Springsteen performs Magic in concert tour open
Christian Wiessner

HARTFORD, Connecticut—Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band kicked off their latest U.S. tour on Tuesday and rocked their way through several cuts from the newly released “Magic,” a collection of songs that mix an up-tempo pop-rock sound with stinging social criticism.
Fans at the sold-out Hartford Civic Centre were sent into a frenzy as the band took the stage and launched into “Radio Nowhere,” a hard-driving cut from the new album officially released earlier in the day, the first album for Springsteen and his long-time backing band since 2002’s “The Rising.”
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer hit the road as a solo act in 2005 behind his sombre “Devils and Dust” album, and last year the New Jersey native released “We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions,” a fiddle- and banjo-infused collection of American folk songs. The latter won the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album.
But rock and roll was front and centre this evening as the 58-year-old and his bandmates, some bandmates since he was a teenager, ripped through several anthems from the Springsteen catalogue including “Badlands,” “Born to Run” and “The Promised Land.”
Introducing the new song “Living In the Future,” Springsteen told the crowd that in addition to cheeseburgers, French fries and motorcycles, the United States was now known for voter suppression, illegal wiretapping and attacks on the Constitution.
“These are all the things that are happening here that shouldn’t be happening here,” he said.
The refrain from “Last to Die,” also from the new album, left little doubt about Springsteen’s opinion of the U.S.-led war in Iraq. “Who’ll be the last to die for a mistake, whose blood will spill, whose heart will break, who’ll be the last to die?” he sang.
One of the new songs not from “Magic” was “Town Called Heartbreak,” a cut from band member and Springsteen spouse Patti Scialfa’s latest solo album, released last month.