Bruce Springsteen delivers classic show in return to Gillette Stadium

FOXBOROUGH — Bruce Springsteen might not have proved it all night at Gillette Stadium but he certainly proved it for a solid two hours and 50 minutes Thursday night that he is still the undisputed “Boss” and is tougher than the rest.

The last time Springsteen and the E Street Band played Gillette was close to seven years ago, on Sept. 14, 2016. On that night, not only did he break the four-hour mark, going 25 minutes past the already pushed-back curfew, Springsteen was also one minute shy of tying the record for his longest U.S. concert.

Nowadays, Springsteen’s lucky if he ties Taylor Swift’s record for her longest show at Gillette.

While Thursday’s nearly three-hour show seems relatively short compared to Springsteen’s legendary marathon stints of the ’70s and ’80s, the 26-song set, which included five-song and one-song encores, was all killer, no filler, with idle chitchat kept at a minimum.

Springsteen’s return to the gridiron marks the 62nd and 63rd concerts of his current world tour.

While Springsteen and the “heart-stopping, pants-dropping, earth-shocking, hard-rocking, booty-shaking, earth-quaking, love-making, Viagra-taking, history-making, legendary” E Street Band sound better than ever and the shows have been stellar, the set lists have gone relatively unchanged since the beginning of the tour, except for a few songs sprinkled strategically in the set.

Then again, the 73-year-old rocker, who postponed two Philadelphia shows, looked happier, healthier, even younger than he did when he played the Bay State back in March. In fact, the Patti-less Springsteen (Bruce’s wife and longtime E Street Band member Patti Scialfa was a no-show) was also more frisky and playful than ever.

Delivering a big, boisterous Asbury Park greeting of “Hello Foxborough!” to the crowd, Springsteen went right to work with the blistering opener “No Surrender.” With the rousing battle cry, “No retreat, baby. No surrender,” Springsteen and his blood brothers and sisters rallied the faithful to embrace the youthful romantic dreams in their disillusioned, grown-up heads.

Springsteen celebrated the spirits in the night and the souls of garage rockers on the soul-affirming “Ghost.” Here, Jake Clemons unleashed the first of many scorching sax solos that would have made his uncle, Clarence “Big Man” Clemons, proud.

Springsteen gave the Gillette crowd an invitation to meet him in the fields out behind the dynamo during an explosive "Prove It All Night.” If the invite wasn’t enough, Springsteen absolutely shredding his trusty, beat-up Fender Telecaster sealed the deal.

Springsteen was in a giving mood all night, whether it was serenading giddy female fans or giving souvenirs to unsuspecting teenyboppers.

Surveying the outer bank of the pit, Springsteen gave one lucky fan his harmonica that he just used to open “The Promised Land.”

Walking the walk and talking the talk during “Out in the Street,” Springsteen also found time to flirt with some mature women in their summer clothes.

Doing his best Cab Calloway impression, Springsteen delivered the slinky, hepcat opus “Kitty’s Back,” which turned into a blistering jazz jam thanks to the E Street Horns. Springsteen squelching his guitar while fixing his perfectly cropped hair was Fonzie cool and the third best visual of the evening next to Springsteen, Clemons and guitarist Little Steven Van Zandt’s zany tribute to the Three Stooges during “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” and Springsteen ripping his shirt open for “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out.”

And what the E Street Horns did for “Kitty’s Back," the E Street Choir led by Curtis King Jr. did for the cover of the Commodores’ tribute to soul/R&B greats Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson, “Nightshift.”

Except for some counting off before songs and the occasional “Play it Steve,” the usually chatty Springsteen seemed more interesting in singing his heart out and wailing on his guitar than telling stories, which is fine when the songs are this good and his band is this hot.

However, that all changed with “Mary’s Place,” a pleasant trifle from 2002’s “The Rising” that was transformed into a life-affirming showstopper.

In full, rock ‘n’ roll preacher mode, a noticeably sweat-drenched Springsteen belted, “We are here to bring the power, the glory of life … I’m just going to stand here and feel it. C’mon. C’mon … Bring the life right now…That feels so (expletive) good.”

By the time “Mary’s Place” came to its cathartic, soul-cleansing close, I started questioning if the ditty was about hanging out at a welcoming roadside bar (as I originally thought) or spending quality time at the residence of the Holy Mother herself.

Springsteen reminisced about “the greatest adventure of his young life, his first real rock ‘n’ roll band” on the poignant guitar ballad “Last Man Standing.” While the song’s opening monologue began to examine the capricious nature of youth, it dramatically and masterfully shifted to pondering one’s mortality and saying goodbye to ailing friends.

The Boss carried this heavy theme over to “Backstreets,” rattling off the physical mementos he inherited from his old bandmate, then concluding, “And the rest, the rest, I’m going to carry right here,” as he lovingly pats his heart.

Springsteen proved that Taylor Swift is not the only one who can have a memorable rain show at Gillette.

Although he was singing the mantra of “Let it rain, Let it rain, Let it rain, Let it rain” during "Mary’s Place," it was when Springsteen started singing about “that thunder in your heart at night” four songs later during “She’s the One” that it started pouring in Foxborough. But unlike 15 years ago on Aug. 2, 2008, when he played at Gillette and it rained, The Boss didn’t do an impromptu cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Who’ll Stop the Rain.” He just stuck with the setlist.

Sung in the perspective of the old, long-gone Giants Stadium, "Wrecking Ball" started as a heart-wrenching ballad before erupting into a full-throttle rocker. The number also got its share of boos from the audience when Springsteen delivered the song’s infamous line referencing the four-time Super Bowl Champions New York Giants, with two of those big wins against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. Obviously, Patriot Nation is still stinging for those defeats. And Springsteen, with a Cheshire Cat-inspired grin, couldn’t be more pleased with himself that he can still get a Bay State crowd’s goat.

Springsteen — the only man I know who could get away with the line “You ain’t a beauty, but, hey, you’re alright” — ended the main set with the one-two punch of “Badlands” and “Thunder Road.”

Chrome-wheeled, fuel-injected and stepping out over the line, Springsteen opened the encore with his signature, “Born to Run.” With all the madness in his soul, Springsteen delivers classic line after classic line at breakneck speed, making it a rock ‘n’ roll classic that never gets tired, never gets old.

“Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out," a song I never thought I would hear live again after Clarence Clemons died in 2011, proved to be the perfect tail-end blowout to tell the E Street Band story and celebrate the legacies of “The Big Man” and E Street Band organist/accordionist Danny Federici, who died in 2008.

Springsteen closed out the night with a second encore, a solo acoustic rendition of “I’ll See You in My Dreams.” New England fans can see Springsteen again Saturday at Gillette or Sept. 16 for a makeup show at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.