“Let’s go down the river one more time,” Bruce Springsteen told a sold-out crowd last night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. He was referring to what he and the E Street Band have been doing for the last three-plus months: Playing his 1980 album “The River” from start to finish at arenas across the country.  The show kicked off with “Meet Me in the City,” a newly unearthed outtake from “The River” sessions. Springsteen told the crowd this record was his “coming of age” album and that he wanted to “make a record that felt as big as life, as big as an E Street Band show.”  Springsteen did that over the course of 21 songs, with rocking crowd favorites such as “The Ties That Bind,” “Cadillac Ranch,” and “Sherry Darling.” During “Hungry Heart,” the first single released from the album back in October 1980, Springsteen led the crowd in a group sing-along of the first verse and took time to wander around the arena while singing. He returned to the stage by crowd-surfing through half of the floor.  The full-album set ended on a reflective note, as Springsteen spoke about the idea that the record signified a person moving into a new phase of their life, where work and family become one’s priorities. “‘The River’ was about time slipping away,” he told the crowd as the final “River” song “Wreck on the Highway” was played.  After the album’s completion, the band broke out some rarities, including John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom,” Jimmy Cliff’s “Trapped,” and a unique version of “Blinded by the Light,” where a 10-year-old girl held up a sign, offering to sing the song on stage with Springsteen. He obliged, and turned the mic over to her as he strummed along beside her.  These unexpected moments were characteristic of “The River” tour; in some instances they came under unfortunate circumstances, as Springsteen paid musical tribute to musicians who died recently. At the tour opener in Pittsburgh, he played “Rebel Rebel” in honor of David Bowie. In Chicago a few days later, he played “Take It Easy” in honor of late Eagles member Glenn Frey. And this past weekend, he opened with Prince’s “Purple Rain” — a song they played again at the final show on Monday evening in between two Springsteen classics, “Thunder Road” and “Born to Run.”  But there were moments, too, during the tour where Springsteen celebrated his audience, whether it was dancing with a 91-year-old fan in St. Paul during “Dancing in the Dark” or helping a couple get engaged.  The tour had some unforeseen cancellations, too. His Jan. 24 show at Madison Square Garden in New York City was postponed due to blizzard that was bearing down on the tri-state area. More recently, he cancelled his April 10 date at the Greensboro Coliseum in North Carolina in protest over the state’s controversial “HB2” law.  “To my mind, it’s an attempt by people who cannot stand the progress our country has made in recognizing the human rights of all of our citizens to overturn that progress,” he wrote on his website.  Still, “The River” tour was quite popular. According to ticket resale site StubHub, Springsteen is the second best-selling artist of 2016 so far, only behind Justin Bieber. It’s also his highest selling tour to date on StubHub.  Springsteen’s recent revisitation of “The River” coincided with a sprawling box set released in December 2015. Dubbed “The Ties That Bind: The River Collection,” the set featured 52 tracks, a documentary, and many rarities and outtakes.  Springsteen and the E Street Band are taking “The River” tour to Europe, starting on May 14 in Barcelona, Spain. Later this year, his autobiography “Born to Run” arrives on Sept. 27.
The final show of the musician's U.S. arena tour featured an unlikely guest singer and the final full performance of his 1980 album.