2016-01-16 Consol Energy Center, Pittsburgh, PA

Scheduled: 19:30 Local Start Time 19:58 / End Time 23:21

Info & Setlist | Venue

Opening night of The River Tour 2016, at which each show on the opening U.S. leg will feature a complete performance of The River album, in sequence. The 34-song set opens with "Meet Me In The City". "Two Hearts" includes "It Takes Two". "I Wanna Marry You" includes the "Here She Comes Walkin'" introduction, and "Point Blank" features the same piano introduction that was played on the River Tour in 1980 and 1981. The encores open with tour one-off "Rebel Rebel", as tribute to David Bowie who died on January 10, 2016 at the age of 69. Springsteen first met Bowie in November 1974, after catching a Greyhound bus from Asbury Park to Philadelphia. Bowie was in the studio at the time, recording Young Americans, and would go on to record covers of "It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City" and "Growin' Up". "Shout" includes a snippet of "Take Me To The River" in the midsection.

Intro to “Meet Me in the City”
“Hello, Pittsburgh! (crowd cheers)…”

Middle of “Meet Me in the City”
“Pittsburgh! (crowd cheers) we’re so glad to be in your beautiful city tonight (crowd cheers) we’re here to rock you, to sock you, we’re gonna take you to “the River” (crowd cheers) I wanna know are you to be transformed? (crowd cheers) are you to be transformed? (crowd cheers) are you to be transformed? (crowd cheers) let’s go (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “The Ties That Bind”
“Good evening! (crowd cheers) woo, thank you for coming out and being with us tonight (crowd cheers) alright, “The River” was a…
record where I was trying to figure out where I fit in…by the time I got to that record I’d taken notice of the things that bond people to their lives, their work, commitments, families, I wanted to imagine and I wanted to write about those things and I figured if I could write about ‘em, maybe I’d get one step closer to realizing them in my own life…I wanted to make a record that was big enough so it felt like life or like an E Street Band show (crowd cheers) I wanted the record to contain fun, dancing, jokes, good comradeship, love, faith, sex, lonely nights and, of course, tears and I figured that if I could make a record that was big enough to contain all those things maybe I’d get a little closer to, uh, the home I was searching for so, uh, tonight I want you to come along with us as we go down to “The River” (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “Sherry Darling”
“Let’s hear some party noises! (crowd cheers) a little louder! (crowd cheers) …”

Intro to “Independence Day”
““Independence Day” was the first song I wrote about fathers and sons, it’s the, uh…kind of song you write when you’re young and you’re startled by your parents’ humanity…you’re shocked to realize that they had their own dreams and their own desires because all you can see is the adult compromise that they had to make…and when you’re young, you haven’t had to do that yet, the idea of it frightens you…it frightened me…and all I could see was the world that they seemed locked into and I could feel was the desire to escape that world…so I had a simple setting for the song, it was just a late night conversation between two people struggling to understand, understand each other…”

Intro to “I Wanna Marry You”
“How we doing? (crowd cheers) are we having fun yet? (crowd cheers) good…I wrote this song…as a daydream…like you’re
standing on the corner, you’re watching someone you’ll…someone you’ll never meet walk by…and you imagine an entire life with this person…where you gonna live, what kind of kids you’re gonna have …of course it’s the easiest kind of life, it’s the one without the consequences (chuckles)…but, hey, it’s a young man’s song (chuckles) it’s imagining love…and all of its glory (chuckles) and its tentativeness…it’s not the real thing…it’s not the real thing…but you gotta start someplace…so this was where I started…Well, sometimes at night when I lie in bed…I still see that face running round my head…sometimes at night when I lie in bed…I still see her face running round my head…here she comes walking down the street…here she comes walking down the street…she’s looking so fine, she’s looking so sweet…she’s so, so fine, she’s looking so sweet…yeah, someday I’m gonna make her mine, I know I will…someday I’m gonna make her mine, I know I will…someday she’s gonna stop instead of walking by…she’s gonna stop instead of walking by, she’s gonna stop instead of walking by, she’s gonna stop instead of walking by…oh, my little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…my little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…my little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…my little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…my little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…my little girl, little girl, little girl, little girl…(crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “Cadillac Ranch”
“Come on, gimme some lights! (crowd cheers) let’s go…”

Intro to “Fade Away”
“Alright, Steve Van Zandt’s favorite song…”

Intro to “Stolen Car”
“This is a song I wrote…wrote and re-wrote many times before I felt I got it right…asked the question if you lose your connections…to things…do you lose yourself…”

Intro to “Ramrod”
“Going to the roadhouse! (crowd cheers)…”

Towards the end of “Wreck on the Highway”
“One of the other things I was writing about on “The River” was time…a friend of mine, we were sitting around last night, said time catches up to us all…you’ve got a limited amount of time to do your work, to take care of your family…to try to do something good… (music stops) (crowd cheers) Thanks a lot, that’s “The River!” (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “Badlands”
“We got a few left for you (chuckles)(crowd cheers)

Middle of “Backstreets”
“Till the end…till the end…till the end…just me and you, darling… just me and you, darling…forever friends…forever friends…till the end…till the end…”

Intro to “Rebel Rebel”
“Gonna take a moment and just note the passing of our good friend David Bowie, David, uh (crowd cheers) I don’t know if people know but he supported our music way, way, way back in the very, very beginning, 1973 he, uh, rang me up and I visited him down in Philly while he was making the “Young Americans” record and, uh, he covered some of my music, “Hard to Be a Saint in the City” and “Growin’ Up” and he was a big supporter of ours, particularly when, uh, I took the Greyhound bus down to Philadelphia, that’s how early it was (chuckles)(crowd cheers) but, uh, anyway, we’re thinking of him…”

Intro to “Shout”
“You got nothing left! (crowd cheers) nothing left! (crowd cheers) Pittsburgh! (crowd cheers) Pittsburgh! (crowd cheers) Pittsburgh! (crowd cheers) Pittsburgh! (crowd cheers) Pittsburgh! (crowd cheers)…”

Middle of “Shout”
“You’re looking good…I wanna thank everybody for coming out to the show tonight (crowd cheers) oh, take me to the river, wash me in the water, take me to the river, wash me in the water…we got some friends of ours in the house tonight, folks from the Rainbow Kitchen (crowd cheers) since 1984 the Rainbow Kitchen’s been a safety net for people going through hard times, they were one of the first foodbanks we partnered with back on the “Born in the U.S.A”-tour, they provide daily hot meals for kids, supplemental groceries for families and they offer case management services for your neighbors in need, please help the Rainbow Kitchen if you see them tonight (crowd cheers) alright…alright…ladies and gentlemen …on the violin and vocals and guitar, Soozie Tyrell (crowd cheers) Charlie Giordano on the organ (crowd cheers) the incredible Nils Lofgren on guitar (crowd cheers) Jaaaaake Clemons on the saxophone (crowd cheers) the Mighty Max Weinberg on the drums (crowd cheers) Garry W. Tallent on the bass (crowd cheers) Professor Roy Bittan on the piano (crowd cheers) Miss Patti Scialfa on vocals and guitar (crowd cheers) and last but not least, star of radio, Underground Radio, and tellyvision! Little Steven Van Zandt (crowd cheers) that’s right…I want you to know…I want you to know…I want you to know…I want you to know…Pittsburgh! (crowd cheers) Pittsburgh! (crowd cheers) Pittsburgh! (crowd cheers) Pittsburgh! (crowd cheers) you’ve just seen the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, Earth-shaking, booty-quaking, masturbating, Viagra-taking, history-making, love-making, the legendary E (crowd: “Street Band!”)…”

After “Shout”
“Thank you! (crowd cheers) you’re incredible! (crowd cheers) thanks for giving us such a beautiful opening night (crowd cheers)
Pittsburgh! (crowd cheers) we love you! (crowd cheers) thank you (crowd cheers) incredible audience, thank you (crowd cheers) everybody in the back! (crowd cheers) thank you, thank you all for coming out, thank you so much (crowd cheers) thanks for a great night, we love you, we’ll be seeing you (crowd cheers)…”

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

^{© All credits to the original photographer. We do not monetize a photo in any way, but if you want your photo to be removed, let us know, and we will remove it.}

Watch Bruce Springsteen Cover David Bowie’s ‘Rebel Rebel’ in Pittsburgh

“Not enough people know it but [Bowie] recorded our music way, way, way back in the very beginning, 1973,” Springsteen tells crowd at the River Tour opener

Bruce Springsteen kicked off the River Tour Saturday night at Pittsburgh, and to open the encore,Springsteen paid tribute to one of the E Street rocker’s earliest supporters, David Bowie, with a cover of “Rebel Rebel.” Before delivering the bittersweet take on the Diamond Dogs classic, Springsteen reminisced about meeting Bowie, who once complemented Springsteen by calling him the only American artist whose music he wanted to cover.

“We’re gonna take a moment and note the passing of our good friend David Bowie,” Springsteen said. “Not enough people know it but he recorded our music way, way, way back in the very beginning, 1973. He rang me up and I visited him down in Philly while he was making the Young Americans record. He covered some of my music, ‘It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City,’ ‘Growin’ Up,’ and he was a big supporter of ours. I took the Greyhound bus down to Philadelphia, that’s how early on it was. Anyway, we’re thinking of him.”

Neither of Bowie’s Springsteen covers appeared on an album, although “Growin’ Up” popped up on the 1990 Pin-Ups reissue (which featured cover songs of only U.K. artists besides Springsteen and Jacques Brel) and his take on “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City” eventually surfaced on the Sound + Vision boxset. Check out Bowiesongs for more details about Bowie’s November 1974 studio session with Springsteen, which unfortunately resulted in no recorded music; however, the two rock legends did discuss UFOs.

“Over here on E Street, we’re feeling the great loss of David Bowie. David was a visionary artist and an early supporter of our music,” Springsteen tweeted after Bowie’s death at 69 on January 10th. “Always changing and ahead of the curve, he was an artist whose excellence you aspired to. He will be sorely missed.”

^{By Daniel Kreps via Rolling Stone.}

Links: