Bruuuuuce

One of the biggest excitements of my recent holiday was going to see Bruce Springsteen in concert. I’d been getting very worked up about going to see him, despite the fact that I think the latest album Working on a Dream is awful. It’s not like he was going to play the new album and get off stage though, so I knew I was still going to get a setlist of classics. For posterity, here’s the setlist;

Badlands
Out In The Street
My Lucky Day
She’s The One
Outlaw Pete
Working On The Highway
Working On A Dream
Seeds
Johnny 99
Atlantic City
Incident on 57th Street
Pink Cadillac
Cover Me
Waiting On A Sunny Day
The Promised Land
The River
Kingdom Of Days
Radio Nowhere
Lonesome Day
The Rising
Born To Run

Hard Times
Thunder Road
American Land
Bobby Jean
Dancing In The Dark

Twist and Shout

Barely a handful of new songs which definitely worked for me. However, I still came away a bit disappointed. This was my first stadium gig and it will likely be either my last or the first of very few to come. If you’re not in the pit (which we weren’t) you rely on the big screens at the sides of the stage to see what’s happening. In my case, I exchanged my normal head bobbing to see the stage for head bobbing to see a screen.

The sound was also disappointing. While the man himself was clear, the other members seemed to merge into a big sound mess. The drums and vocals echoed off the stands (according to a bloke stood near me, that hadn’t been the case for AC/DC the previous week) and it all felt a little impersonal. This is a direct contrast to the amount of fun I’ve had watching video bootlegs of previous E Street Band shows.

By the time American Land came round, I left the standing area and moved to the top of the stands in order to get away sharpish. It was almost more enjoyable at that point as I wasn’t wasting effort trying to see anything as all I could see was the side of the stage structure.

There are recordings of the show starting to appear and I’m really looking forward to rediscovering what I was present for. I don’t regret going for a second, I got to see the Boss and hear some of my favourite songs done live. However, if he were to do a Tom Waits and come round playing smaller, more intimate venues with a price tag to match I wouldn’t hesitate to pay my money down.