Springsteen On Broadway
Walter Kerr Theatre, New York Until Dec 15
No planes, no trucks, no sports grounds. No band, no backdrop, no screens. Bruce Springsteen, a past master of stadium rock, is now taking live music to the other extreme.
Never one to do things by halves, Springsteen has signed up for 236 nights on Broadway. The total audience, about 210,000, is as many as he would normally cater for in three nights.
Every show is sold out and prices are steep. I flew in and went straight to the box office, an hour before showtime. There was one ticket left, for $700, in Springsteen’s own box. It would have been churlish to refuse.
Springsteen On Broadway is the funniest and also the most piercingly emotional evening you can have with a superstar, with 15 autobiographical songs charting the life of the Boss
I sat next to Clodagh from County Carlow, also just off the plane. We were at the back of the box, which was mildly disappointing until a steward told Clodagh: ‘That’s where Obama sat when he was here.’
The audience is less bluecollar, more Brooks Brothers, but the affection for the Boss is unchanged. More than any other rock star, he is part of the fabric of his fans’ life.
He has lived the American dream, while understanding the American nightmare. As he sings and chats and plays piano and guitar, you could be sitting on his porch.
Springsteen’s wife and E Street Band member Patti Scialfa (above) makes an appearance, as they transform Brilliant Disguise and Tougher than the Rest into as nuanced duets
The 15 songs are autobiographical, starting in Freehold, New Jersey, with Growing Up and My Hometown. ‘I didn’t know anyone,’ he says, ‘who’d ever been to New York.’ The big numbers have to be smaller, which actually improves Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out. Born In The USA, recast as a raw blues, is riveting; Dancing In The Dark, stripped of its Eighties sheen, is more soulful.
When Patti Scialfa pops in to wrap her voice around her husband’s, Brilliant Disguise and Tougher Than The Rest turn into nuanced duets.
Full of one-liners, this is the funniest evening you can have with a superstar, but also piercingly emotional. As he depicts his parents, his marriage and his craft, Springsteen’s words are as moving as his music.
You come away knowing him better and loving him just as much.
Rita Ora
O2 Academy, Glasgow
Rating: 
When comedians are piecing together new routines, they often undertake low-key gigs to test the water. The opening night of Rita Ora’s Girls Tour, performed in a relatively intimate room, felt like the pop-star equivalent.
With Ora’s second album finally due later this year, this was a pared-down palate-cleanser for a bigger, and hopefully better, arena show to come.
Outside the venue five gargantuan trucks were parked up. By the third song, one wondered what exactly they were transporting. By the end the answer wasn’t any clearer.
Glorified karaoke: despite radiating likeability, Rita Ora’s Girls Tour feels like the pop-star equivalent of a comedian testing new material ahead of a bigger, better arena show to come
Appearing without a live band, dressed in a sparkly tartan dress, Ora sang to booming backing tracks, accompanied by four dancers. The effect was of an extended star slot on The X Factor rather than a full-blooded live performance.
The set roamed over her many solo hits and collaborations. How We Do loped with an street-tough charm, while Lonely Together, her hook-up with Avicii, was tearfully framed as a tribute to the late DJ.
She throws some killer Bond girl shapes in front of a wind machine on the moody ballad Body On Me.
A brooding new song, Soul Survivor, detailed the battle between Ora and Jay-Z’s record label Roc Nation. The emancipatory lyrics were projected on to the big screen, accompanied by images of doves flying free. What it lacked in subtlety it made up for in diva drama.
Throughout, Ora sang well, bounced around energetically and radiated likeability, particularly when inviting four fans on stage to bump and grind to her new single, Girls, an opportunist lunge for the bi-curious dollar.
With the hooky For You and wistful summer surge of Anywhere saved for the encores, there was plenty of light, but little heat. When Ora hits the arenas next time around, she’ll have to offer more than glorified karaoke.
Graeme Thomson
Rita Ora is playing outdoor shows and festivals from May 27 to Sep 2. ritaora.com
THIS WEEK’S CD RELEASES
Snow Patrol Wildness Polydor/Republic, out Fri
Rating: 
Whether or not Wildness fires Snow Patrol back to their commercial peak, songs like Life On Earth confirm Gary Lightbody as a master of a particular searching, melancholy mood. His depression struggles and his father’s dementia inform a set of songs that are at their best at their quietest.
Ray LaMontagne Part Of The Light RCA, out now
Rating: 
Looking like the kind of man who rides into town and quietly sorts everything out, and sounding like a Seventies singer-songwriter four decades out of time, Ray LaMontagne won’t let you down. Folky and a little bit psychedelic, his seventh album bristles with vitality.
Ash Islands Infectious, out now
Rating:
Belfast trio Ash’s natural pop instinct is still with them on their seventh album, Islands. Confessions In The Pool flirts with synthy pop, but a host of muscular, melodic tunes stray relatively little from the trusted Ramones-meet-Beach Boys formula.