Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, review: how the magic happens

Are you ready for The Deconstruction of Bruce Springsteen? A new documentary co-produced and narrated by the veteran rock superstar is a curiously low-key affair — and that’s despite the fact that it’s chock-full of fantastic scenes of Springsteen and his incredible E Street Band tearing up stages around the world.

Road Diary is structured around the first half of Springsteen and company’s 2023-24 world tour, with footage taking us from early rehearsals in lifeless theaters and cavernous halls, following the massive ensemble through drab corridors behind the scenes before getting into some musical action on the arena and stadium stages. . But while the tour regularly offered three hours of thrills and gripping emotions, the film is a stop-start visual essay on the structures and themes that underlie the experience.

The action (and music) is constantly interrupted by the talking heads of a large number of musicians and crews. But not Springsteen’s talking head. He limits his own articulate observations to measured narration. There are only rare moments where the star lets himself be caught off guard, such as a funny conversation filmed remotely, with Springsteen arguing that the band has rehearsed enough. “There’s a certain percentage (of songs) that we’re going to screw up anyway. This is what (the public) pays for! They want to see it live, so that involves some mistakes!

If only Springsteen, the filmmaker, had Springsteen’s courage, the showman’s convictions. I don’t know if Springsteen and director Thom Zimny ​​put any afterthought into making this documentary, but it’s not about showing all of that. Where were the cameras when guitarist Stevie Van Zandt demanded more rehearsals? He amusingly admits, “I’m completely anal and I care about every note that everyone does,” but we only hear about it after the fact. Springsteen apparently capitulated by appointing Van Zandt as the band’s musical director (“Which is nice,” Van Zandt smiles mischievously. “Forty years late, but nice.”)

Likewise, we hear of pre-show rituals of jokes and prayers, with band members recalling being in a prayer circle as Springsteen told them, “The last time I played here, I was supporting the band Chicago and I was booed off stage. This won’t happen tonight! Someone say Amen! » Yet we don’t see these moments unfold, which is a curious omission given that there have been over 100 shows to capture such intimate action. That’s a lot of missed opportunities to flesh out the drama. Road Diary is a documentary about flies in which the flies seem to have always crawled on the wrong walls and desperately catch up later in the editing suite.