Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band made a grand return to MSG (video, setlist)

UPDATE: Here are pictures, video, and setlist from Barclays Center on Monday night (4/3).

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band made their grand return to Madison Square Garden on Saturday (4/1), playing a typically sprawling 27-song, three-hour-long set. This is the band’s first tour since 2016, having kicked off in Tampa, FL, in February. The sold-out MSG show hit a number of emotional highs, kicking off with “No Surrender” and “Ghosts,” and later paying respect to 9/11 firefighters and first responders with beloved “The Rising.”

Bruce also took a moment before “Last Man Standing” to dedicate the song to his late Castiles bandmate and friend George Theiss. Via Billboard, Bruce said:

The greatest adventure of my young life. This was in 1965, ’66 and ’67. We lasted for three years! Teenagers! It was the all-time School of Rock! An explosive time in American history — and an amazing time to be in a rock group.

But if you cut forward 50 years from that summer afternoon, to another summer day, I found myself standing at the side of George’s deathbed. He fought lung cancer for the last years of his life and he only had a few days left to live. And I realized that his passing would leave me as the last surviving member of that first small group of guys that put that little band together.

The dead’s great and final gift to the living is expanded vision. At 15, everything is tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow and hello and hello. And later on, through so many more goodbyes… Now, it just makes you realize how important living every moment is. So be good to yourselves and be good to those you love and be good to this world around you.

The MSG show also got “Kitty’s Back” and “The E Street Shuffle,” as well as covers of Commodores’ “Nightshift” and Patti Smith’s “Because The Night.” The encore was long, as usual, and kicked off with “Jungleland,” which was its tour debut, then “Thunder Road,” “Born to Run,” “Rosalita,” “Glory Days,” “Dancing in the Dark,” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” Bruce closed the night with a solo acoustic rendition of “I’ll See You In My Dreams.”

Check out videos, and the full MSG setlist below.

The tour hit’s Brooklyn’s Barclays Center tonight, and then Belmont’s UBS Arena on April 9 and 11, and a homecoming NJ show at Newark’s Prudential Center on April 14. . After the UK tour, they’ll play Bruce’s home turf again at NJ’s MetLife Stadium on August 30 and September 1. All dates below.

Setlist: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band at Madison Square Garden, 4/1/2023 (via)
No Surrender
Ghosts
Prove It All Night
Letter to You
The Promised Land
Out in the Street
Candy’s Room
Kitty’s Back
Nightshift (Commodores cover)
Trapped (Jimmy Cliff cover)
The E Street Shuffle
Johnny 99
Last Man Standing (Acoustic and Barry Danielian on trumpet)
Backstreets
Because the Night (Patti Smith Group cover)
She’s the One
Wrecking Ball
The Rising
Badlands
Encore:
Jungleland
Thunder Road
Born to Run
Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
Glory Days
Dancing in the Dark
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
I’ll See You in My Dreams

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band — 2023 Tour Dates
April 3 – Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center
April 5 – Cleveland, OH @ Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse
April 7 – Baltimore, MD @ Baltimore Arena
April 9 – Belmont Park, NY @ UBS Arena
April 11 – Belmont Park, NY @ UBS Arena
April 14 – Newark, NJ @ Prudential Center
May 30 – Edinburgh, UK @ BT Murrayfield Stadium
June 16 – Birmingham, UK @ Villa Park
July 6 – London, UK @ BST Hyde Park
July 8 – London, UK @ BST Hyde Park
August 9 – Chicago, IL @ Wrigley Field
August 16 – Philadelphia, PA @ Citizens Bank Park
August 18 – Philadelphia, PA @ Citizens Bank Park
August 24 – Foxborough, MA @ Gillette Stadium
August 26 – Foxborough, MA @ Gillette Stadium
August 28 – Washington, DC @ Nationals Park
August 30 – East Rutherford, NJ @ MetLife Stadium
September 1 – East Rutherford, NJ @ MetLife Stadium
September 7 – Syracuse, NY @ JMA Wireless Dome
September 9 – Baltimore, MD @ Oriole Park at Camden Yards
September 12 – Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena
November 3 – Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena
November 6 – Edmonton, AB @ Rogers Place
November 8 – Calgary, AB @ Scotiabank Saddledome
November 10 – Winnipeg, MB @ Canada Life Centre
November 14 – Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
November 16 – Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena
November 18 – Ottawa, ON @ Canadian Tire Centre
November 20 – Montreal, QC @ Centre Bell
November 30 – Phoenix, AZ @ Footprint Center
December 2 – San Diego, CA @ Pechanga Arena
December 4 – Inglewood, CA @ Kia Forum
December 6 – Inglewood, CA @ Kia Forum
December 8 – San Francisco, CA @ Chase Center