2012-07-28 Ullevi, Gothenburg, Sweden

Scheduled: 20:30 Local Start Time: 20:48 / End Time: 00:25

Info & Setlist | Venue

Stunning setlist for the second night in Gothenburg, the highlight of which is clearly the return of "Jungleland", the first time it has been played since the death of Clarence Clemons in June 2011. Unsurprisingly it was dedicated to The Big Man. If that's not enough there's also the tour debuts of "Lost In The Flood" (by request), the European debut of "Frankie", and the tour's lone "Where The Bands Are". The full-band "Frankie" was last played September 2003, in Boston. The last time "Lost In The Flood", "Backstreets" and "Jungleland" were all played in the same set was back in September 1978, at the Masonic Temple Theatre in Detroit, MI. The wet show opens with "Who'll Stop The Rain", and the 31-song set also includes "Downbound Train", "I'm Goin' Down" and an outstanding "It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City", played by request. Bruce said it was the song that got him his record deal, back in May 1972. "Twist And Shout" includes "La Bamba". Patti Scialfa is not present. Prior to the show Steve tweeted, "There's something about the thought of fans waiting out in the rain all day that makes us crazy. I feel one for the ages coming on." He was right!

Intro to “Who’ll Stop the Rain?”
“Hej, Göteborg! (crowd cheers) nu ser vi igen (crowd cheers) nu ser vi igen (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “The Ties That Bind”
“Good evening! (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “I’m Goin’ Down”
“Little Born in the U.S.A double hitter…give me some slap, Monte…”

Intro to “My Lucky Day”
“Can’t stop yet, Steve!…My Lucky Day, My Lucky Day…I need my guitar…Lucky Day…”

Intro to “Lost in the Flood”
“Yeah, yeah! (crowd cheers) alright, we haven’t played this one in quite a while…I think I remember the chords…if we fuck it up, it’s your fault right there, your fault right there…but due to the prevailing weather conditions (crowd cheers)…you guys wanna go over the chords first? (chuckles)…(?)…we got it?…what key? key E minor…yeah…we’re gonna start with this (crowd cheers) boom!… Roy, you gotta do the intro…(Roy hits the chords) no, no, the light first (chuckles) go on, Roy…(Roy plays) key of E minor, then we’re gonna hit the big chord…alright…here it comes…(?)(crowd cheers) …”

Intro to “My City of Ruins”
“Hej, Göteborg (crowd cheers) oh, what a night we had last night (crowd cheers) but this feels real good (crowd cheers) yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah now…alright now…oh, we don’t care about the rain, we ain’t worried about that (crowd cheers) aha…this is a song I wrote… round the turn of the century (chuckles) it was a song about my adopted hometown trying to get back on its feet…I’ve been telling the folks every night it’s become about a lot of other things…about the things we lose as time passes, about the people we lose as time passes…about the things we keep that time can’t fuck with (chuckles) and, uh…and a part of those people that we keep within us and pass on…and pass on…when we put our band together many, many years ago, our idea was we would carry the flag for a little while and then we would pass it on…that’s what this about really too…”
2012-07-28 Gothenburg, middle of “My City of Ruins”
“That’s Clark Gayton, Barry Danielian, Curt Ramm, Eddie Manion and Jake Clemons of the E Street horns (crowd cheers) yeah…take me higher…oh yeah, one more time now…alright now…oh, that’s
Everett Bradley, Curtis “Cowbell” King, Cindy Mizelle and Michelle Moore of the E Street Choir (crowd cheers) oh yeah…oh yeah…come on, Max!…roll call! (crowd cheers) every time this night we do a roll call to see who’s in the house and who’s missing…I wanna know who’s in the house tonight (crowd cheers) I said I wanna know who’s in the house tonight now (crowd cheers) I said I need to know who’s in the house tonight (crowd cheers) oh, I wanna know who’s in the house tonight (crowd cheers) yes, yes, Professor Roy Bittan’s in the house with us (Roy plays) come on, Roy (Roy plays) yeah, yeah, Sister Soozie Tyrell (crowd cheers)(Soozie plays violin) Charlie Giordano, king of the soul accordion (Charlie plays)(crowd cheers) play it, brother man (Charlie plays) oh, a man that forges the E Street Band’s blood links to Scandinavia, Mr. Nils Lofgren (crowd cheers)(Nils plays) he’s got his own cover band in this town, damn it…that’s right…oh, and I’m searching for my baby…yeah, I’m searching for my girl now…I’m searching for my baby…Patti’s at home so that we can be out here, Miss Patti Scialfa, please! (crowd cheers) from out of Asbury Park via Lilyhammer, Steve Van Zandt!
(crowd cheers)(Steve plays) and Mighty Max Weinberg (crowd cheers)(Max drums) and Mr. Garry W. Tallent (crowd cheers)(Garry plays)…are you ready for a house party? (crowd cheers) are you ready for a house party? (crowd cheers) because we did test this stadium last night (crowd cheers) but not like we’re gonna test it tonight, that’s right (crowd cheers) are you ready for a Swedish house party? (crowd cheers) let’s find, let’s find out what that’s about (chuckles)…I remember in the summertime we’d have our house parties and we’d throw everything out into the backyard… had the grill on, had people making cheeseburgers and every summer you’d see who showed up and who was missing…so they were always, particularly as you got older, they were always bittersweet…so many things get bittersweet (chuckles)…are we missing anybody? (crowd cheers) are you missing anybody tonight? (crowd cheers) are you missing anybody? (crowd cheers) are we missing anybody tonight? (crowd cheers) yeah, I’ll join you…are we missing anybody? (crowd cheers) oh, are we missing anybody tonight now? (crowd cheers) are we missing anybody? (crowd cheers) are we missing anybody tonight now? (crowd cheers) well, I know he’s listening in so let him hear your voices, come on (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City”
“(Chuckles) Alright, this guy’s been holding this sign for…many shows…what I like is, uh, there’s this little drawing right here (crowd cheers) I think that’s supposed to be me (crowd cheers) for some reason I’m wearing a green night-shirt (chuckles) alright, brother, let me see…this is for Marco Sinatra, alright (crowd cheers) you the man, you, you the man (chuckles) Steve, are you ready?… what key do we do this in? key of B – give me another guitar…says key of B…you got A?…we’ll do it in A – A is the original key, alright …here we go…(start the intro music)…this is from our first album… who was alive in 1973, baby? (chuckles) (crowd cheers) get out of here! (chuckles)…”

After “It’s Hard to be a Saint in the City”
“A lucky song! (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “Frankie”
“Alright, we’re gonna play some strange things for you tonight, this was a request…play this very rarely but it’s really…it’s a lovely song, I forget, I think it was supposed to be on The River-album but, uh…go ahead, Nils, try it…(band starts playing the intro)…let me hear you, Charles (Charlie plays) almost…ready, band?…”

After “Frankie”
“Yeah, yeah, we ought to play that one more often (chuckles) (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “The River”
“Let me see where we’ll go, uh…(?)…yeah, yeah…sing it with me…”

Intro to “Hungry Heart”
“(After the sing-along) Very good out there! (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “Where the Bands Are”
“Yeah, yeah…oh yeah! woo!…alright…alright, this is a song for all the folks that’ve been following us around from place to place, place to place (crowd cheers) there’s many of you out there…you ready, boys?…”

Middle of “Backstreets”
“Till the end…till the end…just me and you, darling…just me and you, darling…till the end…till the end…come a little bit closer…till the end…till the end…”

Intro to “Thunder Road”
“Thank you, Göteborg, tack (crowd cheers) tusen tack (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “Ramrod”
“Göteborg! (crowd cheers) are you ready to roadhouse? (crowd cheers) are you ready to roadhouse? (crowd cheers) are you ready to roadhouse? (crowd cheers) put your hands in the air (?)…”

Intro to “Jungleland”
“Yes, yes (crowd cheers) as you know, Clarence felt, uh…Clarence was a special part of Sweden also and, uh (crowd cheers) this was a very special place for him and, uh, so tonight we haven’t done this once in a long time and we haven’t practiced it so (chuckles)… this is for the Big Man (crowd cheers) and for him for giving him a home for quite a few years also (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “Twist and Shout”
“Give me the guitar, we gotta send these folks home dancing, come on (crowd cheers) all I can say is we’ve had an amazing two nights here, oh my God, uh…what can I tell you but thank you, thank you for, uh (crowd cheers) for what you gave us here the last couple of nights (crowd cheers) this, uh, this has been an amazing, amazing place for us and, uh…I know, vi älskar er, that’s it (crowd cheers) here we go…”

Towards the end of “Twist and Shout”
“Vi älskar er!…”
“Thank you! (crowd cheers) thank you, Gothenburg! (crowd cheers) the mighty E Street Band! (crowd cheers) thank you so much (crowd cheers) take a bow, boys (crowd cheers) we love you, you guys were the best, what an audience, thank you (crowd cheers) had a great, great couple of nights, wow (crowd cheers) we love and we’ll be seeing you, God bless! (crowd cheers)…”

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

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Tonight I Wanna Feel The Beat Of The Crowd

If there was ever a time to appreciate archival live recordings, that time is now.

Many years ago, I heard the brilliantly talented and famously cantankerous guitarist Robert Fripp of King Crimson posit a provocative position on the subject of live recordings. “Of the many, many performances [I’ve seen] over four decades,” he told an audience at SXSW in Austin, “I have [never] left and felt I wished to have it on tape. There was nothing in my experience of any of [those] events which were other than available to my experience. And if I wasn’t there, I missed it. And if I missed it, photographs, recordings, nothing could bring this back to me.”

Au contraire mon frère.

The core idea Fripp articulates is undeniably true: Nothing can fully replace or replicate being at a concert in person, as it happens. But let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Archival live recordings are, as Ma Bell used to say, “the next best thing to being there.” (For those too young to remember, that’s what AT&T was affectionately called when it was a national telecom monopoly.)

As undeniably magical as live concerts can be, they are by nature fleeting, real-time experiences. Yes, they live on in our memories, but what’s the larger cultural value of these unique performances? When the technology was invented in the 1870s to record and preserve audio, after the spoken word, the earliest recordings captured on those cylinders were of musicians performing live. Preserving performances is arguably the fundamental underlying purpose of recording technology.

Hearing a show you attended can stir memories back to life. Amazing as that is, live recordings even allow time travel and can place us at the Tower Theater in 1975, the Roxy in 1978 or Wembley Arena in 1981 when we couldn’t have possibly been there any other way. Is it the same as having had Bruce stand on your cocktail table during the middle of “Spirit in the Night?” No, but close your eyes, let your imagination flow, and it is awfully close.

Gothenburg 7/28/12 allows fans who weren’t there at Ullevi to travel through time and space to hear one of the best nights on the Wrecking Ball tour in a closing run of European concerts that was, to quote Stevie Van Zandt’s predictive tweet before the show, “one for the ages.”

There’s something about rainy shows that brings out the best in Bruce and the band. The show opener, a cover of Creedence’s “Who’ll Stop the Rain?” is a bellwether for great things to come, with crunchy guitar leading the way. Fan-band bonds are solidified through sparkling takes of “The Ties That Bind” and “Out in the Street” (with extra long intro) before we move to the less-traveled corners of Born in the U.S.A. with an excellent “doubleheader” of “Downbound Train” and “I’m Goin’ Down.” The former extends the guitar-richness of the show’s opening salvo and benefits from the heft of the horn section; the latter restores a bit of often-missing edge to the self-deprecating tale.

The aforementioned guitar tone extends seamlessly into a sharp “My Lucky Day” in one of only four Wrecking Ball tour performances. Special nights are built on special songs, and Gothenburg has particularly juicy ones.

What is it about “Lost in the Flood?” Bruce and the band can let it lie dormant for ages, then nail it as they did in NYC 2000. “Flood” had gone unplayed for three years prior to Gothenburg, wasn’t soundchecked, yet the mighty E Street Band is more than up to the task. “In the key of E minor,” says Bruce, “then we’re gonna hit the big chord.” Do they ever. The big chord that follows Roy’s prelude smashes forth an electrifying version that sounds as vital and fresh as it did four decades prior. Bruce vocals are especially gritty, evidenced by this not-so-subtle lyric change: “Hey man, did you see that? Those poor cats were sure fucked up.” Damn.

The energy generated by “Lost in the Flood” propels the ensuing three-pack from Wrecking Ball (“We Take Care of Our Own,” “Wrecking Ball,” “Death to My Hometown”) plus kindred spirit “My CIty of Ruins.” Pick your cliche—firing on all cylinders, in the zone, killing it—all would apply, and doesn’t the horn section sound fantastic? Despite the stadium scale of the show, Jon Altschiller’s mix is tight and close, with Roy’s piano and Max’s high-hat in particularly sharp focus.

“Frankie.” Merely typing the song title brings a smile. The marvelous, lost-and-found Springsteen original premiered on the Spring 1976 tour, his first new song after the release of Born to Run. It was performed around a dozen times that year and cut for Darkness a year later (despite Bruce’s introduction saying The River). It was recorded again for Born in the U.S.A. in 1982, and that version was eventually released on Tracks in 1998.

The song’s live outings in modern times are equally limited. One-off attempts in 1999 and 2003 showed “Frankie” deceptively tricky to get right; something about the song’s lilting quality and mid-tempo pacing proved elusive. But after working through the arrangement in soundcheck, Bruce unlocks the wondrous heart of “Frankie” and lets it wash over Gothenburg in a spellbinding performance.

The show’s second act begins with slightly off-kilter take of “The River,” though normal service is restored in a crisp “Because the Night” and on through “Lonesome Day,” “Hungry Heart,” “Shackled and Drawn,” and “Waitin’ on a Sunny Day.” We step back into special-show territory with another great pick from Tracks, the rollicking River outtake “Where the Bands Are” dedicated to the fans who had traveled from show to show around Europe. It is the last performance to date of the irresistible track.

Sure, special songs help make special nights, but Gothenburg is more than its rarities. The performance of “Backstreets” shines as a particular standout, taking its time and accented with vocal nuances that don’t occur in every outing. I don’t think Bruce can sing it any better in this century. Boom, “Badlands” kicks in, and the show runs through the end of the main set via “Land of Hope and Dreams” and the band-spotlighting “People Get Ready” outro.

The encore might best be described as one of release. Start with Bruce’s final vocal line in “Thunder Road,” as he wavers for effect on “we’re pulling out of here to wiiiiiiin.” The contrast of “Thunder Road” into “Born in the U.S.A.” is compelling “40 years down the road” with the horns adding anthemic overtones to the song’s conclusion. The energy stays high for “Born to Run,” “Ramrod,” “Dancing in the Dark,” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze-out” before we reach the emotional apex of the night: The return of “Jungleland.”

“Clarence was a special part of Sweden,” Bruce tells the crowd. “So tonight, we haven’t done this one in a long time, and we haven’t practiced it. This is for the Big Man and for you for giving him a home for quite a few years.”

Roy and Soozie kick it off a la Main Point ‘75. The band turns the burners to high. Steve’s guitar solo is on point. As we arrive at The Moment, Bruce’s vocals are passionate, stretching out “Just one look and a whisper, they’re gaw-aw-one” before Jake Clemons hits that transcendent note. Having never listened to fan recordings of the show, I didn’t know what to expect from this resurrection, but Jake, Bruce, and the band really deliver. That first note of the solo might bring a tear to your eye, and when Jake’s spotlight ends, you hear the appreciation and recognition of what just transpired from the audience.

How does one follow up such a moment? The only way Bruce knows how, with “Twist and Shout.” Nothing can follow that, yet even after 12 minutes the audience is still “whoa, whoaing” the melody to “Badlands.” No wonder these Euro 2012 shows were so long: the audiences, Bruce, and the band just didn’t want it to end.

^{By Erik Flannigan via Nugs.net.}

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Tonight I Wanna Feel The Beat Of The Crowd