a tearjerker from Letter To You about losing loved ones. As the song washed over the audience, so did the realization that there’s no guarantee that anyone will make it to the next show. But still, if this is the last time, it’s not the end. We’ll see him in our dreams.