Vote For Change – Meadowlands, NJ 10/13/04
Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band
Main Set
Star Spangled Banner*, Born In The USA, Badlands, Lonesome Day, No Surrender**, Darkness On The Edge of Town**, Betterman**#, Johnny 99, Centerfield***, Dejavu All Over Again***, Fortunate Son, The Promised Land***, The Rising, Racing In The Street^, Mary’s Place, Born To Run
Encore
Proud Mary***, Bad Moon Rising***, Traveling Band***, What’s S0 Funny About Peace Love & Understanding^^, The People Have The Power^^
* Solo Acoustic - Instrumental
** Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band With Eddie Vedder
# First Time Played
*** Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band With John Fogarty
^ Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band With Jackson Browne
^^ Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band With Everyone
First off I know that some of you hate Bruce and I know that some of you are sick of me posting. For those of you that fall into this category, you don’t have to continue reading. I’m mainly posting this because there are some people on the site that like Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder appearances will fall into the category of interest for those people. Now onto the show.
Star Spangled Banner – It’s definitely an interesting piece when played on a 12 string acoustic with no accompanying music. Not as powerful as some of the other versions on this tour, but he’s the Boss, what more can you ask for.
Born In The USA – Fairly standard version.
Badlands – A fan favorite usually saved to be included in the encores
Lonesome Day – You knew that he was going to play some songs off of the rising, but it was enjoyable none the less.
No Surrender – When Bruce introduced Eddie is sounded like he said Danny Merryweather, but it was plainly Eddie. There was an instant connection between Bruce and Eddie and no one could deny it. After the end of the song, the cheers for Eddie were louder than the ones for Bruce; I’ve never seen that before.
Darkness On The Edge Of Town – More Eddie
Betterman- Eddie comments that Bruce asked him to play it. They trade verses and Bruce really tries to hard to fit the mold of the way Eddie sings it and falls short.
Johnny 99 – This was played in the country style that was introduced during the Shea Stadium Shows. I’d prefer the raw acoustic version that can be found on the Nebraska albmum.
Centerfield – This is a really cool song. Fogarty came out with the baseball bat guitar and was calling the shots on stage like it was his show.
Dejavu All Over Again – A really cool tune. It’s like a Who’ll Stop The Rain of the 21st century, seeing that both are protest songs about wars we should never have involved ourselves in.
Fortunate Son – I was hoping that Eddie would come out and join Bruce and John, but no such luck.
The Promised Land – Cool to hear Fogarty sing a Bruce tune
The Rising – See Lonesome Day
Racing In The Street – A great song that Jackson Browne almost botched. He was so busy reading off the teleprompter that he almost lost the melody.
Mary’s Place – This was really cool! Bruce performed a political exorcism and converted a Replicant to a facist.
Born To Run – Nothing more needs to be said.
Proud Mary, Bad Moon Rising & Traveling Band – More John Fogarty. This man impressed me. I hope he does a solo tour.
What’s So Funny About Peace Love & Understanding & The People Have The Power – In my opinion, collaborative efforts of so many musicians falls into 2 categories, it works or it doesn’t work. This worked.
All in all, this was a really cool show. It didn’t get too political, but Bruce did make his mini speech. But I agreed so it went quick for me. That was more than I can say for the row of pricks behind up that yelled four more years in between each show. Now, you’re at a show title the Vote For Change, couldn’t these guys find a more constructive and effective way to get their message across to people that might be interested in their way of through.
