Every time Springsteen comes around I have two thoughts:

1. this is going to be even better than the last time (and i can't wait) and...


2. i don't see how they can improve upon that insane show from a few years back

This tour brings with it some new issues...mostly related to sept. 11th. The Rising is built on songs that express Springsteen's reactions to those events and his thoughts on the aftermath. The public's response has been mostly postive (there have been some of the usual conservative "how dare he"-type of reviews but that's a topic for another day). The emotion displayed in this collection of tunes runs from melancholy (You're Missing) to joyous (Mary's Place, Waitin' On A Sunny Day). That being said, it's still not exactly a party record.

So as the evening of the Boston show approached I began to wonder just how they would pull off a typical e street band show. Would the intensity be there? Would the weight of The Rising bring the crowd down?

Not hardly.

While the setlist leaned heavily on the new tunes, the old songs (and one ancient one!) cranked us all up, giving new meaning to the stately mood of The Rising.

Some highlights:

• Bruce calling out Candy's Room as they held onto the last chord of Prove It All Night
• She's The One
• For You (on solo piano!)
• A completely over-the-top Ramrod
• Peter Wolf coming out to help exhaust us all with an 18000-voice singalong of The Standell's Dirty Water

A personal hightlight for me was that I took an old and dear friend of mine to the show for his 40th birthday. Just a fantastic night.

The Setlist:

The Rising/Lonesome Day/No Surrender/The Fuse/Prove It All Night/Candy's Room/Empty Sky/You're Missing
Waitin' On A Sunny Day/The Promised Land/World's Apart/Badlands/She's The One/Mary's Place/Nothing Man
Countin' On A Miracle/My Hometown/For You/Into The Fire

First Encore:

Dancing In The Dark/Ramrod/Working On The Highway/Born To Run

Second Encore:

My City Of Ruins/Born In The USA/Land of Hope and Dreams/Dirty Water

(Originally posted on Mark Is Cranky)