Just got back from the Oakland show. First of all it was one of the most anticpated shows I've been to in some time. Have'nt seen Springsteen since '99. This was a rare occcasion where the actual event lived up to the hype. Minor quibbles about the setlist. No tour premier's and despite rumours no Racing in the Street. But all in all a great show. I actually looked forward to his so-called warhorses. All delivered in excellent fashion by the band. Who were tighter than a cun's nunt. The new stuff wasn't bad. Gypsy Biker really does become a dufferent song live. Other highlights. A blistering Adam Raised A Cane,She's The One,Backstreets. However in the spot where he did Tunnel of Love in Chicago they played Town Called Heartbreak. Uggh...Patti is only slightly more talented than Yoko Ono.IMO..But for the encore after he played Girls in their Summer Clothes.I did'nt expect anything special. Then he started into Thunder Road. INCREDIBLE. He started it slow with the piano intro and himself on guitar and sang it with an almost country type twang,but in a good way. He seemed to reinvent the song as he went along,finishing it in full rocking style....Talk about a performer who plays with sincere heart,soul and Passion. That was Bruce. I don't know if he has said this at all shows so far,(I have'nt heard about it)but at the end of American Land he closed the show by saying something like"You have just seen the pants dropping,heart stopping,ass kicking,hit making E-Street Band" There was more to it,but that's all I remember. Back tomorrow for more. BRUUUUCCCEEE!!
Nice review, SCL - thanks. Hope you get another good one tonight.
26th October 2007 08:35 AM
Gazza
quote:monkey_man wrote:
Word on the street is that Springsteen is gonna be one of the special guests at the Bridge Benefit this weekend.
that'd be surprising but if it comes off and is anything like his two other Bridge appearances (1986 and 1995), it'll be quite terrific.
26th October 2007 09:41 AM
Mel Belli
First night in D.C. ... I'm gonna get the "Model A" setlist. I almost don't even have to go. But of course I will.
26th October 2007 11:51 AM
Gazza
quote:Mel Belli wrote:
First night in D.C. ... I'm gonna get the "Model A" setlist. I almost don't even have to go. But of course I will.
Some of the 1st night setlists have actually had a few 'rarities'- Chicago for example.
the fact that its the home of Bruce's latest 'muse' might see DC getting something different. Its still a good setlist anyway, I think.
26th October 2007 12:38 PM
Mel Belli
quote:Gazza wrote:
Some of the 1st night setlists have actually had a few 'rarities'- Chicago for example.
the fact that its the home of Bruce's latest 'muse' might see DC getting something different. Its still a good setlist anyway, I think.
I'm just whining for whining's sake
26th October 2007 01:54 PM
Gazza
quote:Mel Belli wrote:
I'm just whining for whining's sake
I'm familiar with that logic!
26th October 2007 03:00 PM
sweetcharmedlife
quote:Gazza wrote:
Nice review, SCL - thanks. Hope you get another good one tonight.
Thanks Gazza. Still hoping for Racing in the Street or Tunnel of Love tonight.
27th October 2007 01:08 AM
robpop
quote:glencar wrote:
I heard on Howard Stern that the redhead does one of her songs. Is that the cue for mass exodus?
Land of Hope and Drrems has not been performed yet on this tour. Thank you Jesus.
27th October 2007 08:54 AM
PartyDoll MEG
2nd night Oakland
1. Radio Nowhere
2. No Surrender
3. Lonesome Day
4. Gypsy Biker
5. Magic
6. Reason to Believe
7. TWO HEARTS - Tour Premiere
8. She's the One
9. Livin' in the Future
10. Promised Land
11. TUNNEL OF LOVE
12. RACIN' IN THE STREETS - Tour Premiere
13. WORKIN ON THE HIGHWAY - Tour Premiere
14. Devils Arcade
15. Rising
16. Last to Die
17. Long Walk Home
18. Badlands
19. Girls
20. Thundercrack
21. BTR
22. Dancing In The Dark
23. American Land
[Edited by PartyDoll MEG]
27th October 2007 01:35 PM
Gazza
quote:sweetcharmedlife wrote:
Thanks Gazza. Still hoping for Racing in the Street or Tunnel of Love tonight.
well you got the two of them back to back, so that isnt too bad!
27th October 2007 03:32 PM
pdog
I over heard a few parents at my kids soccer game saying they didn't enjoy Thurs. nights show... I was still on the fence at 8 pm last night, if I should just get up and go to oakland. However, my wife wanted to snuggle, and hang out... I don't feel like I missed anything to tell the truth, and I'm still a Bruce fan regardless.
27th October 2007 03:45 PM
fireontheplatter
quote:pdog wrote:
I over heard a few parents at my kids soccer game saying they didn't enjoy Thurs. nights show... I was still on the fence at 8 pm last night, if I should just get up and go to oakland. However, my wife wanted to snuggle, and hang out... I don't feel like I missed anything to tell the truth, and I'm still a Bruce fan regardless.
snuggle?
i thought after 15 years of marriage couples sleep in seperate beds.
to heck with that....i would be like i'm going to see bruce then we'll talk about snuggleing
27th October 2007 03:58 PM
Gazza
quote:pdog wrote:
I over heard a few parents at my kids soccer game saying they didn't enjoy Thurs. nights show...
probably similar to the people I'm familiar with who go to shows in 2007 and cant understand why he doesnt play all the songs THEY happen to know (which basically consists of Born To Run and all of the singles from Born in The USA)
27th October 2007 04:04 PM
pdog
quote:Gazza wrote:
probably similar to the people I'm familiar with who go to shows in 2007 and cant understand why he doesnt play all the songs THEY happen to know (which basically consists of Born To Run and all of the singles from Born in The USA)
that was one of the gripes i heard, stuff about new music and not the hits... thety started talking about a Petty tour that was all the hits with great pleasure. i'm glad i kept my mouth shut. these are the type of people who would've hated a 1978 Stones or Bruce show based on the setlist...
27th October 2007 04:07 PM
pdog
quote:fireontheplatter wrote:
snuggle?
i thought after 15 years of marriage couples sleep in seperate beds.
to heck with that....i would be like i'm going to see bruce then we'll talk about snuggleing
hahaha.. only been 7 years of marriage, but 10 together... anyway, even when we are cranky or not getting along well, it's still better with her than anyone else. people who feel otherwise are people who settled for less than they deserved...
27th October 2007 04:10 PM
Gazza
Yeah but most of Bruce's biggest actual 'hits' have come from one album that came out 23 years ago.
I actually heard about one twat in work who went to the Seeger Sessions shows last year and complained bitterly about not getting Dancing In The Dark, etc. - I cant believe that even after going to the trouble of buying tickets and reading the press about what kind of show it was, people still expect something different.
And as for the 'playing new stuff'...he's Number 1 in the album charts and his new record is all over the TV. What planet are these people on? Amazes me that people can spend $100 on a ticket to see an artist touring behind their new (successful) record and cant spend a tiny fraction on that on buying a copy. Shit, its easy to download it for free!
27th October 2007 04:26 PM
fireontheplatter
i hope to see bruce next summer if and when he does the stadium thing.
there is no way i was going to fork out 2-3 hundred cool ones for 2 hours at msg.
i hope he does giants stadium next summer and i can get a ticket for a reasonable price and enjoy a 3/4th day tailgate party.
until then, i enjoy the u tube videos for free.
27th October 2007 06:19 PM
Gazza
quote:fireontheplatter wrote:
i hope to see bruce next summer if and when he does the stadium thing.
there is no way i was going to fork out 2-3 hundred cool ones for 2 hours at msg.
er..the top priced tickets were $99...and the show lasts closer to 2 and a half hours.
27th October 2007 06:38 PM
Left Shoe Shuffle
quote:fireontheplatter wrote:
i hope to see bruce next summer if and when he does the stadium thing.
there is no way i was going to fork out 2-3 hundred cool ones for 2 hours at msg.
i hope he does giants stadium next summer and i can get a ticket for a reasonable price and enjoy a 3/4th day tailgate party.
until then, i enjoy the u tube videos for free.
You passed on the arenas now so you can pay to watch the video screens in stadiums next summer.
Got it.
27th October 2007 06:48 PM
mojoman
By JON PARELES
The sheer vitality of Mr. Springsteen, 58, belting an entire set of showstoppers straight from the gut and working the stage with his longtime band, provides all the hope the lyrics struggle to find. He’s as serious as any public figure alive, but he leaves audiences euphoric — a paradox that only grows more profound as he endures.
The music Mr. Springsteen makes with the E Street Band is grounded in the invincible sound of the pop he grew up on, particularly Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound. It echoes the glory days of early rock ’n’ roll and an America that — after World War II and before Vietnam — was prosperous, confident and outwardly unified.
His favorite chord progressions hark back to doo-wop; so do the saxophone tags of Clarence Clemons. There’s camaraderie in the music and among the musicians. The video screens above the stage would constantly intercut close-ups of the band members with their boss.
Even when those old chords carry lyrics that are far more troubled than those of girl-group love songs, and even when songs expand into anthems and suites (like “Thundercrack,” the encore Mr. Springsteen revived from his barnstorming live shows in the early 1970s), the music itself harbors no doubts, no second thoughts.
Yet for decades Mr. Springsteen has sung about a world that grinds down dreams and betrays the promise of America. Six years into the second Bush administration, he is open about his political anger. He introduced the title song from his new album, “Magic” (Columbia), with a comment about our “Orwellian times,” when “what’s true can be made to seem like a lie, and what’s lying can be made to seem true.”
Playing the jovial M.C. while the band vamped the intro to another song from the album, “Livin’ in the Future,” he started out naming “things that we love about America, like cheeseburgers, the Jersey Shore, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution,” and went on to warn about “rolling back civil rights” and “sleeping through all those changes that shouldn’t have happened here.”
Concentrating on new songs, the set built into something like an extended argument about the meaning of home. Except for “Brilliant Disguise,” a song about a troubled marriage that Mr. Springsteen sang in harmony with his wife, Patti Scialfa, there were few old hits before the encores. Instead Mr. Springsteen brought back songs like “Adam Raised a Cain” and “The Promised Land.”
Most of the arrangements followed their recorded versions, with a vivid exception: “Reason to Believe,” a quiet song from “Nebraska” remade as a harmonica-huffing, John Lee Hooker-style blues boogie, tapping the blues for its alchemy of hard luck into pleasure.
The set’s conclusion was an emotional seesaw: a new ballad, “Devil’s Arcade,” for a soldier wounded in a desert war, and then “The Rising,” nothing less than an incantatory ritual of mourning and redemption. “Last to Die” and “Long Walk Home” contemplated the current morass.
Then “Badlands” vowed to push through: with the colossal beat of Max Weinberg’s drums and Gary Tallent’s bass, the chime-topped keyboard chords of Roy Bittan and Danny Federici, Mr. Clemons’s saxophone, Soozie Tyrell’s fiddle and the triple-barreled guitar strumming of Nils Lofgren, Steve Van Zandt and Mr. Springsteen. When the band paused, the audience sang at top volume: all burdens, all misgivings were cast off once again.
27th October 2007 07:07 PM
robpop
quote:Left Shoe Shuffle wrote:
You passed on the arenas now so you can pay to watch the video screens in stadiums next summer.
Got it.
Agreed. I'm really looking forward to the show. I hope Thundercrack stays in the set instead of Thunder Road. Thunder Road is great, but I have seen it performed live countless times. Never saw Thundercrack.
How the big man? Did he lose any weight. He was looking bad last I saw him.
[Edited by robpop]
27th October 2007 07:22 PM
Left Shoe Shuffle
quote:robpop wrote:
Agreed. I'm really looking forward to the show. I hope Thundercrack stays in the set instead of Thunder Road. Thunder Road is great, but I have seen it performed live countless times. Never saw Thundercrack.
How the big man? Did he lose any weight. He was looking bad last I saw him.
Yeah, Thundercrack is a lot of fun.
Clarence looks pretty good.
Spends some time sitting during the show, but he can still blow.
27th October 2007 08:52 PM
robpop
Thunder Road from Oakland just up on You Tube. Sorry no embed. This person was taping from about the fifth row. Would have been some incredible footage if it was not for heads in the way. Took balls to tape it from that location.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4203560813305669371&q=bruce+springsteen+oakland&total=9&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1
[Edited by robpop]
[Edited by robpop]
27th October 2007 11:38 PM
sweetcharmedlife
quote:Gazza wrote:
well you got the two of them back to back, so that isnt too bad!
Living proof that their is a God and he's a Springteen fan!!
Racing in the Street was amazing. I don't know how many people in the arena actually got into it. But man I love that song.
My one whine. No Jungleland....Wahhhh....But if I could chop the 2 shows into one it would be an awesome show. Ah hell they were awesome anyway.
[Edited by sweetcharmedlife]
27th October 2007 11:51 PM
robpop
quote:Gazza wrote:
probably similar to the people I'm familiar with who go to shows in 2007 and cant understand why he doesnt play all the songs THEY happen to know (which basically consists of Born To Run and all of the singles from Born in The USA)
I agree. I'm really looking foreward to hearing the new songs in two weeks. The new record is strong. I was going to say his best in over 20 years with the ESB, but thinking about it, its only his second with the ESB in the last 20 years.
27th October 2007 11:54 PM
robpop
quote:sweetcharmedlife wrote:
Living proof that their is a God and he's a Springteen fan!!
Racing in the Street was amazing. I don't know how many people in the arena actually got into it. But man I love that song.
My one whine. No Jungleland....Wahhhh....But if I could chop the 2 shows into one it would be an awesome show. Ah hell they were awesome anyway.
[Edited by sweetcharmedlife]
Interestling review about the last Oakland show at Backstreets. Thundercrack and Racing mentioned.
http://www.backstreets.com/setlists.html
28th October 2007 01:36 AM
Child of the Moon
He's doing fucking THUNDERCRACK!? Jeezus, I love that man.
28th October 2007 11:06 AM
PartyDoll MEG
I've lost track()..but I don't think I posted this one from MSG...
)..but I don't think I posted this one from MSG...