HENRY RUGGERI
Bruce Springsteen presented the longest U.S. show of his career on Aug. 25. Will he break the record Aug. 30?
A man who had just proposed to his girlfriend paid her the ultimate compliment after being invited onstage by Bruce Springsteen during his show-closing “Jersey Girl” at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, Aug. 25
“I love you more than (I love) Bruce,” he told her. They then hugged and danced together onstage in front of tens of thousands of people, as fireworks filled the sky.
After that, their wedding is bound to be anticlimactic. Unless they get married on the moon.
It was the perfect cap to another very satisfying Springsteen show at his home state’s largest concert venue. (He also performed there Aug. 23, and will be there again Aug. 30.)
As happened on Aug. 23, Springsteen and the E Street Band were joined by a string section on two songs, “New York City Serenade” and “Jack of All Trades.” Unlike Aug. 23, there was also a special guest: auxiliary E Street Band member Tom Morello (best known as a member of Rage Against the Machine, and currently touring with Prophets of Rage). The masterful guitarist appeared on three songs and was most impressive on “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” sharing starkly emotional lead vocals with Springsteen and taking a dazzling guitar solo, contorting his body as he wrenched otherworldly sounds from his instrument.
The show featured 14 songs that were not played on Aug. 23 and, at 3 hours and 58 minutes, set a record for Springsteen’s longest U.S. show ever (the Aug. 23 show, which was about five minutes shorter, had set a record as well). Springsteen also declared a landmark performance after a 3-year-old girl sang part of “Waitin’ on a Sunny Day” with surprising poise.
“Three years old — that’s a new record!,” Springsteen said.
In a pretty rough transition, Springsteen next played two of his most harrowing songs, “Darkness on the Edge of Town” and “Lost in the Flood.” Things also got dark a few songs later, with what amounted to a quartet of protest songs: “Death to My Hometown,” “Youngstown,” “Jack of All Trades” and “American Skin (41 Shots).” Before “Youngstown,” Springsteen described the current election cycle as “the ugliest I’ve ever seen.”
But it certainly wasn’t a dark, depressing show, overall. The hard-charging three-song segment of “Prove It All Night,” “Night” and “No Surrender,” which followed opener “New York City Serenade,” kicked the show into high gear, early on. The buoyant The River songs “Cadillac Ranch” and “I’m a Rocker” worked well together, later on. The encore performance of “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” was as loose and joyful as any I’ve ever seen of this fan favorite. And Nils Lofgren almost out-Morello’d Morello with his howling, virtuosic guitar solos on “Youngstown” and “Because the Night.”
Here is the Aug. 25 setlist. Songs in bold were not played on Aug. 23. Below the list are several videos from the show.
“New York City Serenade” (with strings)
“Prove It All Night”
“Night”
“No Surrender”
“Wrecking Ball”
“Sherry Darling”
“Spirit in the Night”
“My City of Ruins”
“Waitin’ on a Sunny Day”
“Darkness on the Edge of Town”
“Lost in the Flood”
“Hungry Heart”
“Out in the Street”
“Death to My Hometown” (with Tom Morello)
“Youngstown”
“Jack of All Trades” (with strings)
“American Skin (41 Shots)” (with Tom Morello)
“The Promised Land”
“Cadillac Ranch”
“I’m a Rocker”
“Tougher Than the Rest”
“Because the Night”
“The Rising”
“The Ghost of Tom Joad” (with Tom Morello)
“Badlands”
Encores:
“Backstreets”
“Born to Run”
“Dancing in the Dark”
“Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)”
“Tenth Avenue Freeze-out”
“Shout”
“Thunder Road”
“Jersey Girl”
