2003-08-01 Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, MA

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

"Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" is played as the band takes the stage. A tour one-off "Mystery Train" is played in honor of the late Sam Phillips. "Out In The Street" includes "(Walking) In The Rain". "Mary's Place" includes "The Monkey Time" "Mercy, Mercy", and "Baby I've Been Missing You". Final tour appearance for "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out".

Intro to “Empty Sky”
´´Good evening, Boston…..good evening, Massachusetts…..on this beautiful Massachusetts night….(says in a Boston accent:) we got the guitar out of the car in the parking lot and we´re ready to go (cheers) you´re ready !….thank you…..alright….we need some quiet for this next song, please, thank you….”

Middle of “Mary´s Place”
´´Are you ready for a house party ? (cheers) are you ready for a house party ? (cheers) …. if you´re ready for a Jersey-style house party…..via way of Boston…..what do you think, C ? ….huh ? yes, yes, yes, yes, yeah, oh, no, yes, no, huh….Clarence says (chuckles) if you wanna have a house party….three conditions have to be met….one…..the music has got to be (Clarence : ´Raucous´) raucous….two, you´ve got to get your (Clarence : ´Ass´) ass out of your seat…..that´s right and three….you´ve got to have the greatest little houseband in all the land (?)….that´s right….ladies and gentlemen, I wanna introduce to you….on the piano, the pathological piano pounding Professor Roy Bittan….on the violin and vocals, out of New York City, Sister Soozie Tyrell….keeper of all that is righteous on E Street, star of ´The Sopranos´-television show….Little Steven Van Zandt on the guitar….born in Boston, he claims….I didn´t know that…..on the bass guitar, the Tennesee Terror, Mr.Garry W.Tallent ….on the drums, the man that brings the power hour after hour, the Minister of the big beat, Secretary of syncopation and star of ´Late Night (crowd : ´Television´) Mighty Max Weinberg….on the guitar, one of the greatest guitarists of rock and roll, Secretary of heart and Secretary of spirit, Brother Nils Lofgren…..on the organ and accordion, keeper of all the mystery on E Street, Brother Dan Federici….to the far side of the stage, First Lady of love, on guitar and vocals, I wanna say happy, happy, happy birthday to you baby….wo !…. happy birthday….you sexy thing….oh yeah….one for every year….and last but not least….ladies and gentlemen, Minister of soul, Secretary of the brotherhood….Emperor of Massachusetts….and the surrounding territories, I know, I know, I know you wish you could be like him but I´m sorry, ladies and gentlemen, you cannot…..because under the sun there´s only one Clarence Big Man Clemons…..(?)….that´s right, that´s right, that´s right, that´s right, that´s right, ladies and gentlemen, I want you stand for the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, house-rocking, earthquaking, booty-shaking, Viagra-taking, lovemaking, history-making, legendary E Street Band….did I mention ´legendary´ ?….´history-making´ ?….´Viagra-taking ?´….that´s right…. have mercy….have mercy, baby….”

Intro to “Mystery Train”
´´I wanna send this out tonight….just lost one of the great, great, great fathers of rock and roll ….without whom which none of us would be here tonight, we´ll send this out to for the memory of the great, great Sam Phillips….”

Middle of “Ramrod”
´´Come on, baby (Steve : ´Yeah, I´m with you, baby´)….everybody, electric slide….hey Steve (Steve : ´Yeah ?´) I think it´s quitting time, Brother….I believe it´s time to quit…. (Steve : ´Say it ain´t so´) the fog is rolling in….I can´t see shit…..(?)….well, boys….if it ain´t quitting, all I wanna know is….Stevie, what time is it, Brother ?….(Steve : ´You´re right, the fog has rolled in, is there an audience still out there ?´)(cheers)(Steve : ´Are they still there ?´) (cheers)(Steve : ´I´m not sure they´re there´)(cheers)(Steve : ´Oh, they´re there, it´s Boss-time´)….
(….) Mr.and Mrs.Massachusetts, all I wanna know is what time is it ? (crowd : ´Boss-time´) …..”

Intro to “My City of Ruins”
´´Thank you….wo ! (laughs) alright (laughs)….thank you, I wanna thank everybody for coming out to the show tonight….on this foggy, foggy night, thank you….I´d like to thank the folks of Boston and Massachusetts, we appreciate your support….gonna send this one out to some friends of ours, the Greater Boston Foodbank….because of the tough economy, we got more struggling and needing assistance than ever before in eastern Massachusetts and the Greater Boston Foodbank….they feed more than 87,000 people each week, they´re out there helping the struggling citizens of Massachusetts, eastern Massachusetts….they could use your time and your support….if you see them out there tonight, please, please stop to give them a hand….they´d appreciate it, they´re out there on the frontlines doing a good work…. gonna send this out to them…. ”

Intro to “Land of Hope and Dreams”
´´Wo! (chuckles) yeah….I wanna say thanks again for coming out, it´s been a wild night (chuckles)….this is where I get to make my little public service announcement…..I got people with all different political beliefs who are coming out to see my shows and I like that and we welcome all…..there´s been a lot of questions raised recently about fortrightness of our government and I just wanted to say that this playing with the truth during a war time has been a part of both Democratic and Republican administrations in the past and it´s always wrong,….never more so when there´s real lives, lives of our sons and our daughters are at stake….I think the question of whether we were,misled into the war in Iraq isn´t a liberal or a conservative question or Republican or Democratic, it´s an American one and the protecting of the democracy that we ask our sons and our daughters to die for is our sacred trust….and demanding accountability from our leaders is our job as citizens and it's what we owe….to our children when they put on an uniform to defend our country, that´s the American way…. may the truth will out….do your job as vigilant citizens….gonna send this out for the safety our troops in Iraq, for the peace of the Iraqi people, this is ´Land of Hope and Dreams´….. ”

Intro to “Rosalita”
´´Thank you, Big Man, thank you (chuckles) alright, everybody….let´s salsa….”

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

Dave Powers	Now this was a show. best I have seen since at least '78…great set list, much better sound this time (better seats help). Fog shrouded Gillette stadium took on an ethereal glow as the night went on. Mystery train, and Ramrod made the stadium feel like it was gonna tumble down. Little Stevie born in Boston? Non stop through the first five songs. What energy…note to the guy sitting next to me who kept yelling for 'the good stuff' it's ALL good stuff. By the time we got to that killer version of Dancing in the Dark, ( a song I never really liked, but boy is this version great), I was exhausted. After an hours worth of encores HE still looked ready to rock.
Tom Cantillon	After the 7 Nights to Rock in Jersey, I wasn't sure what to expect, but after braving traffic from Jersey all the way to Foxboro, it was definitely worth it. Bruce and band ripped into Promised Land, The Rising and Prove it. But it was during Darlington County that I think everything really just fell into place and made for a very powerful, focused and rockin' show, one of the best of this tour. Backstreets was passionately performed and backing it with Into the Fire and No Surrender made for one of the most intense, poetic, heartbreaking, rocking moments of the tour. Together, they are a powerful trio that work so well and should be played more often in that sequence. Encore time: Unbelievable! One of the strongest, most overwhelming encore sets I've seen. Started things off with a rollicking, country-tinged Mystery Train, dedicated to Sam Phillips, followed by a party-time Tenth Ave. and Ramrod. Next, came one of those moments you hope turns up on cd somewhere. As Bruce finished a blistering Born to Run, he kept the band holding the final note as he stood there, clutching his guitar and shaking his head, urging the band to maintain that intensity until he was ready to launch into an over-the-top performance of Seven Nights!! Amazing! One of those completely, awe-inspiring moments of a Springsteen concert. Great show from start to finish. Focused, intense, powerful and celebratory all at once.
Bodily	Man oh man oh man. This was to be my 5th Springsteen show, first seeing him in Boston back in '99 during the Reunion Tour. (I was born only a year before BITUSA actually came out) Anyway, I was thrilled to be going to both Gillette shows, following up an amazing heart-stopping performance in Providence back in March that I felt might not ever be rivalled. I had a ticket with my friend's brother up on the second deck the first night and my tickets for the next night were just a hop and a skip below those, in the lower section. Little did I know, however, as I laced up my boots and wrapped my head in my bandana and Red Sox hat, that my ticket in the upper deck was no longer mine. I called my friend's cell, and he told me there had been a change of plans. "Yea, your ticket is going to my bro." Oh, I thought, at least I'll be going tomorrow night… not all is lost. And then my friend said something I thought I'd never hear, ever. "Yea, you're coming down into the pit with me and my cousin." HOLY @#(%& !~@(# &!(#& ! #(&% &!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was still in shock as we went through the gates and onto the field where in just a month or so I would be watching my beloved Patriots battle it out on the gridiron… I was still in shock as I walked past row upon row of seats streaming across the floor of the stadium, knowing that somehow, I was lucky enough to have even better seats then they… I was still in shock as I looked up, came to, and saw merely ten feet in front of me, the microphone, covered in protective plastic (the elements were in splendid form for this one…) where Bruce Springsteen would soon be playing. As the first notes on the harmonica rang out at the beginning of "Promised Land", I knew we were in for a hard rocking night, or what felt like seven for that matter. The Band freight-trained their way through some of my most favorites, like "No Surrender", "Darlington County", and what I felt was the highlight of the show, "Backstreets." Bruce was amazingly loose, joking about the fog on "Ramrod". "Stevie, is it quitting time yet? I can't see shit!!" Donning Clarence's hat, hanging from the mic stand, and flirting shamelessly with Patti. On three separate occasions Bruce pointed directly at my friends and I, making eye contact. Certainly made us feel like we were doing our part as fans, giving our all to feed back to Bruce what we were so lucky to take from him. All in all, what a couple of nights. And though I didn't have pit tix for Saturday's show, I wasn't any less into or satisfied. Bruce, I guess, is just like that.
Mark	This was my second Boss concert and I was disappointed. That pains me to admit that but that is how I feel. I had seats, at literally, the back-top of the stadium. I felt so far away from the show that it put a damper on things. I was one of the many taking bathroom breaks during the SEVERAL slow songs he played. I should have listened to The Rising though before seeing this show. To be fair, though, there were several memorable performances and people generally seemed to enjoy themselves. I will never again see a concert from so far away.

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