Nils Lofgren is a sideman to the stars. When he was 17, he met Neil Young and ended up playing on After the Goldrush and Tonight’s the Night. The last time he was in these parts, he was onstage at the vast Leeds Arena in the role he has occupied since 1984, as guitarist in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. Perhaps only such A-list employment could have overshadowed Lofgren’s own mercurial career as an artist, which spans 46 years, and is being celebrated with a 10-CD box set and this wonderful two-hour show.
The Chicago-born 63-year-old begins the night playing harp and ends it tap dancing. Along the way, he coaxes noises from his instrument that don’t seem to have been invented and sings songs – such as the Keith Richards tribute Keith Don’t Go, or mournful farewell Girl in Motion – as great as those by his employers.
With a cheerfully hangdog expression and a scarf hanging from his instrument, Lofgren looks every inch the troubadour and makes a fabulous raconteur. He had to quit drinking owing to a “terrible allergy” to alcohol. “I broke out in handcuffs,” he quips. He replaced the gin with pints of ice cream.
The shows rollercoasters from hilarity to raw emotion, and there’s barely a dry eye in the house when he sings the sublime Miss You, C for his deceased E Street colleague Clarence Clemons. Ably backed by Greg Verlotta on keyboards and trumpet, Lofgren’s delivery is intimate and candid, like he’s singing to individual members of the crowd. By the time he causes uproar with a confession that he can’t do his trademark backflips anymore because of hip replacements, and then brings the house down with the epic, vaguely Springsteen-esque rocker Shine On Silently, it’s tempting to tell him to give up the day job.
• 23 January. Box office: 0191-443 4661. Venue: Sage Gateshead. Then touring.
