2008-05-28 Old Trafford, Manchester, England

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

"Mary's Place" includes "The Monkey Time". "It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City" and allegedly "Darlington County" are played by sign request. First ever performance in England of "I'll Work For Your Love". Patti Scialfa is not present.

Intro to “No Surrender”
“Good evening, glorious citizens of Manchester (crowd cheers)(?) is there anybody alive out there? (crowd cheers) is there anybody alive out there? (crowd cheers) is there anybody alive out there? (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “Magic”
“Good evening! (crowd cheers) good evening, Mancunians, yes…you, you send your signs up and we´ll do some requests later, alright?…and congratulations on the big victory I heard all about (crowd cheers) yes…my son, I got an older son who´s 18, doesn´t watch baseball, doesn´t watch basketball, doesn´t watch football, watches soccer only (chuckles) and these are his boys right here in England…he was telling me all about it, getting me ready for showing up here on, on hallowed ground, you know…I guess beating Chelsea is like New Jersey beating New York, it feels real (chuckles)(crowd cheers) how sweet it is…anyway…oh…Patti sends her love, she´s, uh, at home making sure that the kids don´t burn down the house and all my favourite clothes don´t end up on eBay …anyway, here´s to the end of eight years of bad magic…”

After “It´s Hard to Be a Saint in the City”
“We got you….”

Intro to “Livin´ in the Future”
“Woo!…how we doing? (crowd cheers) alright…alright…this is a song called “Livin´ in the Future”…but it´s about what´s happening now…now, back home…along with all the things that we´re proud of, we´ve had to add to the American picture over the past eight years things like rendition and illegal wiretapping and the rolling-back of…fundamental civil liberties…no Habeas Corpus, that´s the right to defend yourself against the charges in court, these are all things that when I was a child were…you were told they were unimaginable, that they couldn´t happen in the place where you live…and this is a song about sleeping through…things that couldn´t happen but happened…help me tell the story, Max…”

Intro to “Mary´s Place”
“Alright, are you ready for a house party? (crowd cheers) are you ready for a house party (?)(crowd cheers) are you ready for a house party (?)(crowd cheers) just wave your hands…(?)…(music starts) oh yeah!…oh, it feels good now…good temperature…no rain!…(?)…”

Intro to “I´ll Work for Your Love”
“Do we have any lovers out there? (some cheers) come on, it´s raining out here, there´s gotta be more than that, do we have any lovers out there? (bigger cheer) if you´re in love, wave your hand! wave anything! (chuckles)…”

Intro to “Growin´ Up”
“Thank you…alright, this is for Brad…Brad!…are you Brad? the man with the headsets on…if so, nod your head…is that Brad?…it is… is this your sign?…your lucky number has just come in, my friend (chuckles) you, you´ll be the fine recipient of…how old are you? (?) more than two hands? six, alright, this one´s for you…
(…) There I was…at my first big rock concert…and my dad made me wear these big, freaky, red headsets…”

Middle of “American Land”
“Garry W.Tallent (crowd cheers) Little Steven Van Zandt (crowd cheers) Sister Soozie Tyrell (crowd cheers) the Mighty Max Weinberg (crowd cheers) Professor Roy Bittan (crowd cheers) Charlie Giordano (crowd cheers) Nils Lofgren (crowd cheers) and the biggest man you´ve ever seen, Clarence “Big Man” Clemons (crowd cheers) Manchester! (crowd cheers) Manchester! (crowd cheers) Manchester! (crowd cheers)(?) you´ve just seen the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, hard-rocking, earth-shocking, booty-shaking, love-making, Viagra-taking, history-making, legendary (crowd: “E Street Band”)…”

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

Antony Forst	This was a good show, but it was spoiled for the first 45 minutes until they finally got the sound right. Also I was in the best seats, only to the find that the stage had been brought forward, so we couldn't see all the band, and only Bruce when he cam out on the catwalk in front of us. Thankfully this was a one off, but it was still memorable.
Dave J.	The weather was poor, the man was awesome, caught a few out with coming on stage bang on 7.30pm. The setlist was great and I thought he did banter with us quite a bit. My 35th gig he never ceases to amaze me.
Gray Claret	The energy of the man is still unbelievable ! The band were as terrific as ever (shame no Patti though). However, this show wasn't, for me, as good as some of Bruce's others that I've witnessed through the years. It didn't help that the sound was decidedly 'ropey' for the first few numbers. You can argue all day about song selection and hopefully in Cardiff I will get the chance to hear again at least one of my many fav's that were missing tonight. There was a noticeable reduction in 'banter' with the crowd compared to previous tours (which is a shame), but cetainly no reduction in energy, passion and showmanship. Bruce live still beats any other performer hands-down! Long may he continue.
Kate and Caleb	Mind blowing! What - A - Set! What a performance. The rain pretty much held off and it was genius. Absolutely non-stop from start to finish.
Kevin Turner	My sixth Bruce concert - this was certainly up there with the River & BITU tours. Many favourite moments - Because the Night, The Promised Land, Badlands, BTR. Disappointed no Jungleland and no Thunder Road, but it must be difficult to pick a setlist which everyone wants to hear. The band are all looking older now (Clarence looked as though he was struggling to move around the stage), but they can still do the business as Wednesday night proved. Keep going Bruce - nobody does it better.
Roy	My best ever Bruce Springsteen show, considering how many I've been to that's saying something. Bruce was awesome as usual, his energy on stage is legendary. My brother and I were next to the right hand runway and during The Promised Land and then again during Darlington County I managed to shake the great mans hand and Bruce even let me touch his guitar…its up there with the birth of my child as the highlight of my life, well I imagine it would be if I had a child.
Val Atkinson	Concert was good, the seating was bad where we sat, we were lucky eventually and had a better view tickets. Should not be sold unless you can see the stage. Loads of people complaining, some were moved to the front, so we were able to move up and had a better view the last hour we crept to the front val.

Brucebase Wiki

Site Navigation