1999-07-24 Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, NJ

Scheduled: 19:30 Local Start Time ??:?? / End Time ??:??

Info & Setlist | Venue

A shorter 23-song set includes tour premiere "Point Blank", last played with the band in 1985. It's rearranged, much in the style of this tour's "The River". Also a rare "You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)" and "Atlantic City". "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" includes "It's All Right", "Move On Up", "Red Headed Woman", and "Rumble Doll", plus Steve playing a snippet of "The Godfather Love Theme" and Garry playing a snippet of "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" for their solos. "Light Of Day" includes "I Hear A Train" and "I've Been Everywhere".

Middle of "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out"
´´Ricky Martin, lookout !…I´ve got three kids and a rock and roll band, my vida is loca !…. (sings ´It´s Alright´) now I´ve got a story to tell you….now, as a young man….I walked as a little child down many avenues….the avenue of love , the avenue of fear….the avenue of hope, the avenue of despair….the avenue of faith, the avenue of cynicism….the avenue of commitment, the avenue of, of, of….fucking around !….but whatever avenue I walked on, I was alone…..you know how that old saying goes that while you´re smiling on the outside but you´re crying on the inside….and then I came to a crossroads….now, everybody comes to a crossroads in their life, that´s that moment of choice…..that moment of decision as to which your life is gonna take you….well, I walked down 1st Avenue, 2nd Avenue, 3rd Avenue, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7h and then I came to a crossroads and that crossroads was marked ´Tenth Avenue´ and another sign that said ´E´….at that time I didn´t know what that meant but it was a signifying moment and so I took that leap of faith…..that moment when you´ve got to give it up, people don´t like to give it up, they like to hold on to it like it´s gonna last forever …. like they don´t have to give it up…..but I took that crossroads, I took that street…..and I came to a man playing the piano….he was playing something so sweet, play it for me, Brother (Roy plays) the dean of the university of musical perversity, Professor Roy Bittan on the piano …. I was alone and I was searching for friendship….and I came to a young man, how can I describe him ?…. actor, musician, the Godfather of rock and roll guitar, the heart and soul of this (?)….play it, Steve (Steve plays a bit of ´Theme from ´The Godfather´´) Little Steven ….(?)….then I walked on, I needed some foundation in my life….play it for me, Garry (Garry plays)…Mr.Garry Tallent on the bass guitar….then I put an ad in the want-ads, it pays to read those want-ads, kids….and a man knocked on my door, play it, Max (Max plays)….Mighty Max Weinberg, on the drums (?)….and then I walked on….there was a man that could sing like an angel and play the guitar like the devil, come on, Nils (Nils plays) Mr.Nils Lofgren on the guitar….then I walked on…..and I came to a city by the sea….and I could hear a spirit moving….oh, I could feel a spirit moving….come on, Dan (Dan plays) Phantom Dan Federici on the organ…..now my soul was getting lighter but still, but still I was so lonely….I felt a coldness in my heart….now, I´d been all around the world and I´d kissed all kinds of girls…. a very long time ago…..not really that many….actually I can only think of a few….and they didn´t mean a damn thing to me !….but I was so lonely….and I thought about it and I needed an equation to get my life on track….then one day I, one night I…..figured it out….brunettes is fine, blondes is fun but when it comes to getting a dirty job done, it takes a (crowd : ´Red headed woman´) yeah, man, I´m looking for a (crowd : ´Red headed woman´) oh, man, I´ve got to have a (crowd : ´Red headed woman´) oh, makes me happy now (crowd : ´Red headed woman´) ooh, looking for a (crowd : ´Red headed woman´) oh, man, I´ve got to find a (crowd : ´Red headed woman´) man, now, I´m searching for a (crowd : ´Red headed woman´) oh, man, I´m looking for a (crowd : ´Red headed woman´) oh, girl, I´m looking for a (crowd : ´Red headed woman´)(Patti sings a bit of ´Rumble Doll´) Miss Patti Scialfa on the guitar and vocals….I´ve got to testify….it´s a bit, it´s just a bit (chuckles)….now….things were feeling, feeling pretty good now but….but there was still, still something missing …. there´s something missing still….something kind of big….something very important….say what ?….say what ?….say what ?….say who ?….say who ?….say what ?….say who ?….say who ?….say who ?….say who ?….say who ?….say who ?….say who ?….say who ?….”

Middle of "Light of Day"
´´The great….state of New Jersey !….but everywhere I´ve gone I´ve seen people lost in confusion….and I´ve seen people lost in the wilderness and I´ve seen people lost in bitterness ….I´ve seen people lost in loneliness….now, I know you´ve been downhearted, disspirited, disgusted, dispossessed…..if you´ve been analyzed, downsized, stigmatised, fractionalised, fractionalised, Pokemonized, retropsychedelicized, well, we´re on a search-and-rescue mission tonight, we´re on a search-and-rescue mission tonight, we´re trained, we´re tested, we´re proven (?) dirty word ´New Jersey´….if your soul got bad credit, it´s good here tonight, if your heart´s running on empty, we´re gonna fill it up tonight, if your spirit´s bankrupt, we´re gonna lift that debt up off you and I´m gonna set you free in the morning !….how am I gonna do it ? I´m gonna resuscitate, I´m gonna regenerate you, I´m gonna reconfiscate, I´m gonna reindoctrinate, I´m gonna resexualate, I´m gonna rededicate, I´m gonna reliberate you with the power, with the promise, with the power, with the promise, with the power, with the promise, with the power, with the promise, with the majesty, with the mystery, with the ministry of rock and roll !….now I know what you´re saying, ´I´m so worried, oh, I´m worried about the Y2K-problem, I´m worried that I´ve got the Millenium fever, mortality is rearing its ugly head´, well, I want you to know that I, that I can´t, that I cannot, that I cannot, that I can´t promise you life everlasting but I can promise you life right now !….and all you’ve got to do is raise your hand and say ‘I’….”

Intro to "Freehold"
‘‘This is a song…..I wrote about my hometown…..never recorded it….sit down, take it easy for a second ….´cause we’re not done with you yet….I went back and I….I played in my Catholic grammar school….which goes to show you…..you never know where life was gonna take you….but I went back and, uh….all the nuns were there and….all the priests were there and all the locals and all my relatives all came, it was a big night, you know, ‘Local boy makes good’ (?) and uh…..and then the Sister, one of the Sisters that taught me came from out-of-town and….to be there was kind of a….kind of a big deal….so I wrote this song for the occasion….I guess it’s a combination of a thank you and revenge at the same time…. but everybody feels kind of (?) about their hometown on some level….so there I am and the priests are out there and the nuns are out there and…..this is a song I wrote for that, for that particular night, it’s called ‘Freehold’….it was originally called ‘Born in the U.S.A in Freehold’….but I’m afraid it might….be confused with the other song so…. haven’t made up my mind yet…..anyway, I need a little quiet for this one ‘cause it’s kind of long and there’s a lot of words…..(?)….”

Intro to "Thunder Road"
´´(there´s a couple dressed in complete wedding attire in the front row) This is for Kevin and Laura…they got married today, oh, there they are, congratulations….(?)….this is for you….”

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

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Bruce Springsteen and the Legendary E Street Band Reunite

You couldn’t have asked for a more emotional setup. Over 300,000 tickets had been sold for the first fifteen American dates of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s reunion tour. All those dates would be taking place at the Continental Airlines Arena, in the band’s home state of New Jersey – “the great state of New Jersey,” as Springsteen invariably puts it. Arenas rarely take on personality, but since he became a superstar in the early Eighties, this venue has become a home for Springsteen as storied as the Stone Poney bar in Asbury Park, New Jersey, where he started out.

Impersonal? Hardly. Even longtime fans wondered whether an indoor arena might not be a bit too small for the energy that these shows would doubtless unleash. After all, Springsteen and the E Street Band hadn’t toured together in more than a decade. The breakup had been hard, making the prospect of this reunion all the sweeter.

Sonic performers might be daunted by expectations on that exalted scale. Can music still mean that much? Springsteen had no doubt. As complex and scarifying as his songs can sometimes be, Springsteen embraces a performance ethic that ultimately boils down to this: If a small city’s worth of people buy tickets for your shows the instant they go on sale, your job is to rock the house until the walls shake.

On the first and fourth dates of their New Jersey stand, that’s exactly what Springsteen and the band did. The stage set was clean and stark – no sponsorship deals, no corporate logos – when the houselights dropped on opening night. One by one, from the rear of the stage, the E Street Band entered the spotlight – guitarists Steve Van Zandt, Nils Lofgren and Patti Scialfa, keyboardists Roy Bittan and Danny Federici, bassist Garry Tallent and drummer Max Weinberg. Springsteen emerged last, to thunderous applause, smiling as he sauntered out in the company of the Big Man, saxophonist Clarence Clemons.

Anyone worried about too-high expectations got immediate reassurance when Weinberg tattooed a pounding beat and the opening chords rang out of a song that is a statement of purpose: “My Love Will Not Let You Down.” “The Promised Land” followed, and then “Two Hearts.” On that song’s second verse, Van Zandt stepped forward to sing on the same microphone as Springsteen. “I believe in the end/Two hearts are better than one,” they sang, their lips nearly touching. Then came a brooding, forceful “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” with Springsteen alternating a kind of haunted speech-singing with passionate howls as the verses moved into the chorus.

On both nights, Springsteen said that the shows were about “the rebirth and rededication of our band.” Along those lines, the ballad “If I Should Fall Behind” got recast as a powerful declaration of mutual support, with Scialfa, Van Zandt, Clemons and Lofgren all taking lead vocals along with Springsteen. An exuberant “Out in the Street” also became a band anthem, as those players again stepped forward individually to sing, “Meet me out in the street” while the song’s long coda rocked.

Of course, “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” the E Street Band’s creation myth, got an extended, heartwarming treatment. As the song’s easy R&B groove unfolded, Springsteen, singing in a grainy falsetto, worked in apt period references to the Impressions’ “It’s All Right” and “Keep on Pushing.” All the band members greeted their introductions with musical tag lines – Van Zandt, who appears in The Sopranos, played the theme from The Godfather, and Scialfa sang a verse from the title song of her excellent (and very underrated) solo album, Rumble Doll. Swiveling his hips, Springsteen warned, “Ricky Martin, look out!” and, punning on the title of his most recent solo album, declared that he was searching for “the ghost of old Tom Jones.”

These two shows – and the intervening two nights, as well centered on a core of songs and moods, with substitutions varying the set lists but maintaining their emotional architecture. “I Wanna Be With You” opened the fourth night, while a devastating version of “Jungleland” replaced an equally ravaging “Backstreets.” A countryish “Mansion on the Hill,” with Lofgren on pedal steel guitar, yielded to “Atlantic City” (dedicated to the cast members of The Sopranos, some of whom were in the audience). “The River,” reimagined as a noirish mood piece floating on a lyrical sax solo by Clemons, gave way to a frighteningly intense “Point Blank.” An exultant “Born to Run,” more a memory of desperation than an enactment of it, and full-tilt rockers like “Darlington County,” “Badlands” and “Working on the Highway” turned up both nights.

“Freehold,” a new acoustic ballad inspired by a visit Springsteen made to his Catholic grammar school, indulges his ambivalence about his working-class New Jersey roots (a sense of community clashing with redneck values). It’s funny and touching in parts but ultimately can’t resist resorting to corniness (a verse about masturbation) and sentimentality. “Light of Day,” with Weinberg propelling the band with freight-train force, is a tumultuous set piece. In the song’s middle, Springsteen launches into one of his patented fire-and-brimstone preacher riffs. “If your heart is runnin’ on empty, pull on up to the pump, because we’re gonna fill it up!” he screamed to the congregation. The sanctified fuel, of course, is “the power, the promise, the magic, the mystery, the ministry of rock & roll!”

Believe it. When the E Street Band reunion was announced, a whiff of nostalgia hung around the edges of the widespread celebration. With no album of new songs, would this merely be glory days revisited? Was it a conveniently commercial sop to his most conservative fans, the ones for whom, as Springsteen himself put it, “Me in New Jersey … [is] like Santa Claus at the North Pole.”

Nostalgia is an emotional dead end, a self-indulgent yearning for something that can never be recovered. But history is real, and what these shows are about is the shared history of an artist, a group of musicians and an audience. There have been ecstatic high points over the years, and some sad breakages. As in all families and relationships, band members and fans have come and gone.

These dignified, emotionally uplifting shows, however, demonstrate that what was lost can be found again, what was broken healed. They are not canned greatest-hits regurgitations, mere self-congratulations for past success. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have created a body of work that speaks to our deepest desires for connection. Regardless of what the future holds, these shows testify that those desires can sometimes be satisfied. “Faith will be rewarded,” Springsteen sings in “Land of Hope and Dreams,” the gorgeous new song that closed these nights. It’s a promise, and he is keeping it.

^{By Anthony DeCurtis via Rolling Stone.}

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