East Rutherford 22nd September 2012 - show 67

Jennifer Brown/The Star Ledger

Most of the reviews of tonight's show feature the delay because of the weather.  To summarise - the audience were not allowed to go to their seats because of fear of lightening. Perhaps this was just meant to be, as the late start allowed those lucky fans to celebrate Bruce's birthday with him.

Stan Goldstein describes the celebrations :-

... Bruce's mom Adele, his oldest sister Ginny, Patti Scialfa's mother and brother, plus Maureen Van Zandt came out with a huge birthday cake. This time Steven led the fans in singing "Happy Birthday." Bruce blew out the candles and then started cutting up the cake. The first piece went to his "first fan" Obie who was in the front row. Both Bruce and Steven introduced Obie. "She was following me when she was 16" Bruce said.
Several other fans in the front of the pit got pieces of cake personally delivered by Bruce. He would have brought out even more, except he ran out of plates.

So a very short post today and no YouTube clips out there yet. Perhaps the concert goers are still asleep.

Here are the set lists from all three shows.

	East Rutherford 19/09/12 Time 8.30 to 12.24	East Rutherford  21/09/12 Time 8.28 to 11.37	East Rutherford 22/09/12 Time 10.27 to 1.55
1	Shackled And Drawn (49)	Living On The Edge Of The World (1)	Out In The Street (33)
2	Prove It All Night (24)	Out In The Street (32)	The Ties That Bind (16)
3	The Ties That Bind (15)	Night (8)	Cynthia (1)
4	Hungry Heart (25)	Hungry Heart (26)	Badlands (59)
5	We Take Care Of Our Own (65)	No Surrender (19)	Who’ll Stop The Rain (7)
6	Wrecking Ball (65)	Lost In The Flood (4)	Cover Me (3)
7	Death To My Hometown (65)	We Take Care Of Our Own (66)	Downbound Train (8)
8	My City Of Ruins (65)	Wrecking Ball (66)	We Take Care Of Our Own (67)
9	Spirit In The Night (37)	Death To My Hometown (66)	Wrecking Ball (67)
10	E Street Shuffle (17)	My City Of Ruins (66)	Death To My Hometown (67)
11	Jack Of All Trades (55)	Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street (10)	My City Of Ruins (67)
12	Human Touch (3)	Jole Blon (1)	It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City (5)
13	Johnny 99 (20)	This Little Girl (1)	Jole Blon (2)
14	Darlington County (20)	From Small Things (1)	This Little Girl (2)
15	Working On A Highway (32)	Talk To Me (5)	Pay Me My Money Down (4)
16	Easy Money (18)	This Depression (4)	Janey Don’t You Lose Heart (2)
17	The Promised Land (37)	Shackled And Drawn (50)	In The Midnight Hour (1)
18	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (65)	Mary’s Place (1)	Into The Fire (1)
19	Mansion On The Hill (1)	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (66)	Because The Night (27)
20	Racing In The Street (10)	Incident On 57th Street (4)	She’s The One (22)
21	The Rising (57)	Rosalita (15)	Working On The Highway (33)
22	Badlands (58)	Rocky Ground (34)	Shackled And Drawn (51)
23	Land Of Hope And Dreams (44)	Born To Run (66)	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (67)
24	We Are Alive (54)	Ramrod (5)	Meeting Across The River (1)
25	Thunder Road (39)	Bobby Jean (14)	Jungleland (5)
26	Born To Run (65)	Dancing In The Dark (66)	Thunder Road (40)
27	Rosalita (14)	Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (65)	Rocky Ground (35)
28	Dancing In The Dark (65)	American Land (12)	Born To Run (67)
29	Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (64)		Glory Days (18)
30	Twist And Shout (25)		Seven Nights To Rock (17)
31			Dancing In The Dark (67)
32			Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (66)
33			Twist And Shout (26)

East Rutherford 19th September 2012 - show 65

So here we are - the first of three shows at The Met Life Stadium.  There had been discussions in our house about whether to go or not.  In the end we decided not !

There was a time when going to see Bruce in New Jersey was one of my top ambitions. After this year's European tour, and the rave reviews about the crowds as well as the set lists, I wonder whether it is better to spend our hard earned cash on extra shows in Europe.

Speaking of the overseas shows I'm not sure where this reviewer got his information about the Europeans:-

This was also Springsteen’s first Jersey show since his three-month semester abroad, and naturally some of us were anxious. Would The Boss play the guitar with his pinky out? Would he be wearing a beret?

Anyway back to tonight. There are no shortage of reviews for tonight's show.  Of course Bruce's first show at The Met Life Stadium was always going to be a big event. 

There are the reviews we have come to expect this tour like the one from examiner.com :-

Bruce, now age 62 played for nearly 4 impossibly romantic and superhuman hours. Bruce's energy, crowd surfing and performance was so powerful it can only be described as religious...
...Once you've seen Bruce live, you will have no doubt how he earned his notorious nickname, The Boss.

But from Tris McCall on NJ.com a slightly different take:-

It might have been the approach of autumn that was getting to him, or the prospect of facing a new Meadowlands stadium, for the first time, without Clarence Clemons by his side. Maybe he was thinking about his 63rd birthday, which arrives, like one of those freight trains he’s always singing about, on Sunday. 

Even the charismatic street preacher persona he has cultivated on recent tours is fading away, replaced by something quieter, more reverential and, occasionally, even wordless. During “My City of Ruins,” a nightly dedication to the two late members of the E Street Band, he nearly stopped the song cold to hover for a silent minute at Clarence Clemons’ former station. The natural entertainer disappeared, replaced by a man momentarily oblivious to the world around him. So much of this tour has been dedicated to exhibitions of Springsteen’s superhuman virility. Here, he did not look young — and didn’t try to.  

And this review is written in the same vein:-

I've seen Bruce on stage many time, but this was the oddest concert of them all. Try as he could, he couldn't shake the ghosts that haunted the Stadium, chilling on the chilly night. And the result was a concert that didn't deliver Bruce's magic, his ability to rise us up. We couldn't quite get there. he was too down. It was a downer. It was like hanging with a friend who is always kidding around (somebody like me, to be honest) when they are feeling sad. They try and shake it off but it lingers.


So to the set list.

About three hours before the show Bruce appeared on stage to do a couple of songs acoustically - Growin’ Up and For You.

The set is a 'Patti list' if you see what I mean - Human Touch, Mansion On The Hill and Easy Money all feature her vocals.

I think I'm at odds with most people in saying I like the Bruce and Patti version of Mansion On The Hill.  I would've been happy to see this live so no apologies for the You Tube clip below which also takes in the ice cream story Stan Goldstein mentions in this review.

	Washington DC 14/09/12 Time 8.24 to 11.54	East Rutherford 19/09/12 Time 8.30 to 12.24
1	Prove It All Night (23)	Shackled And Drawn (49)
2	My Love Will Not Let You Down (8)	Prove It All Night (24)
3	The Ties That Bind (14)	The Ties That Bind (15)
4	Hungry Heart (24)	Hungry Heart (25)
5	We Take Care Of Our Own (64)	We Take Care Of Our Own (65)
6	Wrecking Ball (64)	Wrecking Ball (65)
7	Death To My Hometown (64)	Death To My Hometown (65)
8	My City Of Ruins (64)	My City Of Ruins (65)
9	Spirit In The Night (36)	Spirit In The Night (37)
10	Blinded By The Light (1)	E Street Shuffle (17)
11	Jack Of All Trades (54)	Jack Of All Trades (55)
12	Jackson Cage (4)	Human Touch (3)
13	She’s The One (21)	Johnny 99 (20)
14	Johnny 99 (19)	Darlington County (20)
15	Darlington County (19)	Working On A Highway (32)
16	Shackled And Drawn (48)	Easy Money (18)
17	Waitin’ on a Sunny Day (64)	The Promised Land (37)
18	The Promised Land (36)	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (65)
19	Racing In The Street (9)	Mansion On The Hill (1)
20	The Rising (56)	Racing In The Street (10)
21	Badlands (57)	The Rising (57)
22	Land Of Hope And Dreams (43)	Badlands (58)
23	We Are Alive (53)	Land Of Hope And Dreams (44)
24	Thunder Road (38)	We Are Alive (54)
25	Born To Run (64)	Thunder Road (39)
26	Detroit Medley (3)	Born To Run (65)
27	Dancing In The Dark (64)	Rosalita (14)
28	Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (63)	Dancing In The Dark (65)
29	American Land (11)	Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (64)
30	Twist And Shout (24)	Twist And Shout (25)
31
32
33