2005-10-20 DCU Center, Worcester, MA

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

Tour premiere and sole tour performance for "The Fever". "I'm On Fire" returns to the set after a three month break for its final tour appearance. The tour's final "The Promise" is also included in the set, as are the final tour appearances for "Sinaloa Cowboys" and "When You're Alone". Piano songs are "The Promise", "Racing In The Street", "Lost In The Flood", and "Jesus Was An Only Son". "Idiot's Delight" and "Johnny 99" are with the bullet mic. "Across The Border" and "Dream Baby Dream" are on pump organ. "The Fever" and "When You're Alone" are on electric piano. "I'm On Fire" is on banjo. "I Wanna Marry You" is on ukulele. "The New Timer" is on autoharp.

Bruce Springsteen

Intro to “Sinaloa Cowboys”
´´Thank you….thanks a lot….yeah, I always, uh, I always add a disclaimer on the end of that song every night, the last verse should´ve actually read, uh, ´I´m, I´m not gonna fuck it up too bad this time´ or, uh, perhaps ´I´m not gonna fuck it up, uh, if I can help it but, uh, given the range of human behavior and except for the fact that for these few moments I´m completely dysfunctional, I can promise´….that´s, uh….that´s probably, those are the words that´d been on the first album, those are the first album words but uh….alright…..´´

Intro to “The Fever”
´´Thank you, thank you very much….alright….this is, uh, this next song is, I would, I would describe it as one of those annoying fan favorites but, uh….I haven´t played it on the tour, somebody asked for it out back so….let´s see (?)….´´

Intro to “The Promise”
´´Thank you….yes….goodnight, Southside, wherever you are….alright, let´s see if I remember this one….little more piano (?)….´´

Intro to “I´m on Fire”
´´Thank you….that´s right….I need a little more quiet during the songs, please….´´

Intro to “When You´re Alone”
´´Thank you….alright….how´s things, uh, how´s things in Worcester? (cheers) that´s wonderful (chuckles) that´s right….been, uh, let me see where I´ve been, been in Chicago, been in, uh….uh, I guess let´s not go there, right? (chuckles) let, let´s, no, let´s not mention any words that even begin with ´Ch,´ no (chuckles) and, uh, let me see, I was, uh, in Minnesota, right, where I attended the Minnesota Vikings´ sex, Vikings´ sex party, that was, uh….that was enjoyable, those guys know how to put on a good, they know how to have a good time….uh, you know, the next day I was, I was kind of shocked to see it on the news, I mean I couldn´t figure, uh, uh, fucking´s not illegal yet, I don´t believe, but I don´t know what they were, I don´t know what they were prosecuting those gentlemen for, I mean, uh, actually fucking may be illegal now, I, uh, they might have slipped that one by in, uh, in one of those (?) anything´s possible these days out there (chuckles)….alright, here´s to that (chuckles)….´´

Intro to “Racing in the Street”
´´Oh, thank you….yeah….alright, man, I, I gotta ask whoever´s, whoever´s doing that, that, uh, that clapping out there, that you´re driving me up the fucking wall, man, that´s, uh….I don´t wanna….I don´t wanna be, uh, no clap Nazi or anything like that but, uh (chuckles) but check, check what´s going on around you and fall in, fall in time (?) it´s, it´s, it´s making me fucking nuts (chuckles) it´s (chuckles) it´s (chuckles) I, I, I, I appreciate the spirit and the whole thing but, uh, uh, cut, cut that the fuck out, alright? (chuckles)….´´

Intro to “Jesus Was an Only Son”
´´Thank you….thanks a lot…I grew up on a, uh….little street, kind of, uh, L-shaped, L-shaped street, there was my grandmother´s house that me and my grandparents and my sister and my father and mother lived in, then there was a little field and across the other side of the field was the nuns´ convent and the priest´s rectory and right on the corner was the Catholic church and uh, uh, across the street from the Catholic church was….my aunt´s house that I had, uh, two little cousins and, uh, third woman cousin in and next to that was my aunt´s house and my uncle´s house that I had three, uh, uh, very hairy, grown man cousins, you know, and, uh, they, they always, they frightened me, they, they were big and, and full-grown but somehow they were still my cousins and so, and, uh, then up the street was my great-grandmother´s house about two houses up and that was just the Irish side of the family….then when you, when you crossed the street, my mother´s mother lived there and she was 102 and she lived there with my, uh, aunt and I had two slightly older than me cousins so they were the cool cousins, you know, uh, in the whole time I lived there, I lived there for, well, my aunt, a lot of, my aunt´s still there, uh, the Italian side never crossed the street to the Irish side and the Irish side never crossed the street (chuckles) it´s, uh, it seemed completely natural at the time but I never saw either in any of the other people´s houses, you know, and, uh, that was just the way that it was but it was, it was an interesting thing when, when it would thunder and lightning, my grandparents were real, real old-school people, they, they would even, I don´t think they make them any more, you know, it´s sort of, uh, uh, and, uh, and so when it would thunder and lightning, my grandmother would grab me by the arm and run me up to, uh, her sister´s house and I would sit there with the old ladies of the neighbourhood and, I was about six years old, and, and they would begin by telling lightning-horror stories, like, uh, ´Yeah, you know, Mamie, Mamie opened her closet and a ball of lightning came out and struck her dead´ and then when it really started to kind of rock and roll, when the, when the, when it really started crashing, they´d pull all the shades down and my aunt would break out the holy water and, and drench us all down in holy water…and, uh, that, ladies and gentlemen, is, is, is why I am like I am (chuckles) but uh (chuckles) it´s all those, it´s those thunder and lightning holy water baths, man, they got under my skin but, uh, but it was just nearly, it wasn´t even bizarre, it was just purely terrifying for a child (chuckles) you thought like, you just thought it was going on all, all over the town, you know (chuckles) and so I had a lot of Catholic imagery and, and I grew up around, that was what I grew up around, I saw every wedding and every funeral in town and my mother would drag me up the street for every wedding and, and, and ´Oh, oh, the bride, the bride looks so beautiful, I, I love the dress,´ you know, she would stand there, so every wedding and every funeral and so my music became infused with Catholic imagery and, and, which is, which was, the Catholic religion, which is filled with a lot of, uh, uh, a lot of poetry and beauty and, uh, uh, and, and hideous terror (chuckles) so, uh, that explains my songs (chuckles) but, uh, anyhow, I was writing about parents and children and, uh, of course my mind immediately bounced to what it would´ve been like to have, if Jesus was someone´s, just someone´s boy, just somebody´s son and I wrote this song called ´Jesus Was an Only Son´….
(….) at His mother´s feet….now, the minute you have your children, you get that strange feeling in your gut that there isn´t anything you wouldn´t do to keep them safe, no train you wouldn´t step in front of and that….that that´s, that´s a life sentence from there on end…..
(….) will pierce your dreams this night….now, I always figured what gives our choices meaning are the things that we sacrifice for ´em, it´s what gives them their weight….and I always figured….Jesus had to be thinking about the things He was gonna lose, the things He´d have to give up….He had to be thinking that there´s this, it´s really beautiful down in Galilee this time of year….and….He´s pretty well-known down there and….there´ll always be a drink on the table and something to eat…..and there´s that little bar on the corner that needs a manager….and Mary Magdalene, she could tend bar, and they could have a bunch of kids and get to see the sun on their face…..and get to see the breath fill their lungs at night….and get to see the next day….and the day after that…..and the day after that….and the day after that…..and the day after that…..´´

Intro to “The New Timer”
´´Thank you very much, thanks a lot….excuse me…..(?)….yeah, alright, uh, this is, uh, I´m gonna play this, this is a, uh, song that I wrote after I read a book called Journey to Nowhere in the, uh, uh, early 90´s and it was by a fellow named Dale Maharidge and photographer named Michael Williamson and what, what they did was they chronicled the, uh, effects on the decline in the steel, steel industry all across the (?) Rust Belt in, uh, uh, in the late 80´s, in the late 80´s and early 90´s, they, they traveled on the trains that the guys traveled on and made a, wrote a beautiful book about it, it´s called Journey to Nowhere, a very sad book about, uh, uh, so many of the people that helped build the country were marginalised and, and, uh, uh, disregarded so, uh, this is called ´The New Timer´….I´m gonna do this for them ….´´

Intro to “Matamoros Banks”
´´Thank you….thank you, my friend, I, uh, this song I wrote, I wrote, uh, as a sequel to the songs I wrote that were set in California on the Tom Joad-record, uh, I lived in California for three or four years and my, my folks lived there for 30 years up in the Bay Area and, uh, I used to drive up through the Central Valley and stop in all the little farmtowns and, on my way up to visit ´em and, uh….every year there´s hundreds of people that die trying to, trying to get across our southern border and they die, this, this was a very, very hot summer and they die from dehydration in the desert or, or drown in the rivers and, uh….if you eat strawberries and tomatoes or eggplant or, or, or lettuce, these are all crops that can´t be machine-harvested, machines can´t get those things in, there´s people out there picking those and if you eat any of those things and enjoy any of those things, their hands, they´re at your table somewhere so, uh, we´re really in need of, uh, some sort of a humane immigration policy that would…..anyway, I wrote this song backwards, it starts, it starts at its finish with the body at the bottom of the river and it traces, it traces backwards the journey across the desert, this is called ´Matamoros Banks´….´´

Intro to “The Promised Land”
´´Thanks a lot….thank you….I wanna thank everybody in Worcester for coming out to the show tonight….thank you, ladies and gentlemen….alright, I wanna give a shout-out to the Worcester County Foodbank, it´s in the hall with us tonight….they work here and educate (?) Worcester County in creating a hunger-free community, they could use your help and support, on the way out, please check them out, the Worcester County Foodbank, this is for them, thank you once again for coming out….´´

Intro to “Dream Baby Dream”
´´Thanks….this is for my friend from Espana (?)….´´

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

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