Louisville 3rd November 2012 - show 75

The Cheeseburger originated at Kaelin's Restaurant on Newburg Road. In 1934, Margaret Kaelin's husband asked her to put a slice of American cheese on his hamburger and the legend was born.

Photo by Jo Lopez

Those of you who have followed me through the tour will know I am a fan of a review with a rousing final paragraph. 


There's a pretty good end to this blog.  

it was all there – rock nostalgia, performance vitality, social... urgency, musical might, an epic song catalogue, a killer band and a frontman that made it all seem ageless and effortless.

It was all in a night’s work for Jersey’s man of steel.

From another great  review :-

... sometimes it was the powerful aftermath of real faith — in an artist, in his songs and in rock ’n’ roll — a community of fans coming together over the simple desire to have Rosalita jump a little lighter.


The final few words:-

... as Springsteen later sang in “Badlands,” that “it ain’t no sin to be glad your alive.” That’s a pretty good message ... to push because, as far as we know, we’ve only got the one life, and we may as well spend it at a Bruce Springsteen show.

I think I'll make that last bit my mantra.

Here's the set list.

	Penn State 1/11/12 Time 8.23 to 11.39	Louisville  3/11/12 Time not known
1	Lion’s Den (2)	Shackled And Drawn (59)
2	We Take Care Of Our Own (74)	Lonesome Day (24)
3	Wrecking Ball (74)	Hungry Heart (32)
4	Out In The Street (38)	We Take Care Of Our Own (75)
5	Death To My Hometown (74)	Wrecking Ball (75)
6	My City Of Ruins (74)	Death To My Hometown (75)
7	Spirit In The Night (44)	My City Of Ruins (75)
8	Seaside Bar Song (5)	Spirit In The Night (45)
9	It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City (6)	E Street Shuffle (19)
10	4th July Asbury Park (Sandy) (2)	Streets Of Philadelphia (2)
11	Darlington County (23)	Atlantic City (13)
12	Working On The Highway (37)	Because The Night (32)
13	Cover Me (5)	She’s The One (26)
14	Because The Night (31)	Growin’ Up (4)
15	Shackled And Drawn (58)	Open All Night (3)
16	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (74)	Darlington County (24)
17	Raise Your Hand (7)	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (75)
18	Backstreets (11)	The River (29)
19	Badlands (66)	The Rising (62)
20	Land Of Hope And Dreams (50)	Badlands (67)
21	Jersey Girl (3)	Land Of Hope And Dreams (51)
22	Born To Run (74)	Rocky Ground (36)
23	Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) (17)	Born To Run (75)
24	Dancing In The Dark (74)	Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) (18)
25	Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (73)	Dancing In The Dark (75)
26	Shout (1)	Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (74)
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Penn State 1st November 2012 - show 74

The 16,000 seat Jordan Center hosts circuses, sports exhibitions, family shows, commencements, lectures, and Big Ten Basketball, as well as some of the top-name performers in the music entertainment industry

All the reviews of tonight's show emphasise Bruce's references to hurricane Sandy Rolling Stone
says :-


Bruce Springsteen dedicated a wrenching version of "My City of Ruins" to Asbury Park, New Jersey, during a performance last night in Pennsylvania... 

I particularly like this mention from the same article:-
  

..holding up a sign handed to him by someone in the crowd that read, "Never forget, 4th of July, Asbury Park."

"There you go," Springsteen said. "We can't let a hurricane get rid of that one."

There are a couple of references in the Backstreets review worth a mention.

The first has cropped up before but I still makes me laugh:-

Bruce made his traditional acknowledgement of seeing old faces and new faces in the crowd, and took it a step further by asking how many people in the crowd had never seen the E Street Band before. After the loud cheer in response, Bruce said, "We're gonna fuck you up! That makes me happy." 

The second is something I don't remember from any other review:-

Security had confiscated most signs from the GA crowd... obviously the 'Sandy' sign mentioned earlier got through.

There are some people who might think that is no bad thing especially if they have had the experience of standing behind someone blocking their view with a sign... and we all know that the songs picked out aren't really random.

Anyway here's the full set list.

	Rochester  31/10/12 Time 8.15 to 11.15	Penn State 1/11/12 Time 8.23 to 11.39
1	A Night With The Jersey Devil (1)	Lion’s Den (2)
2	We Take Care Of Our Own (73)	We Take Care Of Our Own (74)
3	Wrecking Ball (73)	Wrecking Ball (74)
4	Out In The Street (37)	Out In The Street (38)
5	Death To My Hometown (73)	Death To My Hometown (74)
6	My City Of Ruins (73)	My City Of Ruins (74)
7	Spirit In The Night (43)	Spirit In The Night (44)
8	Monster Mash (1)	Seaside Bar Song (5)
9	Something In The Night (6)	It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City (6)
10	Atlantic City (12)	4th July Asbury Park (Sandy) (2)
11	Jackson Cage (6)	Darlington County (23)
12	She’s The One (25)	Working On The Highway (37)
13	Cover Me (4)	Cover Me (5)
14	Downbound Train (9)	Because The Night (31)
15	Shackled And Drawn (57)	Shackled And Drawn (58)
16	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (73)	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (74)
17	Drive All Night (4)	Raise Your Hand (7)
18	Radio Nowhere (10)	Backstreets (11)
19	Badlands (65)	Badlands (66)
20	Land Of Hope And Dreams (49)	Land Of Hope And Dreams (50)
21	Jersey Girl (2)	Jersey Girl (3)
22	Thunder Road (42)	Born To Run (74)
23	Born To Run (73)	Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) (17)
24	Detroit Medley (4)	Dancing In The Dark (74)
25	Dancing In The Dark (73)	Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (73)
26	Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (72)	Shout (1)
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Rochester 31st October 2012 - show 73

Ontario Beach Park in Rochester is home to the only antique carousel in the country never to have been moved from its original location.

Tonight's concert was postponed from last night making this Bruce's first Halloween concert for 20 years.

Backstreets  tells us:-

The rescheduled show on Halloween night in Rochester absolutely captured the spirit of the holiday, as the E Street Band walked onstage to spooky noises being played on the PA, the stage lit in blue, and thudded solidly into the live premiere of "A Night With the Jersey Devil."

I loved Monster Mash when I was a kid. I don't think I'm quite old enough to remember the original release in 1962 but my brother certainly owned a copy of the single.  The rendition tonight was played as a sign request but it seems Bruce had an inkling. 

He remarked that coming up to the show, he was thinking about what might be the greatest Halloween song of all time. "This probably isn’t it!" As the band readied themselves, Bruce joked that "we, cleverly, may have rehearsed it this afternoon at soundcheck! How did we know somebody would have this sign?" Set to a reggae/ska beat with a lively horn riff, this version of the Bobby "Boris" Pickett & the Crypt-Kickers classic was also particularly notable for Bruce's adoption of the mock Transylvanian accent for the line "Whatever happened to my Transylvania twist?" and the priceless lyric change: “when you get to my door / tell them the boss man sent you.”

Just in case someone reads this in many years time I had better explain that the postponement came about because of travel problems in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. She hit land in New Jersey on the evening of 29th October and caused tremendous damage along the Jersey Shore and into New York City.  From the stage before My City Of Ruins Bruce said:-


"We wish you a happy Halloween, but we are a rock 'n' roll band form the Jersey Shore, and tonight we carry a lot of sadness in our hearts. This was originally a song about my adopted hometown struggling to get on its feet — it struggled for 25 years, a quarter century, while we watched for Asbury to come back. And we are very proud to say over the past decade, it has risen up and flourished in a way I wasn’t ever sure I'd see in my lifetime. And it will do so again!"

"We're a band that you can't separate from the Jersey shore — still basically a glorified bar band... at your service! So we're gonna do this tonight from our hometown to your hometown. We'll send this out to all the people working down there: the police officers, the firemen, and also to the Governor, who has done such a hard job this past week."

The full set list is here. A few of my favourites in there.  

	Pittsburgh 27/10/12 Time 8.18 to 11.28	Rochester  31/10/12 Time 8.15 to 11.15
1	Don’t Look Back (2)	A Night With The Jersey Devil (1)
2	Candy’s Room (12)	We Take Care Of Our Own (73)
3	The Ties That Bind (18)	Wrecking Ball (73)
4	Streets Of Fire (3)	Out In The Street (37)
5	Hungry Heart (31)	Death To My Hometown (73)
6	We Take Care Of Our Own (72)	My City Of Ruins (73)
7	Wrecking Ball (72)	Spirit In The Night (43)
8	Death To My Hometown (72)	Monster Mash (1)
9	My City Of Ruins (72)	Something In The Night (6)
10	Spirit In The Night (42)	Atlantic City (12)
11	Pretty Flamingo (1)	Jackson Cage (6)
12	Talk To Me (6)	She’s The One (25)
13	Adam Raised A Cain (5)	Cover Me (4)
14	Because The Night (30)	Downbound Train (9)
15	She’s The One (24)	Shackled And Drawn (57)
16	Working On The Highway (36)	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (73)
17	Shackled And Drawn (56)	Drive All Night (4)
18	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (72)	Radio Nowhere (10)
19	The Rising (61)	Badlands (65)
20	Badlands (64)	Land Of Hope And Dreams (49)
21	Land Of Hope And Dreams (48)	Jersey Girl (2)
22	Racing In The Street (36)	Thunder Road (42)
23	Born To Run (72)	Born To Run (73)
24	Glory Days (20)	Detroit Medley (4)
25	Light Of Day (3)	Dancing In The Dark (73)
26	Dancing In The Dark (72)	Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (72)
27	Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (71)
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