There are two types of people: those who ardently seek out the set list for every Bruce Springsteen show prior to the tour arriving in their town, and those who don’t. Well, maybe that’s an exaggeration. I suppose I represent a smaller, third subset of humanity: those of us who go on the Web and briefly get obsessed with that kind of minutiae at the start of a tour, and then think better of it a few dates in, realizing that when he gets to our city, it might be nice not to know that "Badlands" will inevitably follow "Long Walk Home," or to be completely surprised if "Candy’s Room" or "Meeting Across the River" or some other song that’s only been performed once this tour has the chance of being pulled out as a wild card. (You say there’s a fourth category of people — those who couldn’t care less about Springsteen or his shows, at all? Listen, my little census can’t account for every bizarre variable.)
We all know what constitutes a spoiler in the world of movies — and in case we at EW ever forget, our readers are there to angrily remind us. But is knowing what might be or is probably coming in a rock ‘n’ roll show grounds for spoiling, or does it simply whet the appetite all the more? I’d be interested to know your thoughts, PopWatchers, being of two minds about the whole thing, myself. It’s not as if we haven’t heard these songs and even committed them to memory, so, you might reckon, what’s to ruin? And with Springsteen, who usually changes his set by at least four songs from night to night, it can be thrilling for a diehard fan to know that an oldie everyone else down the row is taking for granted is actually that holy grail that fans refer to as a "tour premiere." (Last night in L.A., there was one of those: "Kitty’s Back," being played in California for the first time since the 1970s, by some fan accounts.)
On the other hand, Springsteen is the rare bird who puts a great deal of thought into the thematic segues in his shows, and if you care about these things, you’ll know it’s not completely random that "Magic" is followed by "Reason to Believe" each night, or that the patriotically sorrowful "Long Walk Home" is immediately succeeded by the optimistic set-closer, "Badlands." And while you can read a set list online and admire the way he’s juxtaposed certain songs in the running order, there’s a certain electrical charge to keeping yourself pure — a set list virgin, as it were — and then hearing one song go meaningfully into another for yourself, in the heat of the moment. If, that is, you don’t get so tanked up on beer that you forget all about the sociopolitical undertones of these subtle song linkages and just start yelling "Claaaaarence!"
If you’re inclined to peek under the Christmas tree, there’s no shortage of resources. Every set list from the current tour with the E Street Band is quickly archived (and added to those from ever Springsteen show since 1999) at Backstreets magazine’s website. They also provide commentary about what was different about each show… which may include disparaging remarks about a particular city’s perceived lack of enthusiasm. Springsteen’s official site also provides up-to-date set lists (in both handwritten and transcribed form), along with a bonus video clip from almost every show. (If you aren’t clicking on the link we provided, remember, the official site is brucespringsteen.net, not brucespringsteen.com, a domain name apparently being held onto by someone who intends to go to his grave clutching the coveted URL to his cold, cold chest.)
As I said earlier, after doing some initial snooping around the early dates of the tour, I decided that "true love waits," so I stopped looking at Springsteen set lists till I actually saw him play Monday night at the L.A. Sports Arena, where I first saw him on the River tour in 1980. I did know, of course, that the show would open with "Radio Nowhere," the clarion call that makes for a great statement of purpose and is one of this tour’s non-negotiables. I didn’t realize that the second song gets pulled from an ancient/inspirational grabbag from night to night; on Monday, it was Born in the USA‘s "No Surrender," while Tuesday, it was the even older "Ties That Bind." The four-song segment that follows stays the same from night to night, and is really one of three mini-sets in the show where Springsteen mixes material from Magic and The Rising, along with a reconfigured and symbolically placed oldie or two, to Say Something About America. The 9/11-themed "Lonesome Day" reminds us of a bygone era — 2002 — when, like Bruce, we might’ve thought that with "a little revenge, this too shall pass" (if only). That leads into the consequences of 9/11 with what, for me, was the clear highlight of the show: "Gypsy Biker," a ragingly sad elegy for a dead soldier, whose buddies gather to send his chrome-wheel-fuel-injected ride up in flames. This is one of the tracks that just seemed to fade out a bit too early on Magic, but in concert, Springsteen and Little Steven Van Zandt keep the twin guitar solo eulogizing going long enough to give that soldier a properly elongated sendoff. Next is "Magic," the allegorically Bush-bashing title track, reinvented in concert as an almost entirely acoustic duet between Springsteen and wife Patti Scialfa. But just as "Magic" has been stripped down, the song that follows, the formerly acoustic "Reason to Believe," has been beefed up into a big blues-rock number modeled after ZZ Top’s "La Grange."
I could go on… about, say, what kind of political statement is being made with the "Devil’s Arcade"/"The Rising"/"Last to Die"/"Long Walk Home"/"Badlands" procession that ends the main part of the set… or what an apolitical joy it is to hear the rarity "Thundercrack" among the encores (unless you happen to get "Kitty’s Back" in its place, in which case I’m madly, almost murderously envious, even though I wouldn’t have traded the aforementioned obscurity for the world)… but then I’d be spoiling it for you, wouldn’t I? Or not. Discuss…
whichever group you are in, Bruce continues to deliver on the promise: honesty, integrity and a shi*load of fun in concert Foryoubruce.com
Well, I’m one of those Crazies that checked the set list every night (and continue to do so). It didn’t hit me until I was waiting for the show to start that I might have ruined the excitement. However, it simply did not matter. The songs still send electricity through the veins, even if they aren’t a surprise. “Badlands” is still “Badlands”, you know? And then when you get two of your all time favorites pulled out of the grab bag—”Adam Raised a Cain” and “Cadillac Ranch”—oh, the joy! I wanted to grab the people I was with and go, “Do you understand how lucky I feel right now?!” In the end, I can say I enjoyed the show every bit as much knowing the core set list as I enjoyed all the other shows I’d been to where it was all a surprise. I even feel like I appreciated it a little more because I really understood the point he was trying to make with the song selection. It was the best. Period.
I went to the 2nd Philly show, which was very early on in the tour, so there were only a couple of setlists to look at (and I did look at them), so I had a general idea of what he was going to play, and that was okay with me. But the wildcards Bruce throws in are what really make the show – no amount of setlist reading would have told me that Bruce would bust out “Incident on 57th Street,” which was amazing and pretty much made my year.
So I say go for the setlists. Bruce is bound to change it up enough so that there’s at least a small surprise when you see the show. And like jzoo said, surprise or not, the songs are still going to blow you away.
I’m going to Cleveland Sunday and can’t resist going to Backstreets to check every setlist variable. After all the talk of a tepid response in various markets, I’m just praying Thundercrack stays in the setlist until Sunday.
“And them tin cans are explodin’ out in the ninety-degree heat
Cat somehow lost his baby down on Bleecker Street”
Damn, I would have liked to have seen that.
I do check the setlists and definitely feel pangs of jealousy when I read about something like “Kitty” getting played. But I saw 11 shows in 99/00 and yet somehow managed to never hear “Incident” so it’s just very random and best not to get your hopes pinned to a specific song.
And knowing I can grab the show torrent helps — it’s not as good as being there but being able to hear it for myself a day or two later is pretty sweet consolation. And we always get kickass Bruce shows in Boston and I’m going to both so it’s all good.
(but uhm if he plays “Incident” one of the nights in Boston, that would be very very OK. Or “E Street Shuffle”. Or “Something in The Night”. Or…)
If you want the history of his sets, brucebase.org.uk has setlists back to Bruce’s teenage years.. also, he has played “Thunder Road” in place of “Thundercrack.”
Ya know, I have never seen Bruce in concert. It has just never worked out. Maybe this time, it’ll be different…..
nice article chris,
i tried not looking at setlists thinking i’d rather be suprised, however with the internet, those days are gone. it was easy in the old days, when every show seemed crafted just for you. oh! those darkness shows. but a bruce show goes by at the speed of light. even though you know what’s coming it’s still fresh. that’s why we keep going back.
standonit
I live in the midwest and it seems like Springsteen has pretty much forgotten about us, as well as the south and much of the rest coast. Unless you live in a lucrative market that guarantees Bruce a multi-night sellout, it seems like he doesn’t have much interest in playing his socially conscious music for you. That’s fine- plenty of setlists to follow from other relevant bands who do play my neck of the woods.
“and much of the rest coast”.
I meant west coast of course.
i think i would die of happiness if bruce played “incident” in boston, but only if it is the night i am there, and not the other night! i was happy in august of 99 when i heard “nyc serenade” — one of my favorite bruce moments ever!
I’m one of the obsessed, too. I know he’s not getting to my neck of the woods til sometime next year, but I can’t help myself from checking the set lists. That moment when you realize you’re town is getting a Promise or Loose Ends when it hasn’t happpened elsewhere . . . amazing.
I am fan of his older material and the wildcards were really what I was waiting for. When I saw the set lists for first few dates of the tour I was a little disappointed in the lineup of songs, but as the tour progressed I saw that some real winners were being played in the mid-concert wildcard slot (“Incident”, “Meeting/Jungleland”) so I had high hopes when I saw him on Tuesday in Los Angeles. However, his choice of “Tunnel Of Love” was a bit of letdown for me, and I would have preferred almost anything else from BITUSA than “Working On The Highway”. But, all was redeemed in the encore. On a few dates he had replaced “Thundercrack” with far superior “Thunder Road” and I was hoping he would do the same. But, to my surprise, after the singalong of “Girls” came the first few piercing notes of “Kitty’s Back”. I was thrilled. Kitty’s Back! All right! The performance of that song alone was worth the price of admission.
I hope that my city gets a concert next year too, but after the fiasco of the Seeger Sessions tour, I’m not confident of that.
I will also be heading up to Cleveland on Sunday, and am secretely (or not so secretly now that I am typing it) hoping for “Candy’s Room.” That said, I wouldn’t complain about Kitty’s Back either, since I haven’t heard that one live since 1980!!!