10/10 review/recap

[EStreetJukes]

The second night at the Meadowlands had Bruce and the band firing on all cylinders and Bruce in a fun, taking chances type of mood. A great set with one world premier and two tour premiers. Can't get better than that. Although it didn't reach the heights of Night 2 in Philly, it came close.
The world premier was YOUR OWN WORST ENEMY and Bruce & the band sounded great on it, but not quite up to Bruce standards, as after the song he said "it was close"
The three other tour premiers were: ADAM RAISED A CAIN, CYNTHIA (an audible that sounded great and was fun) and a wild YOU CAN LOOK that the crowd was really into.
Any night it's played INCIDENT is a highlight and that held true again here.

Don't know how well the GA was run/organized today, but I was told by the man giving out the wristbands (George) that 726 wristbands were given out and on the board showing what range got into the pit, there were 340 numbers (just under 47% of the wristbands given out). Don't know if that changed or not, but it appears for a fourth straight night, 47-53% of those with wristbands got into the pit.

I was in Section 112 (just behind Danny) and the sound (with cheap foam earplugs) was pretty good... unfortunately the screen was on the dark side.

The lights went out at 8:19, the caliope played "Daring Young Man On the Flying Trapeeze" as the band took the stage and launched into a strong version of RADIO NOWHERE.

I was predicting for the broadcast they were going to do Prove It in the second slot, but I was wrong. They launched into a killer version of NIGHT

which was followed by a strong version of LONESOME DAY.

From there it was a solid version of GYPSY BIKER

Then it was time to talk to the crowd "Welcome, welcome, good evening, good evening, good evening, welcome to East Rutherford" and then went into his basic intro for MAGIC.

After Magic, Steve started the blues riff on the guitar, the crowd went wild clapping along to the rhythm for a couple of minutes until Bruce went "shhhh" quieted us down and played some harmonica into the bullet mic before having the band launch full-throttle into REASON TO BELIEVE. This song gets better every time they play it and the crowd was really into it tonight. This night, at the end, Bruce had Nils keep a different guitar riff going as the band transitioned into....

(continued next post)

[EStreetJukes]

ADAM RAISED A CAIN. Not particularly one of my favorites, so I can't really say with authority how strong it was, but the crowd was really into it as well and the crowd was sent into the stratosphere when Roy started playing the intro for...

SHE'S THE ONE. Another great version with Bruce really into it and playing some mean harmonica at the end.

At this point it was time for LIVING IN THE FUTURE. Where Bruce commented on hos he's so glad to be in beautiful East Rutherford and so glad to be home. Then mentioned the things that we love about America - the Jersey Shore, Max's Hot Dogs, Windmill Cheeseburgers, the Big Man, and a couple of other things before going into the brunt of his nightly political speech. Bruce & the band seem to be getting stronger on this one and Bruce plays to the back of the crowd on this as well.

After this, instead of the usual Promised Land, there was an audible. Bruce said something to Steve, which had him grinning and Steve passed the message to Roy & Patti & Gary while Bruce told Nils, Danny, Clarence and Max and after a quick gathering on the stage they launched into CYNTHIA. A really sweet version, didn't nail it, but you could tell they were having fun playing it as Bruce & Steve were all smiles trading off their vocals on the "Yeah, yeah, allright" vocals at the end.

THen they did PROMISED LAND and it was an extremely strong version.

After that came the full band TOWN CALLED HEARTBREAK with organ intro and outro. Maybe it was the earplugs, maybe it was the mix, maybe it was the performance itself, but Bruce's vocals weren't as prominent or passionate this night as they were the second night in Philly.

Then it was time to bring down the house with a killer INCIDENT ON 57th STREET. The crowd loved it, and Bruce & the band were into it.

Then came what looked to be an audible. Bruce, Steve, Nils, Patti & Gary gather on stage for a minute to discuss something, Bruce gives some hand signals to Danny & Max and Steve relays word to Roy. Bruce says "We've never done this before" and they play a great version of YOUR OWN WORST ENEMY which alot of the crowd (or at least the crowd around me and the folks in the pit) were really into.

After that Bruce said "it was close" and then "Steve grab the electric" and they launched into a wild and loose YOU CAN LOOK (BuT YOU BETTER NOT TOUCH) that the fans went wild over.

Then it was the standard closing 5-pack -- DEVILS ARCADE, THE RISING, LAST TO DIE, LONG WALK HOME, and a roof-raising BADLANDS.

They left the stage after Badlands at 10:07.

Upon coming back out, Bruce plugged the night's two charities, saying of the Hackensack Riverkeeper, "they're dedicated to keeping the swamps of Jersey clean and green, which is something we need" and then played one for "all the girls", going into GIRLS IN THE SUMMER CLOTHES. Once again he let the audience sing loud and proud on the first chorus telling us "We got it now"

From there it was a loose & enjoyable THUNDERCRACK

a strong BORN TO RUN

then an audible to DANCING IN THE DARK

before finishing up with AMERICAN LAND (once again featuring the band intros at the end, the red bouncing ball for follow the lyrics on the last line and the repeat of that line in the reprise).

The show wrapped up at 10:42.

[EStreetJukes]

(post listing corrections deleted as I forgot that at 2 a.m. I could go in and edit the posts instead of posting a correction)

[HeldUp]

Corrections:

* Devil's Arcade, not Devils' Advocate
It's okay. We knew what you meant. Nice review, again!

[RamRod Robin]

Thank you for the excellent and accurate recount of the night! This show had more energy than NJ Night #1 and Hartford, so it was nice to see Bruce chat/banter on stage and with the crowd a little more last night, as we are all used to from past tours. The energy was so vibrant and great to see some unexpected surprises in setlist! MSG will be awesome, too!!!

[Flory Days]

Great review Joe, for those of us who weren't there. Thanks for sharing.:cool:

[POSTAL]

Thanks for the review,
sounds like a nice show.

Nice to see You're Own Worst Enemy in the set.