Bruce Springsteen’s magic in the night

ROME – Two of the pivotal lines in Bruce Springsteen’s canon arrive early in the opening track of his breakthrough 1975 album Born To Run.

In “Thunder Road,” he plaintively sings, “So you’re scared and you’re thinking that maybe we ain’t that young anymore.” Imagine, this coming from a 25-year-old. Immediately after, though, he completes the thought with, “Show a little faith, there’s magic in the night.”

Both those lines were the dominant themes on Sunday night when the 73-year-old great and his gang of E Street compadres gathered with 80,000 of their closest friends in Rome’s gigantic Circus Maximus ruin to demonstrate, over the course of three hours, that those two concepts can live and breathe side by side.

However, there was no escaping the hovering issue of mortality and career summing up that defined the performance, which encompassed songs from most of Springsteen’s career turns.

Themes of mortality at a Bruce Springsteen concert

From the evening’s third song “Ghosts” on through the contemplative final song, “I’ll See You in My Dreams,” Springsteen was telling a carefully woven story of his, his band’s and his longtime audience’s life.

The sense of community in the crowd was palpable, with the predominantly local crowd bolstered by thousands of fans who flew in from across the globe – Slovenia, Australia, Finland, New Jersey, of course, and hundreds from Israel.

In the couple days leading up to the show, fans with Springsteen t-shirts were ubiquitous throughout Rome, catching each others’ eye, sharing stories and building anticipation.

Most of them weren’t there to just hear their favorite rock songs, but because Springsteen’s music goes far beyond the enjoyment level of say, The Rolling Stones or the Foo Fighters.

“I’m not religious, but Bruce, to me, is like a religion,” said Netherlands resident David, in his 40s, who attended the show with his 22-year-old son. “His understanding of life’s little nuances, the importance of community and that a great song can really change the way you look at the world and your life are the reasons why people come back to see him again and again.”

Hyperbole, perhaps, but a Springsteen show is not the stuff that most rock concerts are made of.

That could explain the goosebumps interspersed with well-up tears that surfaced throughout the show: the singalong la, la, las during “Promised Land;” the scripted but still heartfelt monologue before “Last Man Standing,” when Springsteen sermonized about living life to its fullest; the simple 5-note wordless hymn that the crowd sang in angelic unison in the coda to “Badlands” and so many more.

The last time I saw Springsteen and the E Street Band was in 1978 when they were lean and hungry fighters staking their claim to the pantheon of all-time rock-and-roll greats.

This time, they were the world champions taking a victory lap but not ones that rest on past laurels.

They did still have something to prove all night, and they did – from the breathless onslaught of the first hour-long medley of nonstop songs to the stop-on-a-dime precision from the expanded band, anchored by their not-so-secret weapon, drummer Max Weinberg.

Following emotional release encore songs, including obligatory crowd pleasers, like “Glory Days” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” (with video tributes to late E Streeters Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici), the tears welled up again during the solo acoustic finale of “I’ll See You in My Dreams,” perhaps the definitive pop song treatise on mortality.

But it wasn’t only the finality of the theme that raised the emotions. It was the bittersweet realization, following three hours of exhilarating music and performances, that the world may never see another performer like Bruce Springsteen again – a once-in-a-lifetime magician, who can make an audience of 80,000 internalize that, indeed, it ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive.