[photos] Bruce Springsteen brings his Wrecking Ball to TD Garden

Bruce Springsteen fucking ruled Monday night at the TD Garden. And seeing the Boss at half court, separated by a few feet of staging and mat from the parquet floor where Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce sweat it out was doubly awesome.

Never showing his age, the 63-year-old Springsteen slid across the stage on his knees, jumped up on top of the piano, crowd surfed, and gyrated his ass off like he was 19. Max Weinburg, two year's the Boss' junior, pounded the drums with fury and precision, and the rest of the E Street band, at 15 members strong, was also amazing, always on point.

PHOTOS: Bruce Springsteen at TD Garden

Springsteen opened with new single "We Take Care of Our Own" and "Wrecking Ball," the title track off his latest album, taking time every couple of songs to either pump up the crowd like a fire and brimstone preacher or offer lowly, mumbly, rambling stories. He even did that awesome thing where mid-song he introduced the entire band and they each soloed on their respective instruments, something only bands of E street caliber can pull off/deserve. (It's not really like Skrillex can just stop one of his songs, shout "And on bass, drop AVI file 74!" ...womp womp womp womp...).

At one point much of the E Street band came up and doo-wopped while the Boss told the story of the Apollo Theater and his forefathers who played there before launching into a medley of  "The Way You Do the Things You Do/634-5789." He then surprised the crowd with the seldom performed "American Skin (41 shots)," possibly in response to the shooting of Trayvon Martin. The set included a lot of classics (many of them coming in the last third of the show) including "Badlands," "Thundercrack" spine tingling renditions of "Thunder Road" and "Born To Run," and "Dancing in The Dark." Giving the night some unique Boston flavor, a wild Peter Wolf appeared for the second to last song, "Raise Your Hand," an Eddie Floyd cover.

Under the Garden banners, Springsteen played for nearly three-hours straight, captivating the whole way through. The set ended with "10th Avenue Freeze-out" and right after the lyric "And the big man joined the band" the entire E Street ensemble stopped for a three-minute standing ovation for Clarence Clemons (pour some out for the big man).