Concert review: Did Bruce Springsteen deliver a classic show at Mohegan Sun? You bet.

UNCASVILLE, Conn. — I have seen the future of peptic ulcer disease and its name is Bruce Springsteen.

Not to make light of the medical ailment that sidelined the 74-year-old rocker for six months starting back in September, but Springsteen’s twice-rescheduled concert played Friday night at the Mohegan Sun Arena was clearly done by a man who wasn’t hurting from a bellyache.

Quite simply, Springsteen looked great, sounded even greater and was working on all cylinders.

And keeping up with The Boss all night was his “heart-stopping, pants-dropping, earth-shocking, hard-rocking, booty-shaking, earth-quaking, love-making, Viagra-taking, floor-(expletive), history-making, legendary” E Street Band.

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Measuring 17 members strong (18 if you count Springsteen), the E Street Band is a rock 'n' roll juggernaut, featuring three killer guitarists (Springsteen, Little Stevie Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren), bassist Garry W. Tallent, drummer “Mighty” Max Weinberg, keyboardist “Professor” Roy Bittan, keyboardist/accordionist Charlie Giordano and violinist Soozie Tyrell, as well as a five-piece horn section led by Jake Clemons, along with trumpeters Curt Ramm and Barry Danielian, saxophonist Eddie Manion and trombonist Ozzie Melendez; four backup singers — Curtis King Jr., Michelle Moore, Lisa Lowell and Ada Dyer — and percussionist Anthony Almonte.

Springsteen’s performance Friday night at Mohegan Sun was joyous, triumphant, spirited and, in many ways, inspirational and life-affirming. This was not a man on his last leg or ready to throw in the towel on the live concert circuit just yet. This was a man in the prime of his life and at the top of his game. Maybe Springsteen didn’t perform one of his signature marathons of the past, but two hours and 47 minutes, with 27 gems, isn’t shabby either.

Springsteen was rolling nothing but sevens with the set opener “Roll of the Dice,” the same song he opened with the last time he played the Connecticut casino on May 18, 2014.

“We’re back,” Springsteen roared at the crowd before singing a single word. “I don’t care if you lost your money or you won your winnings. Tonight we’re going to make you the luckiest people in the world.”

And Springsteen wasn’t kidding.

Wearing a buttoned-up, striped gray vest, a gray, long-sleeved shirt with rolled-up sleeves, a polka-dot black tie (later revealed tucked in his shirt), gray dungarees and leather working boots, Springsteen was dressed more like a card dealer from the casino than a rock star.

But the audience soon found out that Springsteen held all the cards and the cards were stacked in his favor.

And while Springsteen stared at his own mortality straight in its eyes in several numbers — and there were a few moments that he looked a little weak at the knees — Springsteen is still the best ticket rock 'n' roll has to offer.

True, Springsteen’s recent guest-starring stint on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” opposite Larry David showed The Boss has a career in situation comedy if his music career ever peters out. I can see it now, a reboot of “The Odd Couple” with Springsteen as messy Oscar and Steven Van Zandt as fussy clean freak Felix; or better yet, “Who’s The Boss,” with Springsteen and his wife, Patti Scialfa (a no-show Friday night), taking over the Tony Danza and Judith Light roles.

Then again, sitcom TV has to wait because Springsteen shows no signs of slowing down on the live rock front quite yet.

Strengthening the theme that the audience could thank its lucky stars for being there Friday night, Springsteen delivered the tour debut of the underrated gem “Lucky Town,” which featured The Boss wailing on trusty, beat-up Fender Telecaster.

The gritty precursor to “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” “Seeds” started subtle and rough around the edges before erupting into a riveting, band-driven barn-burner.

“The Promised Land” featured a harmonica-playing Springsteen huffing and puffing his belief that there has to be something better out there. Surveying the crowd, Springsteen tossed his mouth harp to one lucky fan in the pit.

In full rock 'n' roll preacher mode, Springsteen cried out, "Can you feel the spirit?" before breaking into the evening's undisputed highlight, "Spirits in the Night."

As he poured out his guts and magically transported himself back to the "Greasy Lake" of his youth, Springsteen initially treated fans sitting behind the stage the best view of the performance, while later taking a playful breather with saxophonist Clemons, first with the two sitting in front of Weinberg’s drum-riser and later with Springsteen stretched out on the floor, singing the lyrics while resting his back on Clemons.

Ten songs in, Springsteen talked about the mission at hand that he shares that night with the E Street Band.

“We’re here tonight to bring the joyous power of rock ‘n’ roll into your life. We’re here to bring some (expletive) fun. We are here to wake you up and shake you up and then take you up to higher ground,” Springsteen said. “We need you to take us where we want to go tonight. Because we plan on sending you home with your feet hurting, your hands hurting, your sexual organs stimulated. It comes with the price of admission.”

Perched in front of the stage, Springsteen explained that the powerful rock ‘n’ roll sermon “My City of Ruins” is “a story about yesterday. It’s a story about tonight and, hopefully, a story about tomorrow. It’s about hellos and goodbyes and the things that leaves us and the things that remains with us.”

During the band's “roll call,” Springsteen asked, “Are we missing anyone tonight?”

At first, the faithful in the audience knew Bruce was addressing E Street Band organist/accordionist Danny Federici and the band’s beloved saxophonist Clarence Clemons, who died in 2008 and 2011, respectively.

Then Springsteen embraced the spirits of the loved ones that audience members have lost, while offering solace with these inspirational words, “I don’t know where we go when all of this is over, but I know what remains. The only thing I can guarantee tonight is that if you’re here and we’re here, together, they’re here with us.,”

Talk about cover me. Springsteen performed arguably his best cover in his musical repertoire, Jimmy Cliff’s “Trapped,” while the E Street Choir led by Curtis King Jr. channeled the voices and spirits of the soul/R&B greats Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson did during the cover of the Commodores’ “Nightshift.”

Springsteen stood tall and proud and mostly on his own on the poignant guitar ballad “Last Man Standing,” his loving ode to the greatest adventure of his young life, his first real rock ‘n’ roll band. Here, Springsteen reminisced how he was recruited to join his first band, The Castiles, when he was 15 by his sister’s then-boyfriend George Theiss, and how in 2018, Theiss, the only surviving member of the group beside Springsteen, died, hence making Springsteen the subject of the song’s title.

The Boss carried this heavy theme over to “Backstreets,” rattling off the physical mementos he inherited from his old bandmate, including his old records and a faded snapshot, then concluding, “And the rest, the rest, I’m going to carry right here,” as he pats his heart.

By the time Springsteen played the tour debut of “I’m on Fire” in the midway of the set, Springsteen seemed to be stating the obvious.

After inviting the crowd to come on up for “The Rising,” Springsteen ended his main set with the one-two punch of “Badlands” and “Thunder Road.”

And if that wasn’t enough to please the crowd, the roof was raised once again during the timeless rock anthem “Born to Run,” which kicked off the first encore.

Although the Three Stooges-inspired hijinks of late were toned down a bit (a lot of mugging to the camera but no face poking or nose twirling), the always show-stopping "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" was an absolute delight.

After a double shot from “Born in the U.S.A.” (“Bobby Jean” and “Dancing in the Dark”), the first encore ended with the perfect tail-end blowout, “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out."

Springsteen closed out the night with a second encore, a solo acoustic rendition of “I’ll See You in My Dreams.”

Not if we see you first.

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This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Bruce Springsteen at Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut