Having been a music journalist for over 30 years for the likes of Rolling Stone, The L.A. Times, Billboard, Chicago Tribune and pretty much everywhere else, I have been to easily 5000 plus shows. I can safely say there is nothing on earth like being at a Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band show. It is a place of joy, community, catharsis, memories, of celebration, of escape, magic, love, and most of all, hope. Screw Disneyland, for millions of Springsteen devotees a Bruuuuuuuce! concert is the happiest place on earth.
Director Thom Zimny’s new Hulu documentary, Road Diary, is a revelatory look at what makes the E Street Band the greatest show on earth. Obviously, as a Springsteen devotee who has seen him 60 times, I am biased, but you do not need to be a Springsteen fan to enjoy Road Diary. The music educational value of watching a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer with more than half a century’s experience on the road plot a tour is amazing for any musician or any fan interested in how a legendary arena rock tour is constructed.
The film opens with Springsteen meeting the E Street Band on “A cold January morning” in Red Bank, New Jersey, where he says he played with the early E Street Band back in the Seventies. They are there for rehearsals for their first tour in six years, and we’re introduced to the purpose of the Diary — and what keeps driving the now 75-year-old Springsteen as a performer. “Since I was 16,” he says, “playing live has been a deep and lasting part of who I am and how I justify my existence here on earth.”
As a frequent and obviously trusted collaborator who has worked with Springsteen on several films (Western Stars, Springsteen on Broadway), Zimny sheds fresh perspective on Springsteen’s thought process as a performer. That goes back to the educational value. Springsteen explains his two goals at rehearsal. The first is obvious – “Shake off the rust.” The second is much more interesting. Devise the setlist, he says, because “that setlist will communicate the story you’re going to tell your audience.” He goes on to explain that 25 songs he chose for the setlist “would complete the narrative and let the audience know who I am at this point in my work life.”
Just like at their shows, the E Street members are given a lot of time in the spotlight. It is especially poignant to see the late Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici in archival footage, and then to hear Springsteen talk about his relationship with each of them. But much of the music education stems from the observations of the band members on how they interact with each other. After all, this band, which I maintain is the best in the world, are all established as experts in their respective instruments. So their insights are all invaluable.
The film does a great job of showing the deep bond between the members, of letting people know this is indeed an ensemble. Whether it’s bassist Garry Tallent reminiscing about his early days with Springsteen or guitarist Steve Van Zandt joking about being made musical director 40 years later, you see how deep the history goes.
Zimny does a masterful job of bringing together several elements: the backstage and onstage relationships between the band members, the stories from the fans on what a Springsteen show means to them, and, of course, the powerful live performances from the current 2024-2025 world tour (it continues until next July).
Among the standouts in the film are the opening song, “I’m Alive,” and the 1975 classic “Backstreets,” which manager Jon Landau explains is an emotional centerpiece of the show. From the line “Terry, you swore we’d live forever,” the film then captures “Last Man Standing,” and the setlist’s story starts to reveal itself.
When they get to the song “Fire,” by Springsteen and wife Patti Scalfia, the film cuts to Patti, who talks openly about her cancer diagnosis for the first time, explaining why she now rarely plays live anymore. We next see the band perform “My Love Will Not Let You Down,” followed by a gorgeous and powerful solo acoustic finale: “I’ll See You In My Dreams.”
As he leaves the stage following the finale, a Springsteen voiceover explains the story he wanted to tell on this tour — “Life, death and everything in between.” As ambitious as it might be to try and take audiences through the full cycle of life in one night, Springsteen is able to do it. Thanks to the brilliance of Road Diary, we are finally shown how and why there has never been or never will be anything in the world quite like a Springsteen and the E Street Band show.
Springsteen talks about and covers his heroes often, but he doesn’t usually reference The Doors, which makes the coda of the film especially surprising. He cites a Jim Morrison quote that is shown on screen. “O great creator of being/grant us one more hour/to perform our art/and perfect our lives.”
In the run up to the documentary’s release, I attended a Q&A with Springsteen, Van Zandt and Jon Landau and Rock Hall Chairman and iHeart Media President John Sykes in L.A. The Doors quote came up, and Springsteen shared that before he met Scalfia, they had been at the same Doors show in 1968. Realizing this, he recreated the show through live cuts, and then he started reading books about The Doors, where he came upon the quote.
“It just seemed like the perfect way to sum up what the band is about, what our relationship to our fans means, what our mission statement has been for the past 50 years,” he said. “It just seemed to sum it up in those four very brief lines.”
Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band is streaming on Hulu beginning Friday, October 25th.
Start a watercooler conversation: