Photos: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at Climate Pledge Arena

Even before Bruce Springsteen stepped on stage in front of a sold-out Climate Pledge Arena crowd on Monday, he seemed to be enjoying his first Seattle tour stop since 2016. A day earlier, the sure-handed rock legend was spotted at Pike Place Market catching a salmon from one of the affable fishmongers. (Look ma, no slicker!)

No word on whether Bruce availed himself of some affordably priced Dungeness crab while he was there, but the arena-packing superstar probably doesn’t need the discount.

In an unfortunate distraction to Springsteen and the E Street Band’s highly anticipated post-lockdown tour, classic rock’s man of the people caught heat for deploying Ticketmaster’s “dynamic” pricing model, which causes the price of a relatively small percentage of tickets to skyrocket based on demand. Like it or not, just about every artist of his caliber is doing the same these days, though seeing four figure ticket prices attached to Springsteen’s name clashed with his rep as one of the last great working class heroes.

At any rate, Springsteen and the gang came barreling into Seattle with plenty of steam, with the first month of the tour generally receiving high marks despite spotted COVID-related absences among the E Streeters.

Editor’s note: Return to this page Tuesday Feb. 28 for a review of Monday night’s show.