Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Westbury Music Fair, Westbury, NY, February 23, 1975

Setlist: INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET / SPIRIT IN THE NIGHT / BORN TO RUN / THE E STREET SHUFFLE / GROWIN' UP / IT'S HARD TO BE A SAINT IN THE CITY / I WANT YOU / SHE'S THE ONE / JUNGLELAND / KITTY'S BACK / NEW YORK CITY SERENADE / ROSALITA (COME OUT TONIGHT) / 4TH OF JULY, ASBURY PARK (SANDY) / A LOVE SO FINE / FOR YOU / WEAR MY RING AROUND YOUR NECK / QUARTER TO THREE

The E Street Band at this moment is Roy Bittan, Clarence Clemons, Danny Federici, Garry Tallent, and Max Weinberg. Suki Lahav appears as a guest musician.

Venue capacity: 2,870

The fourth-to-last show of the Wild, Innocent & the E Street Shuffle tour is this Sunday night on Long Island. One of the long-circulating bootlegs of this show is titled “The Greatest Performance.” While the folks that traffic in recordings of illicit origin are often given to hyperbole in order to move product, in this particular case it was 100% accurate. The E Street Band’s performance at Westbury Music Fair was absolutely one of those legendary ‘75 performances that both rewarded the long-time followers and pulled any doubters in hook, line and sinker. 

It’s another concert where Bruce clearly planned for it to be some kind of statement. At the Main Point, it was on the radio, in Philly, and a benefit. On Long Island, not necessarily your hottest hotbed of Springsteen fandom back in the day – this show was not sold out! – there was something about this date that made Bruce want to make it into something extra. This begins with the possibly apocryphal request to then-manager Mike Appel for a ferris wheel. There are other new elements to the show that we’ll discuss shortly, and I’ll come back to the ferris wheel. 

The evening is introduced with warnings against smoking and a welcome to someone who had come over “all the way from England,” before the musicians made their way onstage and tuned up. Roy begins the show with that riff that incorporates “Thunder Road” before cascading down into “Incident.” Suki threads her violin notes alongside the piano, and the audience goes silent, only to applaud loudly again, briefly, once Bruce sings the first line. Bruce’s vocal delivery is particularly masterful, he has so much control but he is also fully inhabiting the song emotionally. I understand why no one in the audience is making any noise. It is entrancing listening to a medium-grade audience tape. I can’t imagine what it was like to be there.

The dynamics of his voice in these lines: “Upstairs a band was playing, the singer was singing something about going home” - he’s in full soul singer mode, instantly filling the room and commanding it even more than he had been. But then he switches tone and volume and emotional timbre: “She whispered, ‘Spanish Johnny, you can leave me tonight, but just don't leave me alone,’” it’s so quick, it’s so effortless, it’s astonishing. There are similar beautifully executed transitions throughout the whole song and it is spellbinding. You don’t want to breathe too hard in case you’ll ruin it. 

Suki’s violin takes us out and there’s a tremendous eruption of applause. They know what they saw. But then there’s the bass and bells and sax and drum crashes and the whole atmospheric conjuring that can only lead into “Spirit in the Night,” with a skronk and a drum roll and then Clarence is into the opening sax riff and the audience kind of purrs in response. Bruce’s initial delivery is declaratory, in my mind I’m seeing him on the edge of the stage, walking around, landing the lines in different directions. 

Westbury Music Fair was unique in that it was one of those in the round venues, with a revolving stage. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a rock concert in the round before, but I did (Trevor Rabin-era Yes at MSG. I went because a friend had no one else to go with) and I hated it. It might have been better if it was a band I liked and definitely in a situation where I hold an appreciation for each band member’s individual contribution. It must be weird for the performer as well, you don’t have a front row, you have a constantly changing perspective on the audience. In any event, the stage is what I attribute to Bruce’s “Spirit” vocal approach. 

On the last verse, there’s a moment where you hear a guy in the crowd yell “SHIRT!” as Bruce is working his way down that particular line, and the audience laughs in support. Like it was genuine pent-up enthusiasm and not an attempt to be a hambone. Or maybe it was both? It could be both.