Springsteen at the Spectrum: No retreat, no surrender

During each of the four shows in Bruce Springsteen's final stand at the Spectrum, which came to a close last night, the Boss put on his preacher's hat to make a statement of purpose while singing the title cut to his 2009 album Working on a Dream.

On Monday, his most loquacious night at the venue that he first played in 1973, the Boss began his schtick by praising "the wonderful Philadelphia Spectrum, one of the last of the old-time rock houses. Damn straight!"

Then he got specific about his ties to Philadelphia, the first major market in which he and his E Street Band broke through. He recalled his days as a regular playing the Main Point in Bryn Mawr in the early '70s, and paid tribute to the late deejay Ed Sciaky and the current WXPN host David Dye.

Those specifics were heartening to his ardent, aging fan base, as were such rarities as the rollicking "Seaside Bar Song," which opened the stand Oct. 13, and "The Price You Pay," which started off the set last night before a pumped-up-for-the-grand-finale crowd that included Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre, the target of a preshow "Beat L.A." chant.

But the crucial part of the Springsteen speech wasn't about the City of Brotherly Love. It was about the "solemn vow" that Springsteen - still a marvel, in terms of the sheer physicality of his performance, at age 60 - gave "to bring the heart of rock and soul to you, night after night, and year after year."

That was what was really special about having Springsteen hunker down in South Philadelphia, on a run that included performances of the landmark albums Born to Run (twice), Darkness on the Edge of Town, and Born in the U.S.A. In a game of can-you-top-this, Pearl Jam, which brings the curtain down on the Spectrum for good with four shows ending Oct. 31, will have its work cut out for it.

This was a chance to see Springsteen and his mighty E Street Band repeatedly make good on that pledge, "a promise we swore we'd always remember," as he put it in "No Surrender." And they did it with in-the-moment performances that remain staggering decades after they first hit the road together.

Part of the pleasure was seeing a highly adaptable road-tested unit like the E Street Band go to work every night, and zeroing in on its individual parts: the way Max Weinberg drives the band with battering-ram precision on "She's the One," or the roiling guitar solo that whirling dervish Nils Lofgren cut loose on "Because the Night" on opening night.