Bruce Spingsteen Live in Dublin - RDS, July 12th 2009 - Review and Setlist

About 20 years ago, a friend told me to make sure that if I ever had the opportunity to see Bruce Springsteen, that I should take it as it would probably be one of the best concerts I would ever go to. He did this while bragging over the fact that he had been on the concert in LA that ended up
as most of the last album in the Live 1975 - 1985 retrospective. It took a long time but finally yesterday I was able to see The Boss play live in the RDS Stadium in Dublin.

I wasn't disappointed!

We got to the stadium at around 7:00 PM, the concert was scheduled to start at 7:30, but it didn't start until just after 8:00 and in typical Irish fashion after a short shower, but even the rain couldn't dampen the excitement from the crowd. Thankfully that was the last of the rain we saw for the evening, in contrast with the Saturday gig where it poured over Dublin for most of it.

The stage was quite plain. And as for gigs this size (I read somewhere that it was 40,000 people, can anybody confirm it?) it was lacking a lot of flair. It had two screens on either side, and a big screen behind the stage which would come on and off from time to time. Lights were fairly basic and most off them were to illuminate the crowd. A couple of times during the show they even turned on the floodlights! The show is obviously about the music, and no better man than Bruce himself to carry the show for the 3+ hours that the show lasted.

Springsteen is well known for his changeable setlists, where he throws surprises and takes on requests from the crowd. The full setlist is below, but let me give you some of my highlights and lowlights first. I was bitterly disappointed that he didn't play The River, he had been playing it
for the last few shows so I had high hopes. The River is up there with Billy Joel's Scenes from an Italian Restaurant as one of my favourite story songs. I have seen Billy Joel play that song live a couple of times, and I was really hoping to hear my other favourite, but it didn't happen. He
played other great tunes, including No Surrender, Darkness on the Edge of Town (which he has played only a handful of times during this tour), Jungleland, 41 Shots (which according to Stand Goldstein is the first time he plays it since 2003!) and Born to Run.

The show started with Nil's accordion solo which morphed into the Irish song Fields of Athenry and after 3 hours it ended with a bang with Rosalita, Glory Days, Dancing in the Dark and Twist & Shout, where he also had us singing La Bamba for a little while.

You could see the smiles on the faces of the people as they left the stadium. It was a night to remember for a long time.

Full setlist:

Intro: Nils accordion solo - Fields of Athenry
No Surrender
Badlands
Night
My Lucky Day
Outlaw Pete
Hungry Heart
Working On A Dream
Seeds
Johnny 99
Youngstown
Darkness On The Edge of Town
Raise your Hand (Instrumental)
Spirit In The Night (Request)
Sherry Darling (Request)
Proud Mary (Request)
Prove It All Night
Trapped
Waiting On A Sunny Day
Promised Land
Radio Nowhere
American Skin (41 Shots)
Lonesome Day
The Rising
Born To Run

Encore:
Jungleland
American Land
Rosalita
Glory Days
Dancing In The Dark
Twist & Shout (with a little bit of La Bamba!)

Please let me know if you have a goo picture of the gig that I could use for the post!