Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Get Loose in Los Angeles

Three hours into Bruce Springsteen‘s epic return to Los Angeles on Thursday night with the E Street Band, he stared down the sold-out crowd at the Forum. “Do you have anything left?” he shouted, midway through “Twist and Shout,” the second-to-last song of his first L.A. show in eight years. Five decades in, the magic of a Springsteen show remains: He always seems to have a little bit left in the tank. 

In 2024, Springsteen continues to set the standard for rock concerts, playing longer sets at age 74 with more energy than some of his younger contemporaries. That’s likely no shock to those who managed to catch a Springsteen and the E Street Band show last year, but it still feels worth celebrating after Springsteen had to reschedule multiple dates of last year’s tour, including his L.A. run. At the time, he was suffering from peptic ulcer disease so severe that, as he recently revealed, he was afraid he’d never be able to sing again. “Sorry we missed you last time,” Springsteen said onstage at the Forum. “I hope we didn’t put you out too badly, but, man, I had the worst motherfucking bellyache you can imagine. But it’s not aching now.”

The 2024 version of the tour has been looser than last year’s, which stuck fairly close to a single set list, and Thursday was no exception. Springsteen kicked off with a true rarity, a cover of John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom” (most frequently played on the Tunnel of Love Express Tour back in 1988), before jumping into “Lonesome Day” (rarely played last year, but now a staple in the set) and “Prove It All Night,” then his live-favorite arena-rock reworking of Jimmy Cliff’s “Trapped.”

In the sweetest surprise of the show, Springsteen brought out his wife and longtime E Street Band member, Patti Scialfa, who has been mostly absent from this tour, to share vocals on two unexpected songs. The first, “Tougher Than the Rest,” was a welcome reminder of how gorgeously the couple’s very different voices intertwine. Then came a flirty, crowd-pleasing acoustic take on “Fire,” which turned into a true duet, with Scialfa taking over some of the lead vocals before sharing the mic for intimate harmonies.

Six dates into their return to the road, Springsteen and the E Street Band sounded like they had never been interrupted. “Are you having fun yet? Because we haven’t had fun yet,” Springsteen told the crowd just over an hour into his show. “This is our pre-fun. We’re here to wake you up, shake you up, and take you to higher ground. The E Street Band is here to bring the joyous power of rock & roll into your life. But we need your help. We plan on sending you home with your feet hurting, your hands hurting, your ass in paralysis, and your sexual organs stimulated.”

Springsteen maintains a remarkably simple setup and show presentation compared to the other blockbuster live shows currently on the road. The visuals are limited to video screens and elegant stage lights, keeping the focus on the 17 musicians onstage with him. He doesn’t really need much else. 

At one point, Springsteen grabbed a sign from a fan, noticing a song request but struggling to make out what it said. “This sign is impossible to read; it seems to be some black spray paint,” he said as the crowd chuckled. Holding the sign up for the audience to help, he finally learned that the sign was requesting another rarity: the Cajun traditional song “Jole Blon,” which has occasionally popped up in concerts since Springsteen released a cover of it with Gary U.S. Bonds in 1981. “We haven’t played that song in many years,” he said, “but we’re gonna play it now.”

Last year’s shows were suffused with themes of mortality, and that carried over on Thursday, in moments that felt even more poignant in a light of a new loss: Springsteen’s mother, Adele, died earlier this year. “I know there’s a lot of us missing somebody special,” Springsteen said during one of the night’s most powerful moments, a deeply felt, horn-drenched version of “My City of Ruins,” which has been making a welcome return to the set list in 2024 after being entirely absent last year. “I don’t know where we go when all of this is over, but I know what remains. The only thing I guarantee is that if you’re here and we’re here, then those who are missing are here with us.”

As he has every night during these shows, Springsteen recalled the death of George Theiss, from his very first band, the Castiles, telling the crowd that “death brings a certain clarity of thought. Grieving is the price we play for love.” He then went into the emotional gut punch of a two-song sequence that’s been a signature of this tour since the first show of last year: “Last Man Standing” into “Backstreets,” two songs that look at youth and loss from very different angles.

From there, the show was all joy and catharsis, with an unbroken string of hits and live favorites, beginning with Nils Lofgren’s jaw-dropping guitar virtuosity on “Because the Night,” and inevitably reaching “Thunder Road” and “Born to Run.” As he has throughout the tour, Springsteen finished the show alone with his meditation on life after death, “I’ll See You in My Dreams.” 

Springsteen and the E Street Band will play another Forum show on Sunday.