Springsteen, at 73 and down 3 E Street Band members, proves magic still exists in Dallas

Performers as successful as Bruce Springsteen have secret powers that keep them magical.

In fact, a “magic trick” is how Springsteen described his life as a rock star and stage performer during his record-breaking, autobiographical Broadway show and in his memoir “Born To Run.”

Friday night in front of a full American Airlines Center, Springsteen pulled another bag of tricks out of his hat, proving once again why he is considered one of the greatest rock and roll performers ever to grace a stage.

At 73, and without three members of his E Street Band — including guitarist Stevie Van Zandt and vocalist and violinist Soozie Tyrell — both out with COVID-19, Springsteen showed why he is rock’s master showman.

They were also missing guitarist Patti Scialfa (Springsteen’s wife), who hasn’t performed nightly with the band for several tours.

For Springsteen and the seven-piece E Street Band, four-man brass section, and four backup vocalists, it was just another impossible sleight-of-hand maneuver that rendered their absence an afterthought by the time the two-hour, 49-minute show came to an end.

Yeah, that’s right, another nearly three-hour show for Springsteen, who looks as fit and mobile as ever, even if he’s moving a tad slower than he did back in 1973 when his first album was released.

The now legendary length of Springsteen’s shows — a fan expectation he’s keenly aware of — is part of his magic trick, and Friday’s band-hindered show was a perfect example.

From the three-song opening of “No Surrender,” “Ghosts,” and “Prove It All Night,” it was evident that the missing members would not slow Springsteen and his miraculous band. If anything, it raised everybody’s game.

Nils Lofgren and Springsteen more than took up the slack on guitar with Van Zandt out. The rest of the E Street Band, including pianist and organist Roy Bittan, bassist Garry Tallent, keyboardist Charlie Giordano, drummer Max Weinberg, percussionist Anthony Almonte, and saxophonist Jake Clemons sounded tight but loose, a perfect combination befitting a band finding it’s groove early in a tour.

At age 31, Almonte is young enough to be the grandson to everyone in the band except for the 42-year-old Clemons, nephew of the late E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons.

“We have a few members missing tonight,” Springsteen said between “Prove It All Night” and “Out In the Street.” “But ... we’re gonna give Dallas the best show they’ve ever seen!”

Without Van Zandt and Scialfa in their usual spots to Springsteen’s left on stage, Almonte’s percussion station was moved to the front, adding a new wrinkle to a magical night.

Springsteen’s stage stamina — in all its glory — is only part of the magic trick. The other part, of course, is no trick at all. It’s writing iconic, classic rock songs, and few can match Springsteen’s track record of enduring rock tunes.

While that was on display from the start, it came into focus as the show progressed into its second and third hours.

Springsteen’s magic begins to reveal itself when the audience realizes their feet are hurting from just standing for an hour. Friday’s crowd included mostly younger baby boomers and Generation X, including many long-time fans and their young children. One young girl wearing a cowboy hat got a fist bump from the Boss as he made his way around the floor late in the show.

This was the fifth show on a 62-stop tour, Springsteen’s first since 2017.

It’s the first time he’s had a chance to perform songs from his 2020 latter-day classic “Letter To You” and last year’s album of covers “Only the Strong Survive.”

A five-song section in the middle of the show lacked some needed immediacy. It included two of those covers, the Commodores’ “Nightshift” and Ben E. King’s “Don’t Play That Song,” and a full-band, brass-heavy version of “Johnny 99,” the only song in the set from Springsteen’s iconically sparse “Nebraska” album. Band members got a chance to solo during “Kitty’s Back” and again during “The E Street Shuffle,” which may let Springsteen flex the muscles of the “world’s greatest bar band,” but we come to Springsteen for more profound reasons.

And once we were past the halftime festivities, he delivered.

The final 14 songs were a relentless onslaught of Springsteen classics spanning his career, including “Backstreets,” “She’s the One,” “The Rising,” and “Thunder Road,” one inviting a louder crowd reaction than the last.

By the time they burned through the tour debut of “Detroit Medley,” the AAC was in hysterics. The lucky fans in the general admission pit in front of the stage were dancing and jumping spasmodically; their spirits convulsed by the rock and roll church revival.

And then “Born To Run” smacked everyone in the face.

The house lights lit up the arena for the duration of a five-song finale that included “Rosalita,” “Glory Days,” “Dancing in the Dark,” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out.”

After introducing the band and releasing them for the night, the houselights went dark again as Springsteen stood alone for a show-closing acoustic version of “I’ll See You in My Dreams,” a meditation on mortality and the fourth song from “Letter To You.”

It was a solemn, sobering ending, especially after the deluge of frantic anthems that had the arena beside itself with rock and roll euphoria.

Another magic trick for Springsteen pulled off to perfection.

Bruce Springsteen, Dallas, Texas set list, Feb. 10, 2023

“No Surrender”

“Ghosts”

“Prove It All Night”

“Letter to You”

“The Promised Land”

“Out in the Street”

“Candy’s Room”

“Kitty’s Back”

“Nightshift”

“Don’t Play That Song (You Lied)“

“The E Street Shuffle”

“Johnny 99”

“Last Man Standing”

“Backstreets”

“Because the Night”

“She’s the One”

“Wrecking Ball”

“The Rising”

“Badlands”

“Thunder Road”

“Detroit Medley”

“Born to Run”

“Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)“

“Glory Days”

“Dancing in the Dark”

“Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”

“I’ll See You in My Dreams”