At 73, Springsteen shows no sign he’s slowing

Above : Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band rocked Portland’s Moda Center Saturday night. (Photo/Dan Webster)

At 73, you’d think that Bruce Springsteen would be slowing down. But that didn’t seem to be the case when he took the stage at Portland’s Moda Cente r Saturday night.

The man so many know simply as The Boss began rocking with his E Street Band at 7:45 and didn’t pause for 72 straight minutes. He put more energy into that opening set of numbers than some artists do into an entire concert tour.

And that pause lasted only a minute or so for the band to change tempo before charging on.

In all, Springsteen performed for a full two hours and 40 minutes. Again, more than an hour longer than so many other acts – even longer than Paul McCartney when he played the Spokane Arena last May.

Along with some newer material, Springsteen added in enough of his old favorites, from “Thunder Road” to “Dancing in the Dark” to “Badlands,” to thrill the sold-out house (the Moda Center has a capacity of 19,980).

I first saw Springsteen two decades ago at the Tacoma Dome. At the end of that night’s show, which lasted two hours and 56 minutes, he did cartwheels across the stage during his final number. He didn’t do any cartwheels on Saturday.

That was a kindness to some of us older fans. The man has to show some sense of mortality.