TITLE: The Exuberance of Bruce Springsteen in Concert
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: February 13, 2023 10:34 AM
DESC: 
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BODY:
 Bruce Springsteen, on why he puts on such an intense physical show:

<blockquote><em>
 So the display of exuberance is critical.  "For an adult, the world
 is constantly trying to clamp down on itself," he says.  "Routine,
 responsibility, decay of institutions, corruption: this is all the
 world closing in.  Music, when it's really great, pries that shit
 back open and lets people back in, it lets light in, and air in,
 and energy in, and sends people home with that and sends me back
 to the hotel with it.  People carry that with them sometimes for a
 very long period of time."
</em></blockquote>

 This passage is from a 2012 profile of the Boss,
<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/07/30/we-are-alive">
   We Are Alive: Bruce Springsteen at Sixty-Two</a>.
 A good read throughout.

 Another comment from earlier in the piece has been rumbling around
 my head since I read it.  Many older acts, especially those of
 Springsteen's vintage, have become essentially "their own cover
 bands", playing the oldies on repeat for nostalgic fans.  The Boss,
 though, "refuses to be a mercenary curator of his past" and
 continually evolves as an artist.  That's an inspiration I need
 right now.
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