I'm So Excited

So who's getting excited then? - ME!!!!!!.

Only three weeks until the new album and only 130 days (or if you prefer 3120 hours or 187200 minutes or even 11232000 seconds) until my first gig of the new tour. By then Bruce will have already done 35 concerts so, being an avid set list watcher, I will pretty much know what the nightly staples will be.

There'll be time for him to change it around a bit if it's not working.  There were only six new songs in the set list at at the beginning of the Working on a Dream tour. By the time we saw him in Dublin they'd been whittled down to three. 

On The Rising tour there were 11 new songs in the set when the tour started in August 2002.  All of these were still present and correct when we saw Bruce at Wembley Arena in October.  By the time Old Trafford came around in May the following year 9 songs were still there. At the time the band remarked how quickly the fans had taken to The Rising - do I remember this from interviews they did prior to televising the show from Barcelona? 

We all know that Bruce has a pretty good feel for the audience, so what we hear this tour, may depend on how well he percieves the new stuff is going down.

Of course there are other new (old) songs for Bruce to draw on, as he hasn't been out and about much since The Promise was released.  Now, I really like The Promise and I had hoped, at the time that Bruce would tour with it. Who knows I may like Wrecking Ball just as much but I'd still love to hear, perhaps, Wrong Side of the Street or The Brokenhearted or better still It's A Shame.

When I first heard It's a Shame I thought it would have been a great song for Southside Johnny but Bruce must have wanted to hold onto it himself at the time. The song has horns - lots of them - a great fit for The Jukes. 

Now we know what Bruce has in store for us. Perfectly described here. I quote in part:

Can we call them the new Miami Horns??? Yes it will take 5 accomplished, mortal men to replace one Big Man! When Bruce Spingsteen hits the road next month, he will have a 5-piece horn section which will include Ed Mannion and Jake Clemons (Clarence's nephew) on sax, Barry Danielan and Curt Ramm on trumpet and Clark Gayton on trombone.

Most impressive, Boss!!!

So Bruce a horns section. It would be a shame not to play It's a Shame. 

I might have an ally here in Little Steven

I think we share the same music taste as second album of Tracks is also one of my faves.  Give me Loose Ends or Where The Bands Are any day.  Actually I've been lucky enough to hear both of these live already but a second time wouldn't hurt.

Anyway, before all that, the thing that has me brimming over with excitement today are The Grammys.  I can't wait to see this first live performance of We Take Care of Our Own.  Apparently it went down a storm at rehearsals according to The Toronto Sun:

The 62-year-old singer-guitarist took to the stage at L.A.'s Staples Center to perform his new single We Take Care of Our Own, but quickly turned the normally subdued rehearsal process into an energized mini-concert for a few hundred lucky onlookers.

Accompanied by a string section and backed by his long-serving band — minus sax player Clarence Clemons, who died last year — Springsteen delivered several powerful, commanding performances of the song. Although it was ostensibly just a runthrough for TV and technical crews, The Boss played and sang as if he were in a sold-out arena instead of a nearly empty one. Clad in a black-leather jacket over jeans and a V-neck T-shirt, he windmilled and slashed away at the strings of his Telecaster, at one point jumping onto his upturned Marshall speaker cabinets to commune with drummer Max Weinberg. Between takes, he helped teach the string section their parts, standing on an amp to conduct. "They sound good," he enthused. "We're getting there. Almost."

Springsteen's performances — which generated more interest and applause than any Grammy rehearsal I've seen — was an early highlight on the second day of prep for the 54th annual awards.

Here in the UK when anything like this is on there is always much discussion beforehand about whether or not we will be able to see it.  As I write this we are thinking we might have access to the live stream. It'll involve staying up until 1.00am though and I have work in the morning. I understand there will be highlights on UK TV on Monday night - nearly as late though 12.30am!...so actually Tuesday morning.

So my friends over the pond we are relying on you to get something up on YouTube by the time we are up and about on Monday morning.