1999-10-23 Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

Fantastic setlist includes the second "Incident On 57th Street" of the tour and a solo piano "The Promise", the first of only three performances of the tour - not including the public rehearsal in Asbury Park. Show opens with the "Meeting In The Town Tonight" introduction. "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" includes "It's All Right", "Take Me To The River", "Gypsy Woman", "Red Headed Woman", and "Rumble Doll". "Light Of Day" includes an amusing take on "California Sun" and "I've Been Everywhere". Unusually, this show's setlist features no songs from the Born In The U.S.A. album.

Intro to "Factory"
´´Thank you….good evening, office supply lovers (chuckles)….yeah….I´ve kind of had a thing going all week, you know, where I´m…..I´ve been searching for Mr.Staples, you know ….and I went back in all the history books and I looked for a Governor Staples or Mayor Staples….but I haven´t had much luck…..uh….but I, uh….finally somebody said ´No, no, it´s just, just a company, you know, it´s just continuing in the trend of the corporate-naming of public space, it´s something you´ve got to get used to´….and uh, you know, I guess I understand that, I suppose, but….then I, you know, I told the folks last night I read in the papers that they´re gonna start renaming some of the major cities, you know….I thought New York was gonna be called Barnes and Noble City actually but, uh….but I was wrong, it´s actually gonna be Steak and Ale City, I think….unfortunately, I believe that your, your lovely town is gonna be called Los Hooters, I´m not sure….I´m not sure who, uh, makes these decisions….but uh….that´s uh, but Miami, they´ve got it really bad, they´re gonna, they´re just gonna become the Nike Swish Symbol, they´re not gonna have a name….gonna be like ….it´s gonna have to operate like Prince….The City Formerly Known As Miami…..yeah….. and uh…..also the, uh, governmental agencies, the FBI´s about to become Bob´s Big Boy Bureau of Investigation, unfortunately….anyway, I´ve kind of run out of jokes about it, it´s not that funny (chuckles)….yeah (chuckles)….let´s just sing one…..”

Middle of "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out"
´´(sings ‘Take Me to the River’) That´s right, that’s where I wanna go….and I wanna be baptised in the hands of the people….I wanna find my way to that river….that river of life ….and that river of love….and the river of faith and of hope…..the river of sanctification…. and the river of transformation…..and the river of resurrection….and sexual healing….and companionship….I wanna go there tonight and I want you to go with me…..because I need to go with you…..that´s why we´re here….because you can´t get there by yourself…you can try and everybody tries, there´s always that moment in your life when you´re running and you´re hiding but in the end….in the end no-one, you can´t get there by yourself….and so I found
myself as a young man….I was standing one evening before a dark grove of trees…..and I found that I was frightened to pass through those trees to go on to the other side even though I knew that that´s where the river of life, the river of a full life, was waiting along with cold beer at a reasonable price….but I stood there like a child frightened to pass through the trees and my legs were like stone and my arms felt like lead and I said ´Uh-uh, I´m not going !…. Man, I´m gonna run ´cause that´s what I know how to do, that´s what I´m good at….I understand that, I´m not going !´….because I knew there were responsobilities that waited with that life on the other side….and I couldn´t find the courage to face….those responsobilities….well, as I was about to turn, suddenly I heard a voice through the trees….. a gypsy woman….gypsy woman….and I walked through the trees and she was sitting there, I told her my problems and she said ´Man, you need help….you can´t get through these trees by yourself, they´re too deep and too dark, what you need, Son, is a band !´….so I´d like to introduce tonight the dean of the university of musical perversity, the Secretary of intelligence, on the piano, Professor Roy Bittan….standing with me at the riverside…..the Secretary of faith and friendship, keeper of all that is righteous on E Street, Silvio, Silvio, star of the ´Sopranos´, Little Stevie on the guitar….stand with me, Brother, at the riverside….. the foundation of the E Street nation, Southern man, Mr.Garry W.Tallent on the bass…. standing with me at the riverside….the Minister of the big beat, the Secretary of syncopation, star of Late Night Television, Mighty Max Weinberg on the drums…..(?) with me at the riverside….the Secretary of heart and spirit, Godfather of the guitar, the great Nils Lofgren …..standing with me at the riverside…..the Minister of mystery, the Secretary of all things unfathomable in this life, Brother Dan Federici on the organ and accordion….standing with me at the riverside….now, you can´t get there without love in your life, you can´t get there without companionship….I learned a little equation, it goes ´Brunettes are fine, blondes are fun but when it come to getting a dirty job done, it takes a (crowd : ´Red headed woman´) yeah, man, I´m looking for a (crowd : ´Red headed woman´) I got to find myself a (crowd : ´Red headed woman´) oh, now, I´m searching for a (crowd : ´Red headed woman´) I said I got to have a (crowd : ´Red headed woman´) oh, man, I´m looking for a (crowd : ´Red headed woman´) sing it, baby (Patti sings a bit of ´Rumble Doll´) the First Lady of love and sweet harmony, Miss Patti Scialfa standing with me at the riverside on guitar….thank you, baby….and man, that was good….and I looked along the riverbanks and I saw a great crowd of people waiting with their hands high in the air….but there was still something missing…. something essential, something fundamental…..something that we couldn´t go on without….. something very big….I wanna introduce the Minister of soul, the Secretary of the brotherhood, if nominated, he will not run, if elected, justice and righteousness shall prevail ….do I have to say his name ?….do I have to say his name ?…say who ?….say who ?….say who ?….say who ?….say who ?….say who ?….say who ?….say who ? ….say who ?….say who ?….say who ?….say who ?….”

Intro to "The Ghost of Tom Joad"
´´Alright, I´m gonna do this tonight for the folks from Children of the Night…..an organization here in L.A (?) non-profit organization, they´re dedicated to….kids from the ages of 11 to 17 who´ve been, uh…..sexually abused or forced to work out on the street for food to eat and a place to sleep, they´ve got a 24-hour hotline and….a street program that travels throughout the western United States….they have a shelter that receives children from ….every state in the union and they help these struggling kids off the street and back into a…. productive life, they´re called Children of the Night and they can use your support, they´ll be out in the lobby when you go on your way out….they´re out there on the frontline so this is for them…..”

Intro to "The Promise"
´´Ok, gonna try something I haven´t done in a long time…..play the piano (chuckles)…. alright, I need some quiet for this thing ´cause I haven´t played this song in a long time…. wait a minute….one, two, testing…..I need a little more piano….oh, that´s too much, I can hear myself (chuckles) little less, that´s it…..alright, uh….this is a song I wrote as a kind of a follow-up to ´Thunder Road´, wrote it a long time ago and uh…..this is for the, uh, connoiseurs out there, I guess….I´ll give it a shot, I need a little bit of quiet…..”

Middle of "Light of Day"
´´L.A !….Los Angeles !…..Mr.Staples Town !….but everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve seen people lost in the wilderness….I´ve seen people lost in loneliness….I´ve seen people lost on their cellphones…..I´ve seen people lost on the freeway….I´ve seen people lost in faithlessness…. lost in hopelessness…well, ladies and gentlemen, we´re here tonight on a search-and-rescue mission, we´re trained professionals, if you´ve been downsized, stigmatised, analyzed, paralyzed, Pokemonized, fractionalised, factionalised, pass-another-tax-cut-for-the-rich- Republicanised, it ain´t too late to save yourself, it ain´t too late, if your soul got bad credit, if your heart running on empty, your spirit bankrupt, we´re here tonight, we´re here tonight, we´re here tonight to re-educate, to resuscitate, to regenerate, to reconfiscate, to reindoctrinate, to reillustrate, to resexualate, to reliberate you with the power and the glory, with the power and the glory, with the power and the glory and the majesty, the mystery, with the ministry of rock and roll !…that´s right, that´s my job and I love doing it ! (chuckles) ….well, unlike my competitors, I shall not, I will not promise you life everlasting but I can promise you life….right now !…and all you gotta do is raise your hand and say ‘I’…..”

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

^{© All credits to the original photographer. We do not monetize a photo in any way, but if you want your photo to be removed, let us know, and we will remove it.}

A Meeting In The Town Tonight

Any longtime fan who has seen their fair share of Springsteen shows has at some point played the Time Machine game: If you could go back in time and see any Bruce concert, which would it be? A wish to witness tours and performances well before our time is a charming fantasy. More painful is taking stock of the shows you could have seen but didn’t. Yet another level is more haunting still: concerts you were supposed to attend until life got in the way.

Los Angeles 10/23/99 is my cross to bear. I was living in the Northwest at the time, which the Reunion tour wouldn’t visit until April 2000. That meant my closest chance to see the reconvened E Street Band were shows in Oakland and Los Angeles, the latter a four-night stand. A fortuitously timed work trip allowed me to catch the second night at the newly opened Staples Center on 10/18, and I was holding tickets for the final show on 10/23, for which I would fly back to LA.

On 10/22, the flu hit me hard. After much deliberation and soul searching, I conceded I was just too sick to travel, canceled my trip, and gave away my tickets.

On the morning of 10/24, I got on the Internet to check the setlist of the show the night before and realized what a terrible choice I had made, shouting the following between several choice expletives: “He played ‘Take ‘Em as They Come’?!” “Incident on 57th Street?!” “For You?” “Blinded By the Light?” “The Promise?” “SOLO PIANO?!” Motherclucker!

That nagging regret has not relented to this day, and the release of 10/23/99 confirms it is justified. The final LA ‘99 show is an outstanding Reunion tour performance, from the moment “Reverend” Clarence Clemons implores, “Brothers and Sisters, all rise” to start the show. There’s something special about Reunion sets that open with the “Meeting in the Town Tonight” preamble, and going from that straight into “Take ‘Em as They Come” is irresistible. The River outtake/Tracks highlight is one of those songs I never imagined I would hear in concert back when it was but a hissy song on a cassette I got mail order via a classified ad that ran in the back of a music magazine like Goldmine or Trouser Press.

For me, that’s one of the elements that made the Reunion tour so enthralling. The band was back together for the first time since ‘88, but they were also playing unreleased songs I never dreamed possible in a Springsteen concert. Add to that the return of songs unplayed since the ‘70s and you had the intoxicating belief that any song could find its way into a Reunion tour setlist.

The first half of the set nails the ‘99 blueprint, with the notable inclusions of an excellent “The Ties That Bind” following “Take ‘Em,” a resolute “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” and one of the best takes of “Factory” on the tour. It’s fascinating how distinct this “Adam Raised a Cain” is compared to the performance from the Chicago ‘99 archive release recorded less than a month before, putting more muscle into thick guitar where Chi-Town soared on incredible vocal dynamics.

Then there’s the humor. I’m not sure Bruce has ever been more deadpan than delivering jokes expressing his disdain for the corporate branding of LA’s state-of-the-art arena. “Good evening office supply lovers,” he says. “I’ve been searching for Mr. Staples.” On opening night of the run, he called out the building for its triple-decker skyboxes that start where upper bowl of a typical arena would be. “They don’t call ’em middle-of-the-room boxes,” he added, before invoking a line he famously uttered at The Roxy 21 years prior: “I don’t play no private parties anymore.” True to his word, despite Staples Center being the newest and biggest arena in Los Angeles, Bruce has not played another concert there to this day.

Every archive release provides an HD window to hear details otherwise lost on bootleg recordings and 10/23/99 is no exception. Though they are but a few seconds each, I love hearing Danny Federici’s organ swells at the start of “Murder Incorporated” and “Incident on 57th Street.” HD quality also shines a light on Roy Bittan’s lovely playing on the aforementioned “Factory,” not to mention Bruce and Patti’s lilting harmonies that wind down the song.

The back half of 10/23/99 is sensational. By request, we get “Incident on 57th Street.” This Wild & Innocent fan favorite returned to the set in Philadelphia on 9/25/99 for the first time since Nassau ‘80, but its appearance here is arguably even more special. Based on available setlists, Springsteen had never played the song on the west coast, let alone LA, going all the way back to 1974. For all but a lucky few, this was its Pacific Time Zone debut.

“Incident” is followed by an essentially perfect “For You,” which couldn’t be played better in ‘99 (maybe any year) than this. The pacing, the vocal intonation, the band, the spirit, Max’s cymbal work, the Big Man’s sax… all are spot on. A divine performance.

Of all the regrets I have about missing this show, “The Promise” stands as the biggest. The feeling of seeing the band leave stage and Bruce walking back to Roy’s piano by himself had to be an all-time “Holy Shit” moment for many, and I still wish I could be counted among them. Hearing the performance here made me appreciate it all the more, starting slightly tentative on piano then gaining composure. Bruce sings with a touch of weariness, taking time to let his words land and ultimately restoring one of his greatest compositions to the canon. So very special.

Bruce could do no wrong from that point forward, and he didn’t. Like “For You,” we’re gifted a remarkably timeless “Backstreets,” steeped with Bittan’s expressive piano. Setlist normalcy returns for the end of the set and the encore, delivered with high-gear intensity. “Light of Day” is extra fun, with a quick romp through “California Sun” (made famous by The Rivieras) by way of the memorable guitar riff from Johnny Rivers’ “Secret Agent Man.”

As the last show in LA, 10/23/99 is definitely a “one more song” kind of night. To the delight of every office supply lover in the building, we’re treated to “Blinded By the Light,” in only its second performance since 1976. Though arguably Bruce’s most famous song pre-Born to Run (largely because of the Manfred Mann cover), the song has a spotty performance history even back in the day. Its celebratory, playful appearance seals the night with a fitting E Street kiss goodnight.

^{By Erik Flannigan via Nugs.net.}

Brucebase Wiki

Site Navigation

A Meeting In The Town Tonight