
In 2020, the world came to a halt which is why being unable to see iconic musicians such as Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band was especially heartbreaking. As time passed, the time to practice and perform became very scarce. As for these artists, the last time they recorded anything was back in 2019. So, when they arrived at the studio in Red Bank to rehearse for their upcoming tour, their intent and vision were very clear.
“Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band”, directed by Thom Zimny, offers an insightful portrayal of the band where they look back at their history to seek and plan what the future has in store for them. Zimny is essentially a biographer for The Boss, and because of this, his level of trust in the band is quite high which can be of great use. This much access to the band, especially for the behind-the-scenes decisions, enables the film to focus on the deeper meaning of the concert.
The cinematography in this movie is subjective, although it is divided into different sections stylistically. The beginning 20 minutes is more focused on the rehearsals of the band.
In Springsteen’s words, the purpose of the exercises is ”cobweb shaking” and to figure out what narrative to tell with the setlist, What is, however, what I witnessed in those early scenes was them telling me, in unison with quite a delicate fear plastered on their faces, was the crippling anxiety that they might not be able to put on the exact same type of show which their fans would want to watch. After all, the members of the band were getting older each year and had been living life to the fullest which was unlike the last time they gave a live performance. This is made abundantly clear in the fact that when during one of the early practices, they work through She’s the One and notice it setting the pace too slightly slower than the standard. Additionally, they were accompanied by newer members, singer, and percussionist Anthony Almonte among many others. They also had new tracks that were taken from their Letter to You album in addition to Springsteen’s R&B cover album Only the Strong Survive, two of the albums along with this movie and the tour that it shows were all about looking back at certain memories.
The first few minutes of the movie cover the exact sequence I witnessed on his setlist which I consider the central theme of this film, shows the different losses the band experienced over the years. He speaks about his first band The Castiles two members of the E Street’s who unfortunately passed away, Clarence Clemons who played the saxophone, and Danny Federici the keyboardist for the band.
With tracks such as Letter to You alongside archival clips from earlier events as well as interviews with Clemons and Federici, an artist is painted who isn’t too worked up about the idea of striving for perfection in a performance. For such a performer, the goal is to invoke sentiments about their music and the shared experiences with the fans. And in their case, music and performances are means to doing so.
Zimny’s current tour can be seen on one half with clips of old gigs on the other half, coupled with their nostalgia for past rough tours where shabby venues and rather scarce audiences were the norm. In these scenes, Steven Van Zandt, the tour’s Music Director seems to take charge with more focus on leading the rehearsals. With Zimny guiding the entire band Garry Tallent, Roy Bittan, Max Weinberg, Nils Lofgren, and Patti Scialfa, we have a few members granting scathing comments during these sessions, like Tallent who seems to channel his irritable energy in response to the harsh sound checks Springsteen used to put him through. There is a blatant intimacy between Zimny and his interviewees which is starkly visible through the openness of the interviews.
This film, like many other road documentaries, is, of course, carefully curated to an extent.
Zimny respects his subjects too deeply, Zimny respects his subjects too deeply that he never tries to seek the Boss’ easing the pressure on the band or the group (As Van Zandt remarks, the rehearsals were too brief and I had to keep the band longer than scheduled). Zimny’s documentary also features passionate fans who describe their feeling as the band gets back on. Such moments are intelligent and in thought but rather feel forced in the final cut.
However, the best part of the film is when we witness how Springsteen and the company create these shows. Since Springsteen had this particular idea that the setlist should tell a story, the set of songs intended for a particular night was almost the same. This process of building the suspense is best illustrated by how he has sophisticated sorority school’s Hamm’s Night Shift during the various stops of the tour. I, for my part, was not impressed with his new take on the song in the video of “Only the Strong Survive.” The song’s most notable aspect is its powerful harmonies, but in the studio version, Springsteen removed many of them. In the case of the live performances, however, we witness him trying to bring those aspects back into the song withthe help of his vocalists, making Night Shift one of the best songs of the world tour.
These moments of evolution are so awe-inspiring, they make you long for more of such shifts.
When we examine the film’s structure more closely, several themes begin to emerge beyond mere visualization: the late setlist and how songs relate to each other continues to explain the essence of the documentary. Moving through the film and when we reach Last Man Standing, a much more gloomy feeling creeps up, there is grief, grief placed there by Bruce during this part during his praise. In this case, it all fits together: “Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band” is not trying to reinterpret this well-known artist. It seeks to spin endlessly, life in this tour is inseparable from how deeply it is intertwined with the music.
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