{"id":4097,"date":"2009-08-24T17:23:36","date_gmt":"2009-08-24T22:23:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/?p=4097"},"modified":"2025-05-21T10:03:45","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T15:03:45","slug":"review-bruce-springsteen-e-street-band-comcast-center-great-woods-mansfield-august-22-23-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/?p=4097","title":{"rendered":"Review: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at the Comcast Center, Great Woods Mansfield August 22 and 23, 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bruce<\/a>
Bruce Springsteen at Comcast Center Mansfield August 2009, photo by me!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

by Robert Gillis<\/i><\/p>\n

August 22, 2009<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tonight\u2019s Springsteen show came as close to a religious experience as, well, the last show. I\u2019m running out of superlatives like \u201cawesome\u201d \u201cin-cred-ible\u201d and \u201cjust f**ing rocked,\u201d but tonight\u2019s show at GREAT WOODS was all those things and more.<\/p>\n

Seats were amazing; got VERY close and got some amazing pictures.<\/p>\n

I was shouting EVERY song, and \u201cPoint Blank\u201d was one I\u2019d never seen live.<\/p>\n

    \n
  • JACKSON CAGE: What a surprise to start the show \u2013 great tune.<\/li>\n
  • SHE’S THE ONE: Bruce using a screen in back with some red puzzle squares here. GREAT song.<\/li>\n
  • WORKING ON THE HIGHWAY: Bruce in a black cowboy hat and the folks next to me singing the riff as it started. Fun!<\/li>\n
  • HUNGRY HEART: Bruce called out, “let’s keep the hits coming” and the crowd went bonkers singing the first part.<\/li>\n
  • OUTLAW PETE: I was made for loving you baby, you were made for loving me, and I swear Springsteen stole this riff. One of two from the new album. He hasn\u2019t been focusing on the new tunes at all.<\/li>\n
  • BADLANDS: Clouds on the screen and I tell you this time I really loved it, clich\u00e9 or overplayed, doesn\u2019t matter.<\/li>\n
  • WORKING ON A DREAM: Beautiful starry sky on the screen with clouds and the moon. I LOVE this song, especially live! I LOVE IT! It\u2019s so inspirational, like a promise, of hope.<\/li>\n
  • SEEDS: Powerful as always, with the line again changed to \u201cThe banker man\u201d<\/li>\n
  • JOHNNY 99: Great tune, with Springsteen and Steve doing a \u201cdueling guitar\u201d bit as a \u201ctrain\u201d at the end.<\/li>\n
  • POINT BLANK: Holy moley, never heard this one live ever! Heartfelt, passionate, amazing.<\/li>\n
  • RAISE YOUR HAND: The signs are out! Sue and I had two, one for \u201cTrapped\u201d and \u201cDream Baby Dream.\u201d We passed our songs along; folks in front didn\u2019t understand to keep passing them so we got them back\u2026<\/li>\n
  • BURNING LOVE: Eh.<\/li>\n
  • FOR YOU: It\u2019s a Springsteen classic but it\u2019s always been my \u201cGo get a pretzel\u201d song but the seats were too good to leave.<\/li>\n
  • TRAPPED: So Springsteen holds up a sign for this one and the crowd goes WILD. LOTS of request for it and I\u2019m holding up my sign, showing it to the crowd to say, \u201cSee, I wanted it too!\u201d IN- CREDIBLE.<\/li>\n
  • WAITIN’ ON A SUNNY DAY: Fun, Springsteen had a kid singing some of the lyrics. \u201cWaiting on a summer day.\u201d Cute!<\/li>\n
  • THE PROMISED LAND: Amazing as always, and at the end, Bruce shook hands with a fan in the front row, gently took his hand, and places the harmonica in it and wrapped his hand around it. Class act.<\/li>\n
  • IF I SHOULD FALL BEHIND: Requested for Ingrid\u2019s 224th show. Springsteen repeated that and said, \u201cF*ck!\u201d in amazement, adding something like, \u201cWe\u2019ve only done 222!\u201d Now that\u2019s obsessive! (Bruce\u2019s voice a bit off on this one)<\/li>\n
  • BACKSTREETS: Crowd absolutely loved it and went bananas. Opening keyboards gave me goose bumps. Ending with \u201c\u2026 Just you and me babe, just you and me babe.\u201d<\/li>\n
  • LONESOME DAY and THE RISING: Great renditions of both, Soozie amazing as always, fans eating it up. Lonesome day, Bruce garbled the opening but can\u2019t make out what he said.<\/li>\n
  • BORN TO RUN: Clich\u00e9. Overplayed. Loved it. Bruce did the spinning guitar thing. Awesome.<\/li>\n
  • ROSALITA (COME OUT TONIGHT): Earlier than I though and it\u2019s clearly a \u201cJimmy Buffet\u201d type song for Springsteen \u2014 you can be fairly certain he will play it every time.<\/li>\n
  • DETROIT MEDLEY: A blowup doll (\u201cWe have a wardrobe malfunction\u201d) with red hair, horns and a blue dress. Lots of improve including Bruce in the red wig. Hilarious and solid.<\/li>\n
  • Thanked us for coming on this very HOT night. HARD TIMES (COME AGAIN NO MORE): PSA for the Greater Boston Food Bank (gave them $20 on the way out and thanked them for all they do)<\/li>\n
  • \u201cDedicated to Pats at home,\u201d only mention of her this evening. AMERICAN LAND: I like it, really need to learn the words.<\/li>\n
  • DANCING IN THE DARK: One of the most beautiful moments of this show as Springsteen brings up a little girl (maybe 12 or 13) and danced with her. Carried her back into her seat \u2014 adorable.<\/li>\n
  • BORN IN THE U.S.A.: What happened with the feedback on the bass? Nearly killed us!<\/li>\n
  • TWIST AND SHOUT\/LA BAMBA: I love the song and always think of the \u201cFerris Beuller\u201d scene. Great ending to the night!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    August 23, 2009<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Seats were incredible; two back from last night and everyone had a great time. Bruce gave away another harmonica. Bruce eating a power bar last night during songs. Tossing water on the crowd again. LOTS of crowd interaction. Steve into it tonight. No Patty ? Soozy incredible. Nils dancing, spinning, burning the guitar. Charlie and Nils trading accordion and guitar work.<\/p>\n

    Bruce\u2019s hair is shorter; still wearing the wedding band, drinks lots of water between songs. Clarence walks out on a cane and sits through much of the show; his saxophones are mounted on stands so he doesn\u2019t need to hold them. Nils\u2019 guitar playing scorching. Roy\u2019s keyboards perfect. Max and Jay are awesome although Jay plays too fast sometimes. Nice to see Curtis King and Cindy Mizelle as well. Charlie is also doing a great job. No talks between songs, no speeches except for the PSA and repeated thanks to the crowd. Like the view screen best when it\u2019s used as (drum roll) a view screen. Much better for the folks all the way back!<\/p>\n

    NIGHT: Good God I LOVE this song. It\u2019s intense, it\u2019s a party, and it\u2019s an anthem. This is going to be a serious show! Definitely underplayed classic from BTR. BTR is such an amazing album and this one is ALWAYS good.<\/p>\n

    BADLANDS: Get it straight baby: He\u2019s gonna keep playing it.<\/p>\n

    OUT IN THE STREET: Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh — great tune, keeps the party going.<\/p>\n

    OUTLAW PETE: Meh. Cowboy hat and boots cute, but meh.<\/p>\n

    IT’S HARD TO BE A SAINT IN THE CITY: Very strong performance and well done. This is clearly a show for the fans. This song was never one of my favorites, but nice to hear.<\/p>\n

    WORKING ON A DREAM: The house building speech is thankfully short and God I LOVE this song. I read in reviews that people don\u2019t like it but live, this is one is a joyful anthem! And I like the clouds and moon and stars graphics.<\/p>\n

    MURDER INCORPORATED: I love this song. Vocals great, just rocked. Awesome. Powerful guitar work here, too.<\/p>\n

    JOHNNY 99: Good. The full-blown version does detract from what the song is about, but that\u2019s ok.<\/p>\n

    INDEPENDENCE DAY: First time I\u2019ve heard it live and a beautiful performance, strongly led by Charlie’s organ. Bruce in silhouette for much of the song. Poignant. Fathers and sons, too much of the same kind.<\/p>\n

    HEAT WAVE (RIFF ONLY): Not familiar with the song but it replaced \u201cRaise Your Hand\u201d as the \u201cSign\u201d song. Once woman had a sign for \u201cRacing in the Street\u201d that included a \u201c7-11\u201d store and she told me she drew the whole thing herself.<\/p>\n

    I’M GOIN’ DOWN: I love the song; it\u2019s a fun tune and has become a party song.<\/p>\n

    YOU NEVER CAN TELL: After a bit of “which key” band chatter, which is always enjoyable, it was just so-so. \u201cC?, no D. Staying with A\u201d<\/p>\n

    JANEY DON’T YOU LOSE HEART: This is a fantastic song that really should have been included on BITUSA. Live, it\u2019s just incredible. This was from another sign request: \u201cJaney don\u2019t you lose {heart}\u201d Have not heard this since Fenway.<\/p>\n

    PROVE IT ALL NIGHT: Savage solo by Nils who brought his A+ game tonight and just amazing. Crowd LOVED it. Quintessential Bruce.<\/p>\n

    WAITIN’ ON A SUNNY DAY: Lots of reviewers don\u2019t like the song; I think it\u2019s a great, fun tune. Great way to involve the kids.<\/p>\n

    THE PROMISED LAND: Rocked and another harmonica given away.<\/p>\n

    THE RIVER: One reviewer said it best: \u201cReally, really stunning. The lighting was very minimalist on this to great effect. More or less straight performance. Bruce gave the audience the vocal (a la “show a little faith there’s magic in the night”) on the lines “they bring you up to do what your daddy done\/me and Mary we met in high school when she was just seventeen” or so. Extended, lovely falsetto ending.\u201d<\/p>\n

    LONESOME DAY \/ THE RISING: Boston crowd\u2019s LOVE it. I do too. Classic staples of the new era.<\/p>\n

    BORN TO RUN: Someday girl I don\u2019t know when, he\u2019ll retire this one, but till then, tramps like us will keep hearing it at every show.<\/p>\n

    GIRLS IN THEIR SUMMER CLOTHES: For a kid\u2019s sixth birthday; Springsteen quipped he\u2019s approaching that number himself, and he brought a woman on to dance with him who looked a bit nervous. This song is a rare exception that it sounds better on the CD \u2013 there\u2019s just something magical (no pun intended) about the way it\u2019s arranged in the studio that Springsteen jest never duplicated live.<\/p>\n

    THUNDER ROAD: After the PSA and very enjoyable. Lots of focus on Clarence this evening and he was on-the-spot all night. Crowd still sings back, \u2018Show a little faith there\u2019s magic in the night\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

    AMERICAN LAND: Dropkick Murphy\u2019s duet on it, which was fun but sad news for Peter Wolf! And no proposals tonight, either.<\/p>\n

    GLORY DAYS: Always a blast in concert. No “what time is it” bit tonight although the crowd was shouting \u201cBoss Time\u201d when Springsteen kept yelling, \u201cSteve!\u201d Boston loves this one, I think, because of our baseball connection.<\/p>\n

    DANCING IN THE DARK: No dancing with somebody from the crowd on this one tonight, just a straight performance segueing straight into<\/p>\n

    TWIST AND SHOUT\/LA BAMBA: As Springsteen pretended to \u201ccollapse\u201d on stage an \u201cEMT\u201d came out and gave him oxygen. The songs? AWESOME!<\/p>\n

    HANG ON SLOOPY: Didn\u2019t quite \u201cget\u201d this one; wasn\u2019t very good. Goofy but not in a good way.<\/p>\n

    GROWIN’ UP: That\u2019s better! Springsteen clearly doesn\u2019t want to leave! Seemed a bit odd this late in the set but such a fun song!<\/p>\n

    HUNGRY HEART: One more! One more! And we got it \u2014 icing on the cake and a song to send us on our way. A joyful ending for the night. And my wife rushed to the pit, and came back euphoric \u2013 she was holding Bruce\u2019s hand (\u201che\u2019s sweaty!\u201d) Him holding hers, and hugging him! She was beyond thrilled and I am incredibly jealous!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    by Robert Gillis August 22, 2009 Tonight\u2019s Springsteen show came as close to a religious experience as, well, the last show. I\u2019m running out of superlatives like \u201cawesome\u201d \u201cin-cred-ible\u201d and \u201cjust f**ing rocked,\u201d but tonight\u2019s show at GREAT WOODS was all those things and more. Seats were amazing; got VERY close and got some amazing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bruce-springsteen"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4097"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7569,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4097\/revisions\/7569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertxgillis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}