I was at the Bruce gig at Hyde Park last night, and I thought he was brilliant. Seeing as I'm tired I'll write some notes rather than a review;

1. No I'm Goin' Down, but he definitely played Jungleland! He said to one of his roadies, "Gimme that sign", and the roadie went and got the wrong one! So then he got the right one and the band launched into their greatest song.
2. The crowd were absolutely fucking shite. Barely any singing along or dancing. For the first two songs I might have been standing next to a bunch of statues.
3. He played some "Irish Pixie music". No idea what it was, but I went to see Bruce to hear his great tunes, not some ridiculous family fun music.
4. Born To Run got a predictably massive singalong. Lovin' it.
5. No proper guest appearance like McCartney joining Neil the night before, just the bloke from The Gaslight Anthem.
6. Good setlist, I thought. But then, I'm not a diehard.

I'll think of more notes later :D

Um that was probably American Land...one of Bruce's own songs ;)

And you got Youngstown! So you have no right to complain about any aspect of the show. Even if Bruce shouted out "You're all a bunch of mother****ers" you let him get away with it because he played Youngstown.

As Kathleen said Jon and Richie are in London mixing the new album, the Radio guys said he was definitely at the side of stage.

It's not such a leap of faith to imagine Jon at a Bruce Springsteen show now is it?

Dammit, if Jon and/or Richie were there and didn't perform, and I didn't even see them, I will be sad! :(

I think I may have been a bit harsh with my appraisal last night, I did feel *the magic* at times, but sometimes I got a little bit bored as well. Now I fully except the main responsibility for that, being as before about five days ago I wasn't at all familiar with more than about 10 Springsteen songs and the new album, and that a three hour concert if I had known all the songs played would have been immense, but still .... it's all down to personal experience, y'know? And on that note, I realise that complaining about a Springsteen setlist is a tad unfair when he mixes it up so much and plays so many fan requests, but still, there were a few songs I expected and was looking forward to that weren't played ... I wasn't stupid enough to expect Born In The USA, but looking back over the setlists from this tour, I figured My Lucky Day, Ghost of Tom Joad, and possibly The River would be there, but ah well.

Some other notes:

* Opening with London Calling was cool
* The rest of the first few songs washed over me, I'm not too familiar with Badlands, just enough to have been able to work out what it was, and I didn't know the next two. Plus, it seemed like Bruce's voice was a bit too low in the mix at times, something which always annoys me in live performances.
*Outlaw Pete was where it all came together for me, I thoroughly enjoyed their performance of it.
*I can't remember what song it was, but when Bruce walked down the steps to run around and get close to the front rows, then came back up and was saying "Someone get me a ****ing elevator, I'm ****ing 60!" ... that was a fun moment :D
*I'd never heard Out On The Street before, but to me it sounds like Bon Jovi drew some inspiration for Who Says You Can't Go Home from here ...
*Although I hadn't heard Youngstown before I enjoyed it, same for Johnny 99 before it
*When Bruce went back to the front row and just took everyone's signs, then played 3 sign requests in a row, that was awesome! I hadn't heard Bobby Jean, but Trapped was one of the songs that stood out to me with all my Boss-education of the last few days, so that was great, as was No Surrender.
*I guess Racing In The Street was the slow/somber song played before Radio Nowhere? Never heard that before, but it was a really powerful performance.
*Decent, although not amazing performance of Radio Nowhere. It almost seemed to me like Bruce was having a bit of trouble getting back in the party mood after Racing In The Street.
*The rest of the main set was decent, three more songs I knew, good performances of all of them, from Radio Nowhere onwards finally gave me a chance to sing along! :)
*Jungleland was epic, 'nuff said!
*The final one-two of Glory Days and Dancing In The Dark was a good ending
*I really liked the dynamics with in the band, how they'd all be playing different instruments for different songs, how they all took turns at the mic, and how there was so much going on to watch.
*All in all, I did really enjoy quite a lot of it, just there were a fair few times when my attention wavered a bit ... which as I have said, is mostly my fault

Some more notes;

7. Nils played some huge fuck off guitar solo at the end of one of the songs. It was brilliant, even Bruce was digging it. Too bad I can't remember what song it was :(
8. Out On The Street shits of Who Says in every way. It's obvious Jon got the inspiration from it, but his ripoffs never seem to go to plan. It was great.
9. Outlaw Pete was fucking brilliant, never even liked that song before, but now I certainly do. Actually got a much bigger singalong than London's Calling and Badlands.
10. Nobody took Courtney Cox's place in Dancing In The Dark :( , which was a top ending, by the way.
11. It was good that he played a shitload of requests. I didn't know some of the songs, but they were all good.
12. I liked Radio Nowhere alot better live, and I don't generally like that song much.

Was it Youngstown? I think Nils does that solo - btw you should check out Youngstown on the Live In NYC album, it's mind-blowing.

That would have been Youngstown - a kickass song all the way around.

I'm glad to see most of you guys enjoyed it. My husband describes Bruce's shows as the closest thing he will ever have to a religious experience.

You're right, Oli. It would have been Youngstown. And Paul, on this tour, you either get Youngstown or The Ghost of Tom Joad in that slot. (I've heard Tom Joad at all 3 of my shows so far and am hoping to hear Youngstown.) Both have massive solos from Nils.

EDIT -- Kathleen beat me to it! LOL

I'm suprised at how fast I'm learning things about Springsteen, I've only been heavily listening to him for a couple of months or so :)

I'm hoping to get Youngstown instead of Tom Joad, as Youngstown is not just one of my favourite Springsteen songs but perhaps one of my favourite all time songs, in both original and electric form :)

Whereas I don't like electric Tom Joad...so if I do get that let's hope it's an acoustic version :p Hey, I can dream...

And I LOVE the electric version of Tom Joad - it's been one of the highlights of this tour in my opinion. Not that I don't like the original acoustic version - but in an arena or at a big show, I think the electric version fits a bit better.