Bruce Springsteen Setlist

For you lucky dogs — like myself — who had the pleasure of seeing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band perform in Charlottesville at the John Paul Jones Arena, as part of the Wrecking Ball tour, below you will find the setlist for his October 23, 2012 performance:

Start Time: 8:17 P.M.

• Setlist
• Shackled and Drawn
• Lonesome Day
• We Take Care Of Our Own
• Hungry Heart
• Wrecking Ball
• Death To My Hometown
• My City Of Ruins
• Spirit In The Night
• Seaside Bar Song
• Give the Girl a Kiss
• Lost In The Flood
• This Depression
• Murder, Incorporated
• Johnny 99
• Working On The Highway
• Darlington County
• Waitin’ On A Sunny Day
• Backstreets
• Badlands
• Land Of Hope And Dreams

• Encore
• Jungleland
• Born To Run
• Seven Nights To Rock
• Dancing In The Dark
• Tenth Avenue Freeze Out

End Time: 11:19 P.M.

“Shackled and Drawn” set the mood for the night. A gospel backbone with a thunderous chorus:

Shackled and drawn, shackled and drawn. Pick up the rock, son, and carry it on. Trudging through the dark in a world gone wrong; woke up this morning, shackled and drawn.

Bruce Springsteen, Shackled and Drawn

Springsteen, a folksy lyricist — and historian — for/of the working class, has engrained, in this particular anthem, an ode to the American slave song or field chant.

Considering the night that was, this song was the perfect opening. Another great number, an ode to the Irish folk song, came in the form of “Death To My Hometown.”

Both of these songs are tracks from the new album Wrecking Ball.

Well, no cannonballs did fly; no rifles cut us down. No bombs fell from the sky; no blood soaked the ground. No powder flash blinded the eye; no deathly thunder sounded. But just as sure as the hand of God, they brought death to my home; they brought death to my hometown, boys.

Bruce Springsteen, Death To My Hometown

An observation on last night’s concert: while I got tickets for dirt cheap — by simply having good fortune — it would have been worth face value to see so many white people dancing, particularly white people my parents’ age dancing. That’s well spent money.

Bruce Springsteen also makes grown men do spirit fingers, as was witnessed by the man in front of my sister and me.

To quote the Charlotte Gazette: a good time was had by all. I look forward to the next time The Boss ventures into town.