After the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, the world felt different. Therefore, when Bruce Springsteen and his loyal E Street Band returned to the stage at the start of 2023, after six years away, he was addressing a new world, a world borne out of darkness headed tentatively, but surely, towards the light. Fans needed that confirmation; they wanted a concert that reflected what they had been through and a hope for the future, that, even in the face of loss and death, of strife and doubt, they would continue to exist with dignity and grace. Despite the high stakes, Springsteen and the E Street Band rose to the occasion, concert after concert, and gave them that—and more.
Directed by Thom Zimny, Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band documents the pivotal moment in the band’s 50-year history when, after one of the longest gaps of their touring career, they went back out on the road. For nearly a quarter of a century, Zimny has collaborated with Springsteen, starting with 2001’s Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band: Live in New York City and, more recently, the two films 2019’s Western Stars and 2020’s Letter to You. Like the other films, Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band is a typical Zimny/Springsteen production in which new footage is interspersed with archival footage, with voice-overs by a gravelly Springsteen who, introspective and contemplative, offers expositions on the current setlist to the power of live concerts.
Essentially, Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band is a chronological account of the 2023-24 tour: it starts in January 2023 at the Vogel in Red Bank, New Jersey, where private rehearsals are held for the upcoming tour and where, in 1976/’77, Springsteen played a string of concerts. Fittingly, interwoven in the documentary is the story of the band’s history, including archive interviews with deceased members Danny Federici and Clarence Clemons, taken from Zimny’s 2005 film Wings for Wheels: The Making of ‘Born to Run’.
According to E Street Band members, the rehearsals at Red Bank were too relaxed. For example, the Bo Diddley-quasi “She’s the One” was turned into a ballad. Soon, they moved to CURE Insurance Arena, Trenton, New Jersey, which meant they could practice in an environment they would be touring. There, the band rehearsed without Springsteen, which, according to the documentary, was the first time this has happened. Yet, during the making of 2007’s Magic, Springsteen was not present when producer Brendan O’Brien overdubbed the band’s parts.
Although six years had passed between E Street tours, Bruce Springsteen, in the interim, did multiple runs of his Broadway residency, which, with a static setlist, influenced his 2023 setlist—one of the most defining and contested aspects of this tour. As a live act, Springsteen is known for radically changing his setlist from night to night. For this tour, however, he focused on a narrative that captured the whole gamut of human experience: love, hope, death, and remembrance. Apart from thematical reasons, it has its musical advantages. As guitarist Nils Lofgren explains about different setlists, “You can’t really get deep, deep into the song, as you have not played it that often. One of the things I liked about this tour is you can hear your bandmates evolving.”
Before Bruce Springsteen had even played a lick, the tour was not without its controversies: a dynamic pricing system was deployed for the first leg of the United States 2023 tour. This is the elephant in the room in the documentary, especially when there are interviews with fans. Yet it does not take away the power of the performances, and when they get to their first gig in Tampa, Florida, you get the scope of the occasion, not only for fans but the musicians. Despite the years of touring and the importance of the music—especially live—the appeal of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band has not waned. If anything, the music has become more powerful. Moreover, Springsteen is acutely aware of his mortality. In 2019’s Letter to You, he grapples with all of these themes we see on Road Diary: death, life, love, his relationship with fans, and, above all, what it means to be in a band.
Experience a Bruce Springsteen concert brings to mind the tale of Heraclitus and Democritus: one weeps while the other laughs over humankind’s fate. This is also heard in his 1987 song, “Two Faces”. Road Diary captures the dichotomy of a Springsteen concert: good-humour silliness and seriousness. Over a clip of Springsteen clambering up a flight of stairs to the stage while holding his Telecaster, Jon Landau, Bruce Springsteen’s long-time manager, says, “He is the maestro.” It has a chilling effect as, undoubtedly, it is true. Yet it is also one example of what this documentary, in its weaker moments, becomes: a hagiography.
In recent years, Springsteen has been interested in retelling his story, such as his 2016 memoir Born to Run, Springsteen on Broadway (2018), and now, he’s involved with a forthcoming film based on Warren Zanes’ 2023 book Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska. This is the sense you get from Road Diary: Springsteen is carving out his legacy. Since Daves Marsh’s 1981 book, Born to Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story, there has been an “official” narrative of Springsteen’s life. This, perhaps less in its content than in how it is told, can have the opposite effect on fans. Sometimes, reinforcing the story and image of Bruce Springsteen loses what draws fans to him in the first place: his purported authenticity.
Perhaps we don’t learn anything from Road Diary that going to a concert and reading reviews won’t already reveal. Perhaps there is no great artistry behind this documentary, as with Martin Scorsese’s 2019 “smoke and mirrors” biography, Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story. However, Dylan is an eternal trickster, and Springsteen is a clean-cut kid. Perhaps there’s no real narrative to Springsteen’s story; in retrospect, they are scrambling to create a story. Indeed, it seemed there was not enough story to last the length of Road Diary; the segment on the 2014 tour is a case in point, even if its purpose was to compare the unpredictability of those setlists to that of the 2023 tour.
Yet this does not take away from the performances worked, that the E Street Band rocked, and they remain one of the best bar bands in the world. Throughout Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, the focus is on the opening night of the first European tour in seven years in Barcelona. The story slowly builds towards this event and, upon reaching it, does not disappoint; here is excellent footage of a chiseled and tanned Springsteen, backed by a motley crew of mostly septuagenarians and passionate fans. Therefore, by default, the Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band has done its job: documenting the 2023-24 tour.
Near the end, Bruce Springsteen performs “I’ll See You in My Dreams”, an ode to the departed. The song’s title is based on a Benny Goodman song that Springsteen’s mother, Adele, loved. At the end of Road Diary’s credits, there is a video of the two dancing to swing music on a porch. Despite live concerts being a form of artifice, emotions are real, and so is Bruce Springsteen. So is death.