E Street Band bassist Garry Tallent shuts down Bruce Springsteen setlist complaint
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Don't play that song for me?
The Springsteen setlist issue flared up over the weekend when a fan asked on Twitter, apparently earnestly, if the “mental state” of Bruce Springsteen, 73, was restricting the current tour's setlist.
“These rinse and repeat shows are such the opposite of greatness,” said the fan on Saturday, July 22.
“You are (expletive) kidding, right??” retorted E Street Band bassist Garry Tallent.
Fans and associates chimed in after that.
“Why don’t you stay home and let some real fans take your ticket?” commented Kathi Van Zandt, E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt's sister. “Decline? This man and this band play for three hours — performing from an extraordinary songbook most artists only dream about.”
E Street Band founding member Vini “Maddog” Lopez was a bit more succinct: “Yeah right Bub.!” The comment included a meme of disbelieving huskies.
Lopez feels that setlist, as has been the case in previous tour, will expand in time.
“As time goes on, they’ll start doing other stuff and that just goes on through a tour,” said Lopez previously to the USA Today Network NJ. “The thing that bugs me the most about the tour are the people who go to 20 shows and then they complain about hearing the same songs.
“People make such a big deal out of it, it’s crazy.”
The theme of the three-hour show is mortality and its motivational properties. The concept originated on the Springsteen and E Street Band 2020 album, “Letter to You” and the setlist is primed with Springsteen's classic uptempo rockers, soulful struts and jazzy swingers, with one or two moving ballads. The characters in the songs span from the majestic to the modest, all with a role to play in the musical mosaic.
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“The show is not a 'best of' show — it's more like a sample of each of our eras,” said Van Zandt previously to the Consequence Podcast Network. “It's an interesting choice Bruce has made. We haven't changed the set from the very first rehearsal. He just hit on what he wanted to do very early in the rehearsal process. The songs are not all from 'Letter to You,' but they take on that theme. It's not exactly a linear, literal storyline from beginning to end, but it has that color of the theme that comes from the album. Especially 'Backstreets,' in particular. It takes on an entirely different meaning. Now it's about George Theiss.”
Theiss is Springsteen's former bandmate in the Castiles of Freehold in the '60s. His passing in 2018 left Springsteen the last surviving member of the Castiles, and Springsteen addresses that in a spoken interlude during tour shows.
“Yes, it is different. It is more like a Broadway show, more like a typical show of a rock band,” Van Zandt said. “Most rock bands don't change any songs. I know rock bands whose sets are laminated.”
There have been subtle changes made along the way, including the deletion of “Don't Play That Song (You Lied)” from Springsteen’s 2022 soul covers album “Only the Strong Survive.” The song was played six times early in the tour. In all, 63 different songs have been performed so far, with a nightly average of 27 songs, according to Setlist.fm.
Springsteen and the E Street Band are playing stadiums in Europe, concluding with a Tuesday, July 25, show at Monza, Italy. They come back to the U.S. with shows Aug. 9 and 11 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Area shows include Aug. 16 and 18 at Citizens Bank Ballpark in Philly, and then Aug. 30, Sept. 1 and 3 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford.
Visit brucespringsteen.net for more information.
Springsteen July 23 Munich setlist
No Surrender
Ghosts
Prove It All Night
Letter to You
The Promised Land
Out in the Street
Darlington County
Kitty's Back
Nightshift
Trapped
Johnny 99
The River
Last Man Standing
Backstreets
Because the Night
She's the One
Wrecking Ball
The Rising
Badlands
Born to Run
Bobby Jean
Glory Days
Dancing in the Dark
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
I'll See You in My Dreams
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Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. Contact him at @chrisfhjordan; cjordan@app.com
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Bruce Springsteen setlist: Garry Tallent responds to complaint
