Come Together delivered a note-perfect live rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s iconic album, Born to Run to a packed house at Auckland’s Civic Theatre last night. With Adam McGrath, Jennie Skulander, Jon Toogood and Milan Borich taking turns at the mic, we were treated to a solid two and a half hours of pure Springsteen. A feast for the ears and eyes.
Adam McGrath kicked the night off, solo on the indigo-lit stage, channeling the spirit of Springsteen with a few comments on the state of the world and our own dear leader. He then dove into the fragile Open All Night, which is actually from the 1982 album Nebraska, but a fitting place to begin the show. And when he sang… OMG, if I closed my eyes, I would swear it was the Boss himself up there. It was uncanny, spine-tingling, perfect in all its inflections.
The band took the stage with Jennie Skulander (Devilskin) fronting Thunder Road. She seemed slightly restrained (for her) but giving off a strong Suzi Quatro vibe in a leather biker jacket and jeans. Maybe a little nervous?
10th Avenue Freeze-out followed. The band rocked, but Jon Toogood’s voice bears little resemblance to Springsteen’s, and I had a sense of dissonance at the start, but his delivery was powerful – and the audience was ready to rock!
Jennie Skulander was back for Night, a nice cut, but one of the weaker tunes on the album. This was followed by Backstreets, another deep cut with McGrath on lead. These two songs took the energy down a bit – one of the downsides of performing a full album.
Born to Run brought it back up. Brett Adams’ opening guitar riff had the audience cheering as Milan Borich stepped up to the microphone. He seemed a little hesitant, faced with this legendary paean to baby-boomer angst. His voice felt a bit thin, his body a bit stiff. But as the audience got to its collective feet, he found his and he delved into the song, body and soul for a triumphant release of communal joy.
Jon Toogood kept it going with She’s the One.
Adam McGrath returned and regaled us with a sad story of getting arrested in Auckland in ’96 with a Samoan girl and dedicated Meeting Across the River to her, bringing a deeper sense to this deep cut. I’ve always loved his voice, and again, with eyes closed he WAS Springsteen.
Jungle Land closes the album and Jon Toogood made it his own. But the sax solo by Nick Atkinson was the bomb! No, he’s not Clarence Clemmons, but that horn was smokin’!
And that was Born to Run, a mere 8 songs. As close as any of us will ever hear it performed live and it was an utter delight. The Come Together band is simply superb and includes; Matthias Jordan, Jol Mulholland (MD), Mike Hall, Finn Scholes.
If you’ve been to a Come Together show before, you know there’s an intermission, and the band returns with their own favourites by the artist. When they’re playing an entire album, there’s always a few cuts that really aren’t conducive to live performance, so the second half of the show is often more high energy and just plain fun.
Springsteen’s catalog is enormous with 255 songs on his 21 studio albums and another 100 or so on various other releases. So many classic to choose from…
They kicked off with tragic The River, got the audience moving, singing along, a song Jon Toogood was meant to sing. Pianist Matthias Jordan took the vocal on Glory Days.
Then Jennie Skulander took us Dancin’ in the Dark, her voice in full power, dancing with abandon and wishing for a Courtney Cox to join her.
Brilliant Disguise, Hungry Heart, Badlands, Streets of Philadelphia they clearly aimed to cover the breadth of Springsteen’s catalog, including a few songs from Nebraska and The Ghost of Tom Joad which gave us a few quieter moments. To be honest, those lesser known songs didn’t energise the audience, who were in the mood for hits. But ending the show with Fire and of course, Born in the USA as the final encore left everyone on their feet, singing at the top of their lungs.
Overall, a brilliant evening!
Come Together will bring Radiohead’s OK Computer and Talking Heads‘ Stop Making Sense to life later this year. Info on those shows is HERE
Veronica McLaughlin
All photos by Greg Haver
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