ARCHIVE RELEASE: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, CenturyLink Center, Omaha, Nebraska, November 15, 2012
The latest from the Bruce Springsteen archives comes to you from Omaha, NE on November 15, 2012. Stream this show, along with the full archival catalog, exclusively on nugs.net.
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ALL ABOARD, NEBRASKA’S OUR NEXT STOP
By Erik Flannigan
When Bruce Springsteen released his risk-taking acoustic masterpiece Nebraska in 1982, it sparked questions about its future in live performance. Would he tour the record solo? How would he perform its songs with the E Street Band?
The first answers came on the Born in the U.S.A. tour, when Springsteen featured a rotating handful of Nebraska songs each night, most gathered in a mini suite during the first half of the show. All ten tracks from the album eventually made their way to the set in band readings ranging from gently augmented (“My Father’s House,” “Used Cars”) to fully electrified (“Atlantic City”).
Springsteen would go on to play true solo versions of Nebraska material in concert, first at a pair of revelatory 1990 benefit shows in Los Angeles for the Christic Institute (available as part of the Live Archive series), and on both the Ghost of Tom Joad and Devils & Dust tours. The album remains his body of work most covered by other artists. As the subject of a forthcoming major motion picture centered around its creative origin story, the long-standing and deserved appreciation for Nebraska should only intensify.
Springsteen’s own arrangements of Nebraska songs have evolved in both band and solo incarnations. On the Reunion tour, led by Nils Lofgren’s pedal-steel guitar and Danny Federici’s accordion, “Mansion on the Hill” became a Nashville ballad. In 2005, Springsteen unleashed bullet-mic, blues sides of “Reason to Believe” and “Johnny 99.”
Unexpectedly but appropriately, Springsteen’s deepest dive back into Nebraska came at a late 2012 stop on the Wrecking Ball tour. Rolling into Omaha for only their fifth show ever in the Cornhusker State, he placed six songs from the album in the set, the most in an E Street Band show since the ’80s. This one-off Nebraska showcase makes Omaha, November 15, 2012, a distinct performance and presents the opportunity to revisit how this seminal work has developed on the concert stage.
Walking out to a fitting recording of Jimmy Reed’s “Big Boss Man,” Springsteen welcomes the CenturyLink Center faithful with a trio of Nebraska tunes, each radically different from the original master recordings. Attention is immediately captured as he sings and blows harmonica into a bullet microphone to launch “Reason to Believe.” This rocking band rendition first appeared on the Magic tour in 2007, an arrangement derived from the solo takes Bruce had done on the Devils & Dust tour.
The recharged “Reason to Believe” owes a small debt to Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited,” while Stevie Van Zandt’s guitar line is straight out of ZZ Top’s “La Grange.” Springsteen joyously surfs the bluesy vibe, chewing on lines like “that dog get up and run, ruun, ruun, ruuun.” As the horn section kicks in, Charlie Girodano sweeps his organ keys and Lofgren takes his own counterpoint solo to Van Zandt’s primary lick.
Barely a second passes before “Reason to Believe” yields to “Johnny 99” in a rollicking run powered by Max Weinberg’s drums, Roy Bittan’s honky-tonk piano and Van Zandt’s sympathetic backing vocals. The underlying rock arrangement of the song dates back as far as The Rising tour, though with the addition of the horns and percussion, the Wrecking Ball edition of “Johnny 99” proved even bouncier and brasher. More cowbell!
Omaha’s Nebraska triple shot wraps with what remains the greatest band interpretation of any of its songs: “Atlantic City.” The electric arrangement debuted to slacked jaws on opening night of the Born in the U.S.A. tour in St. Paul, Minnesota, back in June 1984. With its heavy beat, portentous chord strumming, and thrilling dynamics between verse and chorus, it has captivated audiences ever since.
Moreover, “Atlantic City” is that vital recurring number in Springsteen’s set that always seems to play for keeps. This night is no exception, with an extra-long crescendo before the last verse kicks in, sparked by Van Zandt’s mandolin picking and collective vocals that carry the chorus refrain through the song’s conclusion.
As the least played song from Nebraska, an appearance by “State Trooper” is special and a touch foreboding. For this take, Springsteen offers a hushed, moody vocal until he hits verse three and the dream state of those “wee wee hours,” where “your mind gets hazy.” Opting for his Gretsch electric guitar, he takes full advantage of its whammy bar to bend notes and twist chords, all of which combine for a seductively disconcerting solo performance. Omaha stands as the last version of “State Trooper” played to date.
Band and horns are back for “Open All Night” in a swinging arrangement that became a stalwart on the 2006 Seeger Sessions tour and popped up again in Omaha and a handful of other shows in 2012. Springsteen clearly enjoys this version, resurrecting it in stonking fashion to start an outstanding show at The Forum in Inglewood, California, in April 2024.
The last Nebraska song featured in Omaha is arguably the most intriguing: the first full-band “Highway Patrolman” since 1985. It drafts on the Born in the U.S.A. tour arrangement but distinguishes itself, with Soozie Tyrell on violin, Girodano on accordion, Lofgren on pedal steel and Van Zandt adding backing vocals to a song he has never performed on stage before.
Springsteen leads the way on acoustic guitar, picking the familiar melody but with a repeated low-string bass note that subtly changes the song’s tone, drifting towards “One Step Up” territory. It’s fascinating to hear how “Highway Patrolman” matured over three decades. Like “State Trooper,” it has yet to be performed again.
The other 20 tracks performed in Omaha more than hold their own. The five core songs from Wrecking Ball (“We Take Care of Our Own,” “Wrecking Ball,” “Death to My Hometown,” “Shackled and Drawn” and “Land of Hope and Dreams”) are played with spirit and vigor. There are truly fine takes of “Lost in the Flood,” “Trapped” (boasting strong saxophone work from Jake Clemons), and “Raise Your Hand” by sign request, and the first “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” of the season, a tour premiere. (The prior show, in St. Paul, another pick in the Live Archive series, featured its own remarkable premieres, “Stolen Car” and a full-band “Devils & Dust.”)
But this Omaha night belonged to Nebraska: revisited, reimagined, and forever revered.
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