2002-12-02 Philips Arena, Atlanta, GA

Jimmy B.

Enthusiastic sold out crowd for the first show back from the T-giving break. While people who hadn't seen other shows on the tour did not leave disappointed, the feeling among multi-show goers was that the set was a bit unimaginative outside the new stuff (save Ties, No Surrender, & Where The Bands Are). It was a 22 song set but it just didn't seem as creative or inspired as some of the other shows. And quite frankly, Bruce didn't see to connect with the (pretty appreciative) crowd either. He almost seemed angry or under the weather when he took the stage and kind of seemed like he was phoning it in throughout. Also, on a personal note, too many top-40ish Born In The USA tunes. Between Glory, USA, No Surrender (which rocked hard), and Dancing the set seemed like it could have used some more variety in the old stuff (something else off River or Wild/Innocent perhaps). Also, Dancing In The Dark isn't nearly as good a closer as Ramrod (or even Working on The Highway. Again, a great show by most standards but Bruce has us trained to hold him to higher ones.