Apr 25, 2014 By Scott Tady for The 5 min read

PITTSBURGH — A riveting cover of the Clash’s “Clampdown” launched the concert unexpectedly, and fill-in guitarist Tom Morello proved he fit in well.

Otherwise there weren’t too many new wrinkles or big surprises to Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s latest Consol Energy Center visit Tuesday except, oh yeah, by the way, Bruce announced he’s coming back to town to play next month, too.

And so in the middle of one electrifying Pittsburgh performance, Springsteen pledged two more, May 22 and 23 at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall, joined by his Pittsburgh compatriots in rock, Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers. For more on that, see our adjoining story.

This is a look back at Tuesday night’s show, in front of a nearly full arena that witnessed a quintessentially Springsteenian performance — three hours of sweaty, skillful, meaningful music testifying to what “The Boss” described as “the ass-kicking power of rock and roll.”

The band stoutly followed its Clash cover with E Street concert standards “Badlands” and “Johnny 99.” A mid-set highlight was “The Promised Land” with Springsteen’s harmonica prowess keeping up with the wonderful wailing sax of Jake Clemons, nephew of the late Clarence Clemons, who replaced his uncle for the 2012 Wrecking Ball tour.

Springsteen repeated several tricks from his 2012 Pittsburgh visit. He crowd surfed during “Hungry Heart,” clutching to his chest a large balloon likeness of himself supplied by a spectator, and played requests (the rarely performed “I Wanna Be With You”) suggested by fans via colorful homemade signs.

Once again, he did that back-cracking encore move where he stands on his tippy toes a la 1950s Elvis, then lowers his shoulders to the stage, keeping his feet upright.

The way Paul McCartney always sang about it, 64 seemed so old, yet Springsteen at that age is still built like his glory days, with ample energy to bound all over the stage and into the crowd. He finished “Meet Me at Mary’s Place” with a long sprint before sliding on his knees like he had just scored a goal in the World Cup.

Springsteen wore a military-looking shirt, borrowing from the fashion sense of Morello, the former Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave guitar grinder, who is substituting on this tour for E Streeter Steven van Zandt, who’s filming a Norwegian TV show.

Morello certainly hasn’t turned Springsteen’s band into Rage Against the (Suicide) Machines, displaying plenty of restraint, but shrewdly picking a few showy spotlight moments, like his blistering, crowd-delighting solo on “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” and plucking his guitar strings with his teeth on the 2014 single “High Hopes,” which sounded meatier live.

I could have handled a few more Morello moments like that, though the band spread around its solo wealth, like when fellow guitarist Nils Lofgren unleashed fiery fretwork on “Youngstown,” a traditional Pittsburgh pick, which Springsteen sang, as usual, with his face bathed in lights as red as fire.

Max Weinberg lived up to his boss’ label, “Mighty Max,” a number of times, most notably on his fast and muscular drum roll near the end of “Born in the U.S.A.”

Springsteen’s wife, Patti Scialfa, more visible than in prior Pittsburgh shows, shared vocals with her hubby on a cover of the rockabilly classic “Seven Nights to Rock,” earning a nice cheer from the crowd.

“Radio Nowhere” came in loud and clear, and “Land of Hope and Dreams” had fans rapidly shaking their upraised hands as though testifying at a church revival.

The 10-song encore started awkwardly with Springsteen alone at a piano flubbing the first two notes for “The Promise.”

“Got it, got it,” he reassured fans, joking, “I’m not a full-time pianist.”

He finished it fine, following with the full band on “The Wall,” a poignant new song about the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C. that Springsteen penned from a title and concept suggested by Grushecky, who came on stage two songs later, with his guitar-slinging son Johnny, for “Light of Day.”

The Grusheckys stuck around and strummed for most of the encore. It included “Born in the U.S.A.,” for which Springsteen sounded like he was running out of steam vocally before regaining his power for an epic run through “Born to Run,” “Dancing in the Dark,” “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” and the Isley Brothers’ “Shout” played in succession with the house lights on. If only Springsteen had remembered in “Shout” to make everyone shout a little bit softer now and slowly twist to the floor, “Animal House” style.

The show ended softly one song later with the ballad “Dream Baby Dream,” a cover off Springsteen’s new album, given gospel-tinged soul by his backup singers. It was anticlimactic compared to the hit parade that preceded it , though that’s easy to overlook now when there were so many other high points to the evening.