(You can download Racing In The Street from this show from here)A great concert to end Springsteen's stay in Dublin. The setlist was excellent, with a rare outing for the double 'Wild, Innocent...' shot of Sandy and Rosalita. Bruce spoke about Danny for the first real time, giving a funny story about Danny getting thrown in jail. Atlantic City was absolutely fierce and Spirit In The Night was an absolute blast with the big screens perfectly capturing Bruce's crotch being felt by men and women alike. I don't think Reason To Believe is as strong as when I saw him in December. Then it was the highlight of the show. Now, the absence of the guitar intro really affects the song and doesn't give it the same explosion as before. It was still one of my favourite performances of the weekend but I think it could have been better.
The real story of the night, as before, was in the encores with Bruce pulling out all the stops to give Dublin a great finish. I don't think you could ask for a more crowd pleasing 7 song set. Rosie was a personal highlight and it was great to see them go beyond American Land for the first time. Ramrod and especially Glory Days brought the house down.
Personally, I was in the pit and found it to be both a lot fuller than the previous nights and also filled with people who weren't really interested in the music, they were there to say they were at 'the' event of the weekend. So 'Racing In The Street' fairly passed me by as people pushed past me on the way to the bar and guys right in front of me shouted to their mates about something random, in no way relevant to the gig, which was disappointing as when I could actually focus on the song, Bruce gave a great vocal performance. It's the luck of the draw who you're stuck next to at gigs like this and I was a bit unfortunate this time. Even after moving, there wasn't much relief. But it was still a great gig, with the encores being absolutely brilliant.
So, after the three nights I'd offer the opinion that Friday was the best show. I thought the setlist flowed perfectly and Bruce was on absolute top form. If I had to pick one song of the weekend, it would probably be Thunder Road on Thursday. That was special.
By my calculations (I'm open to correction), Springsteen played 43 different songs over the three nights. That's not a bad return for three concerts. It's interesting if you look over at brucespringsteen.net where they post Bruce's setlist after the show. From that, you can see how much Bruce deviates off the setlist as the show goes on. For instance, last night 'Out In The Street' was setlisted but 'Spirit In The Night' played. I'll take that trade. Also of interest, on Friday night, one of the highlights of the show, Trapped into Murder Incorporated was not on the setlist. Of course Backstreets and Meeting Across The River were setlisted for Friday but I guess you can't win them all.
All in all, it's been a great weekend of Springsteen concerts and I have one more to go next month here in Paris. He's so good that even though I've just seen him three nights, I'm already excited about the show. Not too many artists have that power.
(If you have any thoughts on the gigs, leave a comment, I'd be especially interested in anybody who had a differing experience in the pit last night as I'm sure there were areas where it was perfect. Just a pity I couldn't find any)
For those interested, I'll be posting an mp3 of Racing In The Street from the show in my playlist on Wednesday so check back here for that. Also you can download a 15 track live album I've put together of Bruce solo here .
Setlist for last night
1. No Surrender
2. Radio Nowhere
3. The Ties That Bind
4. Spirit In The Night
5. Gypsy Biker
6. Atlantic City
7. Reason To Believe
8. 4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
9. Growin' Up
10. Because The Night
11. She's The One
12. Livin' In The Future
13. Mary's Place
14. The Promised Land
15. Racing In The Street
16. The Rising
17. Last To Die
18. Long Walk Home
19. Badlands
20. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
21. Born To Run
22. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
23. Dancing In The Dark
24. American Land
25. Ramrod
26. Glory Days
16 comments:
The pit was completely fine in my experience and I did stand in it for six hours, going in and out of it on two occasions
I find also that there is a degree to which you need to live and let live. Not everyone is going to be as obsessed about music! Moreover, the Sunday tickets were the last block to go on sale, so more casual punters may have gotten lucky third time around.
Certainly I was relieved. In hindsight, I would have missed both Thursday and Friday due to work had I got tickets for either.
good reivew though I can't believe you didn't mention the brilliant performance of "Racing in The street" which I thought was incredible and I thought he gave an even better performance of Badlands. Yes, he is a legend.
Yeh I agree that there is a degree that you have to live and let live. But up to a point. When people are really drunk and really disturbing people, starting arguments, all the patience in the world doesn't help.
But having had a completely experience in the pit on Friday, I know that it just depends on where you end up. Not much you can do about it. In an ideal world, these kind of things wouldn't happen but it's part of a big stadium concert nowadays so.
Nice review you wrote too
bongo - Yeh Racing was brilliant as well. To be honest I could have listed a lot of the set. Badlands was, of course, a standout. In fact, Max's drumming towards the end of the song was explosive every night and probably his best moment.
The pit was really great from my five hours in it, I thought it would be a lot more packed than it was. I do think though that the crowd reacting consistently to songs like "Racing in the Street" was only an appreciative reaction, and not just ignorant ramblings. It's not as if you could hear him singing, and I actually thought it was one of the best - if not the best one - of the night. It was an unreal set, appreciated definitely by the diehard fans and not just the random punters who came for "Magic".
In all, it was a fabulous night with a legendary performance from Bruce.
I was at Friday show.Super set list.Was looking forward to Reason To Believe put was delighted with Trapped.Mary's Place was also excellent.Glory Days rocked and Jungleland was a gem.
Any news on any recordings of any of these shows.
Great blog,enjoy Paris.
Was'nt in the pit on Sunday but agree about the crowd, not as good a reaction as I thought there would be...until the encore which rocked. Definitely a better performance than 2003 overall, was worth it to hear them play Rosalita live...at last!
Luck you to be there for the 3 nights. I was there on Thursday. Two teenage sons were in the pit and I was outside. At the end of "Out in the street" I got a text message from the 14 year old that summed it all up. The message red "This is unbelivable"
Paul
Good to hear everyone enjoyed it. They really were incredible concerts. 'Racing' is obviously a favourite of a lot of people on the Sunday so I'll be posting the mp3 of the performance in my playlist tomorrow so make sure you check back for that.
I was there in the pit on Sunday and I did find it a bit uncomfortable... there was a group behind me of about 10 (mostly girls) who were just necking pints all evening (classy birds)!! when the concert started they tried to shffle there way forward and were swiftly blocked off!! that didnt go down too well but hey, id been standing there all day no need to rush forward now that u have ur dutch courage! anyway im waffling... it was my first boss show and WOW!! it was unreal, best gig ever, i also got my hand slapped by him which was amazing, also there was 2 little girls with there father beside me, Is say maybe 10 years old at most? they sang along to every song and seemed to have a great nite which was brilliant!!
p.s. a woman in front of me wrote "thunder crack" on the back of a bag before the start??? was that your good self? :-)
gary v - nothing to do with me but if anybody has the urge to do a spot of advertising, they do so with my blessing.
I was at the thursday show and had one of the best nights of my whole life!! but myself and my sister just culdnt get over the crowd?? they just stood there wid there arms folded like they wer watchin a film r sumtin?? hello!! bruce springsteen is playing live right in front of u.., i just culdnt belive it we wer goin crazy dancin and just havin such a good time and we wer getin dirty looks of randoms? wel as u say it prob depends on wer ur standing but we wer movin round a gud bit and the atmosphere just stayed the same, it looked as though they just didnt wana be there?? weirdos anyways no complaints about the man himself he rocked my world!! an absolute genius thunder road was indeed magical i think i might hav even cried when he played it the man is an absolute legend :) xx
Louise j - glad to hear you had such a good time. Yeh I thought the crowd was a bit tame on Thursday but it took a while for Bruce and the band to get going as well I thought. Once they hit the Darkness material though the gig lifted off. It's almost impossible at a gig of 35,000+ people to give an accurate description of the crowd. Good to get a few different perspectives
I have been also at all night. Agree with you completely that Friday night was the best. The interaction between the band and the public and between the members of the band themselves was magic. The spontanious kiss Soozie gave Bruce at the end of the show was proof of it.
For me Atlantic City and Jungleland were the highlights. After 20 shows and 27 years I finally heard Jungleland live.
Going to a Bruce Springsteen concert is an experience you won't forget lightly.
I am a lucky girl, no holiday this year, but concerts in Antwerp, Milan and Barcelona are waitin'
I too was at the concer and a right load of crap it was,this sixty year old skipping around on stage'cringe' trying to be the young buck,the young boss,pathetic,this 'clown' isn't fit to grace any stage,embarasing in the extreme is what the concert was,an 8 million euro turnover,70 thousand suckers,my ticket,i got it free'wouldn't cross the road to see that bufoon!
Obviously Derby did cross the road to see that bufoon, didn't feel he cud waste a Free ticket I suppose!
I am desesperate to relive that night, could you please tell me, I you know, where can I get a recording of that concert
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