Bruce Springsteen at Met-Life Stadium
Bruce Springsteen at MetLife Stadium in 2016 (more by Greg Cristman)

Bruce Springsteen played his longest US show ever at MetLife Stadium, heavy on the early years (setlist)

After doing a ton of tour dates playing The River in full, Bruce Springsteen kicked off another leg of his tour at NJ’s MetLife Stadium on 8/23 with a more random selection of songs. He did the same on night two (8/25), the night he brought out Tom Morello, and again last night (8/30), his third of three shows at that venue. Like at night one and night two, he opened with “New York City Serenade” with a string section, and closed with a cover of Tom Waits’ “Jersey Girl” (with fireworks). He also played the same selection of big hits, like “Jungleland,” “Born to Run,” “Dancing in the Dark,” “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” (with a tribute to Clarence Clemons after the “And the Big Man joined the band” lyric), and “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight),” though he played the latter much earlier on in the set. And this time we actually only got two songs from The River.

Night three was heavier on Born in the U.S.A. than the others, including a couple big ones that weren’t played at the first two nights: “I’m On Fire” and “Glory Days.” It was also heavier on the first two albums, giving us “Blinded by the Light,” “Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?,” “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City,” “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy),” “Incident on 57th Street” (sign request), and “Kitty’s Back” (sign request), which were unheard on nights one and two. More classic covers this time too, including “Twist and Shout” and “Summertime Blues,” the latter of which was the first sign request of the night. Guests included Rickie Lee Jones and Spanish Johnny. This was also the longest show of the three, coming in at four hours and one minute with 34 songs. And actually, as Billboard points out, it was the longest show Bruce ever played in the US, and second-longest worldwide. A new record.

As you surely know if you’ve seen Bruce recently, he hasn’t slowed down a bit with age and he handled the 4+ hour show with endless energy. No intermission, and he was hardly gone from the stage at all before the “encore.” He still runs around the whole stage, jumps, and dances with fans (during “Dancing in the Dark”), who all seemed to be about a third of his age. It’s pretty amazing that he continues to be a force with younger generations year after year. He clearly had a lot of love for Jersey at this show, both in his setlist choices and his stage banter, and the love was mutual. When he yelled “MY FELLOW NEW JERSEYANS!,” he got the loudest cheers he had gotten all night.

The pictures in the gallery above are from night one. Check out some videos and the full setlist from last night: