Friday, May 23, 2008

Review: Bruce Springsteen: RDS Dublin 22nd May 2008


Opening night of Bruce's 3 night stand in the RDS. Excellent show with some real high points. It was my 4th time seeing Bruce and the band this tour and finally got a few of the songs I've been waiting to hear. Thunder Road, Prove It All Night, Candy's Room, Tenth Avenue Freeze Out are among my favourite songs so to hear them live for the first time was fantastic.

And the rest of the set was great too. It's a big change from the arena shows that I saw last time, the crowd being one of the major differences. I didn't think much of the crowd, although that may just have been where I was standing. People didn't seem as interested in his newer stuff and at times, it seemed people were waiting to hear the hits which never works at a Bruce concert. It'll be interesting to see if there's a difference tonight.

In terms of Bruce and the band, they were full of energy and played excellently for the full 2 hours 40 minutes. Bruce was moving across the stage throughout the night, even did his infamous knee-slide. Not bad for 58. The band were as strong as usual with Max playing as fierce as I've ever seen at the end of Badlands. Mary's Place and Waitin On A Sunny Day were both really good stadium songs although I felt that one of them was enough, rather than being played back to back. American Land was special last night too for the finale. Overall, looking at the past setlists, I got the feeling that Bruce was doing a relatively standard Magic tour setlist last night as he hadn't played Dublin on the tour before. I'd imagine tonight and Sunday are going to be far more open shows in terms of what he'll play. He seemed to be having a great time the whole concert. Here's hoping he saved some energy for tonight. Here's last night's setlist and a couple of videos. I'll be there for the next two nights so check back for reviews the day after.(Photo taken from backstreets.com) Download On Tour: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band Vol. 1 here and Vol. 2 here.

The Promised Land
Radio Nowhere
Lonesome Day
Out in the Street
Gypsy Biker
Magic
Reason to Believe
Candy's Room
Prove It All Night
Darkness on the Edge of Town
Because the Night
She's the One
Livin' in the Future
Mary's Place
Waitin' on a Sunny Day
The River
Devil's Arcade
The Rising

Last to Die
Long Walk Home
Badlands
* * *
Thunder Road
Born to Run
Bobby Jean
Tenth Avenue Freeze-out
American Land

Prove It All Night



Born To Run

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I notice "Sherry Darling" isn't mentioned on any of the setlists but it was definitely played Thursday night in Dublin - can anyone back me up on this or am I completely mistaken!?

Neil said...

You're completely mistaken I'm afraid. Maybe you're getting it confused with 'Out In The Street'??

Anonymous said...

There were a few old album tracks that I didn't know (shame on me) but I've been listening to his back catalogue since. I must be wrong but I could have sworn I heard the chorus of "Sherry Darling" live on Thursday night and made a mental note to look it up afterwards.. I enjoyed "Out in the street" but that's not the one I'm confused with. It's also not on the handwritten playlist here: http://www.brucespringsteen.net/art/setlists/052208-handwritten.pdf I thought they might have played "Sherry Darling" on the night too..

Neil said...

Yeh 'Out In The Street' wasn't planned but the setlist I posted is accurate. No shame in not knowing some of the album tracks, he's got an awful lot of music. Hard to keep track of it all. But Sherry Darling definitely wasn't played. Whenever the bootleg comes out you can download it and you might be able to figure out what song you got confused with.

Anonymous said...

I appreciate the quick reply, thanks. I'll defer to your greater knowledge on this one!