Absolutely brilliant!!!!!!!!!

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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?

A stadium show in LA? He's already done 4 arena shows there and Anaheim wasn't sold out. But if he played Pac Bell in downtown San Francisco he would probably sell well. But a Phoenix arena show would be cool. I'm alway's up for a road trip.

April 30 / Charlottesville, VA / John Paul Jones Arena
Notes: A spirited start for this sold-out show, with "Loose Ends" another Tracks rarity to kick it off, just as "Roulette" and "Don't Look Back" started the night on a high at the previous barnburner in Greensboro. "Mary's Place" turned up again, too -- but that's where the affinity between the two shows end, Charlottesville being one where things didn't quite click. Hard to say, but it could be that after more than a week of channeling so much into the performance, an emotional drain has understandably taken its toll. Whatever the reason, this was a shorter show, with a less inspired setlist and a performance coming up short of others on this astounding recent run. The penultimate show of a leg has been one to watch on Springsteen tours, often turning out to be the stand-out... not so this time.

"No Surrender" was an audible, the message not quite reaching everyone at the start -- "Hang on, we're getting there!" said Bruce. On the setlist but not played were "This Hard Land" (Bruce had the harmonica in hand, but let this one go, leaving only "Mary's Place" between "Livin' in the Future" and "Devil's Arcade"), "Streets of Fire" (given the boot again!) and, as a planned bonus after "Badlands," "I Wanna Be With You."

"For You" was tonight's oldie going out to Danny, and Springsteen came up with more fun tales of the old days, this time about how they got around to gigs. At first, it was Mad Dog's car. "That was uncomfortable," Bruce said, "because the Big Man took up a lot of room." Then they stepped up to an Econoline van. "That was uncomfortable, because the Big Man took up a lot of room." Then it was a Jersey Central bus, modified with cots in the back, and Bruce shared his technique for putting his hand down to keep from rolling off when they took a curve. Finally they graduated to "country singer buses," and a memory of Danny, who "fell out of the middle bunk, bounced across the wall, fell to the floor, and grabbed a bag to use as a pillow... all without waking up." Bruce also recalled that their first gig as a band was opening up for Cheech & Chong, and as their set went on, someone tugged on Bruce's shirt with a mesage: "Cheech says it's time to get off the stage."

There was notably strong guitar work tonight -- Nils, as always; Steve shining on "Gypsy Biker"; Bruce taking a mean lead on "Adam Raised a Cain." And even a rare off-night still brings something like "Meeting Across the River" into "Jungleland," with Springsteen in fine voice. Before that magical pairing that started the 4/5 Born to Run encore, Bruce recalled the old days again, saying, "We've always been connected to Virginia. We could play two places in those days -- we could play New Jersey, and we could play Richmond." He also gave a shout-out to his old Steel Meel bandmate Robbin Thompson, who was in the house tonight. That house was packed, a new and attractive smaller venue with not a single seat left open; but it was an intimate setting unfortunately not parlayed into a particularly special show.

Setlist:
Loose Ends
Radio Nowhere
No Surrender
Lonesome Day
The Promised Land
Magic
Gypsy Biker
For You
Adam Raised a Cain
Prove It All Night
She's the One
Livin' in the Future
Mary's Place
Devil's Arcade
The Rising
Last to Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands
* * *
Meeting Across the River
Jungleland
Born to Run
Tenth Avenue Freeze-out
American Land

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

He's definitely toned down the "Magic" stuff on this leg. Probably because most of the audience knows the most obscure "Tracks" stuff better than they do that mixed-for-MP3, unlistenable stifferoo.

Truth be told, these wonderful setlists are typical for the second American leg of any ESB tour. I think that's how they keep themselves motivated.

I've often wondered how in THE hell the Stones can play essentially the same show for decades.

He's still been playing 6-7 songs from Magic most nights though. I think for a couple of shows after Danny died he maybe reduced the number. Maybe a conscious attempt to commemorate the band's early days, I think.

Agree with your last couple of points, though.

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

he didnt play the Far East in 2003. Just a small number of shows in Australia, and apparently the promoters took a bit of a financial pounding on them.

1985 was somewhat exceptional as he was the biggest act on the planet at that time.

In 1988, all of the places youve mentioned were played on the Amnesty tour which wasnt a Springsteen tour per se - although he did play East Berlin on the E Street Band tour that summer.

1997 was a solo tour, so not much expense involved.

I dont think he likes to be away from home for long stretches anymore. Even the 3 week, 13-date Euro tour last winter had a break of a few days during which he went back to the US. This summer's tour is only 6 shows old before he takes 2 weeks off where he's apparently going home as one of his kids are graduating.

For Lukester :

10 minutes worth of pro shot (raw TV?) footage from the first 4 songs from the Greensboro show

<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="

&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="

&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>

Thanks Gazza

Good stuff. Thanks Gazza and Lukester.

Great to see "Meeting Across the River" get an airing.

Personally, I haven't seen him do that since the 1981 tour.

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Barn Owl
Great to see "Meeting Across the River" get an airing.

Personally, I haven't seen him do that since the 1981 tour.

Eh? After the Darkness tour in 1978, he didnt play it again until 1999.

Hey Gazza nice to see you awake at what,4 a.m.? A little nose candy? Just kidding. lol... I'm rolling on some nice vino.

No..having cybersex with most of the IORR chicks, Frank......LOL

Are there any Magic Tour soundboards?

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Gazza
No..having cybersex with most of the IORR chicks, Frank......LOL

Nice my man keep it up!. lol...

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CrazyDadda
Are there any Magic Tour soundboards?

Not as yet, although all but about 4-5 shows (most of which are the ones from the last week) have popped up as audience recordings. The majority of them excellent.

Final US show tonight in Ft Lauderdale included a tour debut for "I Wanna Be With You" (I think thats 104 songs so far) and "Promised Land" as an opener, which is apparently the 18th different opener in the last 18 shows.

Bloody show off.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-05-03 06:44 by Gazza.

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stonesfrk

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Gazza
No..having cybersex with most of the IORR chicks, Frank......LOL

Nice my man keep it up!. lol...

No pun intended I hope!

why fewer songs from Magic? Because the record stiffed and no one cares. The major promotion for Magic was only needed in the first few months of its release.

May 2 / Ft. Lauderdale, FL / Bank Atlantic Center
Notes: With this their seventh Magic show in the less than two weeks since Danny Federici's death, Springsteen and the E Street Band have made it to the end of the spring leg in fine style. Wrapping things up at the rescheduled Ft. Lauderdale show, energy was back up after a little dip in Charlottesville, with the band on top of their game tonight.

The tour premieres keep coming, with "I Wanna Be With You" getting its first outing for an audience that was worthy of the sentiment -- a tremendous crowd. While "Streets of Fire" has inexplicably remained unplayed since Milwaukee, despite numerous appearences on the handwritten setlist for this recent stretch, "This Hard Land" made good on recent setlist teasers and was great to hear.

A long story before "Growin' Up" was about Danny's love for CB Radio -- "a really, really crude version of a localized internet," Bruce observed. In '69, Springsteen's parents moved out to California, and on the same day, the band moved in. Danny, Clarence, Mad Dog, and Garry -- that lasted exactly 30 days, Bruce said, before the landlord kicked them out. But while they were there, Mad Dog kicked out the window on the second floor so he and Danny could go up to the roof and mess around on the CB -- Bruce said he'd come home and find "a lot of truckers sitting in the living room."

In the encore, "Thunder Road" was played for Barbara Carr and Soozie Tyrell. "Tenth Avenue Freeze-out" featured a special guest -- James Michael Brown is their airplane pilot, "and he plays the trumpet!" said Bruce. So with Mike joining Clarence, the horn section effectively doubled. And there was one more magic trick in store after "American Land" -- after the bows, Bruce said, "This is our last night!" and offered one more visit from Kitty to close out the leg.

Setlist:
The Promised Land
I Wanna Be With You
Radio Nowhere
Out in the Street
This Hard Land
Gypsy Biker
Growin' Up
Candy's Room
Prove It All Night
She's the One
Livin' in the Future
Mary's Place
Girls in Their Summer Clothes
Devil's Arcade
The Rising
Last to Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands
* * *
Thunder Road
Born to Run
Rosalita
Tenth Avenue Freeze-out (with James Michael Brown on trumpet)
American Land
Kitty's Back

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trainarollin
why fewer songs from Magic? Because the record stiffed and no one cares.

Yeah, sure thing. The Boss played 7 songs from Magic in Florida.

I'm sure that helped Magic record sales the following day.

Springsteen is a wonder...back than and now....pure soul and R&R...me i just cant believe how good he is these days...i cant believe it!....my fav band should have a talk with him...about delivering....give it all...and...the set-list...i tell you the truth i play Springsteen now more than the Stones or Elvis,Amy..jimmy Reed,Buddy...and Oh Boy!(yes he did a great cover of that tune)....i remember he once played with the Stones didnt he?.....man Jagger should give his whole heart...like bruce does right now..its just unbelieveable i must say...what a shock to my system R&R is not dead!

This power in his voice...the e Street band...its like 78...even the bad shows are good!

stones with Springsteen

Hey Lukester, didn't see your review before now as I've been a bit abscent, it's a great read



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-05-04 00:11 by Erik_Snow.

How the f%&k did Mike Love get into that picture?

BTW, I'm a big Beach Boys fan, just thing Mike is a jerk (to put it mildly).

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Elmo Lewis
How the f%&k did Mike Love get into that picture?

BTW, I'm a big Beach Boys fan, just thing Mike is a jerk (to put it mildly).

because its from the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame bash in 1988 and the Beach Boys were inducted that night

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trainarollin
why fewer songs from Magic? Because the record stiffed and no one cares. The major promotion for Magic was only needed in the first few months of its release.

The fans attending the shows who made it a #1 album seem to 'care' plenty.

Hopefully his wife does not join the Band in the summer - she has missed this leg and shows have been great - when she is there Bruce focuses on rising songs and even some of her solo material is in the show - Let's hope patti stays home.

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Pedro99
Hopefully his wife does not join the Band in the summer - she has missed this leg and shows have been great - when she is there Bruce focuses on rising songs and even some of her solo material is in the show - Let's hope patti stays home.

They played one song at some of the shows early in the US tour last year - then it was dropped. Its hardly a mini-set.