Bruce Springsteen Los Angeles Show: 7 Important Takeaways

For the first of Springsteen's two sold-out concerts at the Forum, there was – as expected – not a single empty seat in the entire venue.

Truly.

The seats behind the stage were packed, with each row up to the ceiling filled with fans, while the floor seats stretched from end to end and reached the back wall. Additionally – and predictably – Springsteen made sure to engage the entire room throughout the set, performing parts of songs, including hits like “Hungry Heart,” backstage, addressing those who were more than happy to just be inside the room.

A few minutes before 8 p.m. (at 7:54, to be exact), Springsteen breaks out a signature “1, 2, 3, 4” followed by the bluesy rock riff to John Lee Hooker's “Boom Boom” as a single spotlight illuminates Springsteen's silhouette. Soon enough, however, the stage lights come up to reveal the 17 musicians on stage with Springsteen, including, of course, the famous E Street Band.

Although the earlier start time represents the longest set time, starting while there's still a touch of daylight is a rare but welcome move — and it also helps ignite the high energy that Springsteen manages to maintain throughout. performance, and demands back from every fan.

A little under an hour into the show and Springsteen can't help but give his fans everything – literally. At one point, he gives his harmonica to a fan in the front row (replaced by another later in the show) and then, before returning to the main stage, reaches deep into his pocket and finds a guitar pick, which flies to another fan before diving into the next hit.

“We've got a very special night lined up, LA,” teases Springsteen, who then welcomes wife Patti Cialfa to the stage to duet on “Tougher Than the Rest” — but that's not all. “My baby's back,” Springsteen declares soon after, telling the crowd, “We haven't done that song in a long time, Patti's never done it, I don't think.” He then tells her to “sing here,” placing her at the center mic and letting her take the lead in an acoustic rendition of “Fire.”

For good measure, Springsteen throws in another oldie but goodie: “Jole Blon.” The addition is thanks to a hand-made, spray-painted sign from a fan (who also notes that it's the 131st time they've seen Springsteen live). “This sign is impossible to read…. Can anyone read this thing? What's that?” laughs Springsteen. After the crowd helps him, he declares, “We haven't played it in years, but we're going to play it now!”

At 9:12 p.m. – an hour and a half into the set – Springsteen asks: “Good evening LA, are we having fun yet? Because we haven't started having fun yet… this is all preliminary fun… We're here to wake you up and shake you up and take you to higher ground… We plan on sending you home with sore feet and sore arms and sore ass you are paralyzed and your sexual organs are stimulated.”

Almost two hours later, and it's still going – and it shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. At 11:03 p.m. he asks, “Do you have anything else?!” before the final bow as the final chorus of 'BRUCE' chants reverberate throughout the arena. But still, that it wasn't the end, as Springsteen fit in one last song — a solo, acoustic rendition of “I'll See You In My Dreams” — before finally ending at 11:13 p.m. — nearly three and a half hours after he started. And without a single break.

Springsteen manages to make a room full of nearly 20,000 fans feel as intimate as a show Springsteen on Broadway – both in terms of the way he speaks to his fans, as if catching up with old friends, and in the stripped-down delivery of a handful of songs. At one point, as Springsteen begins to tell the story of how he got into music – “In 1965 I was 15 and I played guitar for six months…” – a fan whispers to his friends, “That's a great story,” with such enthusiasm that I had a chance to hear it again. And later, when Springsteen delivers a solo acoustic rendition of “Last Man Standing,” each person remains seated and silent, as if holding their breath so they don't miss a single note.

“Death brings a certain clarity, and mourning is the price we pay for love,” Springsteen says introducing “Last Man Standing” — and it's a sentiment he revisits more than once throughout the set. As he ponders immortality – and perhaps the 'why' of it all – he tells the crowd, “I don't know where we'll go when this is all over, but I know what's left. The only thing I can guarantee tonight is that if you are here and we are here, then those who are missing are here with us,” before performing “My City of Ruins”.

Springsteen later makes sure to end the thrilling and seemingly endless evening on the same note, performing the moving “I'll See You In My Dreams” while standing alone on stage with his guitar and harmonica, once again illuminated by a single beam of light. And as the clock ticks toward midnight, the song's title will ring true for many fans who will surely be on repeat tonight when they close their eyes to sleep.