Tag Archives: Bruce Springsteen

A late summer evening in the beautiful Hunter Valley. A year after the Neil Young concert, we were back On the Green for the Boss.

Hype, gossip and a little hysteria had heralded the concert. His other Australian gigs had been sell outs, so we were really looking forward to this!

Rain had threatened earlier in the day, but as always for Hunter concerts, the night was balmy and warm. The biggest audience the Hunter had ever seen made for a noisy, buzzy crowd, but they were good natured and friendly, some albeit a little under the weather as the night wore on…

We’re great people watchers, so we were fascinated by the crowd  – everyone from lavender rinse grannies, to dads and daughters, groupie mums, as well the usual concert suspects, with tats and T shirts and an amazing ability to consume copious amounts of alcohol.

So, the concert.

Bruce walks on stage and with one unison movement 22,000 people got up from the grass or their seats and stayed up!  Three  hours later we were still standing and could have stayed on. Bruce seemed to get more energy as the night progressed, and we got the feeling that he could have stayed too.

A fabulous concert!  As much showman as musician, he worked the crowd and gave them whatever they wanted, although reading afterwards about the gig online and getting feedback from other concert goers, I had the feeling that the concert repartee and audience participation were maybe carefully engineered…

Nevertheless, the concert was three hours of great rock and roll, tinged with a little folk and some interesting covers.

My standouts were American Skin (41 Shots), High Hopes, and the Ghost of Tom Joad.

SET LIST

1. Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee (Stick McGhee cover) (Live premiere)

2. Badlands
3. No Surrender
4. Two Hearts
5. Bobby Jean
6. High Hopes (The Havalinas cover)

7. Just Like Fire Would (The Saints cover)
   

8. Murder Incorporated(Sign request)

9. Trapped (Jimmy Cliff cover)

10. Wrecking Ball
11. The River
12. American Skin (41 Shots)
13. Because the Night (Patti Smith cover)

14. Working on the Highway
15. Darlington County
16. Shackled and Drawn
17. Waitin’ on a Sunny Day
18. The Ghost of Tom Joad (w/ Tom Morello on shared vocals)

19. Land of Hope and Dreams
20. Encore:

20. The Wish (Tour premiere)

21. Friday on My Mind (The Easybeats cover)

22. Born to Run
23. Dancing in the Dark
24. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
25. Shout (The Isley Brothers cover)

26. Encore 2:Thunder Road (full band)