You’ve never seen him live then. It’s easy to pick out each guitarist on most songs, assuming they aren’t all playing the same riff. Not to mention that they alternate solos quite often.
If you can pick out a single instrument, then the wall of sound has failed.
Nils not needed?! Don’t you go spreading them white lies! 
Yeah, I prefer it pared down myself. Amazing what a tight trio or quartet can do.
6 guitarists and only 1 mic stand that they all crowd around? That’s what I usually see when I see Springsteen on TV.
5 mike stands. Although Steven and Nils share Bruce’s on occasion.
I am ambivalent on classical. I like it if someone else is playing it, but it just doesn’t scratch my musical itch so to speak. If I do listen to classical I like a big powerful deep sound.
A wall of strings really grates on my nerves. Same with the 60s/70s pop and country songs like “Rhinestone Cowboy.” They ruined a lot of perfectly good songs with the crescendo of strings.
Blue Man Group’s “The Complex” tour featured a massive stage band with lots of guitarists, several drummmers, vocalists, and the Blue Men doing their percussion thing. Definitely a wall of sound. It was one of the best shows I ever attended and I still listen to the album pretty often.
He’s not selling a wall of sound, he’s selling a band of brothers and sisters / extended family thing: all-for-one, you too can be part of the E Street family.
You are welcome to your POV about “selling the Family” but to be clear: he is absolutely selling a Wall of Sound approach. Ready ANY bio of Springsteen, or making of Born to Run think piece and you can’t spit without hitting a reference to him going for a Wall of Sound approach.
He gets that live with his band. Totally works for him, too - much respect.
ETA: what frosts my cheerios is when a lean band puffs out. Say what you will about Green Day, but in their prime they made a big, great sound with their three pieces. Adding a full time guitarist or two, some piano and synths - meh, meh and more meh. Meh.
Born to Run and the Spector thing was 1975. Maybe it survived into Darkness.
He didn’t put the band back together to relive that. He’s way smarter than that. This is family. At least imo.
The point of having all those people playing together for charity concerts, Hall of Fame jams, etc. isn’t because it sounds so good but because it’s fun to watch. Which I think was true about these Springsteen performances. Case in point: the “extra bass player” that NotherYinzer mentioned: he didn’t add anything significant to the sound, but it was fun to see him there.
Reasonable people can differ, but this is the purpose of my OP.
Agreed, it does not add anything significant to the sound. It is for this reason I find it awkward to watch. Knowing that many of the players are there only for the epic-ness of the event and contribute nothing to the performance lessens my enjoyment.
To put it another way, my gut reaction is usually ‘who do they think they’re fooling?’.
mmm
This seems to be two different views. Is Bruce’s band “wall of sound” or not?
I say that one must be able to discern each instrument–each “brick”–if listening for it, or it is no wall. Those sloppy all-star jams are like piles of mud.
Meh. I watched the SNL broadcast on DVR yesterday. Typical Bruce Wall of Sound, but unfortunately (and I have heard this on other SNL broadcasts) his vocals weren’t quite forward enough.
As for the guitars, there were three electrics and two acoustics and Gary T on bass. When Bruce, Steve or Nils did something to stand out, I hear them. Bruce was most conspicuous because, during the long outros to each song, building to a finish, he was doing a lot of sharp upstrokes on his Tele. Pretty easy to pick out.
Not necessarily relevant but…
I’ve heard several famous singers (Graham Nash, for one) say they often play an unnecessary guitar on stage (Nash says he sometimes doesn’t bother to plug his in) just because they feel awkward and don’t know what to do with their hands when they don’t have one!
So, for the sake of argument, if Tom Petty were to join the Eagles on stage during a show, he might well strap on his guitar, even though it adds little or nothing to the song, because he feels naked without it.