Over the past In the past few years, everyone from Kiss and the Eagles to Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, Aerosmith, the B-52's, Foreigner, Dead and Company, and Lynyrd Skynyrd have all embarked on farewell tours. But when Bruce Springsteen played at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on Friday night, he made it abundantly clear that the E Street Band would never be one of them.
“It’s been 50 years,” he told the packed crowd. “And we’re not giving up. We’re not going to do a farewell tour, oh my God! We’re not going to do a farewell tour for the E Street Band. No. Goodbye for what? Thousands of people screaming your name? [Cries of “Brooooce” filled the stadium.] Yes, I'll stop it! That's all it takes. I'm not going anywhere.
The E Street Band was originally supposed to play the stadium last August, but Springsteen's stomach ulcers forced them to postpone the show for a year. They made up for lost time Wednesday and Friday nights by pulling out all the stops, rewarding patient fans with a three-hour show full of surprises. Here are eight highlights:
“Streets of Philadelphia”
Springsteen won an Oscar for this song from the 1993 Tom Hanks film. PhiladelphiaIt was a Top Ten hit worldwide, but he struggled to find a way to make it work live once the E Street Band reformed, and largely dropped it from their repertoire after a 1999 reunion tour. It has appeared only nine times since the turn of the millennium, seven of them in Philadelphia. (The others were a 2009 tribute to Tom Hanks in New York, and a 2012 concert in Louisville, Kentucky.) On the first night at Citizens Bank Park, he directed it for the first time anywhere since 2016. Max Weinberg did an excellent job of recreating the drum loop from the original recording, just as he did at the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards.
“The Long Walk Home”
The performances coincided with the Democratic National Convention, and Springsteen performed “Long Walk Home” both nights as a “prayer for our country.” He wrote the song at the end of the George W. Bush administration in 2007, when hope for our future was mixed with fear that we were continuing on a dark path. He didn’t have to explain why it made sense to revive the song now. We missed the extended vocal that Steve Van Zandt created for the song in 2008, but it was still powerful.
Youngstown
The E Street Band kicked off its abbreviated North American summer tour earlier this month in Pittsburgh, just an hour from the northeastern Ohio city of Youngstown. The tour inspired Springsteen to extract the song “Youngstown” from the 1995 album. Tom Joad's GhostDespite the six-hour drive on I-76 E from Youngstown to Philadelphia, they played the song again the first night at Citizen Bank Park. Nils Lofgren revived the guitar solo he had designed for the song on the 1999/2000 reunion tour.
“My love will never let you down”
the Born in the United States of America “My Love Will Not Let You Down” was a favorite on the reunion tour, but in recent years you had to travel to Europe to hear it live. He brought it back to the U.S. for the first time since 2016 as the third song at Friday’s show in Philadelphia. (Fun fact: In the heyday of 2015, Ricky and the FlashIn Jonathan Demme's latest film, Meryl Streep sings the song with drummer Joe Vitale and guitarist Rick Rosas, who both played with Buffalo Springfield on their 2011 reunion tour.
“Two hearts”
We mention this because Springsteen and Van Zandt got a little lost in the middle of this. river “We ruined the song and ruined the lyrics, and they were smiling so widely the whole time. It was so much fun,” Van Zandt tweeted shortly after the show. “I witnessed a very rare train accident on E Street. I have no idea how it happened. Very unusual. Very weird. But fun!”
“growth”
On the second night, Springsteen dedicated “The E Street Shuffle” to “those who remember Main Point,” a reference to the small Philadelphia coffee shop where the band played regularly in their early days. He then followed it up by going back through their catalog with “Growin’ Up.” Halfway through the song, he paused to reflect on the ulcer that forced him off the road last year. “I was there, on the Jersey Shore,” Springsteen said. “My stomach was killing me! It hurt when I breathed. Anything I did. If I got out of a chair, my stomach hurt. If I tried to sing, my stomach hurt. If I went to play a more risqué role, my stomach hurt. If I wanted to kiss my baby, my stomach hurt. All in all, I was just laying there thinking, ‘God, I’d rather be in Philadelphia.’”
Atlantic City/Reason to Believe
After leading the stadium (and two little girls in front of them) in a group performance of “Waitin' on a Sunny Day,” the group took a more somber tone when Springsteen played two back-to-back songs from NebraskaIt is strange that a movie about the creation of Nebraska It was announced with The bearJeremy Alan White plays Springsteen, and successionIn the movie “The E Street Band,” which stars John Landau, Jeremy Strong plays him. That means we might see a scene where a Hollywood version of the E Street Band tries to sing these two songs in the studio before Springsteen decides it simply doesn’t work and opts to release his own demo tape instead. However, it’s long been clear that these two songs in particular work well for a band. (“State Trooper,” “Used Cars,” and “My Father’s House” are a different story.)
“I'm on fire”
the Born in the United States of America The hit single remains a classic radio hit, but it only occasionally makes an appearance on stage. The song wasn’t on the print setlist Friday night in Philadelphia, but Springsteen added an audible song by singing it between “Because The Night” and “She’s the One.” It was a great way to add some twists to the second half of the set, which is pretty much locked in most nights. (We expect more surprises when Springsteen headlines the Sea.Hear.Now concert in his hometown of Asbury Park next month.)
