2009-09-30 Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ

Scheduled: 19:30 Local Start Time 20:20 / End Time 23:33

Info & Setlist | Venue

First night at Giants Stadium, another Born To Run album performance. New song "Wrecking Ball" is in honor of the soon-to-be-demolished Giants Stadium. "Raise Your Hand" again includes a few lines from "You Sexy Thing". "American Land" includes a snippet of "Theme From Shaft" in the midsection. "The E Street Shuffle" and "Growin' Up", complete with a story about Bruce's birthday nightmare, are played by sign request. Curt Ramm is on trumpet for a few songs and will guest at all remaining shows on the tour. Willie Nile guests on guitar and backing vocals during the encore. Longest show of the tour to date. Patti Scialfa is not present.

Willie Nile (Guest)
Curt Ramm (Guest)

Intro to “Wrecking Ball”
“Evening, New Jersey (crowd cheers) nice to be in my backyard (crowd cheers) join us tonight to, uh, shut the old lady down (crowd cheers) we’ve had a lot of great nights here…let’s make this another one…this is something I wrote for tonight…”

Middle of “Working on a Dream”
“Good evening, New Jersey (crowd cheers) from north to south and east to west (crowd cheers) we’re so glad to be here with you tonight, it feels so good to be home (crowd cheers) now the mighty E Street Band has been on tour all year practising, practising, practising, practising just for this moment (crowd cheers) and we’re here this evening to fulfil our solemn vow…to rock the house! (crowd cheers) but we’re not just gonna rock the house tonight, we’re gonna build a house in this room, a house out of spirit and out of music and out of Jersey soul (crowd cheers) and out of faith and out of hope and out of noise…now the mighty E Street Band is here tonight and we’re gonna bring down the power of the music on you…but, New Jersey, we need you to make the noise (crowd cheers) that ain’t fifty thousand (crowd cheers) that ain’t fifty thousand (crowd cheers) that ain’t fifty thousand (crowd cheers) come on, come on…”

Intro to “Thunder Road”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you – woo!…alright, alright…give me some light…we were trying to…think of some things that’d make our last stand here at Giants Stadium special, we’ve, uh (crowd cheers) had a lot of big nights here in your company and, uh…so, uh…what we’re gonna do is I think Friday night we’re gonna play “Darkness on the Edge of Town” top to finish (crowd cheers) Saturday night we’re gonna play “Born in the U.S.A” top to finish (crowd cheers) but tonight (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “Waitin' on a Sunny Day”
“Thank you (crowd cheers) these are the guys that made the music (crowd cheers) and Phantom Dan Federici (crowd cheers) alright, back to work!…get your asses back on those instruments!…”

Intro to “Raise Your Hand”
“It’s too cold to stop (crowd cheers) Steve, get your guitar, please – Kevin! (a drum roll) oh yeah…I only got two words, uh, three words…play it, Steve…(music starts)…let me see those signs, what you got out there?…I shake my booty…what you got here…bring it, bring it, bring it…bring it, oh give me that one…oh yeah, baby…what’s it say?…(?) …”Twistin’ the Night Away” – that’s pretty good – “let me tell you…” alright, getting warmed up now…not that – it’s impossible…that’s too old…give me that thing, man…(?) yes…yes…yes…(?)…oh, Steve …keep going, boys…don’t stop now…woo!…oh, that’s right…listen to me now…if there’s something you need…”

Middle of “The E Street Shuffle”
“Everybody’s dancing…now keep playing that, boys, don’t change yet…the E Street Shuffle…is a dance with no dance steps…it’s just a dance that you do every day to get through the bullshit…and every night…are you ready, man?…here we go…Everybody say “Oh, oh yeah (crowd sings) everybody form a line…”

Intro to “Growin' Up”
“This is for the kiddies out there (crowd cheers) are you ready, Roy?…
(…) Aah…(?)…hey, C…I had the weirdest dream I ever had a few nights ago…it was one of those dreams that, uh…you wake up (?) …and when you wake up, you go “Oh, fuck” (laughs from the crowd) “Thank you, Jesus, thank,” you know, you start praying to the God you don’t believe in and, uh, it was one night, I woke, I woke up and it was like “Oh, Jesus Christ, it was a dream”…but it was the weirdest dream…I think I ever had…I was in my house… and uh…there was a lot of people around…I, I, I don’t, I don’t like a lot of people around…and, uh, but there was a shitload of people in my house and, uh, it was actually filled with my relatives…every relative since I was like…you know, living in Freehold, a little baby boy (crowd cheers) that’s bigger than the population of Freehold right there (laughs from the crowd)(?) but it was filled with like my aunts and uncles and, uh, I had to entertain, had to entertain everyone…oh, Jesus, and…and I was walking through my house like in a trance and, uh…then came the scariest fucking part…all the fucking lights, all the lights…and all I remember was this cake… (chuckles) this is the part, this is the part you won’t believe: there was sixty fucking candles on that cake (crowd cheers) sixty fucking candles! (crowd cheers) on the cake! (crowd cheers) and I started like to not be able to breathe and, uh…then (crowd sings “Happy birthday”) and then the worst part (crowd keeps singing) and then there were (crowd keeps singing) and then there were…C, then there were thousands of people reminding me of something I was trying to forget (crowd cheers) and then…then I woke up…then I woke up…I woke up after that…man, was I glad to wake up…I woke up and, and when I fell back to sleep, I…I…took month-long vacations in the stratosphere…”

Intro to “American Land”
“Thank you for coming out to the show tonight (crowd cheers) come on, Willie, come on out and join us, Willie Nile’s gonna join us …but first, Sister Soozie Tyrell…
(…) Little Steven (crowd cheers) Garry W. Tallent (crowd cheers) Curtis King (crowd cheers) Sister Soozie Tyrell (crowd cheers) Willie Nile tonight (crowd cheers) the mighty Mighty Max Weinberg (crowd cheers) the brilliant Professor Roy Bittan (crowd cheers) Charlie Giordano (crowd cheers) Cindy Mizelle (crowd cheers) Nils Lofgren (crowd cheers) and the biggest man you’ve ever seen: Clarence “Big Man” Clemons (crowd cheers)…Jersey! (crowd cheers) Jersey! (crowd cheers) Jersey! (crowd cheers) Jersey! (crowd cheers) Jersey! (crowd cheers) Jersey! (crowd cheers) Jersey! (crowd cheers) Jersey! (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” and fireworks go off)(crowd cheers) that’s right, we splurged for the fireworks (crowd cheers) …”

Intro to “Hard Times”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, thank you (crowd cheers) woo!…alright…one second…(long pause)…alright, thank you, thank you for coming out tonight (crowd cheers) woo!…we got a few left…first I wanna thank our friends that are here with us from the Community Foodbank of New Jersey (crowd cheers) and, uh, Willie Nile, where did Willie go? …(?)…hey, Will…grab a guitar (chuckles) three chords, there’s only three chords, that’s all we play, how hard can it be? (chuckles) but, uh…our friends from the Community Foodbank of New Jersey, Community Foodbank of New Jersey has been feeding the hungry here in the great Garden State, each year they distribute over 23 million pounds of food to those in need…and uh…all you gotta do is pick up any newspaper and you see unemployment rising and rising, you realise all those folks out of jobs, folks that have kept their heads above water, slipping through the net and, uh…a lot of people need work – Mr. President, put us back to work (some cheers) the Community Foodbank of New Jersey is often the only safety net people have between, uh…having their kids go to bed hungry or with something in their stomachs…uh…this is a song called “Hard times, hard times come again no more”…I used to do this thing back in the mid-‘80s…where before “Born to Run” I would say that “Nobody wins ‘less everybody wins” and, uh…for a long time I stopped saying that, I stopped saying it because I…there was a point where I felt it was naïve and that’s not the way that the world goes around…but for the past thirty years, since, since the Reagan administration the middle class, the working class people got so squeezed…that, uh…really that idea is all we have, that we’re sitting on the precipice at this moment, we need affordable health care for each and every American (crowd cheers)…so nobody wins ‘less everybody wins…
(…) Nobody wins unless everybody wins…”

Intro to “Rosalita”
“I’m gonna send this one out to Patti…we’re gonna get her out Friday night…Patti, wherever you are - come out tonight!…”

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

Ernie	This night was magical from beginning to end. It's an honor to hear _Born to Run_ beginning to end in NJ. Not much more one can say!
Justin	What a show! So much energy. I got tickets about 4 hours before the show and I'm glad I did. Wrecking Ball was a real treat. All of Born to Run was fabulous, along with all the other songs they played. I can't wait until I see them again on Saturday!
Katie	AMAZING!!!!! The band sounded great!!! 29 songs, Born to Run cover to cover!!!! Into the fire was a treat for me I haven't heard it in a while, and E st. and growin up!!! The crowd singing happy birthday to Bruce was incredible, you could feel the love in the air. I can't wait til Friday to hear Darkness and Saturday for Born in the USA!!! Love the BOSS!!!!!!!
Michelle Kovach Ulland	AWESOME - I'm exhausted - do NOT know how they do it NIGHT AFTER ANIGHT AFTER NIGHT!!!! Great to hear Jungleland - real treat - whole night FAB.
Tom	Awesome show, lots of fun, the BTR set was powerful and beautiful and I look forward to it again on 10/8.
Tom Cantillon	The highway's jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive… Man, the highway was alive and rockin' Wednesday night as Bruce band took stage and brought back the magic and music for over 3 hrs. Wrecking Ball was a great opening song — meaningful and hard rockin'. Seeds, J99 and Atlantic City worked well as a powerful trio. The treat of the evening came with the entire Born to Run album taking center stage and being played with all the ferocity and heart that went into making it. The entire collection of songs are flawless, filled with all the romance, love, hope, drama, tragedy and majesty every poet and songwriter has attempted to capture, but just weren't sure how to. Wednesday night, Bruce and band proved that without a doubt, they had captured it, the essence of life in 8 songs, and there will never be another album like it. When the 70s was filled with a lot of soft rock that offered nothing salvational, Born to Run came along, demanding attention, well-deserved attention. It's an epic collection about a journey through life we will all take, a journey not unlike that of Homer's classics, where man fights against fate and forces that are seemingly beyond his control as he tries to find out just who he is in this vast and seemingly indifferent world. From the opening notes of Thunder Road, to the closing wails of Jungleland, we are all there, struggling and rooting for the characters, because we see ourselves in them, in those songs, in those stories and that's what makes them universal masterpieces…they are the songs of Everyman! Hearing the songs in sequence, the epic Backstreets and Jungleland gave me chills. A hard-rockin' She's the One drove the crowd wild! Into the Fire worked much better than Radio Nowhere ever did, as it helped to bring forth that spiritual quality of the Rising songs, especially as it lead into Lonesome Day and then The Rising itself. A touching moment in the stadium as Bruce played those 3 songs and everyone was up, dancing, remembering, paying tribute to the fallen, but also celebrating life itself. Encores time Bruce gave his long time fans a treat as he gave us a high-energized E Street Shuffle and comical Growin' Up, not to mention an uplifting Hard Times and the ever entertaining, crowd pleaser — Rosie. Easily one of the best shows I've seen them present. They get better with age — it's true. They are tight and professional and having the time of their life; thanks for taking us all along with you. The songs never grow old, the music never fails to inspire.

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