Bruce Springsteen Rocks the Garden in His Return to NYC

With his detours into the solo-oriented approach of "Devils and Dust" and the folky big-band sound of his Seeger Sessions project, it had been five years since Bruce Springsteen had been to New York City with a full E Street Band performance.

With his return to the City at Madison Square Garden last Wednesday night, he and the E Streeters seemed to pick up right where they left off back in 2002's tour to support "The Rising." If anything, this show was overall more uptempo and raucus than anything Bruceand the boys had done in a numberof years, due to the new album "Magic" being Springsteen's hardest-rocking effort in quite a while.

As with his last few albums, this new one considers things like getting older and looking back, and the message was brought home by watching the proceedings on stage. While Bruce and the boys still put on a high-energy two-hour show, he's definitely slowed down a bit since the tour for "The Rising." During shows on that tour he grabbed onto his mic stand and pulled himself up parallel to the stage at one point, and at another time range the length of the stage and slid on his knees. He didn't attempt either manuever this time around.

His voice doesn't have quite the same reach either. On a few songs, such as "Adam Raised a Cain," he didn't even try to hit the high notes, he just opted for a lower one.

But with his energy and enthusiasm, a good mix of the newer songs and the older ones (including a few surprises), the "Magic" tour is an essential show for any Springsteen fan who, like me, passed on seeing the Devils and Dust and Seeger Sessions performances, preferring to see The Boss in the full E Street Band configuration.