As the case with many baby-boomer offspring, Bruce Springsteen songs accompany my earliest childhood memories. The Live/1975-85 box set spun regularly in my parents' house and remains my favorite Springsteen collection to this day. I finally witnessed his fabled stage show, with my dad, fittingly, when the E Street Band's 2000 reunion tour came to the Ice Palace (now the St. Pete Times Forum) — but the experience didn't quite meet expectations: We were seated up in the rafters. The instruments bled together. And Springsteen's preacher-man histrionics didn't agree with me, at least not when I was 22. In 2005, the Devils & Dust solo tour returned to the same Tampa venue, and I was hooked from the opening number, a gloriously tender rendition of "Fade Away," which Springsteen played on piano. I became a true believer the following year, at a show that found me standing in the mud with 50,000 or so other attendees at the 2006 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the city's first major post-Katrina event. Springsteen — accompanied by the Seeger Sessions Band, which numbered about 20 and included horns, violins and banjos — turned in a momentous performance that inspired tears, dancing, embracing among strangers and a sense of hope in the face of tragic loss. Chances are, Monday won't match that transcendent show. But considering the E Streeters are onboard again, set lists change nightly, and Springsteen's latest album, Magic, is rife with strong cuts like "Livin' in the Future" and "Girls in Their Summer Clothes," there's reason to believe The Boss' performance will be memorable, uplifting and goosed with pleasant surprises. Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, 7:30 p.m. Tue., April 22, St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa, $67.75, $97.75.
This article appears in Apr 16-22, 2008.