1978-08-15 Capital Centre, Largo, MD

Scheduled: 20:00 Local Start Time ??:?? / End Time ??:??

Info & Setlist | Venue

A concert perhaps best known for the outstanding video footage available. "Growin' Up" features the teenage werewolf story. "Backstreets" has some lines from "Pretty Flamingo" in the 'Sad Eyes' section. Tremendous versions of "Quarter To Three" (particularly the video) and "Prove It All Night" with the cab driver intro and an outstanding guitar solo. "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" includes a snippet of "Macho Man" during the band introductions. The show features a particularly loose and active Bruce, maybe because the next day he was going home to New Jersey for the first time in a year. The MC that can be heard introducing Springsteen before "Summertime Blues" is the legendary Washington-area DJ Don "Cerphe" Colwell.

15.08.78 Largo, MD, intro to ‘Summertime Blues’:
”Hello…..gimme some lights…are you ready to kick them summertime blues? (cheers)…..gimme some echo….”

15.08.78 Largo, MD, intro to ‘Spirit in the Night’:
”Summertime…..are you ready? (cheers)….are you willing? (cheers)….are you able? (cheers)…”

15.08.78 Largo, MD, intro to ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’:
(Bruce manages to ”kill” a microphone stand and stuff) ‘‘(?)…..that was my two weeks of basic training there (chuckles)….oh goddamn it, everything’s messed up now…..see, I fucked everything up here (chuckles)….this is professional show-business, we'll have it together in a minute now, alright (giggles)….apartment houses are my specialty (chuckles) …..that’s a joke (chuckles)….we’re gonna be playing all night so you guys oughta sit down, take it easy (cheers) (?)…..here’s a song I’d like to do….for Damien ….and uh….anybody who knows what it’s like to drive through the darkness on the edge of town…”

15.08.78 Largo, Maryland, intro to ‘Factory’:
”Thank you….thank you….this next song was uh…..I always grew up, I grew up in a small town about, called Freehold, New Jersey (cheers)….and uh….I didn’t really move to Asbury Park till I was about 18….after uh….my folks left me but I sorta grew up…I guess as most, most kids do, on the wrong side of their father, I guess, you know (chuckles)….and uh…..he was 45 years old when he packed up everything in the car…. and took my mom and my little sister to California where he didn’t have no job, he didn’t have nothing, I thought ….took a lotta guts so I wrote this song for him…..I always remember him, I always remember him 6 a.m…..every morning ….he’d be popping the hood of some junk car in the backyard, laying on the cold ground trying to get it started….and I’d be sleeping that bed scared to death (chuckles)…”

15.08.78 Largo, Maryland, intro to ‘The Promised Land’:
”They got movies out there, is this true?….they got a big screen out there? (cheers)…. what do I look like? ‘You look funny as hell’, right? (cheers)…..(Bruce goofs around for the cameras) Can you see all that stuff?….(acts like he’s picking his nose)….(?) there’s 60 foot pictures of somebody picking his nose, it’s like (chuckles)…what’s next, right? (chuckles)….this is called Promised Land….

15.08.78 Largo, Maryland, intro to ‘Prove It All Night’:
(music starts) I was in New York City….I got into this cab while we were making Darkness on the Edge of Town…..and a lot of cabbies that are in the city , they got…. they got a running monologue that don’t stop whether somebody’s in there or whether they’re not…..I only knew this guy was about 45 years old and he was….he was just raving about how….all day long you gotta prove it to your boss driving around in a cab and all night you gotta go home and prove it to your wife…..on the weekends you gotta prove it to your kids (chuckles)…..(?)….it seems like the joke’s on you, it never lets up, you know…..anyway….I wrote this song…..sometimes you gotta prove it all night….”

15.08.78 Largo, Maryland, intro to ‘Racing in the Street’:
”This is for uh…..this is for Matty, my good friend….in Westwood, New Jersey…and uh…this is for my little sister, she’s sweet 16, she just got her license so (chuckles)…. she’s probably tearing up the road right now with my pop in pursuit, you know….here’s Racing in the Street….”

15.08.78 Largo, MD, intro to ‘Sandy’:
”Any of you folks from Jersey tonight ? (cheers)….alright…alright….I’m gonna be at home….tomorrow….for the first time….in about….I don’t know, about a year, I guess, I haven’t been there (?)…..and uh….is it still there ? (chuckles)(cheers)….thought they might’ve arrested it or something (chuckles)….this is for all you folks, this ‘Fourth of July Asbury Park’….

15.08.78 Largo, Maryland, intro to ‘Sherry Darling’:
”Alright, this number we got coming up…..this number is an audience participation number , right (cheers)….now, during the early 60’s , there was this kinda rock and roll that’s not too well known, it was called Fraternity Rock….and that was ‘Louie Louie’ by the Kingsmen, ‘Farmer John’ by the Premiers….ah, a song called ‘Double Shot of My Baby’s Love’ by the Swinging Medallions which had the immortal lyrics : ‘It wasn’t the wine that I had too much of, it was the double shot of my baby’s love’ (chuckles)….I’ve sorta kept that up there with , uh, ‘To be or not to be’, you know (chuckles)…so this song is a song called ‘Sherry Darling’, I wrote it two summers ago…and uh….it’s like the thing on the Fraternity Rock records that the whole…. the main feature was that the audience was twice as loud as the band, you see, so …..(?) and throwing up in your girlfriend's purses is allowed during this next number, ok…. here we go, little party noises, we need party noises (cheers)…”

15.08.78 Largo, MD, intro to‘Sweet Little Sixteen’:
(audience : ‘Bruce!’) ”Hey , it wasn’t that bad , was it ?….oh, ‘Bruce, Bruce’, oh, I see (chuckles)…..we’re gonna do another one (?)….
(….) And be sweet 16 and back in Asbury Park again….”

15.08.78 Largo, Maryland, intro to ‘Growin’Up’:
”I remember….it was after long series of tests ….in the basement….of my brother-in-law’s mobile home…..that we discovered….when I was 13 years old….that I….was a teenage werewolf……and this was ok for a while…..I'm 13, full moon….but the novelty soon wore off…and as the years went by, my mother and the sisters….at the school decided that I needed psychiatric attention…..so they sent me down to the doctor…..
and I laid on the couch and the doc got out his book, said ‘Son….when did you first start acting like this?’….I said ‘Well, Doc….let me think back….oh, I remember very well…..it was around 1965….I was down ‘long the boardwalk…I looked up one night ….there was a full moon…..the sky full of stars…..all of a sudden this hair started growing all over my face, my fingers got longer, my pants got tighter, a gold guitar stuck out of my left side…..(?)…and I remember, Doc…before that I remember ‘, I said ‘I felt like….I was nothing….and after that night….I knew…..that I was nothing with a whole lotta hair (chuckles) (cheers)….
(….) This went on all through high school….and it was then that my parents…and the local police decided that I was more than nothing with a whole lotta hair….I was definitely… a big pain in the ass (cheers)….so they decided to hunt me down….and they knew that time I was haunting the arcades of Asbury Park (cheers)…and one night, they cornered me up on top of the ferris wheel….I jumped down onto the roof of the Palace Amusements (cheers)….jumped down out on the Kingsley Avenue (cheers)….hit Asbury Avenue and started making a beeline…..to Route 35 Circle (cheers)….and by this time I had Asbury Park police force after me….I had the state cops….finally I got on the New Jersey Turnpike (cheers)….I was hustling down the road…and they called out…like….they called out the National Guard…I think they called out, they called out….the army too….and navy, the marines….and any cub scout they could find (cheers)….I had ‘em all on my trail, they were getting on me, they were getting on me and all of a sudden….up around Exit 109….a black Sedan pulled over….and I looked through the window onto the frontseat….and laying on the floor…..was a saxophone…. I remember he rolled down the window….he said ‘Hey, kid…..what did you do ?’…. I said ‘I’m a werewolf, man…..teenage variety’….he says ‘Well, I don’t know what that is but I like your style ….and if you need a ride….hop in’ (cheers)….so I hopped in…. I said ‘Man, put this thing to the floor’….Clarence jammed to the floor and man, we must've…..we must've…..we must've been doing 55 (cheers)….tearing it up…..and all I heard from behind me…..was the chief of Asbury Park police force….sticking his head out the window of car number 1….with a megaphone saying ‘Stop that man with a gold guitar !’….”

15.08.78 Largo, MD, middle of ´Backstreets´
´´Just me and you, baby….just me and you, girl….I remember you….little girl, I remember you….standing on the corner….of Richmond Avenue….with your hair rolled up high and that crazy look in your eye for every boy that was passing you by ….now, Big Man….hey, Big Man….hey….remember what they called her ?….what we used to call her….what was the name ?….I remember….all the guys on my block, they called you Flamingo ´cause your hair shines like the sun and your eyes lit up the skies….and I'd drive all night….back then I'd drive all night….I'd drive all night…. just to buy you some shoes and to taste, to taste your tender charms….to have you hold me in your arms….for just one kiss and a look from your sad eyes…..baby, you were always crying all night long, little girl, you were always crying all night long, little girl, you were always crying all night long, little girl, you were always crying all night long, and me, I was your fool, I thought I could stop, stop some of that crying but I didn´t know….now, I didn´t know….that baby'd been lying…. Baby, you'd been lying….baby, you'd been lying….well, I found out…..and now you're back…. and I found out and baby, I'm back too and I've been out and I've been seeing some things….about me….about you….and I found out….you've got to stop….girl, you've got to stop….oh, we've got to stop….oh, you've got to stop….oh, you've got to stop ….girl, you've got to stop, oh, you've got to stop, girl, you've got to stop, girl, you've got to stop, stop, stop, stop, STOP….´´

15.08.78 Largo, MD, middle of ‘Rosalita’:
”Let’s have a warm round of applause….for…the only member of the band….with a high school diploma, Professor Roy Bittan (cheers)….on the guitar….poet of the soul, master of rock and roll…..a man who brought you such hits as ‘I Don’t Wanna Go Home’…’Sweeter Than Honey’….’This Time It’s For Real’….Miami Steve Van Zandt (cheers)….oh, not to mention ‘Saturday Night Fever’ and ‘Grease’….on the bass guitar, Mr. Garry W.Tallent (cheers)…oh yeah, on the drums, the Mighty Max (cheers)…..on the organ, Dan Federici (Bruce plays the organ with Danny)…..and last but not least….do I have to say his name ?….do I have to say his name ?…..king of the world… emperor of the North Pole….the Big Man, the macho man himself, Clarence Clemons….
(….) This is his last chance, baby, tell him I’m almost grown….’cause I got my pretty picture …on the cover of Rolling Stone….”

15.08.78 Largo, MD, intro to ‘Born to Run’:
”I’d like to thank everybody for coming down here tonight (?) (cheers)…..I want you to know it’s not taken for granted, it’s appreciated, I’d like to thank everybody….for the support that they showed, for hanging tough for the band for the past two, three years when we were having a hard time, I wanna thank you very much…..it really means a lot….this is for you….”

15.08.78 Largo, MD, intro to ‘Quarter to Three’:
”Can you stand one more ? (cheers)….then I guess I can too…..
(….) A little bit louder….a little bit louder…little bit louder…now we got 'bout 13 or 14 thousand people in here….and I ain't hearing shit….a little bit louder….say it's alright….its alright….it's alright….it's alright now….it's alright….right….it's alright…it's alright now….I wanna see your hands….hands….hands….hands now….your hands….hands….are you ready to get down to business?!
(…..) That’s all there is….there ain't no more (Bruce falls down , tries to get up, falls down again, Clarence pours water on his head, he gets up)…you think this is all I gotta do all night? (cheers)….you think I do this for fun? (cheers)…..well you're crazy! (cheers)…. you think I’m crazy? (cheers)…..
(…..) I’m just a prisoner….of rock and roll…..bye bye Washington, I’m airborne…..
(…..) Clarence: Audience!…let's hear it for the man….the one, the only…what do you say, the Boss himself…Bruce Springsteen!"

Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi

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