Glendale 6 December 2012 - show 85

When I hear/see Glendale I always think of Jessie James robbing the Glendale Train.  The Seeger Sessions were quite educational it seems!!

For the reviews I'll start with examiner.com :-

Normally when an artist plays songs from their latest release, it’s time for that bathroom or get another beer break. Not so when Springsteen launched into “Wrecking Ball’s “ “We Take Care of Our Own,” Wrecking Ball,” and “Death to My Hometown.” The new songs were greeted with the fervor of the old, with fans singing along. Of course listening to the poignancy of Springsteen’s lyrics, it’s difficult not to remain transfixed.

This reminds me of 10 Things Mick Jagger has learned  His number 10 is - Nobody wants to hear songs from your new album. Well perhaps your fans only want to hear the old stuff, Mick, but Springsteen Fans embrace the new alongside the classics.

Anyway back to the review from examiner.com and their final paragraph:-

There is nothing ordinary about Bruce Springsteen and his concert performance along with the E Street Band only proves it. Given how often he ventures fearlessly into the crowd and tolerates their hugs and handshakes, how he embraces the audience’s song requests, how he gives it his all for over three hours and how he can lead those in attendance as an evangelical preacher one moment and be one of their own in the next, it is easy to see why Springsteen holds the appeal he does. Besides, somebody has to keep breaking the rules for us.

Always good to get a review from a laker on Greasy Lake. He finishes with:-

There's not much else for me to say.  The first time I saw Bruce in 1975 at my college in Oswego, New York, was probably the best concert I ever saw, and a life-changing event for me.  Other shows I've seen have been almost as great, some may even have been better.  But I don't think any of them since that very first time have been as special for me as Thursday night in Glendale was.  I didn't know I could still feel that way at the ripe old age of 54.  But I was wrong.  Thank you, Bruce.  

Hmmm - what about this then? The review is OK but I'm not sure about :-

This wasn't as intense as some performances I've seen. I heard one of those obnoxious hardcore fans who travel show to show (Springsteen jokingly called them "stalkers" on Thursday) complain that the Anaheim show earlier in the week was better. 

Oh dear! Does he mean us?

On to the set list with the Surprise opener - sorry couldn't resist it.

	Anaheim 4/12/12 Time 8.23 to 11.47	Glendale 6/12/12 Time 8.18 to 11.23
1	Land Of Hope And Dreams (59)	Surprise Surprise (1)
2	Adam Raised A Cain (7)	No Surrender (23)
3	Streets Of Fire (5)	I’m A Rocker (6)
4	Hungry Heart (41)	Hungry Heart (42)
5	We Take Care Of Our Own (84)	Prove It All Night (27)
6	Wrecking Ball (84)	Trapped (16)
7	Death To My Hometown (84)	Lost In The Flood (7)
8	My City Of Ruins (84)	We Take Care Of Our Own (85)
9	Spirit In The Night (50)	Wrecking Ball (85)
10	The E Street Shuffle (24)	Death To My Hometown (85)
11	Long Time Coming (1)	My City Of Ruins (85)
12	Reason To Believe (2)	Be True (4)
13	This Depression (6)	Light Of Day (5)
14	Darkness On The Edge Of Town (11)	Darlington County (29)
15	Bad Luck (1)	Shackled And Drawn (69)
16	Because The Night (36)	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (85)
17	Darlington County (28)	The Way You Do The Things You Do (29)
18	Shackled And Drawn (68)	6345789 (29)
19	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (84)	The Rising (68)
20	Raise Your Hands (13)	Badlands (77)
21	Ghost Of Tom Joad (7)	Thunder Road (48)
22	Badlands (76)	Incident on 57th Street (7)
23	Thunder Road (47)	Born To Run (85)
24	Jungleland (8)	Dancing In The Dark (85)
25	Born To Run (84)	Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town (8)
26	Dancing In The Dark (84)	Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (84)
27	Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town (7)
28	Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (83)
29
30
31
32
33

Vienna 12th July 2012 - show 44

Vienna has over 300 Balls each year

This guy often has some harsh things to say about Bruce but he obviously enjoyed this set list 

... thanks to some inspired for a change sign requests and Bruce's good mood, we got a show with some very special moments... the stretch of this show from song five through 10 is about as good as anything he's done on this tour and he comes back with a winner at 12... 

Let's take a look at this: "My City Of Ruins," "Loose Ends" and "Rendezvous" from Tracks, "Empty Sky," and "Trapped." I got "Loose Ends" in Nashville a few years back and it was exceptionally cool. "Rendezvous" is another favorite of mine. I love seeing "Empty Sky" played...

"Tougher Than The Rest" was performed tonight, and it was done solo piano. There better be a YouTube clip of this and if there is you can bet your ass we'll post it. Ever since the 4th of July show in Paris, Bruce has been doing a solo piano slot towards the end of the main set. This is what we call a good idea.

And what about this from this short review

Even though Springsteen was almost 40 minutes late to take to the stage he played for much longer, longer than he was authorised by Vienna city authorities.

At 23.00 officials even had the lighting turned on in the stadium to make clear the time was up, but Springsteen and his E-Street Band were not influenced by this and carried on playing to the delight of the fans.

So Tougher Than The Rest - another solo piano performance. Mike and I came late to the party so we didn't see any of the 'Tunnel Of Love Express' tour.  If I could choose one tour to go back to this would be the one. We didn't go to a show on 'The Born To Run' tour either but I don't regret missing that so much. 

Loose Ends! Loose Ends!!  Mike reckons I overuse the word 'love' when I tell you how I feel about various songs but without a doubt I love this song.  It is one of my all time favourites.  We've been lucky enough to hear it live but I'm gutted that Bruce played it when we weren't there - how could he!

According to Greasy Lake Bruce made a mess of the intro to Johnny 99 so gave up and went onto Darlington County.

All in all a great set list - does it rival Paris night 2?

	Prague 11/07/12 Time 7.27 to 10.42	Vienna 12/07/12 Time 8.09 to 11.48
1	The Ghost Of Tom Joad (3)	We Take Care Of Our Own (44)
2	Badlands (36)	Wrecking Ball (44)
3	Prove It All Night (13)	Badlands (37)
4	We Take Care Of Our Own (43)	Death To My Hometown (44)
5	Wrecking Ball (43)	My City Of Ruins (44)
6	Death To My Hometown (43)	Spirit In The Night (22)
7	My City Of Ruins (43)	Rendezvous (2)
8	Spirit In The Night (21)	Loose Ends (1)
9	Candy’s Room (9)	Empty Sky (1)
10	She’s The One (16)	Trapped (12)
11	This Hard Land (1)	Jack Of All Trades (41)
12	Jack Of All Trades (40)	Because The Night (18)
13	Atlantic City (6)	Darlington County (7)
14	Because The Night (17)	Working On The Highway (18)
15	My Love Will Not Let You Down (4)	Shackled And Drawn (30)
16	Working On The Highway (17)	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (44)
17	Shackled And Drawn (29)	Raise Your Hand (3)
18	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (43)	Tougher Than The Rest (1)
19	The River (20)	Racing In The Street (6)
20	The Rising (42)	The Rising (43)
21	Land Of Hope And Dreams (30)	Lonesome Day (16)
22	Thunder Road (25)	Land Of Hope And Dreams (31)
23	Born In The USA (19)	We Are Alive (40)
24	Born To Run (43)	Born In The USA (20)
25	Bobby Jean (11)	Born To Run (44)
26	Seven Nights To Rock (11)	Hungry Heart (13)
27	Dancing In The Dark (43)	Glory Days (10)
28	Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (43)	Seven Nights To Rock (12)
29	Twist And Shout (7)	Dancing In The Dark (44)
30		Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (44)
31		Twist And Shout (8)
32
33

Lot of talking in this - perhaps a better one will come along.

I'm Riding Down Kingsley

So last week I admitted there are some Bruce songs that I don't really like.  At least two of my Bruce buddies disagreed with my choices - both mentioned Kitty's Back.  Now I know this is a good song it's just that I can't get my ears around the syncopation if that's the right word.  Somebody who knows about music can perhaps tell me.

This week I've been thinking about my favourite tracks from the same albums.  This isn't so easy or in many ways so interesting.  Anyway here they are... I think.  There are others I was tempted to add but I've been ruthless.

Sandy
BTR
Thunder Road
Backstreets
Badlands
Racing
The Promised Land
Drive All Night
Atlantic City

So what would you add, and of course, take away?

Mind you, having said there are some songs I'm not keen on, I would quite happily listen to them all If the man was standing on a stage in front of me.  Just lately I find I'm really hankering for a tour - more than usual that is.  Perhaps it's because I've some money in my Bruce account that's burning a hole in my pocket!

There is some talk on Greasy Lake.  Now, I'm happy to clutch at straws and it's a great thought but don't you just hate it when somebody pops up out of nowhere to say they know something that you don't?  It's not the only thread suggesting a tour in the autumn, though, and we know Bruce can spring something on us last minute.

Had to chuckle at the comment by DetCaptain on this page. Didn't find my way to the beginning of the article but it's about Barack Obama's 50th birthday party.  How come some people hate Bruce so much?  It's such a random and vitriolic comment that once I'd got over the shock it just made me laugh!

The Guardian newspaper is a great supporter of Bruce and he gets a mention in a roundabout way in this article.  You need to go right down to the last paragraph.  Great to see artists are still dedicating stuff to Clarence  and here's Damon's version of Thunder Road.



There's many a time when I wish I lived in Asbury Park.  In a couple of weeks time 'Outside the Box' are going to play WIESS in it's entirety at The Stone Pony.  Would love to be there for that.

Not so sure about the triathlon although I wish I was fit enough to do something like this.  Here are the details of  the route. Lots of places we all recognise of course and I notice they cycle down Kinglsey at one point!

Talking of Asbury Park I was flicking through the TV channels last week and stopped on an episode of 'The Sopranos'.  We have some of the box set and I'm sure we've watched season 2 but I don't remember this.



And last of all this week still on the subject of AP Blogness on the Edge of Town is asking for your Springsteen Landmark stories.  Now I know some of you have them - ahhhh happy memories.