sweetcharmedlife wrote on Mar 29^th, 2009 at 12:39pm:

Hey SCL, have a wicked pissah time.  Bruce openahs are special shows!

Little Steven Ready To Hit The Road With Springsteen

March 31, 2009 08:56 AM ET
Gary Graff, Detroit

With opening night on Wednesday in San Jose, the E Street Band is ready to rock with Bruce Springsteen. And Little Steven Van Zandt anticipates giving the crowds a healthy dose of the new "Working on a Dream" album.

"We usually want to get the new album in," the guitarist told Billboard.com while in Austin, Texas, to promote his "Underground Garage" radio show and Wicked Cool record label at this year's South By Southwest Music & Media Conference. "We usually play more of our new record than most groups do, and our audiences are used to it and they really like it, which is a wonderful thing. So we'll probably go out and do half the record, like we usually do."

Of the songs from the album, which came out in late January and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, Van Zandt said that " 'Lucky Day' just kills, as you expect. 'Surprise Surprise' has been fun. '(Kingdom of) Days' was coming out really great...They're all sounding great. It's just a matter of seeing where (Springsteen) wants to go theme-wise...and we fit the rest of the show around it, more or less. That's all developing as we speak, literally."

After the highly spontaneous shows on the last North American leg of Springsteen's "Magic" tour in 2008, Van Zandt said he expects at least the early shows will "probably (be) coming back to more of an organized set for a minute." But, knowing Springsteen, he adds, "Who really knows?"

Van Zandt added that he does expect the group will play more shows than the currently announced North American and European dates. "I would think there's a bit more than that. I gotta believe we're gonna (tour) until at least Thanksgiving or Christmas, somehow, somewhere. I hope so. I hope we take a month off and then go back out."

He's also not fazed by the idea of not having drummer Max Weinberg out of some shows in order to help launch Conan O'Brien's run on "The Tonight Show," while his son Jay Weinberg takes over his stool.

"I think it's gonna be fine," said  Van Zandt, who produced the new album by Norway's the Cocktail Slippers, "St. Valentine's Day Massacre," due out April 28. "And knowing Max, he's not going to miss much...He is the E Street Band. Conan has been absolutely terrific about this...I don't think we thank him often enough. Max is a big part of that show, and for (O'Brien) to just say, 'Go whenever you feel like it,' I mean, Jesus, how nice. So we'll see."

Enjoy the show, SCL!!!

Nice to get a tour opener - I've had a few Bruce Euro tour openers and closers down the years and its great fun

Have a great night.

Well howdy. Doesn't look like anyone stayed up for setlist watching.. I'll give a reader's digest review until I (hopefully) get some sleep.An obvious opening night. Almost an extension of the rehearsal shows. Clearly a tour in search of itself. Kind of a Bruce by the numbers show. Nothing near the Nashville/ St Louis shows I saw last year. But I didn't expect to see that anyway. Good fun. It's not like I was going to skip a Bruce show in my back yard anyway. But details to come. In the meantime here is the setlist:

8:33

1. Badlands
2. Outlaw Pete
3. My Lucky Day
4. No Surrender
5. Out In The Street
6. Working On A Dream
7. Seeds
8. Johnny 99
9. Ghost of Tom Joad
10. Good Eye
11. Good Rockin' Tonight
Collecting signs
12. Darlington County
13. Growin' Up (a sign request)
14. Waitin' On A Sunny Day (a sign request)
15. The Promised Land
16. The Wrestler
17. Kingdom Of Days
18. Radio Nowhere
19. Lonesome Day
20. Born To Run

Thanks for coming!! PSA

21. Hard Times
22. Thunder Road
23. Dancing In The Dark
24. Tenth Ave Freezeout
25. Land of Hope and Dreams
26. American Land

11:12

Quite a nice setlist. Surprisingly long show (160 minutes!) for an opening night - he tends to extend things more towards the end of a tour.

I'm working on my second cup of coffee after working on a couple hours of dreams last night. Man I'm getting old. these school night shows are really tough. I think I need Bruce's trainer. It was a mind on business Boss last night. Let me try to break it down as the caffeine starts to kick in. Badlands smoked as the opener. The transition into OP was a bit awkward. Espicially with no intro from Bruce. But a nice feature for Stevie as Nils played acoustic and Bruce sang. A couple of warhorses,although OITS still sounded good. Not real crazy about Seeds. But Johnny 99 rocked. Look forward to hearing that one a couple more times. After seeing Tom Morello play GOTJ in Anaheim last year,little tough to get excited about it this time. GRT was a surpise,but not as good as Nashville. I liked hearing DC,one my faves off of BITUSA and i didn't hear it on the Magic tour. GU was cool. WOASD was a bathroom break. (at least I didn't have to hear the rising or MP). TW was good RN rocked,(the only song from magic). I'm still not tired of BTR. Then came the encore. Hard times was a little too Seeger sessions for me. But it's never too early in a tour for an audible. Espicially if it means hearing TR. The old Robert Mitchum poster was cool. Good version,my favorite Bruce song. My buddy's as well and he didn't get to hear it at 2 shows on the Magic tour. We put up with DITD. TAFO was fun,again since I didn't hear it at 7 shows on the last tour.LAHAD was excellent. he should have stopped there. AL just doesn't do anything for anybody at this point.But Phoenix here I come.

Criss Cross Mind wrote on Apr 2^nd, 2009 at 12:44pm:


Well when you have a 30 year career and a couple hundred songs to choose from. Not all are going to be winners or please everybody. You have to step back and look at the big picture.

Quote:


Beers were $7.50. Didn't make it to the t-shirt stand.

Agent Provocateur indeed...

Here is part of the Wrestler last nite from Bruce's site.  Very moving .. Hope it doesn't disappear before Pittsburgh!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmB9TkfYcBE

ijwthstd wrote on Apr 4^th, 2009 at 11:20am:


Your loss dude. Go see Prince again and leave the rock & roll to people who know what they are talking about. Last night's show was proof that you can't judge a show by reading a setlist. Killer show. I'm getting ready to get in a cab and head to the airport. I'll give a few more details when I get home. BRUUUCE.

ijwthstd wrote on Apr 4^th, 2009 at 12:18pm:



My bad. I was in a hurry and didn't read your post carefully. If you can get in for $7.50 more power to you. But it was well worth the $100 I spent.