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Scheduled: 19:30 Local Start Time ??:?? / End Time ??:??Tour premieres for "Thundercrack" and "Santa Ana" - last known performance of the latter was 1973, in Richmond, VA. "Thundercrack" meanwhile has been played at the Christmas shows in 2001 and 2003, last "proper" concert performance was 1974 in Austin, TX. Second and last tour appearance of "Independence Day". The bullet mic "Reason To Believe" opens in its final tour appearance. "Adam Raised A Cain" returns after a break - it was last played in Berlin in June. "Cynthia" reappears in its final tour performance, and "The New Timer" also makes a comeback. Last appearance of the tour for "Waitin' On A Sunny Day". Piano songs are "Independence Day", "Santa Ana", "Thundercrack", and "Jesus Was An Only Son". "Dream Baby Dream" is on pump organ. "Janey, Don't You Lose Heart" is on electric piano. "Growin' Up" is on ukulele. "The New Timer" is on autoharp. "State Trooper" is with the falsetto vocal.
- On Stage
- Setlist
- Performances
- Appearances
- Cancelled
- Gallery
- Media
- Recording
- Storyteller
- Eyewitness
- News/Memorabilia
incl. Rehearsals.
- 2009-10-20 Wachovia Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 2009-10-19 Wachovia Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 2009-10-14 Wachovia Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 2009-10-13 Wachovia Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 2009-04-29 Wachovia Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 2009-04-28 Wachovia Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 2005-11-09 Wachovia Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 2005-11-08 Wachovia Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1999-09-24 First Union Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1992-12-08 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1992-12-07 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1992-08-29 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1992-08-28 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1988-03-09 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1988-03-08 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1984-09-18 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1984-09-17 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1984-09-15 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1984-09-14 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1984-09-12 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1984-09-11 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1981-07-19 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1981-07-18 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1981-07-16 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1981-07-15 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1981-07-13 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1980-12-09 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1980-12-08 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1980-12-06 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1978-08-19 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1978-08-18 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1978-05-27 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1978-05-26 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1976-10-27 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1976-10-25 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
- 1973-06-06 Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
incl. Interviews and Recording-sessions.
Sorry, no Photos available.
Audience tape and DVDs. Released on a double concert CDR set 'The Philadelphia Devil' (Ev2) - which is a great remaster of the source tapes and well worth obtaining. DVD also available, including a 2-camera mix.
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Intro to “Long Time Coming”
´´Thank you, Philadelphia, thank you, thank you. Alright, I write two kinds of songs: songs of hope and songs of eternal damnation. And I don´t like to pussyfoot around in the middle (chuckles)…´´
Intro to “Used Cars”
´´Thanks a lot. Alright. One I haven´t played in a little while, uh…This is, uh…Oh, you know, we, it´s the old story, I wrote this song, like, my Dad was always, always had the used cars and, uh…We had, uh, we had about every, every kind of used car imaginable, we had the used car that doesn´t have a working muffler. So that was the one where if my Pop would spot a, uh, spot a police, police car, he´d turn the engine off real quickly till it goes by. Then (chuckles) he would turn it again. Then we had the, then we had the used car that didn´t go in reverse. I always remember (chuckles) we´d pull it in a parking place and me and him pushing it, pushing it out, pushing it back, back out to get it out. Never went in reverse. Then we had, uh, we had the great, of course the no-heater but that was, that was small potatoes (chuckles) Then we had the great no-starter, that was the, that was the one that my, my room was right over the backyard and I´d hear my poor old, old Dad out there in the morning on the ice cold ground, underneath the hood trying to get the thing going and, uh…Uh, so now, like, now there are no more used cars, those, those are gone, they are now ´´pre-owned,´´ they are ´´pre-owned.´´ I got a garage full of pre-owned cars. And, uh, I don´t know what happened to the word ´´used,´´ I mean was it like a bad word or? Why did it get thrown out? I mean ´´pre-owned´´ is pretty stupid. It´s like, take this place, like, I asked where I was playing, they told me I was playing in Wachovia Center. I didn´t find out till tonight that I was actually playing in the Spectrum (crowd cheers) Those are just cultural, these, these great cultural changes that we have. [Bruce says something about Spectrum and Wachovia Center but I can´t make out what]. It´s nice to know where I am, I´m thankful for that tonight and, uh….Uh, you know, name changes, you know, I guess that´s the corporate thing, Florida, the state of Florida has actually changed its name to Hooters. [Bruce says something about selling Florida to the franchise of Hooters] Florida is Hooters from now on, alright. Anyway, here we go. This is to my dear old Dad.´´
Intro to “Janey Don´t You Lose Heart”
´´Alright, songs of hope and eternal damnation. And I don´t like to pussyfoot around in the middle, alright (chuckles) This is for Barbara…´´
Intro to “Independence Day”
´´Thanks a lot. This is a song that I always sort of imagined was written for this time of year, it´s kind of an end of the summer-beginning of the fall and, uh…Alright, I see that my setlist is, uh…I´m singing about my Dad tonight so, uh, hey, what´s new? I´m gonna sing this one, I haven´t sung this one in a while…(starts playing in the wrong key) Oops [can´t tell what Bruce says here] That´s the cost of spontaneity (laughs)(starts again)…´´
Intro to “All the Way Home”
´´Thank you, thank you, thank you….(people yell)…yeah, I need as much quiet as I can get during the slow songs, I appreciate it…(?)….´´
Intro to “Cynthia”
´´Alright….this is my re-write of ´´Pretty Woman´´…´´
Intro to “Santa Ana”
´´Alright, folks, let´s see, uh…Should we get obscure here? (crowd cheers) Should we get as in never-before-done? (louder cheers) I don´t think even with the band at any time we did this (chuckles) As in I-might-not-know-all-of-it (chuckles)(hums to himself) Alright (chuckles) Let´s see what we got here (some people yell) I need some quiet, I gotta think if I´m gonna do this now, hold it down. Alright, here we go. Oh boy, alright…´´
Intro to “Thundercrack”
´´(Chuckles) Yes, yes (chuckles) Thank you. Alright. Alright, I´m about, I´m about to push the envelope (chuckles) Let´s see what happens, about to push the envelope, alright…´´
Intro to “Jesus Was an Only Son”
´´Thanks a lot….I grew up in a small neighbourhood and, uh, let me see here, one second…. somebody brought this the other night, last night to the show, I didn´t see it till after the show, I guess they figured I might need some assistance so, uh, let me get my chart….this is, uh, I don´t know who made this, let me see, somebody from Toronto, some Canadian…. Miss Pat, Patti (?) I don´t know if she´s here tonight, she came all the way from Canada, maybe she stayed for two nights, I don´t know, anyway, this is her artwork, uh….so I, I grew up in a small neighbourhood, uh, let me see what she got here….grandmother´s house, oh-oh, Bruce´s family´s house, there it is, I lived over here….and I lived in there with my grandmother and my grandad and my parents and my sister and then, as you can see, there is, uh, a church, it wasn´t actually, that´s not quite scale….but it did feel this big (?) there´s always something big pressing down on my, on my little house and, uh, there was a field, which was actually in here, unfortunately, and the nuns´ convent and the priest´s rectory were in this vicinity, then if you did, you did go up the street, obviously this is the big car that doesn´t go in reverse (?) that´s it right there….then you follow along and, uh, you get to the, this is correct, this is the Irish side of the family, my aunt´s house with my cousins, next door is my other aunt´s house with my uncle Pat and three big, hairy, grown men cousins that scared me, and up the street, exactly right, three houses down, uh, is my greatgrandmother´s house and so, uh, and then across the street was my grandmother´s house, the Italian side of the family, known as ´Fort Zirilli´ and, of course, assorted aunts and cousins all over town out here somewhere….but, uh, this is generally, this is generally correct, I suppose, we had a whole lot of houses in one very small area and I was raised in, uh, you know, we owned the streets at night, what can I say, everybody was out on the porch and I was raised on the, the Irish side of my, my Dad´s side of the family (crowd cheers) yeah….and the people from this house, ´Fort Zirilli,´ never came over to any of these houses…or vice versa, for some reason, I don´t know exactly what that reason was but, uh, as you can see, I grew up under the influence of, of the Catholic Church, of course (?) and so my songs ended up filled with a lot of, uh, Catholic imagery and poetry, which was filled with an enormous amount of beauty - oh, thank you - and, uh, and, of course, abject horror and terror so….all of those things…. made a deep impression upon me and, uh, but as I was….as I was writing on the last record, I was, I was, uh, writing about parents and children quite a bit and, uh, my mind wandered to thinking of, of Jesus just as someone´s son and, uh, of the destiny that your, uh, that you are, we are all locked into our children´s destiny so this is ´Jesus Was an Only Son´….
(….) at His mother´s feet….as soon as you have your kids you realise….this feeling appears in your, in your gut that there isn´t anything you wouldn´t do to keep them safe….and that their destiny would be your destiny….
(….) will pierce your dreams this night….now, if you figure that our choices are given their meaning by the things that we sacrifice, I always figured that Jesus had to be thinking about the part of life He was gonna lose….and that it is really beautiful down in Galilee this time of year….and that there was this little bar across from the beach that needed a manager….and Mary Magdalene could tend bar and He could save the preaching for the weekend, to hell with it….and he could, they could have, have a bunch of kids and get to see the sun fall on their faces and watch their lungs, watch them breathe at night when they´re sleeping….and get to see the next day….and the day after that….and the day after that….and the day after that….´´
Intro to “The New Timer”
´´Thank you very much, alright, gimme this thing here and, uh….this is an autoharp and I´m gonna attempt to play it….about, uh, ten years ago I came across a book called Journey to Nowhere, by a fellow named Dale Maharidge and another guy named Michael Williamson (?) alright, and, uh, they´d written a book, uh, they traveled across the country, uh, boxcar-traveling and they wrote a book about the, the displacement of so many workers from the, uh, uh, of the Monongahela Valley when the steel industry crashed and, uh, how all these people who, who basically helped, helped, who built the country, were marginalised in the collapse of the steel industry in the late ´70s and the early ´80s so this is a, it´s a book, it´s a book called Journey to Nowhere, it´s a beautiful book, and I wrote a couple of songs that were, uh, that, that, that were inspired by it and this is one of them, this is called ´The New Timer´….´´
Intro to “Matamoros Banks”
´´Thank you….I wrote, uh, this next song was a sequel to a series of songs that I wrote that were set in California on the Tom Joad-record and, uh…..I, uh, lived out there for three or four years and my folks lived out there for 30 years up in the Bay Area and I used to travel through the Central Valley to see ´em, stopping in all the little farmtowns and, and, uh, uh…. each year there´s hundreds of people that die trying to come across the southern border and they die in the deserts from dehydration, we had a particularly hot summer, or they die crossing the rivers, uh, flooded by the rain, or in the backs of, uh, backs of vans, this is, uh, and if you eat tomatoes or eggplants or lettuce or, uh, grapes, these are all things that, that still can´t be machine-harvested, there´s people out there picking them and, and making sure that they get to your table at night when you´re sitting down at dinner, if you´re eating, if you´re eating any of those things, their hands are with you at the table so we need a humane immigration policy of some sort….this is, uh, a song I start at the end, it starts with the, uh, it´s a story told backwards, it starts with the body at the bottom of the river and traces a man´s journey back across the desert to the banks of the Matamoros, which is, uh, across from, uh, Brownsville, Texas….´´
Intro to “Growin´ Up”
´´Uh….I woke up in a Disneyland hotel….I was in bed with, uh, uh, uh, two Mousketeers, Britney Spears and a ukulele….´´
Intro to “The Promised Land”
´´I wanna thank everybody for coming out to the show tonight, thank you very much…..all the folks who came out here in Philadelphia, it´s always a pleasure to be in Philly….thank you very much….I wanna send this out to the folks from Philabundance, a local foodbank, they´re here in the hall tonight (?) they´re working to end hunger here in Delaware Valley, they collect surplus food and they distribute it to organizations that are serving folks that are struggling out there so please, on the way out, check out the folks from Philabundance, gonna send this one out to them and again we thank you for your support….´´
| Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi. |
| Tom Cantillon | Another stellar show! Adam Raised a Cain, One Step Up, State Trooper, Cynthia, All the Way Home and Growin Up were all fantastic. Very high energy and passion throughout the entire show — Bruce was really into it. Thundercrack was a great sing-along moment. Thanks Kyle for scoring great seats and adding another Bruce adventure to our long list of many. Me personally, the 1st night was a little more special because of Incident, Fade Away and the beautiful rendition of Drive all Night. Bruce, put out a great live cd from this tour — even just the piano songs would be great to hear. Jersey shows coming up. How about The Price You Pay and NY City Serenade? |
| Philly Clete | Wow! I think that the title of this eyewitness account should be the same as one that Backstreets.com used to describe Bruce's Spectrum "birthday" show on 9/24/99 - "The mother of all setlists". This was the 3rd solo show I've seen of this tour, including the Tower Theater in May and the Spectrum show the night before this one. Bruce was incredibly loose tonight, mildly reprimanding the raucas crowd only once for quiet. As repoorted, Bruce switched SEVENTEEN songs from the night before (how can someone not go to back-to-back shows at this rate!), even though I couldn't tell that the incomprehensible opener tonight (Johnny 99 on the bullet mic) was different from the incomprehensible opener last night (BITUSA on the bullet mic). My only minor criticism of the shows is the use of that electronic device. When Bruce sat down at the piano and said that he was going to "get obscure" I knew that our special Philadelphia gift was coming. He introduced "Santa Ana" by saying that he didn't think that he had ever done this song with or without the band. Of course, he immediately continued that he was sure that someone out in the crowd would know when it had been performed (I have this song on a bootleg Main Point show from '73). He said he needed quiet 'cause he didn't think that he knew all of the cords. It was incredibly special. Of course, a moment such as this is enough to make any fan's night. But, immediately at the song's conclusion, Bruce told us that he "was going to push the envelope". The crowd, truly appreciating what was happening, spontaneously exploded when "Thundercrack" started, with Bruce thoroughly enjoying himself at the piano. He "gave us permission" to sing and clap along at the finale to the song. Needless to say, the performance of these two gems brought the house down with long, standing ovations. Other highlights included a "visual aid" that Bruce used leading into "Jesus". Bruce did a hilarious riff the night before, talking about how his entire fanily lived within a three or four block area in Freehold, with a church and a rectory in the midst. Evidently, someone at that show made a poster, drawing all of the homes and bulildings that he talked about, complete with captions. It was vintage Bruce analyzing the poster and commenting about it's accuracy. Other highlights included "Two Hearts", "State Trooper", "Used Cars", which included another very funny introduction, and "Spare Parts". It is a joy to see how Bruce can change a song around to work in an acoustic setting. To me, this show was spectacular, among very great shows from this tour. It is fascinating to see how Bruce's shows develop from early on in a tour(Tower Theater in May) to it's last days. The Tower show was incredibly intense, with "pin drop" crowds, while these final shows, with incredible setlists, show a very loose performer enjoying the moments along with the crowd. I am so lucky to be a Bruce fan in Philadelphia, home of the greatest Bruce shows of all. |
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