2005-05-03 Pantages Theatre, Hollywood, CA

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

Piano songs are "The River", "Tougher Than The Rest", "Racing In The Street", and "Jesus Was An Only Son". "Reason To Believe" and "Johnny 99" are with the bullet mic. First appearance of the pump organ, utilised for opener and tour debut "My Beautiful Reward". Other tour premieres are "The River", "Tougher Than The Rest", "All The Way Home" (the last of the Devils & Dust album tracks to be performed live), and "The Line". Nils Lofgren guests for "Waitin' On A Sunny Day". "Lonesome Day" and "Maria's Bed" are each dropped for the first time on the tour.

Bruce Springsteen

Nils Lofgren (Guest)

Intro to “My Beautiful Reward”
´´Hello…I´ll start with a few announcements, uh….I need as much quiet as I can get tonight, if you got a cellphone on, turn that damn thing off now….so I don´t have to sweep through the audience with my chainsaw….leaving bits of actors and supermodels behind….uh….
outside of that, don´t clap along, my timing is very tenuous, I´m gonna do the best I can and enjoy yourselves….´´

Intro to “Devils&Dust”
´´(breaks a lamp by stomping during ´Reason to Believe´)….I wasn´t quitting till it was all down (chuckles)….´´

Intro to “Long Time Comin´”
´´Thank you….gee, I beat the hell out of my nice lamp (chuckles) Patti is gonna kill me (chuckles) woah! that´s all on loan, Brothers and Sisters (chuckles) wrote a lot of songs about, uh, parents and kids on this record and, uh, particularly about mothers and sons but uh ….you know, uh, you have your kids and it´s like, you know, it´s a day like no other and, and, you know, Jesus is back, Jesus is back, He´s been gone, He´s back, you go outside and you want to tell everybody to stop shopping right now, please, and stop driving because Jesus has been born in that hospital, right (chuckles) and, uh, the only problem is about fourteen years later Jesus thinks you´re an idiot, you see….but you´re a tolerable idiot, however, so, uh….I guess the main thing is, uh….you know, all the things you´re not gonna do, all the mistakes you´re not gonna make….you make, you make ´em anyway, like I´ve been telling the folks, it´s sort of, you know, it´s always weird to see your kids acting like you, it´s even weirder to see them acting like your folks….that way you know you missed one, it got through there somehow….but we honor our folks by taking the best and leaving the rest and, uh, this is a song about re-birth, set it here in the West, the kids, they give you a lot of grace and a whole lot of second chances, this is called ´Long Time Comin´´….´´

Intro to “Silver Palomino”
´´Thanks, when I was a kid, I was, you know, all the kids want the pony, the closest I got was there was a guy who used to come down the street in the middle of the summer with a pony and a cowboy suit and a camera….and, uh, he´d take you into the backyard and he´d sit you up on the pony and, and you´d put on the cowboy suit, I remember me and my sister, we got two of these (?) pictures of us on this pony….I got, you know, I´ve got to kind of live around horses the past ten years and, uh, you get a good horse, they can really take care of you and uh….there´s something, uh, big-spirited about ´em, makes ´em wanna work in concert with the likes of us for some reason but….we had a neighbor that lived next door to us, was one of my wife´s close friends and she passed away and she left two, two young boys and that´s every parent´s nightmare….not gonna be able to be there…..and uh, I wanted to write a song about ´em so I wrote this song, uh, it´s about this young boy who loses his mom and finds her, sees her spirit in a horse that comes out of the mountains at night…..´´

Intro to “The River”
´´Thank you….a man cannot make music with his socks around his ankles….(?)….damn, that bothers me….this is a, uh, I´ve been kind of working on finding, I never wrote a lot of love songs till, I guess, the ´Tunnel of Love´-record and, uh (crowd cheers) thank you, thank you (?) but, uh….but I figured, I realised that I actually did but I kind of hid ´em, I hid ´em inside of other songs and, uh, so I´ve been kind of going through my early stuff to find, find any, you know, they probably got thrown, I´m telling the folks every night that my dad told me that all love songs were a government conspiracy….and uh, to get you married and get you to pay taxes and, uh, that kind of stuck, you know, (?) I didn´t wanna be, like, some government fool so I didn´t write any love songs but uh….but I, but I sort of did and I wanna try this on the piano, I, I haven´t played this on the piano before, I´m gonna hit some bad chords but, uh, I might hit some intentionally so you won´t know the ones I´m hitting by mistake….´´

Intro to “Part Man Part Monkey”
´´Thanks….one of them rock and roll chords snuck in that song there (chuckles) oh…. evolution….now, the President says the jury is out on evolution….there´s just not enough proof….well, personally I think the President believes in evolution, he´s been around the block enough times….but he can´t say he does….because he didn´t get elected with the monkey-vote….he´s just (crowd applauds) no applause, please, I don´t want any of that smug superiority going on….I hate that….he´s just doing what he has to do so he can do what he wants to do…a lot of folks do that….now Karl Rove….I don´t think he believes in evolution… but I do know….that he believes in evolution (someone cheers) woh! don´t make me feel like I´m preaching to the converted….I got a lot of nasty letters during the last election and I liked it….yeah, you know, it shows you´re striking a chord, goddammit, you´re getting something done out there….my favorite, though, was a couple of boxes of smashed records somebody sent….with a dead chicken…that was a nice touch….now, ´Inherit the Wind,´ the Spencer Tracy-movie….that sucker would be picketed in every theater across the United States if they released that today….actually what they´d do is, instead of releasing it, they´d just test it in front of a whole bunch of evangelicals, oops, and then change the ending….uh, and ´Quest for Fire´ (no response from the crowd) you´ve seen ´Quest for Fire´? (chuckles) oh my God ….you know, the neanderthals and, no, anyway, it´d never get made (chuckles) we´ve come a long way, baby, and we´re going back….
(….) Come on, Bubbles, where are you when we need you?….´´

Intro to “All the Way Home”
´´This song I, I´ll bust this one out, I haven´t played it yet, I´ll see how it plays (crowd cheers) it may suck, you don´t know, you don´t know….don´t, don´t jump into conclusions there….here´s to second chances….alright, I do this with the band on the record but, uh (?)…´´

Intro to “Reno”
´´This is a song about, uh…it´s a love song about not being able to handle the real thing…so you opt for something else….that doesn´t work out so good either….uh….if you brought young children with you, they might wanna check the t-shirts out during the next song….just, uh, friendly heads-up….(?)….´´

Intro to “Racing in the Street”
´´And they scattered…..boy, some folks headed for the lobby….alright, this is a, uh, uh, a song, I´ve lately been catching up, (?) here in Los Angeles is….´Two-Lane Blacktop´ I watched the other night and uh (some applauds) yeah, it´s, Monte Hellman, Monte Hellman is….did ´Two-Lane Blacktop,´ ´The Shooting,´ ´Riding the Whirlwind, ´ ´Cockfighter´ and, uh, a fabulous director from, uh….from the, uh, 70s, but, uh, if you get a chance, certainly check out ´Two-Lane Blacktop´ and all the others too, I´m gonna do this for him tonight ´cause I´m in L.A (chuckles)….´´

Intro to “Jesus Was an Only Son”
´´(?)….I grew up Catholic so….needless to say Jesus is my homeboy….we´ve had a long life together and, uh….I wrote this song ´cause I was interested in sort of Jesus as somebody´s son, as Mary´s son and, uh….I was interested in…the idea that….the idea of the sacrifice, when you make a choice, it´s the things that you give up that makes you choice mean something….that´s a hard one to….wrap your arms around (chuckles) and, uh….but when you make a choice, it´s the things that you give up that makes that choice mean something so….I was interested in Jesus´ life as a son on, in this song and Mary as a parent…..let´s see how it rolls….
(….) at His mother´s feet….now the first thing that hits you when you have your kids is…. how there is nothing….that you wouldn´t do to protect them and keep them from harm….the intensity of that feeling is shocking after a life centred around yourself (chuckles)….
(….) shall pierce your dreams this night….I always figured….like I say, it´s the things that you give up that make your actions mean something….I figured He had to be thinking….that nice little place down in Galilee….a little bar He could manage, Mary Magdalene could tend bar….they could have some kids….save the preaching for the weekend….and get to feel the air in lungs and the sun on your face….´´

Intro to “Leah”
´´Well, we all carry, uh, the seeds of our destruction merrily along our way….along the seeds of creative life, this is a song about a guy who just, just comes down on the right side of things, trying to figure out how to get that to work, uh….this is called ´Leah´….´´

Intro to “The Hitter”
´´Thank you….I guess this next song, this is the, uh, flipside of that coin, uh….man, it´s, uh…. it´s a story about a young kid, uh, who gets in trouble, has to leave home, moves down to New Orleans, becomes a fighter and quite a champion and uh….sells himself short in the end ….the seeds of our own destruction….uh, with some help….uh….the whole song is a conversation that, uh, he has towards the end of his life with his mother through a locked door as he wanders back through town….this is called ´The Hitter´….(?)….´´

Intro to “Matamoros Banks”
´´This is a song I, on the Tom Joad-tour I ended the night with a song called ´Across the Border´ and this is a song I wrote, it´s kind of its sequel….uh, it tells a similar story, a man, you know, fuelled by the same hopes and love for his partner and trying to take care of his kids, in search of something better….uh, so many people die crossing the deserts and the rivers just to get into the United States each year, uh, there´s a book out called ´Dying to Cross´…it´s, uh, it´s something you should check out….uh….we are just sorely, sorely in need of a humane immigration policy of some sort, you know, so….I wrote this song backwards, so, uh, the first verse is….a man above seeing the body from, the body in the river….second verse, comes across the desert, in the third verse, ends up on the banks of Matamoros, which is a town across from Brownsville, Texas….´´

Intro to “If I Should Fall Behind”
´´(chuckles) Woo!….come on (?)….alright, alright, we´re here tonight….for, uh….got some friends out in the lobby, folks from PATH, People Assisting The Homeless, here in Los Angeles, their mission is to break the cycle of homelessness by empowering people so, uh, they could use your support, a tip of the hat on the way out, please, check them out, folks from PATH, I´m gonna do this for ´em, it´s a crime that we have people, uh, here in the United States who struggle to put food on their table and don´t have a place to live, this is, uh, for them….(?)….´´

Intro to “Waitin´ on a Sunny Day”
´´Thank you very much, gonna bring out my good friend, my comrade-in-arms, Nils, come on out (Nils Lofgren comes onstage)….(?)….I smashed my lap….I´m gonna, yeah, I´m, I´m gonna tell Patti that you did it, can I do that?…´Nils, man, he just, he raged on and he raged on and busted my damn lap´ (chuckles)(?)….´´

Intro to “The Promised Land”
´´I wanna thank everybody for coming out to the shows here in Los Angeles, thank you very much….I always wanna thank you for being such an incredible audience, just, just, I´ve had just beautiful audiences since I started so get on those, cyber geeks out there, get on those, uh, get on that Internet and tell everybody thanks, they´ve been just so great, great audiences ….I appreciate it very much….´´

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

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