hope you enjoyed the show Lukester -
looking forward to reading your review!

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superglen
oh you did it?
cool!
normally I use the spl stats but they are not up to date
I'm seeing the boss in milan and paris in june
can't wait
btw: the paris december show was mindblowing...one of the best I've seen by any artist...sheer perfection

I'll be at Milan and Paris as well. Cant wait - although I have the small matter of 3 nights in Dublin a month before that.

That Paris show in December was indeed a great one.

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rockdoc8885
IBruce does vary his set list A LOT more than the Stones, yet the Stones in comparison to the Who's recent tour and many other artists, at least deviate anywhere from one-four numbers a night. As many of you know, Mick likes to keep his opener the same most nights, or at least as long as the venue type remains the same i.e. stadium v. arena v. theatre. In addition, there will always be around six or seven closing numbers that we affectionately call warhorses. That is not going to change, and I for one don't want it to change. These warhorses build momentum for the majority of the audience until it is at its highest pitch by the closing number and or encore. In my opinion, no one knows better how to generate excitement from an audience other than the greatest front man of all time, Mick Jagger. ( Iknow Chuck has a lot to do with the setlists, but he takes cues from Mick and has learned how best to put one together from Mick) Many of us may like to see the Stones end a show with Moonlight Mile once in a while or some other nugget rarely played and never a show ender, but the VAST majority of the audience would be like, "huh, what is that? Are they finished"?

The thing is, though - maybe we should ask ourselves why Stones audiences have become like that now - ie, relatively clueless (so the lead singer believes anyway) about the band's material outside the big hits. If so, theyre unlike any rock n roll audience I know of. Does it not say something about Mick's lack of self belief in his own work? Or is it an admission that despite the fact his band have sold something like 250 million albums, that he's actually primarily concerned with providing corporate entertainment for a group of people who have a lot of disposable income but who have a short attention span and bizarrely arent that interested in more than a few songs from one of the greatest repertoires in musical history. Mick may indeed be a masterful showman, but if anything this increasing obsession with playing it safe diminishes his greatness as a performer slightly.

Your example of 'Moonlight Mile' is a good one and speaks volumes. The album that's from sold something like seven million copies (what band wouldnt kill for an obscurity like that one), is the 3rd biggest selling studio album of their career and is widely regarded as one of the top 2 or 3 albums that they ever made. What kind of person - seriously - will pay $500 for a mediocre ticket for a Stones concert and yet at the same time NOT own 'Sticky Fingers' ?

Personally, I think its a classic example of the fact that when you charge silly ticket prices which have little in common with rock n roll, you end up getting the type of audiences you deserve.

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Gazza

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superglen
oh you did it?
cool!
normally I use the spl stats but they are not up to date
I'm seeing the boss in milan and paris in june
can't wait
btw: the paris december show was mindblowing...one of the best I've seen by any artist...sheer perfection

I'll be at Milan and Paris as well. Cant wait - although I have the small matter of 3 nights in Dublin a month before that.

That Paris show in December was indeed a great one.

At this point Gazza,your liable to hear 100 songs in 5 shows.

"It's just some friends of mine and they're busting down the door"

Does anybody think that these set list changes have something to do with tape trading within a fan base? I know that Pearl Jam, David Bowie, The Stones and Springsteen have all done this. These guys have to know the fans are loving all these different songs being played.

he's pretty much been having that kind of variety on a tour for a long time, though (maybe less so on the Seeger tour because only a certain amount of songs suited that style of music) but previous tours have seen 150-160 songs.

To have this many this early though is quite something, though. Part of me thinks he's just showing off. "I'll do it because I can", etc.

All good points Gazza re. the stones and questions I have asked myself. and even if someone did pay $500 and didnt own S.F.s, would it ruin their evening ? Mick needs more3 confidence in his audience, i mean not everyone i bet bought Bigger Bang !!!

in boss' world, things just get better day by day

April 28 / Greensboro, NC / Greensboro Coliseum

Setlist:

Roulette
Don't Look Back
Radio Nowhere
Out in the Street
The Promised Land
Magic
Gypsy Biker
It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City
Trapped
Because the Night
Darkness on the Edge of Town
She's the One
Livin' in the Future
Mary's Place
Waitin' on a Sunny Day
Devil's Arcade
The Rising
Last to Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands
* * *
Backstreets
Bobby Jean
Born to Run
Ramrod
American Land

[www.myfoxwghp.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-04-30 01:10 by superglen.

Thanks for posting the Greensboro setlist superglen. I was at that show last night and I guess some people here are interested in my thoughts about it. As for the music, I'm not an avid follower of Bruce so I didn't recognize about half the songs, but they were all very good. My seat was on the row above the floor and the only thing separating me from the floor was a metal railing and a very determined lady who worked for the Greensboro Coliseum. I tried to reason with her, explaining that the floor tickets cost the same as the seated tickets and even asked her to please look the other way for just two seconds while I get lost in the floor crowd but my efforts were to no avail. By then I think she had decided that her personal mission that night was to keep me from standing close to the stage. I really enjoyed hearing "Because The Night," and I have that Patti Smith album in which this song first appeared (she co- wrote it with Bruce). "....Saint In The City" was great. "Darkness on the Edge of Town" was great however the sound at my seat was horrible. I asked around after the show and everyone was saying the same thing. I've seen some killer shows at this venue over the years, and never was the sound this bad. I couldn't distinguish between a guitar and a keyboard. It sounded like a big wall of noise really, although Max's drums were easily distinguishable. I went to the smoking lounge during "She's the One" and chatted it up with a cute beer vendor who was dispensing some dangerously strong local microbrews. Upon leaving the lounge I noticed a couple of doors with various warnings stenciled on them. I think the one that got my attention was "No unauthorized people permitted beyond this point," or something like that. Of course I opened the door and walked right past an elderly man wearing a Greensboro Coliseum wind breaker and looking tired and probably not in a mood to confront someone. I nodded knowingly to him and found myself.......wait for it.......out on the motherfvcking floor. So I walked over to where my friends were seated, and where I was supposed to be seated, and razzed my nose at the lady who had just failed in her mission to keep me from the floor. I waved one last time at my friends who were laughing at me and then I disappeared into the sea of fans. I saw the lady shaking her head at me. I almost felt sorry for her as I weaved my way closer and closer to the stage. The sound on the floor was excellent, by the way, very crisp. It was like the difference between night and day, or more specifically like the difference between shitty sound and really good sound. I remember Max's drumming sounded perfect, and he looked like he was so much happier working for Bruce instead of that freakish Conan O'Brien. Clarence looks like a likeable fellow, but honestly he looks so out of place or unneccessary when he's not playing that sax. I mean, do all those songs really need a tamborine? Now that I am pretty close to the stage the guitars are sounding really good. That Nils knows how to play a rock and roll guitar solo. Stevie was great too. The two keyboards sounded good. I heard some synth horns at one time and thought it was Clarence, but looked over and he was banging that damn tamborine instead. I thought wtf? you have a high paid sax player banging a tamborine, don't you think a live sax would sound better than a synth horn? Of course the encore songs were superb. This was the 4th time I've seen Bruce, the first time being in this very same Greensboro Coliseum February 28, 1981. This time though was probably the closest I've ever been to the stage. They all looked like they really enjoyed themselves on stage. Bruce told some funny anecdotes about Danny. Bruce really knows how to entertain a crowd. I saw him run and slide on his knees with the guitar in hand during one of those encore songs, maybe "Born To Run." That "Bobby Jean" song was new to me but I really liked it. Soozie's violin sounded great and she looked really good playing it.

I got my ticket from a group of friends from high school and college, most of whom had also seen Bruce the night before in Charlotte. We all met at a restaurant in Greensboro before the show and then migrated to the coliseum. I ran into an old college roommate in the parking lot unexpectedly. He was having a party beside his nice RV. This was fortunate for me because I really didn't want to go inside the Coliseum yet but I had to take a piss really badly. The RV's toilet allowed me more time to drink some less expensive beers. Two guys rode down with me for the two hour trip.....well it should have been only two hours but we had to detour to a radio station to pick up some tickets one of the guys won. On top of that, these guys won a "meet and greet" with Steve Van Zandt. They said Stevie was nice and very approachable. Of course that shouldn't surprise anyone. I decided to be the designated driver, not because I felt like not drinking but because I drive better drunk. I know that sounds cliche but with me it's true. My buddy Chris who won the tickets is a professional drinker and an avid Bruce fan. He'd been training all year for this moment and he had no business being behind the wheel of a motor vehicle, I was going to make sure of that. He brought a huge bag of Bruce cd's, almost all of which were concert boots. We shared stories of concerts and hitchhiking adventures to pass the time.

Here's a synopsis of the concert someone wrote on the Backstreets website:

April 28 / Greensboro, NC / Greensboro Coliseum
Notes: The second of two Carolina shows, and here in Junior Johnson territory you probably would have gotten even money on "Cadillac Ranch" to open. Leave it to Bruce to go for the longshot odds instead: a killer opening duo of "Roulette" into "Don't Look Back." Both were tour premieres, both studio outtakes from the '70s that later turned up on Tracks, and, like "Reason to Believe" in Atlanta, both left me saying, "Okay, that's how you start a show." Charging out of the gate, they set the tone for a high-energy performance, the best of this Southern swing so far. (And as any good Southerner knows, that doesn't include Florida.)

The hushed "Magic" returned to the set after a hiatus, with Sister Soozie Tyrell's wonderful vocal duet. But then it was back to the intensity of the show's beginnings, with a mean "Gypsy Biker." In Charlotte Bruce cut this one a little short, but here it stretched out nicely with a great Bruce/Steve guitar duel. Next up was "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City," sent out "for our old pal," Danny Federici. "He had nine lives, and he used up about five of mine," Springsteen laughed, also recalling Danny's habit of liberating stuff from here and there. A hilarious story about finding Danny in the hotel elevator with a screwdriver: "A towel's not good enough for him -- he's gotta take the elevator buttons!" "Saint in the City" was a blast, ending with a monster guitar/drums creschendo courtesy of Bruce and Max.

"See if we know this one," Bruce said after "Livin' in the Future" -- always a good sign. While the first strains of "Mary's Place" might have raised a few groans from those of us who tired of the protracted version from the Rising and Vote for Change tours, it proved to be a whole lot of fun. Tight, crowd way into it, nice and horn-heavy (mostly synth horns, to be clear, but more than good enough), it actually felt like a breath of fresh air tonight.

"Badlands": you better believe Clarence was right on top of his solo tonight. And after his "Roulette" rolls to start the show, Max bookended the main set with more of the how-does-he-do-it drumming madness that's now a "Badlands" highlight -- as if the song needed something else to pump your fist over.

Leading off the encore, a beautiful "Backstreets" always warms my heart, especially right down the road from the Backstreets HQ. "Ramrod" had the crowd positively roaring before Stevie declared "Boss time," but the coolest part of that one was Clarence lending Bruce his hat, Springsteen wearing it well and strutting across the stage while the Big Man wailed. Props to the Granite Falls Middle School contingent behind the stage and their enormous banner judiciously displayed: "We've busted out of class!" And on a school night, even. You got a good one, kids.

Setlist:
Roulette
Don't Look Back
Radio Nowhere
Out in the Street
The Promised Land
Magic
Gypsy Biker
It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City
Trapped
Because the Night
Darkness on the Edge of Town
She's the One
Livin' in the Future
Mary's Place
Waitin' on a Sunny Day
Devil's Arcade
The Rising
Last to Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands
* * *
Backstreets
Bobby Jean
Born to Run
Ramrod
American Land



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-04-30 04:03 by Lukester.

Now that's what I call a review!! Good shit Lukester. I can almost smell the moonshine that review was so detailed. Thanks for sharing your experiences L'ster. Gald ya had a good time.

"It's just some friends of mine and they're busting down the door"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-04-30 16:12 by sweetcharmedlife.

Thanks, Luke. I've got a couple of good stories to tell ya about my Bruuuuuce adventures - Almost fell out of the upper deck at Phillips (alcohol may have been a factor) and was awakened about 2:30 in the morning with the hotel on fire (caused by my friends in - get this - Room 1005 (close to 1009) smoking Bob Marley sized spliffs!! I'll e-mail ya! Be cool.

BTW, that "Bobby Jean" song is on Born In The USA and was written to Steve about his leaving the band. Helluva a rocker and nice sax solo by the tamborine player!?!?!

Hey, sweet charmer, I'm glad you enjoyed the review. I bet you would have enjoyed being down there close to the stage. Everybody around me looked like they were having a great time.

As for the moonshine, well, I do have a pretty good stash at home in my refrigerator but I thought I might just have too much fun.....my head might explode or something so I left it at home. I did consider bringing it along.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-04-30 04:44 by Lukester.

Elmo man, it's good to hear from you. I can't wait to swap stories with you. I've got some good ones I've been saving up for you, most of which are too inappropriate to mention here.

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Lukester
Elmo man, it's good to hear from you. I can't wait to swap stories with you. I've got some good ones I've been saving up for you, most of which are too inappropriate to mention here.

Allright you boys got to let me in on some of these stories. Mine seem boring by comparison. Plus I need something to cheer me up after my beloved Sharks choke again....The funny thing is hearing you guys talk about expensive beer. If I told you what I paid for 2 shots of Patron in Anaheim,you guys would think I'm crazy. Which I probably am. Let's just say that for what I paid for dinner at this ridiculously overpriced chain steakhouse,I probably could buy property in Southern GA. I'm only half kidding....Anyway,It's been fun hearing your guys Springtsteen stories. Excuse now while I cry myself to sleep.

WOW

Not to gush over Springsteen more than I already have. But how coool is it to have GA on the floor. When we went to the Sacramento show,it was like kicking it old school. Partying in the parking lot and a GA floor.LOL. But I found the best spot to be was back by the soundboard. The sound was great and you could move around to go take a leak or buy a beer. If you were so inclined,that is.

Lukester- thanks for your great review,
so pleased you managed to get yourself onto the floor....good for you.

the songs played on tour so far are now 104.

with 50 or so shows still to be played from here until october, it's likely that the total number of songs will amount to almost 200.

if memory serves me right, on the rising tour 2002-2003 (his last major ESB tour) bruce and the ESB played 150 songs in 120 shows.

Bruce (unlike another favorite act) respects his audience's intelligence enough to vary his setlists.

great review, Lukester - glad you had such an enjoyable time.

Glen - there's nothing scheduled after Europe apart from about 5 shows in the US in July/August. I'd be surprised if the tour will still be going past that, although we can always hope. It'll probably end up being a little over 100 shows.

steve said that the tour will run through october 2008

They're sure taking a LONG time in announcing more dates. They announced the Giants shows way too soon and greatly overestimated the demand there would be for them (they had several more nights provisionally pencilled in, but these now wont happen, so theres quite a few gaps in any schedule for August)

Personally, I think he owes the Aussies a visit, but it doesnt look likely. I suppose those gaps will be filled with a few more US arena shows, but personally I cant see where the demand is going to be for another 20-30 shows there.

Unless he comes back across the Atlantic and ends the tour with some arena shows in front of his most loyal audiences.....

Thanks to Gazza and Elmo...for the links...its springsteen fever on the farm i liked your review Luke...fun!

actually, the turnout on the second US leg is been pretty good. a lot of sell outs.

stadium shows in washington, chicago, boston, philly, LA, toronto are a given. with a few arena/shed shows here and there (denver, phoenix, etc...)
I expect them to be announced by shore fire in late may, during the 3 sold out shows in dublin.

if he owes a visit to australia, what about eastern europe, south america, and the other places where's he's never played?

Hope you enjoy, rooster.

yeah, glen, the Atlanta show was packed and billed as a sell-out.

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superglen
actually, the turnout on the second US leg is been pretty good. a lot of sell outs.

stadium shows in washington, chicago, boston, philly, LA, toronto are a given. with a few arena/shed shows here and there (denver, phoenix, etc...)
I expect them to be announced by shore fire in late may, during the 3 sold out shows in dublin.

if he owes a visit to australia, what about eastern europe, south america, and the other places where's he's never played?

No money to make the trip financially worthwhile, unfortunately. (He HAS played Eastern europe and South america before actually, but not too often)

Great review Lukester.

he played in south am, africa, india and eastern europe only once, in 1988.
australia and the far east only thrice (1985,1997,2003).

Parts of the first four songs of Monday's show in G'boro. Pro shot