2016-09-14 Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, MA

Scheduled: 19:30 Local Start Time 19:54 / End Time 23:55

Info & Setlist | Venue

The 75th and final show of The River Tour 2016 opens with "New York City Serenade" accompanied by Sam Bardfeld's string section and then "Prove It All Night" with the '78-style introduction. Six songs in a row from Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. follow, before three from The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle. The 33-song set is four hours, two minutes and 15 seconds long, and also includes "Boom Boom", the second "Radio Nowhere" of the tour, "Detroit Medley" and "Light Of Day" (including "Land Of 1000 Dances"). "4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" is played in a different arrangement which is almost entirely solo electric before the band joins in for the closing bars. The encores include the second solo acoustic "Long Walk Home" of the tour, Peter Wolf joining for "Shout" (which includes a snippet of "The Midnight Special" in the introduction), the tour premiere of "Rockin' All Over The World" and the final song of the tour, "Bobby Jean". "Born To Run" and "Dancing In The Dark" appear in their usual encore slots, making them the only two songs to appear at every show of the tour. The strings, all violins, are Bardfeld, Sara Caswell, Rachel Golub, Joyce Hammann, Dana Lyn, Todd Reynolds, Mazz Swift, and Orlando Wells. Patti Scialfa is not present.

String section (Guests)
Peter Wolf (Guest)

Intro to “New York City Serenade”
“Hello, Foxborough! (crowd cheers) you’re looking good…”

After “New York City Serenade”
“Let’s hear it for our strings! (crowd cheers) out of New York City, Sam Bardfeld and the strings (crowd cheers) that’s very sweet, thank you, thank you (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?”
“Alright…I got a birthday coming up (chuckles)(crowd cheers) it’s a big birthday, it’s coming up, man, it’s a big birthday…I wrote this song when I was a little baby child (chuckles) alright, come on, boys…”

Intro to “Blinded by the Light”
“Yes!…so there I was…there I was!…there I was…sitting on the edge of my bed in Asbury Park (crowd cheers) one flight over an abandoned beauty salon…I’d handed in my record into the record company and they said…they gave it back to me…they said there’s no hits on it, there’s nothing they’re gonna play on the radio…so I went home…I got out my rhyming dictionary (crowd cheers)…and I looked out my window…and I saw Mad Dog Vincent Lopez in a tirade down on the street in front of me (crowd cheers) he was assaulting a young man for taking his parking place (chuckles) and I thought…”

Intro to “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City”
“There I was…again…traveling…Coast City Coaches from Asbury to NEW YORK CITY! (crowd cheers) just like I’d pictured it…I got out in New York City, met my manager, a man with a big cigar, we went down to the record company building…and we got in the elevator…and we went up…and we went up…past the trees…and we went up past the clouds, past where the angels were singing, and we went up past the Colonel Sanders fried chicken stand…and we went up, I saw Little Steven by the Colonel Sanders friend chicken stand (crowd cheers)(chuckles) and we went up and we got out somewhere way up in the heavens and we walked down to a man named John Hammond’s office…he was one of the greatest A&R men in the history of record business and he let in two absolute fucking nobodies into his office (chuckles)…I came in, I sat down, he said “Play me something”…and I said “Um…um…I…I…I …I…I…I …Max! I had skin like leather…”

Intro to “Growin’ Up”
“Now…before my upcoming smash biography (chuckles)(crowd cheers) this was my biography…author, author (chuckles)…”

Middle of “Growin’ Up”
“(Crowd Bruuces)…You’re gonna Bruce me? (crowd cheers) then Bruce me right (crowd cheers) ‘cause there I was…it was the middle of the summer, I was stranded in my little town…there was nothing to do…it was one of those 95-degree, 90 percent humidity months …all my friends hated me, the town hated me…my family liked me a little bit…so I knew I had to find something I could do, something I could become competent at…now at that moment I was about 14, I only had one thing I was competent at…and how many things can you do for four hours? (chuckles) (crowd cheers) if I’d’ve known, I would have sought medical assistance like they tell you (chuckles) (laughs from the crowd) well, I walked downtown and in a Western Auto Store I saw this banged-up, old guitar hanging next to the auto parts for 18 bucks…so I knew I was gonna have to do something I’d never done before…WORK! (chuckles)(laughs from the crowd) I went over to my aunt Dora’s and my uncle Warren’s and they gave me a job mowing the lawn, uncle Warren brought out the big shears, taught me how to trim the hedges…then I painted a house across the street and I tarred the roof in mid-summer heat and I got 50 cents an hour…but I was thrifty and I saved that 50 cents and when I had 18 dollars, I quit the only honest work I would do in my entire life (chuckles) (crowd cheers) and I went down to that Western Auto Store and I got that guitar (crowd cheers) and I brought it home, but the strings were like telephone wire and I tried for weeks but I couldn’t play it, my fingers were killing me…then my cousin Frankie came in and said “No, you have to tune it first”…he taught me how to tune it and I kept practicing…and I kept practicing…and I put on the Beatles records and I practiced them…and I put on the Rolling Stones records and I practiced them (crowd cheers) and I practiced…and I practiced…and it sounded like shit (laughs from the crowd) but I kept practicing…and I practiced…and I practiced…and I practiced… and practiced…10,000 hours, much more than 10,000 hours, many more, I practiced until one day I picked it up and…it…went (goes back into the song)…”

Intro to “Spirit in the Night”
“Can you feel the spirit? (crowd cheers) can you feel the spirit now? (crowd cheers) can you feel the spirit? (crowd cheers) can you feel the spirit now? (crowd cheers) if you can feel the spirit, 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!”)…”

Intro to “Radio Nowhere”
“I think we know this one…to the man who’s seen more shows than the years he’s been alive (crowd cheers)(strums his guitar) I think I got it (strums his guitar)…(chuckles) I’m going as fast as I can (chuckles) Jesus! alright…”

Intro to “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)”
“This is a good end-of-summer song…(strums his guitar)…I was living in Bradley Beach, New Jersey (crowd cheers) woo! epicenter of the world (chuckles)…and, uh…it was right about this time of year…there it is…I’ll start it then we’ll (chuckles)(laughs from the crowd) then we’ll have the band come in…(?)…”

Intro to “Long Walk Home”
“We got some friends in the building tonight, folks from the Food Project…Food Project brings together youth and adults from diverse backgrounds who work together to make healthy local food available to everyone…if you see them on your way out, they’re the good folks out on the frontlines doing God’s work every day, that’s the Food Project (crowd cheers) uh, this is the last night of our tour (crowd cheers) we’ve been (crowd cheers) through the United States and then we’ve been through Europe and back here for these past ten shows, they’ve, uh…meant a tremendous amount to us, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all you folks coming out and seeing us tonight, uh (crowd cheers) never gets old (chuckles) you know, it’s, uh, an amazing thing to see all the people that still support your music after all these years, it’s, uh (crowd cheers) so, uh, along with, with all of you, I’ve had to live through the election campaign (chuckles) and, uh, I gotta say it’s just been one of the ugliest I’ve ever seen in my entire life (crowd cheers) and, uh… there was just a lot of speaking to our worst angels, when you let those things out of the bottle, all that ugliness, the genie doesn’t go back in the bottle so simple and, uh…anyway, I’m gonna do this with that in mind, this is “Long Walk Home” (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “Shout”
“E-flat!…well, I get up in the morning…when I hear that work bell ring…I get up in the morning…when I hear that work bell ring…I got to get to work now…you’ve made me want to work now… everybody, right now, shake your ass…that’s right, shake ‘em!… shake that booty!…shake that ass! that’s right, girl, shake that thing, girl…shake that thing!…”

Middle of “Shout”
“On the fiddle and vocals, Sister Soozie Tyrell (crowd cheers) on the organ, Charlie Giordano (crowd cheers) on the guitar, the incredible Nils Lofgren (crowd cheers) on the saxophone, Mr. Jake Clemons (crowd cheers) on the drums, the man that keeps the beat all night long and never stops, the mightiest of the mighty, Mighty Max Weinberg (crowd cheers) on the piano, Mr. 88 keys just don’t do, Professor Roy Bittan (crowd cheers) on the bass guitar, the man bringing the talent night after night after night after night, Mr. Garry W. Tallent (crowd cheers) our great friend tonight here from the J. Geils Band, Mr. Peter Wolf (crowd cheers) take it on, Pete, take it on!…and last but not least…the king…the king of the Underground, Little Steven Van Zandt! (crowd cheers) it’s time… that’s right…now all I need to know’s one thing…can I get a witness?…can I get a witness? …can I get a witness?…can I get a witness?… can I get a witness? …can I get a witness?…can I get a witness?… can I get a witness? …can I get a witness?…can I get a witness?… can I get a witness? …let me get a witness…can I get a witness?… can I get a witness? …can I get a witness?…can I get a witness?…Foxborough! (crowd cheers) Foxborough! (crowd cheers) Foxborough! (crowd cheers) I want you to go home tonight, I want you to wake up all the neighbors on the block, I want you to get them out on the street in their pyjammies and I want you tell them that you tonight have witnessed the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, Earth-shocking, hard rocking, booty-shaking, Earth-quaking, love-making, thank-God-there’s-a-Viagra-taking, history-making, legendary E (crowd: “Street Band!”)…
(…)[According to Backstreets.com, Bruce puts on his sequined cape, crawls down the stairs, holding his guitar and sits on the top step of the stairs.] (Steve: “The Boss has left the building…that’s not him hiding on the stairs…that just looks like him…wait a minute …(chuckles) bring him back, bring him back, bring him back”) (crowd cheers)…”

After “Bobby Jean”
“Thank you, Foxborough! (crowd cheers) thank you for coming out and seeing us on this beautiful night, the E Street Band loves you (crowd cheers) we’ll be seeing you (crowd cheers)…”

^{Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.}

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Bruce Springsteen, the people’s rock god

FOXBOROUGH – The news reports before Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band rolled into Gillette Stadium on Wednesday were sort of unbelievable.

First it was 3 hours and 52 minutes. Then it was 4 hours. And then 4 hours and 4 minutes.

That’s how long some of their recent performances had lasted, breaking their own record – multiple times – for the longest concert they’ve played in North America. They’ve been proving once again what we already knew: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are the Energizer Bunnies of stadium rock.

To answer your question: No, they did not set a new record on Wednesday, the last night of the River Tour. But at 4 hours and 2 minutes (with no intermission, and nary a sip of water), they came mighty close. When Springsteen jokingly hobbled offstage toward the end of the night, wearing a James Brown-like cape that said “The Boss” on the back, he had earned the punch line.

The truth is, Springsteen does not give bum concerts anymore. Or if he does, it’s certainly not apparent to his legion of fist-pumping fans, from knee-high kids to graying men and women in vintage Springsteen shirts.

It turned out “The River,” his landmark 1980 album, was not the focus of this last stretch of dates. The set list cut across Springsteen’s discography, with a notable emphasis on his first two albums, “Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.” and “The Wild, the Innocent the E Street Shuffle,” both from 1973.

Perhaps because his memoir, “Born to Run,” will be released later this month, this was Springsteen deep in storyteller mode, vividly recounting the origins of his oldest songs. With Springsteen starting it alone on guitar, “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy),” was so heartbreakingly direct that it suggested he was still nursing an old wound.

The magic of a four-plus-hour show is that Springsteen can please the diehard and casual fans alike. Audience requests (“Radio Nowhere”), relayed on homemade signs, joined deeper cuts (a cover of John Fogerty’s “Rockin’ All Over the World”) and massive radio hits (“Hungry Heart,” “Born to Run”).

Springsteen is the people’s rock god, the consummate showman who makes both his ballads and his anthems sound as if they’re meant just for you. And he’s hellbent on connecting. During “Dancing in the Dark,” he invited fans onstage and danced with a young woman before she rocked out on guitar alongside her idol.

The only thing more ferocious than Springsteen’s endurance was that of the E Street Band. Guitarist Steve Van Zandt remains the Boss’ perfect sidekick, a comedic and musical wildman. On saxophone, Jake Clemons continues to make his late uncle Clarence proud. And someone should check on Max Weinberg today because surely his arms are bound in casts after his nonstop pummeling on the drums.

Foxborough officials extended Gillette’s curfew by 15 minutes, to 11:30 p.m., but Van Zandt didn’t seem fazed earlier in the day when a fan’s tweet asked him about it. “We don’t do curfews,” he wrote back. Thankfully, he was right.

^{By James Reed via The Boston Globe.}

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Bruce Springsteen, the people’s rock god