Dailytakes

I believe this was Bruce concert number 12 for me. I’ll have to check.

John, Craig, Michelle and the rest of you who missed the show, missed a hell of a show. In general, it was more up beat, energetic and rocking than he and the band have been in a while. Minimal sermonizing (which is the main reason the concert was a ‘mere’ 130 minutes). Clarence played more sax than the last tour, although his age and weight continue to limit him. Max was on fire as always.

The thing that strikes me about a Springsteen show is how I leave tired from singing, dancing, jumping, being foolish and overall having a good time. Then the 58 year-old Bruce, who is actually working his ass off, merely packs it up and does it all again several times later in the week.

Backsteets.com, the fan site, wrote that it was the best show of the tour so far.

I’ll save the in-depth review for others, but will end this post with the setlist.

Summary: Fantastic show.

1. Radio Nowhere — Rocking loud and raucous start to the show
2. Prove it All Night
3. Lonesome Day — One of his more under-appreciated songs
4. Gypsy Biker
5. Magic –20 seconds of Bush bashing that was too subtle for the audience to get
6. Reason to Believe — I love the harp mike
7. Candy’s Room — He sang this instead of “Girls in their Summer Clothes” I would have preferred the latter, but this was a cool surprise.
8. She’s the One
9. Livin’ In The Future — Direct GOP bashing here. But not as bad as last tour.
10. The Promised Land
11. Tunnel of Love — tour premiere (First song I ever heard at a Bruce concert 19 years ago. Very cool to hear it again)
12. Spirit in the Night — tour premiere
13 Darlington County (Wayne, what a moron!)
14. Devil’s Arcade — Eerie. Strong
15. The Rising
16. Last to Die — His most trite, bumper sticker song was also the thinnest sauce of the show.
17. Long Walk Home
18. Badlands–The BEST version of this concert mainstay I’ve ever heard. I actually felt the ground beneath my feat shake.
Encores:
19. Thunder Road — tour premiere (He called an audible here and really seemed to enjoy singing this)

20. Born to Run — Classic. But really good.

21. Dancing in the Dark — another blast from the past that had a ton of energy

22. American Land –kind of a disappointing end, but was pretty fun.

When he comes to the Bradley Center in Spring (the hot rumor), I’ll be there, again.