New Springsteen single out tomorrow

I finally heard "We Take Care Of Our Own" for the first time Thursday night because some frat boy tool someone at the local college bar played it. I knew I'd never heard the song before, but it sounded like a Springsteen song to me, then I listened to a little bit of the lyrics and it confirmed that it was "We Take Care Of Our Own."

I guess that's the hallmark of what you expect from new material by classic artists: It should sound like them, even if there are updates to the sound.

And, it's a damn sight better than hearing Tom Waits warble "God's Away On Business."

 

Heading down to Philly tomorrow night. Always prefer hockey/basketball arena Bruce to outdoor stadium Bruce, but still very pumped.

 

Great show tonite. Longest I have been to at around 3:40-45. Pulled out 2 audibles (Sherry Darling and Hungry Heart) as part of the pre-We Take Care of Own part of the show. Lost in the Flood, Human Touch, Good Rocking Tonight, Mona into She's the One, a great Working on the Highway. Encore had Rosie, Boom Boom and Twist and Shout.

Bummed I can't make tomorrow. He's got his A-plus game right now and I bet he pulls a lot out, including Jungleland.

 

For you readers out there, just finished Bruce Springsteen and the Promise of Rock and Roll, a new book by Marc Dolan.

It's part bio, part critical examination of his music and part look at his development as an artist. Lotta bases to cover and it does a decent job at times in each area.

As a bio it is clearly strongest when it picks up where Dave Marsh's books left off but there appear to be few interviews done for this book. There are very few quotes and certainly nothing new from any of the particulars. Springsteen himself is only heard through old interviews and numerous pre-song raps cribbed off the Brucebase website.

It spends plenty of time examining his earliest songs and what he wrote in the wake of BITUSA, but I would think most readers would like more on the stuff he wrote from the mid-70s through the early-to-mid 80s.

 

Powerful two nights in Philly from Bruce.

First show was pretty good. Lots of party/pop songs. Opening with a great Summertime Blues after taking the stage to Take Me Out to the Ballgame. Some of the party songs for the River (Out in the Street, Sherry Darling, Hungry Heart) set the stage for the trio that followed from Wrecking Ball. Really nice to see Mona as an intro to She's the One, my first time ever seeing Good Rockin' Tonight. An insane, never-ending encore set that included Thunder Road, Born to Run, Rosalita, and ended with You Can't Sit Down and Twist & Shout.

The next night, the threat of thunderstorms with lightning in the area, prompted them to post warning signs on the video screen that they might have to clear the field and lower bowl if the lightning storms get too close. They warned us about this before taking us down onto the field for the GAs. They message on the video screens included a line that said "This is about lightning, not about rain" No rain or storms hit in the 3 hours before the show or during the show (although it looked like a large area of red on radar was heading toward south Philly). The show itself was a great one. Simply walked out on stage and played a solo acoustic Factory and said it was done because it's Labor Day. Followed that up with four intense songs from Darkness (Adam Raised a Cain, Streets of Fire, Prove It All Night (with '78 intro), and Something in the Night). The set also included Does This Bus Stop (featuring a great drum off between Max & the percussionist), Hard to Be a Saint in the City (with some insane guitar soloing from Bruce), a sweet Frankie (my first one since the reunion tour in '99), a touching The River (played by request for a woman who requested it for her husband in Afghanistan - video crew did a nice job in showing her face/reaction during the song on the video screen; she posted the video on YouTube as well), and a powerful Badlands. A very moving version of Jungleland in the encores. In my opinion, the set and performance were better the second night.

However, after reading about the first night's soundcheck and seeing the video that was posted of part of it, kinda disappointed we didn't get anything from it (None But the Brave, County Fair, TV Movie, and a couple of Philly soul classics I'm forgetting the names of right now)

 

ESJ, I thought night 1 was a great show. My friends who went to night 2 were very split.

Who is going to the shows in the swamp? Going to all 3. If we have critical mass, any desire for an SJ tailgate?

 

Wow. Really wish I could go now. We may try for one more this year but if so, it'll be an arena show. Pretty broke right now though.

 

Don't have the money or time to make it to any shows in the swamp or anywhere else. If I do manage to go, I'll try my luck at scalping a cheap ticket in the parking lot for the Meadowlands.

 

Only going to the Friday night show in the Swamp, at least thus far, but definitely would stop by an SJ tailgate.

 

i envy everyone who is catching him on this tour. sigh. for health reasons my concert days are over. anyone hear if any of the shows on this tour will be put out as a dvd, like
live in nyc' and 'live in barcelona'? that would be a perfect christmas release, no, to satify loyalists who have missed out of his newer stuff....

 

Don't know if any official release will be put out from this tour, but the fan-produced full concert videos, which are numerous from this tour, often have better editing than the official releases.

 

Two very good shows at Wrigley.

For all my favorite bands, I'm one of those setlist a-holes. While at a show, it's tough for me to match the fun I'm supposed to have against the hope for a certain song. This weekend, there was only one moment between shows when I thought "Jeez, Bruce, WTF?"

And it wasn't Sunny day. That song works extremely well live. Really enjoy it.

Now, Lonesome day . . . mix in some Long Walk Home, please.

usually hate This Depression. But it smoked live with Tom Morello.

Night One had some standard moments (Spirit in the Night, Out in the Street, Thunder Road) and a few rarities like Prove It with intro, None But the Brave (!) and Jungleland with all the house lights on. Hate knowing that Lost in the Flood was setlisted and replaced by Hungry heart, but None and Jungleland were both audibles so there's that. Really great show, but the idiot next to me on the floor kept dancing and falling into me when he wasn't leaving every third song for beer or urination, then coming back and pushing me so he could get to his seat. Sigh.

Night Two was amazing energy from the start. Show just moved. Hate knowing that Incident/River were setlisted and replaced by Who'll Stop The Rain, but it was a great version. But the rain seemed to speed things up a bit.

It was a really fun two nights, with great guest spots from Eddie vedder and Tom Morello, whose work on Ghost of Tom Joad never gets old. Great, varied setlists. Took the wife to her first show Saturday, and she, no Bruce fan, had an absolute blast. Bruce remains a master showman.

But I do think the fun rockers ideally should be balanced out by an epic or two. If both Lost and Incident had been played as planned, the two shows would have gone to the next level. Gilette is my favorite set from this leg. But as it is, had a really fun two nights at Wrigley.