Spin Magazine - December 2007 - Features (Page 62)

“Welcome, Canadians!” Even at soundcheck, Bruce
Springsteen treats a New Jersey venue like his home,
and Arcade Fire’s Win Butler and Régine Chassagne
are honored guests. “Did you guys finish your tour?”
Watching from the floor of the Continental
Airlines Arena hours before Springsteen’s first official
hometown show with the E Street Band in five years,
house lights up, Butler shouts back that they wrapped
up the American leg three days ago and will leave for
Europe in two weeks. Springsteen nods, then leads his
band through a version of “Backstreets” so sweeping
it’s a shame only five people are here to witness it.
Since his breakthrough 1975 album, Born to Run,
Bruce Springsteen has been the future of rock’n’roll,
a folkie, a misunderstood patriot, wildly popular, not
particularly popular, a workhorse, a stay-at-home
dad, a firebrand, a name brand. But moreover,
he’s just been. His 15th studio album, Magic, which
debuted at No. 1 in October, is vintage Boss and just
might contain one of the best songs he’s ever written
(the lush “Girls in Their Summer Clothes”). Mean-
while, a new generation of bands—of which Arcade
Fire are certainly at the forefront—reveres him as
much for his varied body of work as for the fact
that he just seems to have done things the right
way. Never embarrassed himself, never embar-
rassed those who look up to him. And likewise,
Springsteen—more wide-eyed geek than stately
elder—has been energized by these younger artists;
when he greets Butler and Chassagne after sound-
check, the first thing he mentions is the fan-made
You Tube clip for their song “My Body Is a Cage,” set
to scenes from Once Upon a Time in the West.
Though they hail from different generations
(Springsteen is 58; Butler is 27) and backgrounds
(Springsteen: working-class New Jersey; Butler:
well-heeled Houston suburb, prep school at