1975-10-02 Uptown Theatre, Milwaukee, WI

Scheduled: ??:?? Local Start Time ??:?? / End Time ??:??

Info & Setlist | Venue

Bruce's first ever appearance in Wisconsin is the famous 'bomb scare show'. Just 45 minutes into the concert a bomb threat is phoned in to the theatre, and the night's MC Bob Reitman (disc jockey for WQFM) is forced to enter the stage after "Thunder Road" (which is the slow version featuring Roy on piano and Bruce on harmonica and vocals) to inform the crowd of the threat, asking them to return in three hours time. The police search the theatre and find no bomb, so the band return at midnight for another two hours on stage. Bruce and the boys passed the time during the delay in a nearby bar (according to Bruce, the Pfister Hotel in downtown Milwaukee) and as the show gets back underway it's evident that Bruce has had a few drinks - repeatedly and hilariously asking the audience "are you loose?!" during an outrageous "Little Queenie" (the first circulating version of this song with the E Street Band - see our Media tab to hear it). There is also an exceptionally long rendition of "The E Street Shuffle" that includes a 14-minute introduction and "Having A Party" in the outro. "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" includes the "Come A Little Bit Closer" intro and a snippet of "Theme From Shaft" in the midsection. See our News tab to read a pair of news articles with a little more detail about the events.

02.10.75 Milwaukee, WI, intro to ´Pretty Flamingo´
´´I used to live, I used to live in this house, it was on, uh, it was on the main drag in town, in this little town (?) it was right along this highway called Highway 33….(?) I lived there till I was about 18 or 17 and I moved out to Asbury Park (cheers)(?) there used to be this girl, right, one of the girls used to walk by my house every single day and she looked like, she looked like she was older, you know, one of them girls that look like they´re older than you are (?) and me and Steve, like, me and Steve used to sit there like every day, we used to sit there and we´d watch, watch this girl go by, we´d always say ´But tomorrow, tomorrow, Steve, I´m gonna go up, I´m gonna say (?)….this went on for a few years and uh….we used to always sit there, we used to, we used to try to get like, like this crazy kid on the block to go up (?) there was this kid that at sixth grade, he kissed a cat and, uh, everybody thought he was nuts (?) and I used to hang out with him a little bit because nobody used to mess with him because they thought he was crazy, like, he´d go into to the poolhall late at night, right, he´d go into the poolhall, up to the table where the heavies are playing (?) he´d walk up and take the, take out the 8-ball out (?)…and they never used to beat him ´cause they thought he couldn´t help himself…(?) we tried to get him to go say hello to this girl (?)….finally like I moved away and didn´t have to worry about it anymore but everyplace you go, there´s always, there´s always a girl (?) we never found out what her name is, never knew, never did find out what her name is (?) but uh….but all the guys on my block call her Flamingo….
(….) (?)…Steve, I should´ve told her I was in a band…..´´

02.10.75 Milwaukee, WI, intro to ´Little Queenie´
´´Alright, bring the band down now….alright now I´ll tell you….there we was….we ran back to the hotel….wanna tell you now….we ran back to the hotel, are you loose? (cheers) we ran back to the hotel, ran into the bar….I said ´Bartender´….I said ´Bartender….I need a drink´ (Clarence: 'make it two, make it two') …. I was shaking, my knees were weak, I couldn't see straight, bring it down some… Steve was there, come here, Steve….Steve was there with me, we were sitting at the bar, we were scared to death, we said ´Bartender, somebody tried to blow us up tonight´ (Steve: ´That´s right´) we said ´Bartender, are you loose?´….we said ´ Bartender, somebody tried to blow us up tonight´….he looked at me and said ´Son….Son….are you loose?´ (laughter) I said ´Yeah´ and there I was and Clarence came in the bar….Clarence shuffled in in his white suit….the people, I wanna tell you now that the people over at the Pfister (Pfister Hotel in downtown Milwaukee) didn't know what was happening ….that is a weird joint (chuckles) so there we was, I was sitting at the bar, Steve was at the bar, Clarence was at the bar, we was drinking our skulls out (chuckles)….and that´s when it happened….that´s when it happened….it got very serious for a minute….I sat back, I seen what was coming, I took a big gulp, my knees started shaking, my heart started beating faster than it ever had, I said ´Steve, you know, you know, you know…..I had a lump in my throat when I saw her walking down the aisle…..
(….) And meanwhile….by this time I was on my knees….I wanna tell you the Boss….I was on my knees at the bar….I was a sad and sorry sight….but I was planning my strategy….and I thought to myself….I thought to myself….if it's a slow one, we´ll admit it….´´

02.10.75 Milwaukee, WI, intro to ´The E Street Shuffle´
´´Are you loose ? (cheers)….(the music starts)….sit back, I´m gonna have a heart attack (chuckles)….oh damn….oh damn…..(chuckles) yeah….let´s see if we get (?) let the band do its thing, give me the beat, Max….oh, we´re gonna get to that, don´t you sweat it (chuckles) alright ? (cheers) don´t sweat it, ah, hell….(chuckles) alright now….wait a minute, the band´s gonna do something here….just got it like, yeah, that´s it, that´s nice…..oh yeah….hit me, Roy (Roy starts playing)….BAM !….oh yeah….(sings to himself) help me with it, boys….it´s alright….said it´s alright, if it´s all night….says it´s alright, alright….that´s it….hit me again, here, BAM !….gonna tell you a story tonight….gonna tell you a story about…..about four years ago….me and Steve, uh, and Miami Steve here, me and Miami Steve and Garry, we had, Garry Tallent, the bass player….we had, we had a band, we had a band back in Asbury Park, we had, we´ve had a band for a long time, you know….we´ve had bands for like, (?) 15 and 16….you know, yeah, way back, you know, who´s from Jersey here ? (cheers) who, who the hell´s from Milwaukee then ? (chuckles) alright, but it´s like we had a band and it was like, it was like in the summertime…..and we were trying, we were trying to get (chuckles) we were trying to get a job, you know, now at the time, it was, we couldn´t get any jobs because….like at the time there was this big thing coming down from Long Island, all these bands were coming down from Long Island, right, and they was gigging all down along the Jersey coast and it was hard for local bands to get jobs, you know, ´less you was doing this Top 40 kind of thing, you know, so, but me and Steve and Garry had a band, we figured we had to get a gig somewhere, in some club no matter what, you know, so we figured we was gonna go searching club to club on Saturday night when they should be doing all the business and we was gonna find out the emptiest club in town, we was gonna tell the guy we´d come in and play for him so, so it was a Saturday night, was, was, was about, was 11.30, was around 11 o´clock and, uh, we walked in, we walk in this place, place called the Student Prince, we walk in, there was nobody in this place at all, there was like, like about ten people in the place, you know, it was like just ten people at the bar and there was some guy tending bar, right, some, some heavy, heavy cat and we said ´Listen, man, where´s, where´s the bar owner ?´, right, he said….that´s what they do, you see, (?) they go like that, that means, that means he´s down at the end of the bar, you see, that´s like, now, the bar owners in Jersey, these cats, the guys that ain´t, that ain´t got the big enough bars to have their own office, they always sit down in the dark end of the bar, you see, way down in the dark end, so me and Steve was there so we hussled down the end and we´re there and he was sitting there, this cat, a blonde-haired dude, his name was Bob Reed, was a brick layer in the daytime, he´d just bought this bar and he was losing, losing his bar, just bought this bar, he was losing all his money, you know, so we said ´Listen, man, we got a, we got a band and, uh, we´re looking for a gig and you got nobody in here´….we find out this guy, this guy, he hates kids….he hates music, right, he hates, this dude hated everything, right, except, except he didn´t hate money, that´s right (chuckles) and so we told him we´d come in and we´d play for the door so the next week he said, he finally said ´Alright´, we came in, we played for the door, came out to ´bout 13 dollars or something, you know, and we split it up between us, the next week it came out to ´bout 25 dollars and it went on and on, took out alright….except we played there for about five months, right, like four nights a week and we (?) didn´t seem like….we just wasn´t getting someplace and you get real discouraged, how many, how many people played in a band out there ? (some yells) right, you know….that´s like, so we´d like, 4 o´clock in the morning I´d be sitting at the table looking at his face, he´d be looking at my face and we´d say ´Man, what´s the matter with us, how come we ain´t got records out, how come ain´t we, you know, how come ain´t we like doing all this kind of stuff ? (?)´, you go through this thing….so we decided we was missing something….now we couldn´t figure out what it was because….we had guys in the band that could all play good (?) they played pretty bad, had this guy named Mad Dog, used to, was playing the drums for us, he played on the first albums….this cat Davey on the piano, we had all guys that could play…and the bass player had long hair, right, we had like, so we figured we, we had the teen appeal, we had everything covered, you know….but still we couldn´t get no place, we couldn´t get, like people telling us ´Man, I´m gonna bring down, tonight you guys better play good because, ´cause I´m gonna bring down the manager from the Byrds is gonna come to, come and see you, right´….now, it´s like nobody come to see you in Asbury Park, you know, it´s like….so we´d be walking home one night, trying to figure out what we was missing…. we´d be walking home down the street….it was cold, it was so nasty….it was raining….it was raining, it was snowing and the wind was blowing and, uh, the clouds were like just about touching the earth (chuckles) it was bad, it was all coming down on that night so we´d be walking home, we´d be walking, Steve had his guitar with him…..Steve would always carry his guitar….because he practises, this guy here, he practises all the time, he don´t ever stop…. he prac, he practises when he drives his car, practises in the shower, practises when he´s kissing his girlfriend….so there we was, I was walking….he was practising (Steve plays) (?) he even practises all during the show, joking, right (chuckles) so we walk on and all of a sudden we seen, we seen this white mist, a mist, just like the mist that was in ´The Crawling Eye´, as I remember….coming down at the end of the boardwalk….slowly the mist opened up ….and out from the mist walked this dude….walking like it was 85 degrees, like the sun was shining, walking cool and dressed in white from head to foot…..so….and what was worse it was four in the morning and I wasn´t sure but Steve said that he was definitely carrying….a saxophone….this could trouble you at four in the morning, the seemingly insignificant things that (chuckles)….now I wanna tell you (chuckles)(Steve: ´Come on, tell us´) I will, we figured….this must be some new implement of terror….this must be some new instrument of total destruction that was soon gonna rain upon our heads….(Steve: ´What are you trying to say, is this something gonna put a hurt on us ?´)….I was planning to sacrifice Steve to whatever, so, so….we ducked in this doorway, tried to keep out of the way….just stood in there….dark, raining (?)….then we heard the footsteps coming closer….now we heard the footsteps coming even closer than that…..I was feeling pretty bad, you know, (?) that bad that you feel down in your stomach, you know, (?) feeling bad….sure enough, to win, this cat did not pass us by in the night….but reached out into the doorway….turned (?) looking right at me and Steve….(?)….Steve was real scared….I think I, I wasn´t scared at all, I was like….I was….wasn´t scared, I couldn´t´ve cared less, I walked right out of that doorway and ran so fast home (chuckles) no, I didn´t, I couldn´t, you can´t desert your band members, when you´re the leader of the band, you´ve got show some moral fiber, you can´t desert your boys ….so….I look up to this dude….I figured I´d try to make some conversation, right, talk about the weather, ask him where he got his suit….he wasn´t too talkative, was the silent type….all he did was….(?)….reached out my hand….and when we touched, it was like the sparks fly on E Street…´´

02.10.75 Milwaukee, WI, intro to ´It´s Hard to Be a Saint in the City´
´´Yeah, you did good, you did good….are you loose?….well, you better be…..here´s a song off our, off the, uh, Greetings from Asbury Park-album, it´s so hard…..´´

02.10.75 Milwaukee, WI, intro to ´Sha La La´
´´Thank you….here´s a song originally done in the early, no, it was originally done in the 50s, I believe, by, uh, by the Shirelles, what do you say, Steve? the guitar broke, Steve´s guitar broke, a moment of silence (chuckles)(Steve: ´That´s alright´) we´ll play it, he, he gets his guitar in a minute (Steve: ´They´ll fix it up, I´ll sing along on this one´) alright, Steve, you just sing one (?)….´´

02.10.75 Milwaukee, WI, intro to ´Kitty´s Back´
´´Now the mad bomber better be careful (chuckles) because Kitty´s back…..
(….) Steven….here she comes….here she comes….here she comes….here she comes….here she comes….here she comes….down from New York City now….running across the country, yeah….past on Detroit now….on to Milwaukee….on to Milwaukee….´´

02.10.75 Milwaukee, WI, intro to ´Rosalita´
´´I wanna….this next song is very controversial, it´s, uh….´cause (?) nobody knows where this song actually happened, you see, and, uh, it was sort of a legend passed down from age to age and, and some folks say that originally this song happened in Italy….(Roy plays some Italian tune) great, that´s what my mother says, she´s Italian, she told me this song happened in Italy, she says (?) but some other folks said to the contrary, this song happened in Paris (Roy plays a French piece) and some folks said ´No, man, that didn´t happen in Paris (chuckles) it happened in Jersey City (?)(Roy plays a piece of ´The Theme from ´The Godfather´)(chuckles) so you can see it´s very difficult to trace the origins of this traditional (?)(chuckles) but actually it was in a little cafe on the other side of the border….she was sitting there,giving me food to make my mouth water….Rosie….
(….) On the piano….Roy Bittan playing….(?)….on the bass guitar….Garry W.Tallent….gimme three (three drumbeats)….on the guitar, from Asbury Park, New Jersey, via Las Vegas….via Miami….Miami Steve….on the drums, the Mighty Max…..on the organ, Dan Federici…..the one, the only, the Kahuna of surf and soul, on the saxophone, Clarence Clemons….´´

02.10.75 Milwaukee, WI, intro to ´Detroit Medley´
´´This is one of my favorite songs in the world….this is something that we learned in Detroit ….are you ready with it, band?….it´s by Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheelers….´´

02.10.75 Milwaukee, WI, intro to ´Sandy´
´´Here´s something….thank you all so much….this is something from the, uh, Wild and the Innocent album….and uh….once again I wanna thank everybody….for, for like, for going through this whole thing with us and….this is our first time in Milwaukee….now we´ve found out what made it famous ! (chuckles) oh damn, that´s bad (chuckles) I wanna thank you all, this is something to you from Asbury Park and beyond the Palace (chuckles)….´´

02.10.75 Milwaukee, WI, intro to ´Quarter to Three´
´´Now we´re gonna leave you the way we found you….LOOSE ! (chuckles) here´s a song, one of the great songs….by Gary U.S.Bonds (someone: ´Quarter to Three´) what? (someone: ´Quarter to Three´) what? (someone: ´Quarter to Three´) alright, alright !….
(….) Are you crazy ? (cheers) you´ve been almost blown up (chuckles) you´ve been screwing around here since about 8 o´clock, it´s 2 o´clock and you don´t wanna go home? (crowd: ´No´) you, you don´t wanna go home? (crowd: ´No´) but are you loose ? (chuckles) (crowd: Yeah´) are you loose ? (crowd: Yeah´) are you, what do you think, Steve, are they loose? (Steve: ´I don´t know, I can´t hear them very well´) are you loose? (crowd: Yeah´)…."

Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi

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