2014-04-06 Reunion Arena, Old Site, Dallas, TX

Scheduled: ??:?? Local Start Time: 19:26 / End Time: 22:15

Info & Setlist | Venue

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band perform for free on the old Reunion Arena site as part of the NCAA's March Madness Music Festival. This is the first time since December 2012 that Bruce has performed with the band in the United States. The 25-song set opens with a cover version of Van Halen's "Jump" and closes with "Thunder Road", sung as an acoustic duet with Patti Scialfa. The festival-appropriate set is otherwise standard and includes "Cover Me" (in its last 2014 performance) and "Atlantic City". Steven Van Zandt is absent as he is currently filming Lilyhammer in Norway, and therefore Nils occupies Steve's position on stage to the left of Bruce. Other acts performing over the day were The Wind And The Wave, Pat Green, and fun.

NCAA March Madness Music Festival

Intro to “Jump”
“(Walks to the stage with a basketball in his hand) This has something to do with basketball, am I right? (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “Badlands”
“Evening, Dallas! (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “Spirit in the Night”
“How’s the weather? (crowd cheers) this is a good weather to play in (crowd cheers) you stay nice and cool…get washed off a little bit …this is a good playing weather…Dallas, Dallas, Dallas…been here many, many times (crowd cheers) but, uh…I don’t believe I’ve ever been here in honor of basketball before so…I don’t know…I don’t know a lot about basketball (chuckles) you don’t know anything about it? (chuckles) but you love it, what?…what?…alright, wait a minute…basketball will (a woman in the audience: “Will change your life”) (crowd cheers) I’m up for a life change (chuckles)…I played basketball at the Freehold YMCA (crowd cheers) that’s right …played in a lot of basketball gyms (chuckles) that changed my life (chuckles) but all I know…is that team that is the most alive…that is carrying the most heart and spirit…and we’ve been hired here tonight to bring the spirit to Dallas (crowd cheers) we’ve been hired here tonight…in a light monsoon…to bring the spirit to Dallas (crowd cheers) so what I wanna know is…can you feel the spirit? (crowd cheers) can you feel the spirit now? (crowd cheers) can you feel the spirit? (crowd cheers) can you feeeeel the spirit now? (crowd cheers) well, if you can feel the spirit, I want you to answer me with a mighty “Yeah, yeah” – can you feel the spirit? (crowd and band: “Yeah, yeah!”) can you feel the spirit now? (crowd and band: “Yeah, yeah!”) can you feel the spirit? (crowd and band: “Yeah, yeah!”) can you feel the spirit now? (crowd and band: “Yeah, yeah!”) do it again, do it again - can you feel the spirit? (crowd and band: “Yeah, yeah!”) can you feel the spirit? (crowd and band: “Yeah, yeah!”) can you feel? (crowd and band: “Yeah, yeah!”)…”

Middle of “Glory Days”
“You da man, you da man…you are the man…get on up here…get on up here, son…bring yourself over here…(sings with a fan)…”

Towards the end of “Dancing in the Dark”
“Selfie, selfie, selfie, selfie…selfie, selfie…”

Intro to “Shout”
“Dallas! (crowd cheers) are you ready to go home? (crowd: “No!”) aren’t you cold? (crowd: “No!”) aren’t you wet? (crowd: “No!”) E-flat…yeah, yeah…yeah, yeah…are you sure? (crowd cheers) are you sure? (crowd cheers) are you sure you don’t wanna go home now? (crowd cheers) are you sure? (crowd cheers) are you sure? (crowd cheers) are you sure you don’t wanna go home? (crowd cheers) to the sixth – I need to hear you a little louder (crowd cheers) to the one - are you sure? (crowd cheers) are you sure? (crowd cheers) are you sure you don’t wanna go home now? (crowd cheers) I need to hear you a little louder (crowd cheers) let me see you raise your hand now…I just wanna see you raise your hand now…”

Middle of “Shout”
“Thank you for being with us this evening (crowd cheers) yes, yes, yes, yes…we got Sooz, Sister Soozie Tyrell (crowd cheers) Eddie “Thin Man” Manion (crowd cheers) Charlie Giordano (crowd cheers) Tom Morello (crowd cheers) Curt Ramm (crowd cheers) Jake Clemons (crowd cheers) the Mighty Max Weinberg (crowd cheers) Mr. Garry W. Tallent (crowd cheers) Michelle Moore (crowd cheers) Curtis King (crowd cheers) Cindy Mizelle (crowd cheers) Nils Lofgren (crowd cheers) Miss Patti Scialfa (crowd cheers) Barry Danielian (crowd cheers) Clark Gayton (crowd cheers) Professor Roy Bittan (crowd cheers) and the Reverend Everett Bradley (crowd cheers) that’s right…that’s right…that’s right…I want you to go home now and I want you to tell your friends and I want you to tell your friends and I want you to tell your friends that…you’ve just seen the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, Earth-shocking, hard rocking, booty-shaking, earth-quaking, love-making, Viagra-taking, history-making, did I mention Viagra-taking? (crowd cheers) history-making, legendary E (crowd: “Street Band!”)…”

Intro to “Thunder Road”
“The mighty E Street Band! (crowd cheers) yes, indeed, yes, indeed …”

After “Thunder Road”
“Thanks, a great audience, the E Street Band loves you (crowd cheers)…”

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

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Bruce Springsteen Launches U.S. ‘High Hopes’ Tour With NCAA Blowout

Forget about tonight’s actual NCAA title game: Bruce Springsteen has already been crowned the champion of Final Four weekend in Dallas, closing out the March Madness Music Festival with a Sunday-night headlining set that — of course — went into triple overtime.

Backed, prodded and, at times, literally propped-up by the E Street Band, Springsteen sweat, spat, swore a bit, and shrugged off weather he referred to as “a light monsoon” in a show that spanned the length of four NCAA basketball games (with an extra half thrown in for good measure.) He’s never been one to beg off early, but on this night, Springsteen seemed to be playing with an extra purpose — after all, Sunday marked his first full-length performance in the U.S. since wrapping the Wrecking Ball tour in late 2012, not to mention his first stateside date in support of 2014’s High Hopes album.

Springsteen was ready to put in work, though he did make one concession to the events of the weekend, taking the stage with the E Streeters to the strains of “Sweet Georgia Brown” (instantly recognizable to even the wheeziest of mathletes as the Harlem Globetrotters’ theme) then bringing a referee onstage for an actual opening tipoff (he battled guitarist Nils Lofgren). Appropriately, that was followed by a cover of Van Halen’s “Jump,” and then Springsteen was off and running.

There were, naturally, the classics every Bruce diehard lives to shout along to — a hard-revving take on “Badlands,” a shuffling “Hungry Heart,” “Born to Run,” “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” — and tour-tested favorites that were given updates both soulful (a meditative-to-massive “Atlantic City”) and sublime (“Johnny 99,” which became boisterous thanks to Roy Bittan’s boogie-woogie piano and a big brass-band breakdown). In quieter moments, most notably a ghostly take on “The River,” and an acoustic “Thunder Road,” Springsteen led the rapt audience through revivals and eulogies, and when the volume got loud, he directed sing-alongs from the stage.

It was a prime example of Springsteen’s powers as both a showman and a shaman, neither of which were in doubt. But he also showed a newfound fire thanks to the addition of guitarist Tom Morello to the E Street lineup (the Rage Against the Machine maestro is replacing Steve Van Zandt, who’s busy filming his series Lilyhammer.) The two traded verses and solos on a series on incendiary songs, including High Hopes’ title track, and another cut from the odds-n-sods album, “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” that were arguably the highlights of the night, with Morello conjuring rapid-fire squeals, and Springsteen adding rough-edged grit. Even from the back of Dallas’ Reunion Park, you could see a genuine spark between the two.

Springsteen also shared the stage with his fans, the majority of which definitely weren’t alive when he was sending out Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. That didn’t stop him from letting them sing lead, or direct the E Street Band, though it certainly explains why, after inviting several girls up for “Dancing in the Dark,” they all seemed more interested in posing for selfies (Courteney Cox never did that). But it showed that, at this point, Springsteen’s reach now extends to a third generation, and chances are, they’ll remember this show for the rest of their lives, long after the winner of the 2014 NCAA tournament has faded from memory.

Springsteen wasn’t the only act making a return to the U.S. stage on Sunday: fun. performed a vibrant late-afternoon set (their first since October) that showed they hadn’t lost a step and hinted at bigger things to come.

While the group didn’t play any new material — frontman Nate Ruess is currently writing songs for the follow-up to their breakthrough Some Nights album, while guitarist Jack Antonoff is busy with Bleachers — they did infuse their back catalog with added percussive punch, swirling guitars and wide-screen vocal harmonies. From the marching-band might of opener “One Foot” and Antonoff’s chunky grooves on “Walking the Dog” to the increased role of touring member Emily Moore and the expressive-yet-precise playing (on several instruments) of Andrew Dost, fun. are only adding to their arsenal.

And Ruess, emboldened by his songwriting successes, is coming into his own as a frontman. His voice was as lithe as ever on songs like “Why Am I the One” and “Barlights,” and, during a lull in the set, he took it upon himself to bond with the soaked masses, rolling around in the rapidly growing puddles on the stage, then joking “I dare you to do that, Boss!” (it was difficult to tell if the crowd was booing the joke, or yelling “Bruuuuce!”)

Fun. showed their experimental side on the glitchy “It Gets Better” and got in touch with their inner bar band on a nifty cover of the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” and, of course, scored with their true strength: writing massive anthems like “Carry On” and “We Are Young,” each delivered with aplomb by Ruess, while Antonoff ripped off spiraling solos and Dost held down the center with his piano playing.

Those two songs went over big, but you could tell that Ruess (who was totally drenched by the end of the set) was thoroughly enjoying himself throughout. At one point, he looked at Antonoff and Dost and laughed “We need to fucking come out of retirement.” Seriously.

^{By James Montgomery via Rolling Stone.}

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