Bruce Springsteen and The "Other Band" Tour - The Show

The Show

Shows typically began with several selections from the new albums -- typically the self-described happy songs "Better Days", "Local Hero", and "Lucky Town" -- and not surprisingly emphasized the new material throughout. Slots for older songs were mostly given to numbers from his massively-selling mid-1980s Born in the U.S.A. album.

Highlights from the new material included Springsteen crowd surfing during "Leap of Faith"; nature imagery motifs running through the show and culminating with frequent show closer "My Beautiful Reward"; a distortion-fest on "57 Channels (And Nothing On)", one of several numbers where the band's sound verged on heavy metal; and the emotional peak of "Living Proof" with its U2-styled synthesizer settings.

The main set closer continued to be "Light of Day", a role that it had assumed in the Tunnel of Love Express and here was elongated with an "I'm just a prisoner ... of Rock and Roll!" rap, while the band introductions song was "Glory Days" in the encores.

Springsteen 1970s classics that were heavily identified with the E Street Band sound were finessed either by rearranging them ("Thunder Road" was recast on acoustic guitar), avoiding them (gone were the epics "Backstreets", "Jungleland", and "Racing in the Street"), or just doing it (multi-instrumentalist Crystal Taliefero won praise for the thankless job of performing the one saxophone part all night, that of Clarence Clemons' break in "Born to Run"). Springsteen's biggest hit single, 1984's "Dancing in the Dark", was stripped down to near-solo electric guitar and given a tired, weary reading, before being dropped from the set lists altogether.