Story 2016-05-29 Croke Park, Dublin, Ireland
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Intro to “Incident on 57th Street”
“Hello, Dublin! (crowd cheers) hello, hello (crowd cheers)…”

After “Incident on 57th Street”
“Bring on the E Street Band (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “Spirit in the Night”
“Good evening, Dublin (crowd cheers) are you ready to testify tonight? (crowd cheers) are you ready to testify tonight? (crowd cheers) then let me see your hands in the air (crowd cheers) that’s right…that’s right…that’s right…now all I wanna know is do you feel the spirit? (crowd cheers) do you feel the spirit? (crowd cheers) do you feel the spirit? (crowd cheers) do you feel the spirit now? (crowd cheers) well, if you’re feeling the spirit, I want you to answer me with a mighty “Yeah, yeah” – do you feel the spirit? (crowd and band: “Yeah, yeah!”) do you feel the spirit now? (crowd and band: “Yeah, yeah!”) do you feel the spirit? (crowd and band: “Yeah, yeah!”) do you feel the spirit now? (crowd and band: “Yeah, yeah!”)…let me see, let me see, let me see…”

Intro to “Growin’ Up”
“Look out!…we got a triple-header from “Greetings”…”

Middle of “Growin’ Up”
“And there I was…I was, hmmm, 13 years old…I lived on this little L-shaped block with a church in the middle, Catholic school here, the nuns’ convent here, the priests’ rectory here and we had five houses filled with Irish (chuckles)(crowd cheers) now I come from O’Hagans, McNicholases, Farrells (crowd cheers) and when I was little, I was brought up by the Irish side of my family (crowd cheers) and they were very, very, uh, superstitious, superstitious, I remember when, uh, whenever it would thunder, my grandmother, Nana McNicholas, would grab my hand, rush me down to my aunt Jane Mayo, we’d sit in the living room, they’d pull all the blinds down and when the thunder and lightning started, my aunt Jane had a little bottle of holy water and she’d start spraying it all over everybody…while telling all these horror stories about neighbors who’d been struck by lightning, you know…so there I sat, there I sat, and across the street there was one little outpost of Italians and…I remember it was one, near one Christmastime, it was a part of town called Texas and there was a music store in Texas and I’d go and I’d stand in front of that window and there was one little cheap Japanese guitar in that window…and I would go and I would look at that guitar and I would go home in my bed and I would get in my bed and I would dream of that guitar all night long (crowd cheers) so Christmas was coming around, I had a cheap pool table in my bedroom, believe it or not…and, uh, I used to take my girlfriends up and my (chuckles)(crowd cheers) and my father was in the kitchen right below my bedroom so I’d get the girls on the bed and then I'd reach up once in a while and knock the pool balls around so it sounded like we were playing pool…but I, I ended up (crowd cheers) I decided I was gonna sell the pool table…that was gonna get me 35 dollars…my mother went to the finance office and she got another 35 dollars and the guitar was 69 dollars…it came with a little amp and a ten-inch speaker so we went, Christmas eve, took that thing out of the window, slushy night, walked home through the wet snow…and I brought it up to my bedroom…now I did not know how to play anything on the guitar at all…but I put the thing on…and I got up in front of my mirror…and I swear…there was a big Irish voice that came from somewhere (chuckles)(crowd cheers) and it said "Let it rock, son, let it rock"…and then (the band kicks in)…”

Intro to “The Ties That Bind”
“Alright, is there anybody alive out there? (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “Sherry Darling”
“Dublin, let’s hear some party noises! (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “Independence Day”
“Alright, this is a…good song for your 18th birthday (crowd cheers) …I wasn’t too much older when I wrote it…it’s a young…a young man’s song, a young person’s song…it’s about being, uh…a kid and first…the first time you wake up and are shocked by your parents’ humanity…by the fact that, uh…they had their own dreams and their own desires and their own hopes…that maybe didn’t pan out exactly as they thought they would…and all you can see are the adult compromises that they had to make to build a life…you’re young and you haven’t had to do that yet…the idea of it frightens you…the idea, choices…and all you can see is a world that seems locked down and closing in on you…and sometimes all you can feel is their, their failures, you can’t see the blessings that come with the compromises that they make…and, uh, I had a simple setting for this song, was just a late night conversation…it was around the kitchen table between two people who loved each other but are struggling to understand one another…”

Intro to “Hungry Heart”
“Alright, there you go, young ladies…here we go…(intro music starts)…another song about skipping town…”

Intro to “Crush on You”
“We got a crush on you! (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “Because the Night”
“Alright (crowd cheers) my God (crowd cheers) Dublin has talent (crowd cheers) we got another lad who’s gonna help us out right now…come on up, man…Bono! (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “Born in the U.S.A”
“Thank you, thank you for coming out tonight (crowd cheers) thank you for two fabulous nights here in Dublin, we love you! (crowd cheers)…”

Intro to “Shout”
“Do you have anything left, Dublin? (crowd cheers) do you have anything left? (crowd cheers) do you have anything left? (crowd cheers) I can’t hear you, do you have anything left? (crowd cheers) E-flat…that’s good because…you know you make wanna shout…”

Middle of “Shout”
“Sister Soozie Tyrell on the guitar and vocals (crowd cheers) Charlie Giordano on the organ (crowd cheers) the amazing Mr. Nils Lofgren on the guitar (crowd cheers) the great Jake Clemons on the saxophone (crowd cheers) the Mighty Max Weinberg on the drums (crowd cheers) Professor Roy Bittan on the piano (crowd cheers) Mr. Garry W. Tallent on the bass guitar (crowd cheers) and last but not least…the inimitable, the inevitable, the inscrutable, the unproduceable Little Steven Van Zandt on the guitar and vocals (crowd cheers) that’s right…that’s right…that’s right…got a question…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?…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?…Dublin! (crowd cheers) Dublin! (crowd cheers) Dublin! (crowd cheers) Dublin! (crowd cheers) I want you to go home tonight and tomorrow I want you to tell everybody that you meet that you’ve just seen the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, Earth-shocking, hard rocking, booty-shaking, Earth-quaking, love-making, Viagra-taking, history-making, legendary E (crowd: “Street Band!”)…”

Intro to “Thunder Road”
“Thank you (crowd cheers) oh, I don’t have much of a voice left so you may have to help me out on this (crowd cheers) I want to, uh, thank Dublin and all of Ireland for the way you’ve taken us into your hearts (crowd cheers) it’s been a great, great, great, great, great thrill coming here and watching our audience grow and feeling like we’re a part of your lives and, uh…it’s just been a beautiful…a beautiful moment for us so I wanna thank you very much (crowd cheers) let’s see if I can get through this one…”

After “Thunder Road”
“Thank you, Dublin! (crowd cheers) thanks for some great nights (crowd cheers) we’ll be seeing you (crowd cheers)…”

Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi.
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