To borrow a classic turn of phrase from the legendary David Palmer, your Uncle Grambo and The Senator spent last night in the presence of overall greatness. We had the good fortune (read: we bought tix through Ticketmaster) of attending an event at Carnegie Hall entitled “The Music Of Bruce Springsteen”, benefitting the Music for Youth charity foundation. When tix first went on sale three or four months ago, it was a bit of a gamble to shell out $65 for a balcony seat, seeing as how Jewel and Babyface were the headliners. But now, with the benefit of hindsight, some say it was one of the best investments evs.

The evening featured a wide variety of interpretations of songs from the Springsteen canon; virtually every musical form — from solo acoustic guitar to jazz piano to spoken word — was represented. Highlights included Josh Ritter’s solo acoustic rendition of “The River” (replete with a touching story of how the “Live 75-85″ cassette inspired him to become a musician), Juliana Hatfield’s heartache-laden take on “Cover Me”, Pete Yorn’s decidely gloomy arrangement of “Dancing In The Dark”, Joseph Arthur’s hauntingly stirring performance of “Born In The USA” and Badly Drawn Boy’s empassioned “Thunder Road” (backed by the evening’s house band, Elysian Fields). In fact, virtually all of the evening’s performances were stunning, the notable exceptions being the sonic abortion that was The Bacon Brothers performance of “Streets Of Philadelphia” and the implosion of Jesse Malin’s “Hungry Heart” (a direct result of an intrusion by the clearly unprepared Ronnie Spector).

The evening featured not one, not two, but THREE special guests that weren’t on the original bill. First out was Patti Smith, who huffed and puffed and blew the house down with her only Top 10 hit, the Springsteen-penned “Because The Night.” Then, a shockwave of chills reverberated around the country’s most-famous performance hall as surprise guest The Hold Steady (!!!) knocked the crowd for a loop with a ridiculously best ever version of “Atlantic City.” Lastly, after a deafening cheer of “BRUUUUUUUUCE” rattled through Carnegie’s Halls, The Boss emerged from the wings to rapturous and reverential applause.

As always, it’s a magical moment when Springsteen takes the stage. Wielding an acoustic guitar, Springsteen tore into “The Promised Land”, which surged to new life as an anthem of revolution for the politically disparaged Boss. He then took on “Rosalita”, replacing the third and fourth verses with a seemingly improvised autobiographical take on his life and the way our country has evolved during his thirty-plus year career (“Somewhere along the road, kids stopped buying records and began magically downloading things through the air”, “…and then America stopped being a democracy and turned into a kingdom”). But the evening’s A#1 Highlight came when Springsteen brought all of the evening’s performers out on stage for ANOTHER rendition of “Rosalita”, this time backed by a full-band. Craig Finn, Drizz and Jesse Malin traded verses with a jubilant and energized Springsteen. The jam lasted a full eight minutes, the first 90 seconds of which I captured from my perch in the nosebleeds with my crappy digital camera and YouTube’d for your enjoyment.

Man oh man, talk about your all-time best ever evenings. Glad I rolled the dice on these tix, even gladder that The Boss showed up and played THREE SONGS! Be sure and check out other reviews of the evening on Backstreets.net, Stereogum, Fresh Bread and Trouser Mouse (who, btw, got WAY better video of “Rosalita” than I did). The full set list is, of course, listed after the jump. BEST EVS!

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