Springsteen and E Street Band play ‘Dirty Water’ at Boston concert (WATCH VIDEO)

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band performed in Boston, March 20.

It may not exactly qualify as a surprise: Bruce Springsteen has played “Dirty Water” frequently when performing in Boston in the past. But he and the E Street Band included The Standells’ ’60s garage-rock classic as their first encore at the concert at the TD Garden in Boston, tonight. You can watch a video of the performance below.

The song famously refers to Boston’s Charles River and declares, in its chorus, “I love that dirty water/Oh, Boston you’re my home.”

Neither The Standells nor the song’s writer, Ed Cobb (who also was The Standells’ producer), were from Boston. The Standells were from Los Angeles, and Cobb wrote the song after a visit to Boston and gave it to the band, whose members had never even been to Boston at that point.

Springsteen and the E Street Band next play at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, March 23. Upcoming New Jersey area shows include Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, April 1; the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, April 3; the UBS Arena at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y., April 9 and 11; the Prudential Center in Newark, April 14; and MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, Aug. 30 and Sept. 1 and 3.

Here is the Boston setlist:

“No Surrender”
“Ghosts”
“Prove It All Night”
“Letter to You”
“The Promised Land”
“Out in the Street”
“Candy’s Room”
“Kitty’s Back”
“Nightshift”
“Trapped”
“The E Street Shuffle”
“Johnny 99”
“Last Man Standing”
“Backstreets”
“Because the Night”
“She’s the One”
“Wrecking Ball”
“The Rising”
“Badlands”

Encore:
“Dirty Water”
“Thunder Road”
“Born to Run”
“Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)”
“Glory Day”
“Dancing in the Dark”
“Tenth Avenue Freeze-out”
“I’ll See You in My Dreams”

Here is the video: