A lot can happen in a decade. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have been busy since leaving the Brisbane Entertainment Centre stage on 26 March 2003, the last notes of 'Dancing in the Dark' hovering in the air and a crowd wondering when Bruce & Co. would return to Australia. Since that night four albums have been released, two original E Street Band members have passed away, the criminal gang of Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld has been replaced by the USA's first African-American president, and a global recession has come and gone and lingered and created economic disparity not seen in the US since the Great Depression.
I last saw Springsteen and the E Street Band at the final show of the 'Vote for Change' tour on 13 October 2004 at what was then Continental Airlines Arena in the Meadowlands. I was living in Asbury Park with a long-time girlfriend, the goddamned Red Sox had yet to break Bambino's curse, and there was hope legitimate war hero John Kerry could reinstate the United States's world standing after draft-dodging W and his Warlord Henchmen nearly destroyed it. We all know how that turned out. My fate, fortunately, was not as dire. In less than two years I was engaged to an Indo-Fijian-Australian who lived in Sydney, had made four trips from NYC to Sydney, and on trip five in May 2006 stayed in Australia for good.
That's some serious f*cking change.
Tomorrow morning I'm flying from Melbourne, where my wife Aradhna and I have lived since moving from Sydney in December 2007, to Brisbane to yell myself hoarse at the opening night of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's first Australian tour in almost exactly ten years. It's a continuation of the hugely successful 'Wrecking Ball' tour and will include ten shows in Oz: two in Brisbane, three in Sydney, three in Melbourne and two in a natural ampitheatre called Hanging Rock in the Macedon Ranges in Melbourne's northwest.
I'll be attending eight of those shows.
You can take the boy out of Asbury Park ......
For those reading in the northern hemisphere, here's five observations on the music scene in Australia as it pertains to the Boss:
1) He's a classic rock guy. Period. The most prevalent Springsteen song on commercial radio is 'Born in the USA'. Nothing comes close. The four studio records he's released since that last tour -- Devils & Dust (2005), We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (2006), Magic (2007) and Working On a Dream (2009) -- could well have been sung by a Taliban choir for all the attention they received from broadcast media or Aussie record buyers/downloaders. [Non-sponsored plug: Melbourne's got an amazing public radio station and one of their programs, 'Acid Country', has played many cuts from 'Wrecking Ball' and the host, David Heard, has been spruiking the tour since it was announced in December. If Springsteen is inclined to visit a radio station on this tour it should be PBS 106.7 on Thursday afternoons between 3-5:00pm. Unless he wants to put on a bandana and flex his biceps for the business school clowns running commercial radio in this country.]
2) The GFC has slowed the country's economy but not to the degree it's hammered the States and Europe. Why? Western Australia digs big holes and China buys what comes out. It's called the Mining Boom and until China stops needing minerals Australia will be safeguarded against global economic instability. The themes of 'Wrecking Ball' remain someone else's problem for the majority of Australians.
3) While Mumford & Sons has stoked an interest among mainstream radio listeners for alt-country/Americana/folk rock (choose your favourite nonsensical label) it's made zero progress with your typical Aussie bloke who loves his rock and roll exactly like a third-grader loves his bologna sandwich: Plain, with no sh*t on it. Fiddles, accordians, black folks singing gospel harmonies ... nope ... these are not the ingredients for a happy collection of Aussie rock concert attendees.
4) Americans familiar with Midnight Oil may think Australians dig political rock but they don't. The Oils were an aberration. Their lead singer Peter Garrett is currently a member of Prime Minister Julia Gillard's widely unpopular Labor government. Garrett's still worshipped as a groundbreaking rock singer but has lost nearly all credibility in the murky, incestuous circle jerk that is Aussie politics.
5) Australia exists in a time warp that pre-dates the adult oriented rock (AOR) category. Also, there's no satellite radio, leaving listeners hostage to the wretched predictability of radio executives keep things simple for the sake of advertisers and their cocaine-addled memories: Teens listen to pop, trance and electronica. Gen Ys go to music festivals and get wasted. Really wasted. Women listen to 'Love Song Dedications'. Men over 30 listen to classic rock with a peppering of the same dozen or so Aussie 'favourites'. Really ... you couldn't imagine a worse assault on a vital, innovative music scene than Australian radio and a worse environment for a singer/songwriter intent on putting truth to power five decades into a wildly successful career.
But Springsteen always lands on his feet and leaves audiences wanting more.
Next: Top ten questions for tomorrow night's tour opener.
