Six months after a “motherf*cker of a bellyache!” (as Bruce described it – everything crossed for a happy and healthy 2024!) brought their 2023 International Tour to an abrupt end, Springsteen and the E Street Band made their return to the road last Tuesday as the 2024 World Tour kicked off in Phoenix. A show originally scheduled for last November before the post-MetLife delays, the fans inside the Footprint Center were surely hoping on something special to make their longer wait all the more worth it.
As most of those fans in Phoenix had come to expect, this show wasn’t a complete revamp to the 2023 Tour, and instead it served as a continuation which is really only right considering Phoenix had been pencilled in to experience what Springsteen and the E Street Band were bringing their audiences last year. Consequently, that meant the setlist that dominated conversations last year was very much the same, but it wasn’t without changes and it did follow on somewhat from the third MetLife Stadium show on September 3rd with a more varied selection of songs in contrast to the core 2023 set, with some interesting tweaks made amidst that familiarity. In particular, “Kitty’s Back” saw its striking streak of successive appearances end (sixty-six and out) while “Don’t Play That Song,” a song I didn’t see Bruce and the Band playing again, returned to the set for the first time since February 14th in Houston last year.
All the more important, though, was the quality of performance and barring the odd opening night misstep, it was as good as a start as fans could have hoped for following the six month break. If you didn’t know any better, you could say it followed on almost seamlessly from the third MetLife show on account of its opening foursome. The night launched into action with “Lonesome Day,” seeing stupendous efforts from the E Street Horns (Eddie Manion, Barry Danelian, Curt Ramm, Ozzie Melendez and Jake Clemons) and a great amount of passion from Springsteen anchor. It was then into “Night,” which saw Jake and Little Steven Van Zandt offer great support to Bruce by way of their saxophone and guitar playing, and as well as harmonies where it concerned Stevie. Stevie kept it going during a solid “No Surrender,” the 2023 tour’s custom opener, and then in a delightful “Two Hearts.” How special it is to hear Bruce and Stevie still singing this in the year 2024 shouldn’t be lost on any fan, and the passion they brought to the song really gave Phoenix the impression that it wasn’t lost on them either.
“Darlington County” made for a small surprise next to fans who felt they had an idea of where the setlist was taking them, and while not a stand out on the night, it served its purpose well in further buoying the Footprint Center audience up with Jake and Soozie Tyrell earning post-song shout outs from Bruce for their committed efforts. The song fans may have expected after “Two Hearts” did then follow, as “Ghosts” returned to the setlist with force. After illness put a stop to the 2023 tour, those cries of “I’m alii-iive!” were surely relished by the man singing them (on E Street Radio the day after this show he’d tell Jim Rotolo he was worried he’d never sing again!) and the lyrics of this song that spoke so true to audiences last year were all the more so here. The same can be said for the song that followed, and while “Ghosts” certainly returned with force, oh boy, so did “Prove It All Night.” Setting the tone for itself and all other guitar driven anthems for the rest of the tour, this one was in no way lacking the intensity that made it a nightly highlight over the last year. To call the guitar playing of Springsteen and Van Zandt blazing doesn’t even begin to do it justice! The only ‘drawback’ to this one was what appeared to be a lack of synchronisation for the finale, but on night one that’s nothing to worry about, especially when it sounded as good as it did! It would be a double-shout of Darkness for Phoenix with the LP’s title track next up, and this one also followed on nicely from its 2023 performances with Bruce giving Phoenix a captivating vocal in addition to a likewise effort from the E Street Band – mind you, I still think Charlie Giordano’s organ chimes are too loud on the recordings. Bruce’s vocal approach was unsurprisingly similar to that of the last year, using this song as a teaching moment to his audience and lines such as “some folks spend their whole life just trying to keep it” stood out greatly in that regard. There was also great potency to be found in his deliveries of “and a style she’s trying to maintain” and the mighty “TOWWWWWWNN!” to finish it all off, and I’m really looking forward to hearing Bruce use this song as a life lesson more as the tour goes on.
The reflective atmosphere was retained upon the end of “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” with a strong “Letter To You” adding an even more personal tone while bringing the tempo down a further touch. That tempo would then be brought all the way back up by “The Promised Land” and that harmonica never fails to fill me with joy. Much like the sight and sound of Bruce Springsteen and Steven Van Zandt still singing “Two Hearts” together, with every passing show this song seems to mean so much more.
“Spirit in the Night” then halted the tempo briefly, seeing Bruce take a moment to check in with his Arizona audience and ask them an important question: “do you feel the spirit?”. If they could – and they did – there was only one way to respond, and those mighty cries of “Yeah! Yeah!” led into a joyful performance, featuring mint work by the Horns and rather impressively, no lyrical slip ups, which of course has been a recurring theme on this site recently in the two MetLife 2023 shows as well as the September 21st, 1978 Archive release from Passaic. That made for a solidly sung – his emphatic declaration of “Janey’s fingers were in the cake!” was super – and a solidly played first outing of the song in 2024. As we saw last year, the E Street Band are very prone to improving their performance as the tour goes on, so when we consider how captivating Stevie’s guitar licks were here, there’s much reason to get excited for the months ahead. “Yeah! Yeah!”? Absolutely!
It was time to “dance a little bit” next with the surprising return of “Don’t Play That Song,” and although this song wasn’t high on anyone’s wish-list of songs to see played on this tour, the soul cover from Only The Strong Survive served its purpose well as a joyful four and a half minutes. For us Live Downloads listeners who can’t see just how much fun Bruce and his E Street Choir (Curtis King Jr., Michelle Moore, Lisa Lowell and Ada Dyer) were having onstage, that joy was perhaps best highlighted by Bruce’s laughter overriding his singing early on. Whatever the reason, that joy can be infectious for everyone and more often than not that can be more important than a perfect reading. Not to worry, though, Bruce still managed to throw out some very fine vocals, and while “it fills my heart with rain!” was a unique alteration, it was nonetheless a stand out delivery – as was his falsetto driven “darling yooouuuuuuuu!” a little later. This returning soul cover would be followed by its fellow album track, “Nightshift,” a mainstay of 2023, and it contrasted the dance party mood in being a tribute to friends lost and the spirits that remain with us. “Mary’s Place” continued that theme, too, but did so by raising the mood inside the Footprint Center and showing Phoenix how we can celebrate life after death. As was the case with “Nightshift,” there wasn’t too much in this Rising track that stood out in comparison to what we heard last year, but I’d be very remiss if I didn’t mention the magnificence and the power that was the declarations of “TURN IT UP!” as the song neared its finish. That was the exemplification of how we can celebrate in light of our losses.
Having set a good tone with the last two songs, it was time for the centrepiece pairing of 2023, and very likely the centrepiece pairing of Springsteen and the E Street Band shows going forward, too: “Last Man Standing” into “Backstreets.” Taking a solo spotlight for the former, his tribute to his fallen Castiles brothers-in-arms, Bruce spoke about “living every moment you’re here” and after illness he’s surely feeling just how true those words are all the more. He followed his monologue with a truly remarkable reading, one that saw him evoke equally powerful and sorrowful vocals. Be it his shouts of “that somebody took!” and “somewhere high and hard and loud!” or his wistful recollections of the “Knights of Columbus…” and “just the ringing in your ears…” there was much here to convey the very high emotion of this song. That was also the case for “Backstreets.” Fronted by a sensational intro anchored by Charlie, Max Weinberg and Roy Bittan, the sensation didn’t relent either, as when the song got fully underway Bruce led another insanely passionate version of the song, complete with fiery vocals – “hiiiiiding on the backstreets!” – and fiery guitar and that profound interlude in tribute to George Theiss that has changed the way we’ll hear this song forever. Where “Prove It All Night” retained its intensity, this pairing very thankfully retained their emotion.
The remainder of the main set flowed as we became well accustomed to last year, with “Because the Night” and its Nils Lofgren showcase restoring a particularly vibrant, hard-hitting atmosphere in the arena. Max and Jake would stand out in a “She’s the One” which took that atmosphere to even greater heights, and despite the pairing of “Wrecking Ball” and “The Rising” lowering it some their equal parts powerhouse and rallying auras ensured the feeling in Phoenix remained much the same. I liked how “Wrecking Ball” drew comparisons to “Darkness” purely in the way Bruce sang “all your little victories and glories” with the switch from ‘our’ to ‘your’ suggesting he was speaking to his audience based on his experiences; and I also really liked how “The Rising” on this Live Download recording was with the in-house echo effects that we didn’t hear on too many of the 2023 ones. Through its renaissance, “The Rising” became a highlight of many 2023 recordings, and the fact we’re able to feel the weight of the song as it was sung on this night even more here means there’s a good chance the song’s run will continue well into 2024.
Contrasting performances of “Badlands” and “Thunder Road” – the former was storming where the latter was tender – rounded out the main set, and the significance of these two tracks in the songbook could have happily concluded a twenty-two song show. There was more in-store for Phoenix, however, with a familiar encore taking the show’s total to twenty-nine. Led by a “Born to Run” sung with extra excitement, as Bruce best conveyed during the second verse, following a main set that spoke of our lost loved ones and how we remember them, this was almost fully the house party that Bruce promised way back on his From My Home to Yours radio show. It wasn’t a perfect party as opening night missteps could be found in a less than stellar delivery of “highway’s jammed with broken heroes” and a premature start to “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” but its highs outweighed its lows and the Footprint Center were most certainly on cloud nine during “Rosalita” (played for the old timers), “Dancing in the Dark” and a surprise sign request of “Twist and Shout,” which was played for a young fan attending his first show. If the mission of Springsteen and the E Street Band here was to pick up where they left off in New Jersey on just about similar form and leave audiences wanting more with a sprinkling of the old spontaneity, I’d say their mission was a success. Bruce brought the show to a close with an “I’ll See You in My Dreams” that called back to the themes of loss earlier in the set and stressed their importance, and as always it was a lovely reading that seemed to bring the emotion out of him as well as us. Last year I spoke often about each show possibly being the last time in that particular city, and while we won’t know until it is, we can only do what Bruce talked about before “Last Man Standing” and live every one of these moments like it is. So roll on Las Vegas! Viva!
Kieran’s recommended listening from March 19th, 2024 – Phoenix, AZ:
“Lonesome Day,” “Night,” “No Surrender,” “Two Hearts,” “Ghosts,” “Prove It All Night,” “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” “Letter To You,” “The Promised Land,” “Spirit in the Night,” “Don’t Play That Song,” “Last Man Standing,” “Backstreets,” “The Rising,” “Badlands,” “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” and “I’ll See You in My Dreams.”
You can download the opening night of the 2024 World Tour here.
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Kieran's Thoughts, Previews & Reviews 