2007-10-26 Oracle Arena, Oakland, CA

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

A trio of tour premieres - "Two Hearts" (including "It Takes Two"), "Racing In The Street", and "Working On The Highway".

Intro to “Radio Nowhere”
“Hello, Oakland! (crowd cheers) is there anybody alive out there? (crowd cheers) is there anybody alive out there? (crowd cheers)….”

Intro to “Magic”
“Thank you, thank you….thanks and good evening, Oakland….welcome to the second night which is actually the first night….alright, this is the title song from….from our new record…. it´s a, uh….it sort of is about the, we live in times when over the past six years, a decade, we´ve seen that you can take the truth and you can twist it into a lie, take the lie and twist it into feeling like the truth….and uh, so the title of this song is ´Magic´ but it´s really, it´s really about tricks….”

Intro to “Livin´ In The Future”
“Good evening, everybody (crowd cheers) we´re so glad to be here in your city tonight ….this is a song called ´Livin´ In The Future´….but it´s about what´s happening now….it´s about how along with all the things that we love about the place we live, America….back home we love the Jersey Shore (crowd cheers) Clarence ´Big Man´ Clemons (crowd cheers) out here you got Alcatraz (crowd cheers) Golden Gate Bridge (crowd cheers) sour dough bread….can´t wait to get into some of that tonight….now, along with all those things….over the past six years we´ve had to add to the American picture things like rendition and illegal wiretapping, the rolling-back of our civil liberties….no Habeas Corpus or right to defend yourself against charges in court….and either because of the color of your skin or your circumstance or your religion, you may think that these things don´t have a big effect on your life but all of these things are an attack on our Constitution, which means that they´re an attack on our very selves (crowd cheers) and our sense of ourselves as Americans….this is a song about sleeping through things that shouldn´t have happened here that happened here….. so tonight we´re gonna do something about it….we´re gonna sing about it…..we´re musicians, it´s a start (chuckles) the rest is up to us….”

Intro to “Girls In Their Summer Clothes”
“Thank you, Oakland!….thank you….woo!….alright….thank you, we´re gonna send this one out to our friends from the Oakland, California People´s Grocery, they´re in the house with us tonight….they´re building an independent food system, a local knowledge base, providing jobs, a nutrition education of young folks here in Oakland, they´re gonna give people the tools to control their own food supply….help the community become economically self-reliant, if you see them on the way out, please give your support to Oakland California People´s Grocery, they´re with us in the house tonight….folks that are out there on the frontline doing God´s work….alright, this is for all the California girls….and the New Jersey one….(chuckles) gotta get them brownie points (chuckles)….”

Intro to “Thundercrack”
“This next song is an old song, it was our first showstopper….many years back I landed at a club called the Matrix in about 1969 or ´70….and, uh….we were only about 19, I think, at the time….anyway, this one goes almost back that far….”

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

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Certain Things Are Set In Stone

After touring solo for Devils & Dust in 2005 and stomping across stages with the Seeger Sessions Band in 2006, Bruce Springsteen’s 2007 tour with the E Street Band was a welcome return to regularly scheduled programming.

The trek was appealingly normal, in that it was simply a run of shows in support of Bruce and the band’s excellent new album Magic, released in late September. The result was more akin to outings behind Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978) and The River (1980) because that’s what artists did/do when they drop a new album. No bigger occasion or overarching circumstances. No multi-night residencies. Just straight up doing the job. One might think the same for 2012 with the release of Wrecking Ball, but that marked an expansion of the E Street Band to add horns and singers, making it again something different.

The Magic tour likely stands as the last regular album cycle in E Street history, and that’s especially significant given that it proved to be the final one to feature founding member Danny Federici. Which makes the 2007 shows, before Danny left for treatment, ones to cherish.

Oakland, October 26, 2007 is an exemplar of this period’s purity of purpose. It’s a tight 23-song set that runs just 2:16 total, short by Springsteen standards, but not wanting for potency. It features eight tracks from Magic, forming the heart of a set designed to showcase a new album the artist has faith in. Magic also had the benefit of one of Springsteen’s strongest lead singles, “Radio Nowhere,” itself a taut three-minute record. The song wasn’t a chart hit in the U.S., but it offered a clarion call for this new body of work and serves as an excellent show opener: “Radio Nowhere” crashes the calliope walk-out music to the ground and establishes urgency that will be felt all evening.

Archive releases present opportunity for reappreciation and here the excellence of the Magic material resonates deeper than ever, 18 years on. “Gypsy Biker” is one of the best E Street Band performances of the modern era and you can feel their passion and dedication in this performance. “Magic” itself is delicately handled with Soozie Tyrell’s violin lending a haunting air to Bruce’s acoustic reading that features splendid harmony vocals from Patti Scialfa.

“Living in the Future,” its political message even more timely today, tears a page from the BIUSA playbook: pairing its serious subject matter with an irresistible melody and a sprightly band arrangement, topped by Clemons’ saxophone and Federici’s organ solos.

The haunting tone set by “Magic” continues with “Devils’ Arcade,” again woven by Tyrell’s violin, only this time the full band rises to the moment in a sweeping, emotional take. “Last To Die” turns up the drama another notch or five, embracing its musical DNA as a River outtake not recorded for The River. “Long Walk Home” brings the core Magic narrative to its poignant conclusion, reconciling feelings of alienation in America. Those roots go back even farther than the Stanley Brothers, who used the lyric they’re all “rank strangers to me” in their song of the same name, which Springsteen deploys in the second verse.

The playing across the Magic tracks is tight and focused – the band doesn’t just back Springsteen, as much as it has honed these into classic E Street songs. Special shout out to “Girls in Their Summer Clothes” for kicking off the encore with its sun-drenched, good vibrations.

Augmenting the Magic material, Bruce drops in several classics and a few notable special additions. Those newly familiar with “Reason to Believe” from Electric Nebraska will hear strains of it in the Oakland version, which straddles the 1982 band reading and ZZ Top elements the song adopted on stage at times.

It’s a welcome return for “Tunnel of Love,” criminally underplayed since 1988 and enjoying a 17-show revival on the Magic tour. Those who saw it played then may recall it required the one-song addition of an electronic drum pad to Max Weinberg’s kit. A lovely change from 1988 to 2007 is Soozie Tyrell’s violin taking what was a synthesizer part before the first verse. Springsteen and Scialfa’s voices combine as strikingly as ever, and Nils Lofgren nails his own signature guitar solo. A lovely treat.

Three tracks make their tour debuts in Oakland. “Two Hearts” got right on the Reunion tour and there’s no need to alter it here, including the “it takes two” tag. “Racing in the Street” graced the stage only eight times on the Magic tour, which is a shame given this profound, spot-on rendition, with rich baritone sax from Clemons, expressive organ from Federici and noble piano figures from Roy Bittan. “Working on the Highway” also rejoins the set; unlike “Racing,” it will stick around for much of the year. Its Oakland bow sounds lively and fresh.

Credit Springsteen for making the only pre-1975 tune of the night something special. “This next song is an old song,” he says, “our first showstopper,” an apt description of “Thundercrack,” a nine-minute, joyous rollercoaster ride and a time machine back to the earliest incarnation of the E Street Band.

When we look back at Springsteen’s career, the classic canon of Born to Run through The River will surely stand the test of time, and Nebraska will continue to be seen as a solo masterpiece. But when we’re talking about great E Street Band albums, Magic deserves a nod, especially the way its songs were optimized on stage in 2007 and 2008.

^{By Erik Flannigan via Nugs.net.}

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Certain Things Are Set In Stone