Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band came back down San Diego way (finally!) and rocked up a storm

SAN DIEGO — Back again, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band? Why the hurry to return to San Diego so soon after your last concert here?

Make that "so soon" as measured in dog years, since Monday's rousing, life-affirming concert at Pechanga Arena came 43 years after Springsteen and The E Street Band last performed here together. By coincidence, their 1981 concert was at the same venue (then known as the San Diego Sports Arena).

This inexplicably long gap was acknowledged by the New Jersey-bred rock legend as he and his 17-piece group began the elegiac "My City of Ruins," an emotional high point in a show bursting with high points. Their eighth selection of the night, "Ruins" came 38 minutes into the nearly three-hour marathon performance, which at one point saw Springsteen crouching to pet a fan's emotional-support bulldog — say what? — while singing "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" from a steel ramp on the arena's floor.

"Good evening, San Diego!" he said to the sold-out audience of 13,500, which responded with one of many sustained ovations. "It's great to be back in San Diego. It's been a while. I mean, where the f--- was I?"

Springsteen didn't dwell any further on the multi-decade gap between his concerts here with The E Street Band. Nor did he offer any insights about what finally prompted their return, after so many years.

But he and his group made up for lost time by performing with more than enough purpose, passion and precision to reaffirm the power of their music to elevate and entertain. And they made a special modification near the conclusion of their third of seven encore numbers, "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)."

Immediately after Springsteen sang "I know a pretty little place in Southern California, down San Diego way," he and his band stopped on a dime to let the crowd roar its approval. The song resumed 15 seconds later and a key point had unmistakably been made.

The best place for this Oscar winner, 20-time Grammy Award-winner and Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree to sing about coming down San Diego way is in San Diego.

Monday's set included 27 songs. They drew from Springsteen's 1973 debut album, "Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ," his 2022 album, "Only the Strong Survive," and various points in between.

The high-octane opening salvo of "Lonesome Day," "Prove It All Night," "No Surrender," the Celtic-flavored "Death to My Hometown" and "Ghosts" made it appear that he is fully recovered from the peptic ulcer disease that forced him to postpone 14 concerts last year, including his originally scheduled Dec. 2 show at Pechanga Arena.

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