By John Corrado

Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band is the latest Springsteen documentary from director Thom Zimny, and it’s an electrifying mix of concert doc and intimate snapshot of The Boss on tour.

Where as Zimny’s recent portraits Western Stars and Letter to You focused on those specific albums, Road Diary expands its scope to his current world tour with The E Street Band, which kicked off in 2023 following a six year hiatus due to the pandemic.

Springsteen (who also wrote the film’s narration) talks early on about wanting to play for giant crowds again, and he states that his goal was to deliver the “biggest party” possible for his fans, after live music was cancelled during the pandemic. During that time, Springsteen also released his new album Letter to You in 2020, and never got to tour with it.

A major focus of Zimny’s film is how Springsteen chose the setlist for this tour, finding a balance between performing songs from Letter to You live for the first time, alongside a number of hits that fans come to hear them play. This means that the setlist is more “locked in” than previous shows. But the goal is to still deliver a memorable experience for the fans, who have a history of going to concerts and trying to “stump” the band by holding up signs requesting deep cuts for them to perform.

In this way, the name of Road Diary couldn’t be more fitting; this isn’t a bio-doc of Springsteen’s life (though there are biographical elements to everything he does), but rather a behind-the-scenes look at the tour. Zimny offers interviews with members of the band and stage crew, who talk about their history and the experience of going back on the road. We get candid reflections from longtime collaborators like Steven Van Zandt, Nils Lofgren and Patti Scialfa, while Jake Clemons talks about taking over for his late uncle Clarence Clemons on saxophone (even using his uncle’s sax and mouthpiece).

But the biggest through-line of Zimny’s Road Diary is about the importance of this specific setlist, and the arrangement of these songs to tell a story. This comes across in the dramatic symbolism of recent ballad “Last Man Standing” (a mournful tribute to former bandmate George Theiss, who passed away in 2018) leading directly into vintage betrayal anthem “Backstreets,” and how this gives way to the show’s greatest hits finale.

Like in his equally curated acoustic show Springsteen On Broadway (which was captured by Zimny in a 2018 Netflix concert film), there is an element of narrative storytelling to everything that Springsteen does. It’s obviously evident in his songwriting, but also in his placement of these songs in relation to each other. The deeper themes about the passage of time are tied together through his reflective voiceover narration.

In other moments, Zimny introduces us to the European fans in places like Italy, Norway and Barcelona, who have become passionate followers of the American rockstar, and express their sincere hope that he continues to perform live for as long as he is able. Zimny keeps the film moving at an energetic pace, bringing together some archival material and thrilling new performance footage, to offer a deeply satisfying and highly enjoyable snapshot of the ongoing tour.

Film Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)

Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band will be available to stream exclusively on Disney+ in Canada as of October 25th.