U N C L E *B R U C E* S P R I N G S T E E N *

only 2 more to go
these shows should be legendary

There's no denying Springsteen's sense of timing. By deciding to perform in full (and for the first time ever) the same album that gave him the star power and mass appeal that first allowed him to play Giants Stadium back in August of 1985, Springsteen was bringing it all back to where it started in his relationship with Giants Stadium — and those fans who were first introduced to him 25 years ago through Born in the U.S.A. and its seven Top 10 singles.

Even before the Born in the U.S.A. sequence began, Springsteen was reveling in the communal stadium experience, going for full-on crowd surfing in "Hungry Heart." In an impressive feat from both the Boss and the crowd, he one-upped his usual entry into the pit by allowing himself to be fully carried aloft back to the stage. Not bad for an appetizer. Then, after "Working on a Dream," came the main course.

For any fan who wore out his or her cassette of Born in the U.S.A., tonight was a dream realized. Sure, there may not have been any rare album cuts that were to be unearthed in the live setting; many of the 12 songs on the album have been staples of Springsteen's sets since the beginning of this tour, and all of them have been played along the way. Nor did the performance, aside from the song sequence, feature any special nuances or subtle changes as compared to other shows on the tour. But that didn't matter. Unlike last night's Darkness show, where the music demanded a certainly level of intensity from the band and the fans, tonight gave Springsteen and the band a chance to revisit a collection of anthems tailor-made for a football stadium. Tonight was an opportunity to see how far we've all come since 1985 and give everyone, singer and fan, a chance to revisit the glory days, raise their hands in the air and sing along.

"I’m on Fire" was enhanced by its performance after "Downbound Train," and the lost friendship in "Bobby Jean" seemed more vital when played after the message of "No Surrender."

Perhaps in a decision to illustrate how far we've really come since 1985, "Last to Die" received its Working on a Dream tour premiere following "The Promised Land" and prior to "Long Walk Home" and "The Rising," for a powerful combination reminiscent of the "five-pack" that closed the main set during 2007 and 2008 on the Magic tour

But the singing and dancing (and camera flashing) didn't stop after the last chords of "My Hometown," as Springsteen soon powered through a request-based encore stretch of "Jersey Girl," "Kitty’s Back," and "Detroit Medley." Once again, Springsteen's sense of the occasion — I mean, c’mon, we're talking Giants Stadium on a Saturday night — made "Jersey Girl" a perfect selection. And "Kitty" showcased the band in fine form, including another night of consistent and outstanding contributions — not to mention some literature hawking on the side — from the Big Man.

To close out the show, "Waitin' on a Sunny Day" seemed a little out of place after a rollicking "American Land," but Springsteen and the band finished on a high note with a beautiful "Thunder Road" to cap off the first week of their stand in the Meadowlands.


Next stop: The Giants Stadium stand wraps up later in the week with nights four and five on Thursday and Friday nights, Born to Run and Born in the U.S.A. shows respectively.

FULL ALBUMS IN PHILLY AND BEYOND
Three shows into the Giants Stadium stand, audiences have now gotten a taste of all three albums that Bruce and the E Street Band are playing top to bottom: Born to Run, Darkness, and Born in the U.S.A. Later this week, Born to Run and Born in the U.S.A. will be reprised at the final two nights of the stand, Thursday and Friday nights, respectively.

But the swamps of Jersey won't be the only place to hear this trio: the Spectrum has just announced that Bruce and the band will be giving Philly audiences the same treatment when that stand starts next week:

Tue, Oct 13 - Born to Run
Wed, Oct 14 - Darkness on the Edge of Town

Mon, Oct 19 - Born to Run
Tue, Oct 20 - Born in the U.S.A.


We've also gotten word that Nov 3 in Charlotte will be a Born to Run show. Keep an eye on our Tour/Ticket Info page, where we're tracking this info, for additional album nights as they're announced.
- October 6, 2009

screen shots

My Love Will Not Let Yo Down 1

My Love Will Not Let You Down 2

My Love Will Not Let You Down 3

Hard To Be A Saint 1

Hard To Be A Saint 2

Hard To Be A Saint 3


i have an extra pair
downstairs
sec 122
row 35 7/8
final show at giants stadium
will forego TM costs .

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/arts/ ... .html?_r=1




Music Review | Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
For Springsteen and Giants Stadium, a Last Dance
Todd Heisler/The New York Times
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performing at their final Giants Stadium concert on Friday night.



Published: October 10, 2009
EAST RUTHERFORD — Giants Stadium heard its last sha-la-las — at least, the amplified kind with tens of thousands of voices singing along — on Friday night, when Bruce Springsteen played the final concert before the stadium is demolished. During the three-hour set, sha-la-las filled this year’s “Working on a Dream,” the 1984 song “Darlington County” and Tom Waits’ “Jersey Girl,” the finale that Mr. Springsteen called the stadium’s “last dance.” It was Mr. Springsteen’s 24th performance, dating back to 1985, at Giants Stadium, where the audiences are his most fervent fans: fellow New Jerseyans.

Todd Heisler/The New York Times
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performing at their final Giants Stadium concert on Friday night.
So in a way, Mr. Springsteen could identify with the place, and he did — at least half-seriously — in “Wrecking Ball,” a robust, guitar-strumming song he wrote to start off each of his five final concerts at the stadium. (A video performance is at brucespringsteen.net.)

It may be the only song ever to make Giants Stadium itself the narrator, “raised out of steel in the swamps of Jersey.” It remembers games played and blood spilled, and envisions the stadium’s fate, when “all this steel and these stories, they drift away to rust/and all our youth and beauty’s been given to the dust.” Typically, Mr. Springsteen was thinking about work, mortality, and a sense of place, on his way to a chorus where everyone could join in.

He wasn’t overly sentimental. Later, he pointedly called Giants Stadium “the last bastion of affordable sports seating.”

At each of the Giants Stadium concerts, Mr. Springsteen played one of his albums all the way through, and the one he chose for Friday was his 1984 blockbuster, “Born in the U.S.A.” Before he started the title track, he said it was “the song we started out with the first time we entered this arena.”

The album inaugurated Mr. Springsteen’s stadium era, when he strove to draw mass audiences, though still on his own terms. “Born in the U.S.A.” is an album of big riffs and broad strokes. It was also an album about home: a country (the U.S.A.), a hometown (“My Hometown”), and houses holding personal memories. And it was a paradox.

The lyrics, by and large, are about hard times and irreparable losses. Mr. Springsteen had hits with “Born in the U.S.A.,” about a neglected Vietnam veteran, and “Dancing in the Dark,” about depression with the barest glimmer of hope. Yet most of the music is celebratory, brazening through setbacks with rock and roll: theRolling Stones twang of “Darlington County,” the merry carousel-organ chords of “Glory Days,” or the rockabilly boogie of “Working on the Highway,” which ends with its narrator in prison.

The musicians who made “Born in the U.S.A.” are all still in Mr. Springsteen’s E Street Band except for the keyboardist Danny Federici, who died last year. The concert had no celebrity guest performers; this was the home team.

Performing the album 25 years later, Mr. Springsteen sang with deeper nuance; he was more desperate in “Born in the U.S.A.,” angrier in “I’m Goin’ Down.” And the band has slightly bulked up the music without cluttering it. There was a seismic drum interlude by Max Weinberg in “Born in the U.S.A.,” and Nils Lofgren played frantic, searing guitar solos in “Cover Me.” The songs have not faded.

The rest of the concert spanned Mr. Springsteen’s major-label career, reaching back to “Spirit in the Night” from his 1973 debut album. It reaffirmed the band’s camaraderie; Mr. Springsteen kissed both Patti Scialfa, his wife and E Street backup singer, and Clarence Clemons, the band’s saxophonist. The set riffled through styles, from the swinging “Kitty’s Back” (with Roy Bittan splashing jazzy piano chords and Mr. Springsteen playing barbed, bluesy lead guitar), to

the Irish jig of “American Land,” to chiming anthems like “Badlands.”

There was a glimpse of politics, in “Last To Die,” and a rush of redemption in “The Rising” and “Born To Run” (which had Jay Weinberg, Max’s son and occasional E Street Band replacement, on drums.) And there was the constantly renewed bond between Mr. Springsteen and his audience. He strolled walkways where fans grabbed his legs, he picked up signs with requests — choosing “the perfect request for this evening,” the Rolling Stones song “The Last Time” — and he crowd-surfed in “Hungry Heart.” The video screens kept intercutting Mr. Springsteen and the musicians with fans singing, verses and choruses, as if to say the songs were theirs now, too.

They were songs full of hardworking people, and Mr. Springsteen’s last goodbye to his home stadium was to them: he dedicated “Jersey Girl” to “all the crew and staff that’s worked all these years at Giants Stadium.” Some had probably been singing “sha-la-la” too.