Portland 28th November 2012 - show 82

Portland is one of the few destinations outside of France where you can take your dog into pubs.

This blog post is only short but it's interesting because it's the writer's first Springsteen show.

I attended my first Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band concert last night and it was possibly the best concert I’ve ever attended. Highlights included, well, just about every second of the three-hour and 15 minute concert. Seriously, it was that good.

He features some of the tweets he posted during the show - a real impression of how this person felt as it happened.  And... you've gotta laugh at the comment by Mike!

The bloggers were out in force that night here is another.  This time a seasoned Bruce concert goer. He opens with this:-

For those of us who have attended dozens of Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band concerts over the years, sometimes it can seem as though you have seen it all - the crowd interaction, the sign requests, the rarities and the genuine "holy shit!" moments - and that nothing can surprise you anymore.

and ends with this :-

For longtime veterans of Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band concerts, it can sometimes be a little tempting to become jaded, or to judge these shows merely by the unpredictable setlists. Part of this, is simply because Springsteen sets the bar so high, that his most ardent fans tend to become somewhat more naturally demanding themselves. These are of course the same fans who would probably scream the loudest if either "Badlands" or "Born To Run" weren't played at all, even though both have been dusted off at virtually every E Street Band concert since 1978.

Those fans had to leave the arena feeling pretty satisfied in Portland. But even if none of the rarities had been played at all, this would have ranked as one of the great ones. The newly expanded E Street Band played their asses off for over three hours making for one very high energy show. The band was tight, the new horn section sounded great, and Bruce and Steve in particular looked like they were having the time of their lives.

So to the set list 

As Stan Goldstein mentions LOHAD was very much a surprise opener to start with:-

It was the first time Bruce has ever opened a show with. LOHAD  

... and Steve chose Loose Ends for the band to play from a sign request - one of his favourites and one of mine. With Drive All Night in the set list too I would've been a very happy bunny that night.

	Vancouver  26/11/12 Time 8.16 to 11.23	Portland 28/11/12 Time 8.12 to 11.40
1	Shackled And Drawn (65)	Land Of Hope And Dreams (57)
2	Out In The Street (40)	No Surrender (22)
3	Hungry Heart (38)	Hungry Heart (39)
4	We Take Care Of Our Own (81)	We Take Care Of Our Own (82)
5	Wrecking Ball (81)	Wrecking Ball (82)
6	Death To My Hometown (81)	Death To My Hometown (82)
7	My City Of Ruins (81)	My City Of Ruins (82)
8	Spirit In The Night (48)	Spirit In The Night (49)
9	Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street (13)	Loose Ends (4)
10	Red Headed Woman (2)	Growin’ Up (5)
11	Streets Of Fire (4)	Jack Of All Trades (59)
12	Because The Night (34)	Seeds (5)
13	She’s The One (29)	Johnny 99 (23)
14	Cover Me (7)	Darlington County (27)
15	Darlington County (26)	Shackled And Drawn (66)
16	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (81)	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (82)
17	Raise Your Hand (11)	Drive All Night (5)
18	The Rising (65)	The Rising (66)
19	Badlands (73)	Badlands (74)
20	Land Of Hope And Dreams (56)	Thunder Road (45)
21	Racing In The Street (12)	If I Should Fall Behind (4)
22	Radio Nowhere (11)	Born To Run (82)
23	Born To Run (81)	Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) (20)
24	Dancing In The Dark (81)	Dancing In The Dark (82)
25	Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town (4)	Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town (5)
26	Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (80)	Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (81)
27
28
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.

How's That?

Well at this time eight years ago Mike and I were sat at the very back of Old Trafford Cricket ground watching Bruce.  It was only our fourth concert and he played Loose Ends. I talk about it in an earlier post  Can't find any good YouTube clips of the concert itself so here's this instead.





May seems to be a good month for Bruce gigs in the UK and Europe so here's hoping for May 2012.

Not much to report this week.  My earlier search turned up this question.  I am the lone Springsteen supporter here under my other name of Alison!  If you have a Yahoo account get logged in and post your answer.

I understand from a tweet yesterday that Bruce was at The Wonder Bar on Friday night and went for a walk alone on the boardwalk.  It's amazing what I find out when I'm just pottering about the net.

Came across this the other week.  Now you might regard these sorts of discussions as tittle tattle but I'm quite interested to find out what help Bruce might have had in the plastic surgery department.  I don't mind whether he has had work done or not.  If I had his money I would certainly be thinking about it.  I'm not sure whether I would be brave enough to go under the surgeon's knife though.  I read an article the other week which described how a hair transplant is done.  It sounds horrific.  If you are interested there's a description here

I don't have a lot of time today so I will end with this.  Those of you who visit Greasy Lake regularly will have already seen it.

Springsteen fan plays the Boss's hits too loudly

A HARLOW man's taste for American rocker Bruce Springsteen has cost him more than 

£1,000 after Council officers were called by neighbours disturbed by the Boss's hits being 

played at excessive volume.

Alan Howorth, aged 62, had already been served with an abatement notice for music noise 

last December at his home in Guilfords. However, just a month later, environmental health officers returned after further complaints from people living nearby.

Harlow Magistrates' court was told that officers heard Springsteen hits including Dancing in 

the Dark and Born in the USA being played at ear-splitting volume.

Mr Howorth was found guilty in his absence of breaching an abatement notice and fined £500 

with £588.42 costs and £15 victim surcharge.

Cllr Tony Hall, chairman of Harlow Council's Environment Policy Working Group, said:

"Fans are used to Bruce Springsteen's energetic and loud performances, but they prefer to see that spectacle in a stadium rather than a housing estate.

"Mr Howorth ignored earlier polite requests to turn the volume down, so I fear was born to 

run into trouble when he kept it up."

• The case was heard on May 3