The Rising was among the music released, and it served as a new turning point in Bruce Springsteen’s career. The man was deeply affected by the tragedy of 9/11, and recorded this 2002 album with the intent of capturing the emotions that he and others like him had felt after the grisly event. The album goes through numerous emotions, from fury (The quiet, but intense “Nothing Man”) to hope for the future, (The uplifting “Waitin’ On A Sunny Day”) to an overwhelming sense of loss. (The somber “Into The Fire”, which has gone on to be one of the most enduring songs of the aftermath.)

What set The Rising apart from many other albums influenced by the events of 9/11, is despite the tone, it remains unconfrontational. Springsteen thinks nothing of revenge, (I’m looking at you, Toby Keith.) instead encouraging to rise above the animosity felt after the events, and come together. No song best encapsulates this message better than 7th track, “Worlds Apart”, which features Islamic Qawwali music as backing. A symbolic gesture, backed up by Springsteen’s powerful rock sound.

More than being a powerful post-9/11 album, is marked several milestones in Springsteen’s career. Before releasing The Rising, he hadn’t released an album of new material since 1995s The Ghost of Tom Joad, and it had been even longer since his last collaboration with his famous backing group, the E Street Band. (The last album of original material they’d made together was 1992s Human Touch.) The Rising not only brought Springsteen and the E Street Band back together writing material, but it became a widespread success for them, becoming their bestselling album since 1987s Tunnel of Love.

It revitalized Springsteen’s career, and to this day the tracks of The Rising stand as some of Springsteen’s most powerful, and most poignant of all his works.

The Highlights:

The opening track “Lonesome Day”, which serves as a powerful, hard-rocking, yet elegant introduction of things to come. Guitars, violins, and saxophones blare in unison as the Boss declares: “It’ll be okay…if I can just get through this Lonesome Day.”

The album’s mighty closer “My City Of Ruins”, a song originally written about Asbury Park, but now resonates more deeply with New York, largely because of Springsteen’s powerful performance of it which opened the America: A Tribute To Heroes telethon. An extremely sad song, made glorious by Springsteen’s call to rise from the ashes like a phoenix.

The second the band started playing their opening song “Badlands”, I was drawn in immediately. Although Bruce’s voice wasn’t in the greatest shape that night, he could still hit every note almost flawlessly. That number was followed by “Out In The Street” and “My Lucky Day”, two more songs that beckon to be sung along to. The E Street Band was on top of their game as usual, complete with extended improvisational endings and vocals from just about every member.

The concert slowed down a bit with their fourth song, “Spirit In The Night”, and took a more emotional path with the songs “Outlaw Pete” and “She’s The One”. “Working On A Dream”, one of Bruce’s newest songs followed, and the crowd sang along louder than any previous part of the show. This was followed up by three ’80s folk rock ballads, “Seeds”, “Johnny 99″, and “Point Blank”.
During this tour, Bruce’s fans that are right next to the stage hold up signs with the name of the songs they want to hear, and at some point in the middle of the show during the intro to a song, Bruce collects as many as he can and plays some of them. After a long intro, “Raise Your Hand” was played, followed by the three fan chosen songs. “All Or Nothing At All” was the first of those songs, followed by the quite popular “Growin’ Up”. The last of the requested songs was “Jole Blon”, a song that Bruce said he hadn’t played since 1981.

“Waiting On A Sunny Day” and “The Promised Land” brought the feeling of hope and prosperity back into the performance. During “Waiting On A Sunny Day”, Bruce held the microphone up to a member in the audience so they could sing a line. However, the second person that was given the opportunity to sing didn’t have the timing down, and brought the song to a stop for only a second or two. The E Street band is incredibly flexible, and can work around just about every unusual situation, and that was a save I doubt any other band that size could pull off. The rest of the set included “Racing In The Streets”, “Lonesome Day”, “The Rising”, and ended with “Born To Run”.

The encore started out with an amazingly well performed version of a song from 1854 by Stephen C. Foster titled “Hard Times Come Again No More”. That was followed by “Rosalita”, a longer song always loved by the crowd. Next up was “American Land”, a song Bruce originally played with the Seeger Sessions band, sounded just as good with the E Street Band if not better, and that was followed up with “Bobby Jean”. “Dancing In The Dark” sounded very different than the original, but the electric violin worked very well with this tune. Bruce said “This is our last song” when “Hungry Heart” started playing, but he ended up closing the show with a slow but still enjoyable rendition of “Thunder Road”.

Overall, it was the best show that I have ever attended. I haven’t been to many shows, but I doubt there are many bands out there that can top that sort of performance. The venue was pretty bad due to poor parking conditions, no signs anywhere, and the staff being generally unhelpful, but I guess if you’re hosting the only Bruce Springsteen show in the area, you don’t have to do anything nice for anyone. Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band put on an amazing show, and no amount of venue incompetence could have prevented this from being the best show I had ever witnessed.