Bruce Springsteen would have enjoyed the show - was he secretly born in Manawatu? Photo / AP
Bruce Springsteen would have enjoyed the show - was he secretly born in Manawatu? Photo / AP
The Boss: Bruce Springsteen Tribute Show Globe Theatre March 6, 2021 Reviewed by Damian Thorne
Covid-19 has ruined the nationwide tour of The Boss Tribute Band, with shows being cancelled, postponed and generally up-in-the-air.
In true Springsteen style, this group decided to give a finger to coronavirus and push on with aspecial show at Palmy's Globe Theatre. I was lucky enough to be invited, taking my friend Catheryn as an excitable plus one.
Nobody had been asked to pay, instead donations were called on for the Mental Health Foundation. This was no longer about making money, it was about getting the show on stage, with the added layer of live streaming it to all the centres which missed it, and the world at large.
All volunteering – there was live streaming by Spaceship Streaming, an outstanding sound design by Steve Poulton, and a guy called Tank putting on a light show, the likes of which the Globe has never seen before.
All this before the nine-piece band took the stage promptly at 7.30pm. Tribute acts always make me apprehensive; until the first guitar lick, the first vocal, it's impossible to know if these guys are going to salute the chosen superstar, or end up slapping him mediocrely in the face.
As Born in the USA filled the theatre I was suddenly and immediately at ease with a sound mix picking up all nine musicians, and a vocalist in Dean Shaw who was so Bruce Springsteen that if you closed your eyes, as we did often, you'd think you were listening to the man himself.
The talent on stage was such that it transcended mimicking the E Street Band, instead enthusing their own personality, wit and musical prowess to make everything they played seem like their own.
As Shaw opened up on Dancing in the Dark I nudged Catheryn to go up and have her Courteney Cox moment dancing with the Boss, but instead we got the lead singer's daughter Olivia joining dad on stage, further personalising the number, and the evening.
There were so many highlights, My Hometown was Palmyised and we lapped it up, and I was up and singing along: "cause tramps like us – baby we were born to run" on the awesome final number.
A joyous, in places breathtaking, experience made possible by eight men and one woman on stage, and their first-class technical crew. A show I'm certain Bruce Springsteen himself was sitting at home in Rumson, New Jersey, enjoying via the live stream.
Palmy is always the lucky city, this time because we got to see these guys live. With the event lasting just under a generous three hours I end with the words of Julia Roberts: I loved it so much I nearly peed my pants.
