The "Magic" is missing

Would definitely agree here. Love the "La Grange" (ZZ Top) feel to Reason to Believe. The crowd responded quite well to Girls in the Summer Clothes, singing the first chorus and they responded well to Radio Nowhere. But the new songs haven't grown on these Jersey fans yet.. besides the crowd cheered louder for Darlington County than it did for Darkness.

The pacing is much better than it was at the first rehearsal show and I think he's settled into a pattern of Radio Nowhere/ two songs from the catalog/ Gypsy Rider to open the show and then Devil's Arcade/The Rising/Last to Die/Long Walk Home/Badlands to close the main set.
The reason they did Brilliant Disguise and Darkness was there was some kind of problem with Roy's electric piano. They were supposed to have played Patti's song "Town Called Heartbreak" as a duet, then Incident or Backstreets, then You Can Look.., but instead we got Brilliant Disguise and Darlington County (got this off the hand-written setlist posted at BruceSpringsteen.net)

The sound was much better last night than it was in Philly. Then again, since I missed getting into the pit on GA, I just hung out in front of the soundboard all night and watched the show from there.

LOL ... wouldn't say he's protected that much, but he does have the stool to take a breather... keep in mind the man is in his mid-late 60s and had knee replacement surgery a year or two ago.
GA for the floor if you're up front just adds to the enthusiasm of the show. Unfortunately my lottery number didn't come up for that.
Agreed that he does need a better closer than American Land.

 

To me, "Girls In Their Summer Clothes" is the best cut on the record. Certainly the easiest to sing, which must be why the crowd reacted to it. (On the tour behind The River, I recall, "Hungry Heart" got the same treatment.) To me it's the rueful and funny sequel to "Sandy." The guy's grown up and he's chuckling to himself.
Love that song.

 

Doesn't it sound a bit like a slower "The Kids Are Alright" to you?

I like the song a lot, but subconciously found myself singing the Who along to it once or twice.

 

ESJ, I thought that Darkness was very flat until the very end of the song.

Great to know that I possibly missed Incident (my second favorite song) because of an equipment failure. However, I think that the song should be played very rarely and that Bruce needs to put more effort into the lyrics -- he tends to read them more than sing them and his timing has been off in versions since 1999.

I love Brilliant Disguise and I was really happy that it was played -- but given the fact that he wrote the song either during or just before his first marriage broke up plus the current rumors about Bruce and Patti, it is a little strange how they sing it together. I did notice that they stop sharing the mic just before the "Now you play the loving woman; I'll play the faithful man" lyric.

My comment about the pacing of the show is hard to express in writing. Over the previous two ESB tours, he usually he follows a general pattern. Maybe the lack of the band intro/story song as the guidepost in the main set changes it for me. It doesn't feel as cohesive and I'm not sure what he's trying to build up to or say. It feels like there is more of a wall between Bruce and the audience now.

I'd still like to hear LOHAD or MCOR.

From my point, some people were singing to Girls, but it wasn't nearly up to normal Bruce crowd (Hungry Heart, Waitin' on a Sunny Day) standards when he looks for audience participation.

 

Great post Fenian.

E Street, can you provide some specifics on how the lottery works for the floor? I'm unsure. How does it work if, say, your number gets picked and you're going to the show with another person or two other people?

Thanks.

 

Star Ledger's blog says the crowd was relatively dead:

http://tinyurl.com/33577o

 

I have had to turn down tickets to a Jersey show and a Philly show and now it seems I might not be in town for the DC show either. I cannot miss this tour!

I'm still finding something missing on "Magic." It might be the lack of a strong piano-based song. My favorite Bruce songs have lots of piano -- Backstreets, Meeting Across the River, Incident, Jungleland -- and I wish there was a track on "Magic" that stood out that way for me.

 

I've seen better crowds -- lots of sitting in spots where (if I were not in standing room) I would have been up.

Billy -- on The Rising tour, you couldn't add extra people to your party if you were in the pit.

 

The average age of a Springsteen audience has to be pushing 50 (if not older). You can't pogo for three straight hours when you're 55 like you could when you were 25.

 

VH-1 live set

Anyone see this tonight from the (gag) Izod Center about 8:15? Silvio's attempts at harmony were overpowering and very rough, to put it charitably, on Night. It looked as if Bruce walked away from the mic one time, it was so off-key.

 

Tonight's show was a killer. A world premier (Your Own Worst Enemy), three tour premiers (Cynthia, You Can Look, Adam Raised a Cain) and I hate to break the news to ya Webster, but we also got Incident tonight... a very enthusiastic crowd tonight.

They way the pit drawing works is that from 1-5 (or 2-5) they give out numbered wristbands, with the last three digits typically being the key part of the number. These will typically range from 001-whatever the top number is. Whatever number they draw is the first number to go in and they go in order up to whatever they determine the pit "capacity" to be. Both nights the Meadowlands and night 1 in Philly there was extra room in the back. To answer Billy's question, it depends. If the number drawn is 250 and you have 250 and your friend has 249, they'll make an exception and let your friend/spouse join you. However, if the number drawn is 250, they let 400 into the pit and your friend is number 700 your friend is SOL. If a case like arises where you and your friend/spouse are one number apart and the arena security running the lottery gives you a hard time, ask them to get Jerry Fox - the person in the Bruce camp responsible for coordinating with the venue how the pit lottery works.

 

ESJ -- I got to see Incident on 9/25/99, and a few times since. It would be bad setlist karma to be too jealous.