East Rutherford 21st September 2012 - show 66

Night 2 then - does the 'night 2 rule' apply when it's the filling in a three night sandwich?

It Appears it might do. Blogness on the Edge of Town describes the SETLIST (to end all setlists?) and goes on to announce Ladies and gentlemen … It appears Fenway 2 is no longer the show to beat.


A couple of interesting facts in this review for those of you who like such things:-


last night (Sept. 21), he opened the second of his three-night stand at MetLife Stadium in E. Rutherford, N.J. with ‘Living on the Edge of the World,’ a 32-year-old song which he had never before played live.

But perhaps the biggest surprise came at the end of the main set, when Springsteen followed up a rare performance of ‘Incident on 57th Street’ with ‘Rosalita (Come Out Tonight),’ which is how they appeared on 1974′s ‘The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle.’ That sequence has been performed fewer than ten times in the nearly 40 years since the album’s release.

A bit more about Living On The Edge Of The World from Backstreets :-


The show opened with a live premiere, a rough, loose, and fun "Living on the Edge of the World" that found Bruce coming down front... and completely forgetting the lyrics. Luckily there was a sheet of paper with the lyrics taped down there. Bruce tore it from the floor and read from it for the rest of the song, in good spirits the whole time. At the end of the song, he ripped up the lyric sheet in a moment of comic frustration. This was more fun than it sounds, and though Bruce said it "would have been even better if we got it right," well, ragged and right was good enough.

I like this story of the show. It's a little snapshot of a Springsteen concert rather than a review of the set list. A few snippets here:-

When you go to MetLife Stadium or The Izod Center, exit strategy is important.   With the perfect spot, we unloaded the two chairs for my wife Marie and myself and a little table for our small tailgating feast of roast beef sandwiches with provolone.  

Everyone has a story of a show or song and you all sit around sharing everything, food, drink and new friendships, short friendships, but friendships none the less.

We had great sight lines to the stage that was about 110 yards away.   Everything on the stage looked like it was set up for an ant concert.  But with binoculars and the big screens, we had pretty decent views that weren’t so bad

What I noticed immediately was there were a lot of newbies and we have learned that is never good.  Other than the four folks in front of us, we were in a very dead energy section.

My highlight of the night would have been Jole Blon and the Backstreets review describes one of those only-at-a-Springsteen-show moments :-

Bruce found a "Jole Blon" sign from the crowd, claiming that he had seen the sign for some 94 shows in a row. It certainly was a familiar sight to tour followers. He went down front to the sign-bearer: "How long have you been waiting for this song?" "All my life!" she screamed. From the shots of her on the video screen, it was worth the wait.

So here is the full set list

	East Rutherford 19/09/12 Time 8.30 to 12.24	East Rutherford 21/09/12 Time 8.28 to 11.37
1	Shackled And Drawn (49)	Living On The Edge Of The World (1)
2	Prove It All Night (24)	Out In The Street (32)
3	The Ties That Bind (15)	Night (8)
4	Hungry Heart (25)	Hungry Heart (26)
5	We Take Care Of Our Own (65)	No Surrender (19)
6	Wrecking Ball (65)	Lost In The Flood (4)
7	Death To My Hometown (65)	We Take Care Of Our Own (66)
8	My City Of Ruins (65)	Wrecking Ball (66)
9	Spirit In The Night (37)	Death To My Hometown (66)
10	E Street Shuffle (17)	My City Of Ruins (66)
11	Jack Of All Trades (55)	Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street (10)
12	Human Touch (3)	Jole Blon (1)
13	Johnny 99 (20)	This Little Girl (1)
14	Darlington County (20)	From Small Things (1)
15	Working On A Highway (32)	Talk To Me (5)
16	Easy Money (18)	This Depression (4)
17	The Promised Land (37)	Shackled And Drawn (50)
18	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (65)	Mary’s Place (1)
19	Mansion On The Hill (1)	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (66)
20	Racing In The Street (10)	Incident On 57th Street (4)
21	The Rising (57)	Rosalita (15)
22	Badlands (58)	Rocky Ground (34)
23	Land Of Hope And Dreams (44)	Born To Run (66)
24	We Are Alive (54)	Ramrod (5)
25	Thunder Road (39)	Bobby Jean (14)
26	Born To Run (65)	Dancing In The Dark (66)
27	Rosalita (14)	Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (65)
28	Dancing In The Dark (65)	American Land (12)
29	Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (64)
30	Twist And Shout (25)
31
32
33

My Bruce Journey - Part 49

'I tried to change, I got a job in sales.  I bought a shirt uptown in Bloomingdales'



So I am still listening to The Promise.

I copied the CDs from the box onto blanks so we didn’t have to keep taking the originals out.  These have been on in the kitchen pretty much on a loop for two weeks - even the cat looks a bit fed up when I switch on now! 

My resolve over the stand alone CDs crumbled when a friend of ours asked if we wanted to buy their spare copy.  Only £5.99 - a bargain. It’s a great little package on it’s own. This is now the kitchen copy complete with lyric booklet - ahhh bliss - and the other copy is in the car.  The Promise wherever we go.

I understand from Badlands that you can’t buy the box anywhere on the High Street in the UK.  They don’t anticipate more stocks until February.  Someone on GL said they thought it was a limited edition but I haven’t heard anything.  Mike’s boss’s partner (who you might remember is a manager at HMV) said they didn’t get any promotional material which is a shame as I was hoping for a poster.  Of course this time around Bruce did the promoting himself but I won’t mention The Promise Premier in London (sob!)

‘Aint Good Enough For You’ is the new single off the albums - if you still refer to them as singles these days. It’s straight onto Radio Two’s A play list which roughly translates to around three plays a day.  Good old BBC - they seem to really love Bruce.

The first independent radio station in the UK didn’t go on air until 1973.  Until then if you wanted to listen to the radio it had to be The BBC, unless you were prepared to go offshore to the likes of Radio Caroline or overseas to Radio Luxemburg.  I listened to Radio North Sea International. particularly Tony Allen but the reception after 7.00pm for any station was really bad.  I lived out in the wilds of rural Lincolnshire and I don’t think there was a radio mast nearby!

Anyway those of us who were around in the sixties were brought up on the easy listening of The Light Programme (later to become Radio 2) until The Beeb decided that us youngsters should have a station of our own.  Radio 1 was born and I vowed never again to listen to Radio 2.

But there comes a time in everyone’s life when you have to give in and admit that a lot of the new music just doesn’t do it for you any more.  As an experiment I am listening to Radio 1 now - Tinie Tempah/Kelly Rowland ‘Invincible’ has just been on - I know this only because my digital radio had this information scrolling across the display!  Now it’s Coldplay ‘Christmas Lights’ which Radio 2 is also playing lately.  Being a bit of a sucker for a Christmas song I like this.

At the moment as well as Bruce the A Play list consists of

Caro Emerald- Riviera Life
Cee-Lo Green- It’s OK
Ellie Goulding- Your Song
Katherine Jenkins- Tell Me I’m Not Dreaming
KT Tunstall- Fade Like A Shadow
Kylie- Better Than Today
Manic Street Preachers- Some Kind Of Nothingness
Michael Jackson- Hold My Hand (featuring Akon)
The Plain White T’s… Rhythm Of Love

Can’t say I recognise all of these but there seems to be quite a wide range of styles here.  It might not be cutting edge but middle aged music lovers still have a big influence on the pop charts in the UK.  We still buy music and, yes, we know how to download.

I talk about this because, recently, I have been surprised to find that Aled Jones - one of the Radio 2 DJs is a Bruce fan.  Aled first came to our attention when he was a choirboy and is probably best known for ‘Walking in the Air‘ although he wasn't the choirboy who sang the on the original soundtrack..

 

He now presents Songs of Praise - a Sunday night TV programme featuring hymns and Good Morning Sunday a faith based radio show.

He played a few tracks from The Seeger Sessions on his radio show but, of course, these songs had religious overtones so no surprise there.  I fell into the trap of thinking this chap sat at home listening to classical music, went to church on Sunday and frowned upon rock and roll but a few weeks ago he mentioned that he can‘t get enough of Bruce Springsteen.  I gave myself a talking to for pigeon holing him and needless to say I give him a lot more credibility now.

Not so sure about Richard Allinson’s allegiance though.  Whilst he has never said he doesn’t like Bruce he doesn’t rave about him either - unlike Chris Evans, Simon Mayo, Dermot O’Leary and to a lesser extent Stuart Maconie and Mark Radcliffe

Richard played ‘Aint Good Enough…’ the other morning and made a remark (which I think he intended as a slur) about it sounding like Gary US Bonds ‘This Little Girl’ I am assuming he didn’t realise that this song was also written by our man.




This week saw Bruce play a gig in front of an invited audience at The Carousel in Asbury Park.

 
Oh! - where was this building then?  Having spent at least a couple of hours in AP we are, of course, experts on the place!  A bit of research reveals this bulidnig is attached to the Casino.  We scoured our photos and, yes, we have a picture depicting the top of the roof… and... yet another excuse to go again to get a photo of the full thing.


It's on the right!



Anyway there's going to be a webcast. of this show.  'Blue Christmas' was on the set list.  Possibly a Christmas present for us then?