The Official Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band Thread.

The setlist is pretty standard, though that does not say it all with Springsteen.
I am still jealous on the Swedish people though

I salute you,
Thunderstrucker

I don't think last night was about the setlist. I think it was about Bruce taking his music to a relative few of the faithful and whole lot of the unconverted. It sounds like it was quite a performance in front of a very non-traditional audience!

Here's the review from Entertainment Weekly (Springsteen-related parts only - full text and photos at the end of the post on the website - http://music-mix.ew.com/2009/06/bonn...-saturday.html):

Bonnaroo '09 Saturday: Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuce!

Jun 14, 2009, 03:29 PM | by Whitney Pastorek

Unfortunate announcement for all bands who played Bonnaroo on June 13, 2009: No matter how good you think you were yesterday, Bruce Springsteen was better. It's just a fact. Bon Iver, your songs gave me the chills; Springsteen was better. Elvis Costello, I'd walk to the ends of the earth to hear your voice; Springsteen was better. Trent Reznor, I know last night was your final show in the U.S. as Nine Inch Nails; Springsteen was... well, okay, Trent Reznor. I'm gonna put you in your own category, "Legends Who Are Going Out Of Business Maybe" and call it even. But there is a very good chance that Springsteen was still better.

. . .

At approximately 9:30 p.m., everything I just wrote about was forgotten. Springsteen may have gone on half an hour late, but he made up for it in energy, set list, crowd interaction, between-song banter, and sheer joy. Joy, Mixers, is what I felt coming off that stage: the joy of playing music with old friends, the joy of entertaining new ones, the joy of holding the light and asking people to follow, the joy of following. Bruce wasted no time in wrapping us up in his E Street euphoria, greeting us with his now-trademark "Is there anybody aliiiiiive out there??" before kicking into a run that included "Badlands," "No Surrender," and "Out in the Street." Though I found Working On a Dream to be lackluster at best, both the title track and "My Lucky Day" spark far brighter live, and "Outlaw Pete" felt earned and epic, Springsteen donning a cowboy hat and clearly reveling in the roleplaying drama of it all.

"We have come all the way from the great state of New Jersey to fulfill our solemn vow to rock the house!" Springsteen said, once he got into big-tent-revival-preacher mode. He then vowed to build a house right here in this field, "take the fear that's outside and build us a house of love... take the doubt, and build a house of faith..." This line continued for a bit, turning despair into hope, sadness into joy and happiness, and then Bruce said something about sexual healing and I got a little confused, but hey, sign me up. If Bruce is going to sweat so much it literally gushes off him like a garden fountain, the least I can do is allow myself to be sexually healed.

It was "Request Time" that thrilled me most, as Bruce entered the crowd to collect armloads of posterboard signs passed forward by eager (and well-prepared) fans. First out of the pile was a life-sized picture of Santa Claus. "It's too f---ing hot for Santa!" Bruce repeated several times, then smiled and said if he was gonna do this, we'd better sing. And next thing we knew, in the middle of a swampy Tennessee field, at the end of a steamingly humid June day, under the light of the few stars that had braved the clouds, Clarence Clemons was ho-ho-hoing and shaking a stick of jingle bells, and everyone around me was belting out "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" like their presents depended on it. Again I say: Joy. Joy that continued through "Thunder Road" and even the prescient sobriety of "The River." (That piece of posterboard was nicely illustrated with a little river and everything.) Joy that flagged a bit during "Kingdom of Days." Joy that exploded when young Jay Weinberg appeared behind the kit, looking more like the progeny of Dave Grohl than dad Max, and thundered through "Radio Nowhere" and "Lonesome Day." Joy beyond all comprehension when they wrapped up the first set with the two songs guaranteed to make Whitney sob: "The Rising" and "Born to Run." I'll spare you my digression on the way Springsteen has somehow taken his post-9/11 material and turned it triumphant, despite its roots in incomprehensible tragedy; I'll also not go too far into my "Born to Run" obsession lest you think me nuts. (Listen close: I know he's saying "Come on, Whitney!" at the end...)

I kind of left it all on the field during those last two songs, so when Springsteen drawled, "You can't take no more! You're all Bonnarooed out!" I almost agreed. But "Bonnaroo don't close," as Little Stevie put it, and so far as I can tell, neither does E Street. They pressed on, through "Rosalita" and "Glory Days" before finally wrapping things up with "Dancing in the Dark," during which Bruce pulled up a blond girl wearing an "I [heart] NJ" t-shirt for a Courteney Cox twirl, of course.

The set list, as I recorded it: Badlands / No Surrender / My Lucky Day / Outlaw Pete (initially written down as "Cowboy Jake" for some reason) / Out in the Street / Working on a Dream / Seeds / Johnny 99 / Youngstown / Raise Your Hand (instrumental during sign collection) / "Request Time!" / Santa Claus is Coming to Town / Growin' Up / Thunder Road / Waitin' on a Sunny Day / The Promised Land / The River / (End Request Time) / Kingdom of Days / Radio Nowhere / Lonesome Day / The Rising / Born to Run / ENCORE BREAK / Hard Times Come Again No More (Stephen Foster cover) / 10th Avenue Freeze-Out / Land of Hope and Dreams / American Land / Rosalita / Glory Days / Dancing in the Dark

I was pretty much ready to call it a night right then and there, and had my band been scheduled to play after Bruce, there's a good chance I would have just conceded the victory and gone to bed. . . .

Now THAT review just gave me chills. In my case about 30 years of joy but really - the last 10 years have been the keepers. Since the Reunion of 99 there has been a lot of joy and happiness here in New Jersey.

I'm already looking forward to the Giants shows, but with trepidation. Bruce has already said that the band will be taking a break afterwards. Once can only hope it's a break and not the end of an era.

Glory Days @ Bonnaroo

That's a LOT of people on a farm in the middle of nowhere Tennessee!

BTW, Bruce just joined Phish on the main stage for Mustang Sally, Bobby Jean and Glory Days. I heard most of it on a streaming video site (couldn't really see anything). I see a Phish bootleg in my future! LOL

I was already saying last year that I thought it would be the last of E Street Band but I was wrong but this time I really can't see them coming back in 3-4 years time, not the band we used to know anyways. Danny's gone, Clarence can barely walk and Max' got his daytime job. I'm sure we'll see a lot of Bruce in the future but with different band members behind him.

Been overdosing on Bruce lately, and actually we took a road trip to DC this past weekend, and listened to a lot of bruce with my girlfriend/friends. Anyway, basically compiled a short list of the songs I haven't heard live yet, that I really hop pop up during one of the two Giants shows I'm going to. (Obviously some are much less likely than others, and the list isn't in any order)

-THUNDER ROAD (I have to hear this with the E Street Band at least once)
-Hungry Heart
-Land of Hope and Dreams
-4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
-Born in The USA
-Waiting on a Sunny Day
-Glory Days
-Backstreets
-I'm Going Down
-Ramrod
-Darkness on The Edge of Town
-The River
-Jersey Girl
-Johnny 99
-Blinded by The Light
-Because The Night

Wanna hear Ramrod twice?

I wouldn't mind that actually
Fixed my post for accuracy, on the double posting of Ramrod, and on No Surrender, because that was played at Giants last year when I went.

Land of Hope and Dreams, Waiting on a Sunny Day and Johnny 99 are really good bets right now. Of course, things could have changed by the time of the Giants shows, but those have been standards on the tour so far. The rest . . . who knows?! Most (but not all, of course) have been played during the tour. In 3 shows so far on the tour, I've heard 7 from your list. Fingers crossed that you get your wish, Brian, because I'd like to hear some of the others, too!

(And I've been Bruce overdosing, too. There's a lot of that going around.)

Yeah, I've been eating all the setlists for this tour. Better than most the Magic shows IMO. I know a lot of people think it's too GH (Which is nuts in itself, because it's not GH as much as it's just not WOAD heavy) but I'm loving them, ESPECIALLY since this is most likely the last time the (almost) full E Street Band will be touring, so **** yeah I want classic stuff, all due respect to the die-hards.