Bruce Springsteen, SXSW 2012: The Boss' All-Star Protest Concert Rocks Austin But Rings Hollow

"Happy birthday, Woody," were the first words out of Bruce Springsteen's mouth at his "intimate" SXSW concert, a ticket so hot amongst the tens of thousands here in Austin that they were handed out by lottery. And in honour of Woody Guthrie's centenial, The Boss and his increasingly sprawling E Street Band delivered a moving, powerful rendition of the iconic protest singer's 'I Ain't Got No Home.'

The Thursday night concert ended with another Guthrie tune, 'This Land Is Your Land,' during which Springsteen and band were joined by Arcade Fire, ex-Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, Clash associate John Ely, local legend Alejandro Escovedo and opening act the Low Anthem as they led the crowd in a rousing run through the famed folk tune.

Woody would have been proud of the bookends, but I wonder if he would have felt something lacking in what occurred in between, no matter how remarkable the performance was.



Springsteen arrived at South by Southwest as the keynote speaker, but also as a rock star with a new album, 'Wrecking Ball,' to promote. Inspired by the financial crisis that gave rise to the Occupy movement, Springsteen's angry new anthems like 'We Take Care of Our Own' and the title track gave the electrifying concert the feel of a rally. Or rather, the feeling that it should have been a rally.

Springsteen has always represented the hard-luck working man, as evidenced by his performance of song like 'Badlands,' off 1978's 'Darkness on the Edge of Town.' But times are tougher now, and it's more about the no-working man.

Though a song like 'My City in Ruins' was released in the wake of 9/11 (though about Springsteen's hometown Asbury Park), when he performs it in 2012 it feels like an apt descriptor of the world, whether it's the blood-soaked streets of Syria or the foreclosure-ridden avenues of Florida. "Rise up," he sang repeatedly last night, but it seemed like maybe Springsteen just meant get to your feet, not take to the streets.

The only time Occupy was mentioned was when Tom Morello -- who joined Bruce for the concert (and festival) highlight, a searing run-through of 'Ghost of Tom Joad' -- blurted out on the mic that his own Occupy South by Southwest event would be happening Friday night.

Check Out SXSW 2012 in Photos "SXSW has a lot of specialty shows -- record companies, vodka companies, promoters and things like that," Morello had earlier told Rolling Stone. "I thought it was important that at a music gathering of that size, to have a place where the rebels, revolutionaries, rockers, rappers and the 99 percent could gather and have a mighty SXSW throwdown."

Imagine if that had been at a Springsteen gig? Five years ago, Public Enemy played SXSW at a free show on the lake and led 25,000 people through a chant of "F--- George Bush and Condoleezza, too!" within walking distance from Bush's old governor stomping grounds.

This, however, was an exclusive concert in the Austin City Limits' Moody Theatre to a crowd of 2700 music industry and media well-to-dos. The now 17-piece E Street Band brought jaw-dropping power, and Springsteen offered gruff, beautiful poetics, but despite promising to wake us, shake us and "kick some Tex-ass," where were the angry politics? The show was being recorded, so why not take the opportunity to name names and take sides.

The Boss, an ironic nickname for a man of the people, barely bantered between songs, letting the music speak. But as wonderful as the music was, especially that jubilant horn section led by the late Clarence Clemons' nephew Jake, maybe Bruce needs to speak for himself, too. Before the out-of-work ballad 'Jack of All Trades,' he briefly mentioned that the economic crisis has "put people out of their homes, taken away their retirement and split this country down the middle."

But during an industry festival that began with a minor scandal over homeless people being used as wifi hotspots and featured former Republican presidential candidate Gov. Rick Perry speaking about Twitter, maybe more people need to do what another SXSW speaker and former presidential candidate called for. Claiming "democracy has been hacked" by corporate interests (at a festival where American Express shelled out for a Jay-Z concert at the very same ACL Live theatre Springsteen was playing) Al Gore called for people to use the Internet to "occupy democracy."


Springsteen sang of people sleeping under bridges in 'Tom Joad,' railroad workers taking a stand in the epochal new song 'We Are Alive,' and "sending the robber baron's straight to hell" on 'Death to my Hometown,' but it's a 99 percent message he plans to take on a stadium tour where he will sing to people who can actually afford Springsteen tickets.

It's wonderful that Bruce has thrown in with this still-growing movement and, during songs like 'Shackled and Drawn,' encouraged people to "stand up and be counted." But he's hardly emulating, say, Rage Against the Machine's actions during another pivotal election year 12 years ago when they staged actual protest concerts. Or the protest concerts of the 1960s, as we were reminded of when Animals' singer Eric Burdon came out to duet with Bruce on his Vietnam-era anthem 'We Gotta Get Out of This Place.' Or even the case-specific activism practiced by Arcade Fire who have done much to support Haiti

Maybe it's not enough to chronicle the downtrodden, maybe they need an arising, too.

While writing this piece, I went outside to clear my head and was approached by a well-spoken, out-of-work car salesman who had been turned away from the Salvation Army shelter until the next day and was looking to raise enough money to get a cheap hotel room for the night. It reminded me of a conversation I'd had with a cab driver when I arrived, who said Texas doesn't have a proper welfare system to take care of its poor once their unemployment runs out, a fact made clear by the sheer number of homeless people downtown mixed among the drunken partiers and corporate branding.

As Jimmy Cliff, another special guest and the legendary protest singer behind 'The Harder They Come,' sang during his brief three-song mini-set, "there are many rivers to cross," and as this economic crisis continues, more and more people need help finding their way over. Springsteen himself sang in 'We Are Alive' of the need "To carry the fire and light the spark/To fight shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart."

It's a powerful message, made evens stronger by Springsteen's outsize charisma and his multicultural and multi-generational E Street Band's outsize skills. But during this Occupy-influenced election year maybe he needs to follow Woody's lead and take his protest from stadium seats to the city streets.