Working On A Dream Tour Preview: Part 2

After having listened to the bootleg of the first night, I'm more excited than ever bout the new tour, though my show is three months away. Some killer live tracks from the new album are Outlaw Pete, Surprise Surprise and This Life. The harmonies are great and the two new backup singers elevate that experience. It's also hilarious that Bruce tried having the Asbury Park audience to sing different parts. I'll be damned if he can actually pull this off every night during the tour! Moving on to The Wrestler, OMG. Even on bootleg, it's still sounds amazing. I hope this will be a tour staple. And Jay Weinberg is fucking great on the drums, and I would dare say, much better than his awesome dad! And he's only eighteen!!

Below are some of the songs I'd like to hear live in Hyde Park. And being the only London date (sadly), I foresee this one will be a pretty epic show.

Night (dream opener)
Jungleland
Thunder Road
Backstreets
Incident On 57th Street
The Rising
4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)
Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
The E Street Shuffle (dream closer)
Detroit Medley (this song blows me away every time)

Rehearsal Night 2: Convention Hall, Asbury Park, NJ -- Mar 24

What a difference a night makes.

Badlands
Outlaw Pete
My Lucky Day
No Surrender
Out In The Street
Working On A Dream
Seeds
Johnny 99
The Ghost Of Tom Joad
Good Eye
Darlington County
Waitin' On A Sunny Day
The Promised Land
The Wrestler
Kingdom Of Days
Lonesome Day (with Jay Weinberg)
Radio Nowhere (w/ J.W.)
Born To Run (w/ J.W.)
* * *
Hard Times
Dancing In The Dark
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
Land Of Hope And Dreams
American Land

Finally, the band has decided to start off the show with Badlands. Previously, Badlands has been the closing song for the main set throughout the Magic tour. And now Born To Run closes the main set. I hope it stays that way! Land Of Hope And Dreams finally makes a return since The Rising tour six years ago :) I'm so friggin' psyched!! Actual tour kicks off in one week's time, in San Jose.

Rehearsal Night 1: Convention Hall, Asbury Park, NJ -- Mar 23

This is only a rehearsal show, but it clocked in a whopping 2 hr 40 min. Just imagine how many fuckin' hours they'll play when they bring the tour to Europe! Here's the setlist:

Outlaw Pete
My Lucky Day
Night
Out In The Street
Working On A Dream
Johnny 99
I Ain't Got No Home
Good Eye (with Jay Weinberg)
Radio Nowhere (w/ J.W.)
Candy's Room (w/ J.W.)
Because The Night (w/ J.W.)
Mary's Place (w/ J.W.)
The Wrestler
This Life
Long Walk Home
Surprise, Surprise
Badlands
No Surrender
* * *
Hard Times
Mustang Sally (w/ John Eddie)
Thunder Road
Born To Run (w/ J.W.)
American Land (w/ J.W.)
Seven Nights To Rock

Just by looking at the setlist, it seems like Bruce doesn't want to part with some songs (from the Magic Tour) just yet. Mary's Place, Long Walk Home and American Land is still there. I seriously hope American Land isn't the closing song for the actual tour. Land Of Hope And Dreams would be much more appropriate. Not many songs from WOAD, but Kingdom Of Days should be making an appearance tomorrow night. It'd be also interesting to hear how the new Wrestler sounds like.

My Lucky Day Video Clip
P.S. No offense, but Stevie's voice in the song was pretty bad and laughable.

Working On A Dream Tour Preview

So it's official:
In response to the many questions concerning the upcoming tour, the drummer on the small number of shows that Max Weinberg won't be able to appear at will be a brilliant young drummer from New Jersey named Jay Weinberg. Commenting on the situation, Bruce said: "Once again, I want to express my appreciation to Conan O'Brien, and everyone on his team, for making it possible for Max to continue to do double duty for both us and for him. We promise to return him in one piece." (Courtesy of Shore Fire Media, March 20, 2009)

Since the new Tonight Show starts on Jun 2nd, Jay Weinberg (who's Max's son) will be playing on most of the European shows. I just hope that Max will be present for the festivals, especially Glastonbury and Hard Rock Calling (which I'm attending!!). Don't get me wrong, it's fantastic to have a great drummer, especially if he's an E Streeter's son. But as Little Steven said, Max will be able to do a better job in 'reading' Bruce. So does that mean Jay Weinberg = No audibles/ boring setlists?

The E Street Band is also continuing the tradition of playing rehearsal shows at Asbury Park Convention Hall (Mar 23 & 24) one week before the first show of the tour. This'll probably be a great opportunity for Jay to show off this skills. From now on, I'll be posting the setlist after every show on the tour.

On a side note, Bruce Springsteen finally appeared on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Thursday night. So-so interview, but I liked what Jon said to Bruce at the last part, something about his music being a big part of Jon's life. And Bruce ended with a great solo acoustic performance of Working On A Dream, better than when he played for Obama last November. This time, no cheesy, cringe-worthy whistling, but a good ol' harmonica.

Where are the UK Dates???

As I'm typing this, I've waited for almost a month for Bruce to announce additional UK dates before the Hyde Park gig. No word yet :( Thanks to the fucking recession, the European stadium shows haven't been selling out fast, as compared to last year's tour. But it's a good thing that the band is finally headlining Glastonbury Festival on June 27th. I have a speculation though; they just might add at least 1 or 2 more UK shows if the Glasgow show sells out in record time tomorrow. So here's hoping to that. Even if it this doesn't happen, there's still the Neil Young and Dave Matthews Band concerts to look forward to in London!!

It's less than a month left to the first show at San Jose. Am really looking forward to the new setlist and hopefully that 'mini-set' everyone's been talking about. I can just imagine: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band playing Born To Run in its entirety....