Note: Guest columnist (and avid Film Yap reader) Tom Spalding is a social media maven, former reporter for the Indianapolis Star and a lifetime Bruce Springsteen fan. Below is his review of "Springsteen and I," which is playing in select U.S. theaters (including Indianapolis) July 22 and 30 at 7:30 PM.
I’ve seen Bruce Springsteen and his bandmates more than two dozen times in concert since the mid-1980s. From pimpled teen to balding parent, I’ve been so close to the stage so many times I’ve been hit with his sweat, spit and bottled water.
That said, I hate recorded concert footage, even though I own tons of it via Bruce bootlegs that have been shared with me on cassette, CD and MP3. By far, he’s the most-listened-to performer on my iPod.
But “Springsteen & I” is different. It’s brilliant.
It’s crowdsourcing for real, from a crowd’s perspective. Almost the entire two-hour documentary is strung together with footage shot by fans, people way more hardcore in their devotion than me. What I like best are those moments when Bruce brings someone on stage to dance or assist in singing a song. They are special moments that I witnessed myself, moments I never thought would be turned into their own highlight reels.
And that is the beauty of this production. Aggregating content from disparate eras and age groups puts it in context. Old music is given newness, ironically, because of the infusion of old memories.
For a fan of his music, Springsteen concerts are akin to a sports fan’s team’s playoff appearances. We all recall where we were when we saw a particular hit or spectacular moment (or like Sept. 8, 2012, when my wife and I were drenched from head to toe during a relentless mid-concert rainstorm while seeing him and the E-Street Band at a sold-out Wrigley Field).
Before an acoustic performance in Columbus, Ohio, on the “Devils and Dust” tour in 2005, I introduced a little-known rarity called “Lift Me Up” to my longtime concert buddy, Barry Reeves. And damned if he didn’t play that exact song to kick off the show.
I am not in this film. I did not contribute anything to the documentary. Had I produced it, I would have cut down some of the longer-winded interviews to fit in more fans. And, if it was truly a Springsteen concert doc, it should have been three hours long, with no bathroom breaks.