2005-08-01 U.S. Bank Arena, Cincinnati, OH

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

More debut songs for the tour with the live premiere of "Two for The Road" (from Tracks and a Tunnel Of Love B-side), plus "Living Proof", and "Ain't Got You" making appearances. Second tour performances of "Janey, Don't You Lose Heart" and the tour's final "Walk Like a Man" (each played once in Europe). Bruce sings a line of The Essex's "Easier Said Than Done" in the outro of "Two Hearts". Piano songs are "The Promise", "The River", "Racing In The Street", and "Jesus Was An Only Son". "Reason To Believe" is with the bullet mic. "Dream Baby Dream" is on pump organ. "Two For The Road" and "Janey, Don't You Lose Heart" are on electric piano, and "Walk Like A Man" is on electric piano and piano.

Bruce Springsteen

Intro to “Two for the Road”
“Good evening…how you doing?….welcome, welcome, it’s good to be in Cincinnati….also I ….I guess my only request tonight is I can use as quiet as I can get tonight, outside of that enjoy yourselves …alright….(?)….last night I started with something that was obscure (chuckles) I’ll do it, I’ll start with something else that’s obscure (chuckles)…”

Intro to “Long Time Comin’”
“Yeah, thank you and good evening again….alright….let me see, had the first, uh, first teenage party the other night….that was, uh, girls finally showed up - brought out my drugs, it was great….but uh….we’re travelling quickly through, uh….the three stages of parenthood, first stage being of course you are the benevolent hand of God….second stage: you are a tolerable idiot with the money (chuckles) third stage: you’re a fucking idiot (chuckles) with the money (chuckles) thank God for the money (chuckles) I’d get no respect at all (chuckles) ah, this is ´Long, Long, Long, Long, Long Time Comin’….(?) some of these quiet songs, I appreciate the, uh, uh, hooting and hollering and whistling as a valid form of, uh, self-expression but not in the middle of a fucking song, please (chuckles)…”

Intro to “Silver Palomino”
“Thanks, somebody, uh…asked for this one at the hotel today so, uh…this was, uh…this is for Lou, Lou, I think your name was Lou (chuckles)…”

Intro to “Janey, Don’t You Lose Heart”
“Alright, let me see, this was, uh, I’m gonna do this tonight for Barbara….alright (?)…I’ve got the music for the one and uh…I got faith, I’m gonna start without it (chuckles) wo! (chuckles) alright…”

Intro to “The Promise”
“(chuckles)….Yeah, I, uh…..I assume that applause was for ‘Hsss, he got through that son of a bitch’…’I didn’t think he was gonna make it, wheew’ (chuckles) he got through it…alright, what do I got here? here we go, this is for, uh…Bobby…”

Intro to “All I’m Thinkin’ About”
“Yes, yes, I know - a minor masterpiece (chuckles) woo!…(?)…”

Intro to “Living Proof”
“Thanks…alright…alright, I haven’t played this one before and uh…”

Intro to “Walk like a Man”
“Yeah, I get the crew, yes, this the special piano that can’t be out on stage very long…gotten from eBay…yeah, it is a steal, a steal, I tell you but uh, I grew up on an L-shaped street and, uh, we had six or seven, six houses on it, my family, there was my, uh, my, there was my house where I lived with my grandmother and, and parents, then there was a field, then there was the nuns’ convent, the priest’s rectory, the Catholic church, across the street was my, uh, my cousin and my aunt, next door to them was my aunt and my uncle and up the street was my great-grandmother and, uh, that was just on my father’s side of the family, then on the other side of the street was my mother’s family and that was my grandmother and, uh, and my other aunt, my mother’s sisters, and, and my cousins, so it was a pretty, we had the neighborhood pretty sewed and, uh (chuckles) uh, but I saw just about every funeral and every wedding, uh, for the first seven years of my life that occurred ‘cause the church was about twenty steps up the street so it was, uh…I really grew up in the shadow of the whole thing, uh, I’m permanently scarred of course but it’s alright (chuckles) but uh…I don’t know, I guess, what we used to do we used to collect the rice that fell and, uh, they don’t, you can’t throw rice any more because, uh, it’s, it’s bad for the birds (chuckles) (?) been to a wedding where they throw rice now, but, uh, now they throw, uh, paper or something else, I’m not sure what, but, uh, we used to collect the rice, pick it up and put in a bag and then we would save it and then when the next wedding came, we’d run and throw the rice that we’d saved from the last time…this whole story has next to nothing to do with this song I’m about to sing (chuckles) but uh…I thought I’d kill some time (?)(chuckles) but I’m gonna do this for Walt and his pal (many people cheer) damn, Walt, Walt brought his own fan club, I guess…you all know Walt? (cheers) that you?…alright, brother (chuckles) alright, Walt grew up on an L-shaped block in Cincinnati (chuckles) his aunt, all his cousins, his brothers, it’s all, I knew the story, I knew that story was gonna mean something (chuckles) here we go…little more, uh, volume…”

Intro to “Jesus Was an Only Son”
“Thanks…like I was saying, uh, I was brought on a L-shaped block (chuckles)(laughs from the crowd) with a church in the middle and uh…and I was brought up Catholic in that church and uh…uh…then I guess after the eighth grade I kind of quit the whole thing and I haven’t really been back, I have a bunch of pagan babies at home (laughs from the crowd) but, uh…so this drives my relatives crazy, they, they, they, it’s over for that, you know, and uh…but the, but the Catholic thing is like that line in that “Godfather III,” you know, “I’m trying to get out but they keep pulling me back,” you know (laughs from the crowd)(chuckles) so you know, they, “they” being, I guess, my aunts and all that stuff but, uh, at any rate I kind of carried a lot of it with me and I realised it ain’t going away (chuckles) so I wrote a lot about parents and children on this last record I made and so one of the things I was thinking about was Jesus as someone’s son, as just, as somebody’s boy, our kids when they’re very young, they already let you know they got their own destiny in mind and you get to come along for the whole ride so, uh, this is “Jesus Was an Only Son” (crowd cheers)…
(…) …As he lay reading the Psalms of David at His mother’s feet… the first thing that strikes you when you have your…kids is suddenly there’s this feeling in your stomach, you realise there’s nothing you wouldn’t do to keep them safe and that is a…life sentence…
(…) …That no shadow, no darkness, no tolling bell will pierce your dreams this night…now, the choices that we make gain their weight and their meaning from the things we sacrifice…you choose something, some part of life…you get something and you leave something behind…I always figured that Jesus had to be thinking about what He was gonna lose, that there’s this sweet little bar down in Galilee and it was the perfect time of year…He could probably manage the place and Mary Magdalene could tend bar (laughs from the crowd) save the preaching for the weekends (laughs from the crowd) they could have a bunch of kids and get to see the sun fall on their face and the air filling their lungs at night when they’re sleeping…and see the next day…and the next day… and the next day…and the next day…”

Intro to “The Hitter”
“Thank you, oh, yes, thank you (chuckles)(?) oh, “Two hearts better than one”…”easier said than done,” so I figured out last night, I forgot I should have, that rhyme, “easier said than done,” I should have put that in there but…it would have screwed up the whole song (laughs from the crowd)(?) it’s easier, it is easier said but, uh, there’s a fabulous song already called “Easier said than done” *…you better go to (?) – nobody knows that one, I’m so dating myself - easier said than done (?)(chuckles)(laughs from the crowd) so ain’t that true? (chuckles) uh, I guess, hey, we carry with us, you know, seeds of all good things, things, we built things and we also carry with us the seeds of our destruction and that is the price, I guess, for travelling so far east of Eden (chuckles) and, uh…but, man, it would have been boring (chuckles) otherwise but uh…and this is “The Hitter”…”
[* “Easier Said Than Done” is a 1963 song by the Essex.]

Intro to “Matamoros Banks”
“Thank you…thanks a lot, gonna do, uh, this next song was a song that I, uh, I lived in California in the early ‘90s and I wrote a little bit about Central Valley and down along the border and this is a song that was kind of a sequel to the series of songs that I wrote …uh, every year there’s hundreds of people that die just trying to get across our southern borders, they die in the deserts and they drown in the rivers, in the backs of vans, trying to get into the United States to do the dirtiest and the toughest jobs that we have …so, uh, this is called “Matamoros Banks,” I wrote this song backwards, uh, it starts with the body at the bottom of the river to the man walking across the desert till he stands on the banks of the Matamoros, Matamoros across from Brownsville, Texas…”

Intro to “Open All Night”
“Alright…this is for Walt Howe (crowd cheers)(?)(chuckles) had to get so close (laughs)…”

Intro to “The Promised Land”
“Thank you very much (crowd cheers) thanks, I wanna thank everybody for coming out to the show tonight, thanks a lot (crowd cheers) and uh…we got a few friends of ours in the house tonight, we’ve got the Free Store Foodbank here in Cincinnati, they provide food, services to the people struggling out there and, uh, assist them in becoming self-reliant, if you can check them out on your way out, they can use your help and your support, we also got some folks from Unite Here, that’s an organization here in Ohio, they’re working to change the health insurance system so that everybody in the state is guaranteed a full and comprehensive health coverage from birth to death (crowd applauds) so I hope before you leave that you take a moment and stop by and check out the information table and if you’re so inclined, they got a petition you can sign, you can help them out with a real worthy cause, that’s Unite Here…so I’m gonna send this out to those two folks and, uh, thanks for a good time, lovely being back in Cincinnati (crowd cheers) this is for you…”

Intro to “Dream Baby Dream”
“Thank you, Cincinnati (crowd cheers) got one more (crowd cheers) …”

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

Dennis Johnson	Bruce put all his emotions and talent into a 2 1/2 hour show. It was intimate and fantastic. He let the audience into his world for too short of a time.
Dacow	Well, my first and only on this tour (did get a boot of the Hard Rock Cafe show — excellent). Bruce's best were on the piano songs. Janey, The Promise, The River, in succession and then Walk like a Man. Dream Baby was a great closer. Very glad I caught this tour.

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