Feb. 10, 1977 review: Bruce Springsteen in Kleinhans Music Hall

 


Less than two weeks after the legendary Blizzard of ’77 paralyzed the city, this date was very much in doubt. Getting around continued to be a challenge for everyone. As for me, my car was still buried up to its roof in the Buffalo News parking lot and I was walking to work from my apartment in the Elmwood Village every day – a 45-minute trudge each way. Fortunately, Kleinhans Music Hall was a much shorter hike. 

Feb. 10, 1977 

Springsteen Revives Rock Scene 

          Bruce Springsteen helped celebrate the thaw in the temperatures Wednesday night by putting an end to the number of consecutive days the city has gone without a major rock concert.

          People couldn’t quite believe he would make it. Festival East fielded a lot of calls asking about a snow date.

          He’s coming by bus, said the promoter. No snow date. What he might have added, however, was that there was a snow starting time.

          Since Springsteen and his E Street Band use no opening act, the show was delayed an hour to allow late arrivals to cope with parking and to get to their seats in sold-out Kleinhans Music Hall.

* * *

IT WAS worth the wait.

          Springsteen’s been waiting too. His career screeched to a halt not long after he rode out of the seamy yearnings of Asbury Park, N.J., on the thunder road of media coverage in late 1975.

          Ironic that a man who champions escape and the exhilaration of freedom should be tied down by squabbles between his old and new managers.

          But apparently that’s changed. No sign of it as he took center stage in jeans, jacket and sunglasses.

          A skinny, clean-shaven waif of a punk, he was a low-life in the midst of the high-rollers in his formally dressed E Street Band. Saxman Clarence Clemons wore a white suit with a black stripe down the leg.

* * *

SPRINGSTEEN began with a couple of new songs that sound much like the old ones – strung-out lyrics stumbling over a collage of favorite rhythms of early rock ‘n roll.

          It’s his pet device. One of the most obvious borrowings occurs in “She’s the One,” which came later. It’s built on the Bo Diddley beat.

          But it wasn’t just the music that gave him his whammy. The new show is a highly-polished piece of excitement, and Springsteen does everything to rev it up to full power – leaping into the aisles, prowling the stage or dropping to his knees for “Spirits in the Night.”

          Three “Miami Horns” emphasized the staginess Springsteen’s assumed. He had little to say aside from the monologues.

* * *

BEST WAS his intro to the Animals’ rebellious “It’s My Life” with the story about how his father used to wait up for him, sitting in the dark, smoking cigarettes and drinking beer.

          “I could always hear his voice,” Springsteen said, “but I could never see his face.”

          The show was short enough – one hour, 40 minutes – so that similar scenes might not face his high school and college-age devotees.

          But there were no complaints when the two encores were over (“Jungleland” and, of course, “Born to Run”). Springsteen worked hard, hard enough to make you believe that underneath that snow somewhere there was a hot, restless night.

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: Bruce in concert in 1977, with Clarence Clemons, left, and Steve Van Zandt, right.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: That night’s setlist, courtesy of setlist.fm, has a different finale than the one I reported. I’m sure I wouldn’t have mistaken “Jungleland” for “Thunder Road”:

Something in the Night

Spirit in the Night

It’s My Life

Mona/She’s the One

Jungleland

Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out

Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)

Action in the Streets

We’ve Gotta Get Out of This Place

Thunder Road

Born to Run

          Third date on this tour, which began in Albany. In Rochester’s Auditorium Theatre the previous night, Springsteen played a longer show with a four-song encore of “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy),” the Eddie Floyd song “Raise Your Hand,” “The Promise” and that final “Born to Run.”  

          The Miami Horns were Steve Van Zandt’s idea. He put them together in 1976 to accompany Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nov. 27, 1971: A duo called Armageddon with the first production version of the Sonic V

Image
  One of these guys read my story about the Sonic V synthesizer back in March '71 and bought the first one that came off the production line:   Nov. 27, 1971 Electronics Plus Acting Equals a Busy Team   You’d hardly expect anyone to be happy tucked into a corner of the stage at the Courtyard Theater on Lafayette Avenue , but compared to what’s happened to Jim Kuhns and Jerry Keating earlier this year, that corner is heaven. “We’ve finally got some place where people can come and see us,” Jim says. Squeezed in there with them are a couple of scruffy amplifiers (“This is my Super Duper Ultra,” Jim says, pointing to an old Silvertone with a fresh 10-inch speaker in it), a few microphones, a tape player, an RMI electric piano and the first Sonic V synthesizer to roll off the MuSonics assembly line in Williamsville. Jerry calls it “the toy.” They do the music and a bit of acting for the Courtyard’s production of “The Clever Else,” a well-staged collection of fair...
Read more

Feb. 2, 1974: The Blue Ox Band

Image
  One of the major local rock bands of the day and predecessor to some equally wonderful aggregations down the line.   Feb. 2, 1974 Blue Ox Wants Aggressive, Bitey Sound   AS BLUE OX themselves will tell you, a lot depends on the crowd.                    One night they’ll be sitting there in the Bona Vista on Hertel Avenue like good old boys and girls on the bayou, bobbing in their private dreams to the Grateful Dead’s “Truckin.’”           A few nights later, at an even more tender hour, the tiny dance floor is full of folks boogieing their heads off to the very same tune. * * * “IF YOU LISTEN for a whole night,” guitarist-organist Charlie O’Neill says, “we go through all kinds of styles. But sometimes the slower stuff is rough when you’ve got a bunch that wants to bounce around.”        ...
Read more

Oct. 30, 1971: Folksinger Jerry Raven

Image
  Here's the man who transformed  the corner of Franklin and Edward streets in   Buffalo into  a little piece of Greenwich Village  in the early 1960s . I still think of that storefront as the Limelight Gallery. Among the people performing there at the beginning of their careers were Eric Andersen and John Kay of Steppenwolf.   Oct. 30, 1971 Sing He Must Jerry Raven Carries on with New Partner   The cards slap into seven solitaire piles just like they had minds of their own and Jerry Raven tells a couple college-age kids there won’t be any guitar workshop here today because nothing’s prepared and that’s because the guys from WPHD hadn’t told him about it. “Sorry,” Jerry says and the kids shrug and walk out of the Limelight Gallery into the grey, wet Saturday afternoon. Once through the deck, Las Vegas style. Five clubs, three hearts, ace of diamonds, ace of spades. He pulls the cards together and shuffles. He and his wife, Carol, a teache...
Read more