MSG Addenda and Setlist
Sunday, April 2, 2023 Entry #58
1) After the concert, I exited Madison Square Garden through Penn Station, and far from being frustrated at the logjam of humanity, the crowd making their way out with me spontaneously broke into song! I’m not sure how it started, but suddenly we were all singing the audience’s vocalization part from when Springsteen performs “Badlands.” Another example of Springsteen creating joyful, life-affirming community!
2) When I finally emerged from the underground and hit the street outside the Garden, I looked up and there was Cassie, who I had met and hung out with at the GA line in Tampa, at the very first show on the tour, exactly two months ago. Cassie is the young person from the Bay area who is on an amazing YouTube video from 2016 singing and playing guitar with Springsteen (See Entry #9 “Fellow Travelers”). Cassie was at this concert with her sister and we had a nice reunion.
3) Turns out, Paul McCartney was there too!
There is Macca himself, in Section 108. One of my Springsteen friends wrote me a message that pointed out that I (front row standing against the stage in the pit) had better seats at the Springsteen show than the former Beatle! I hadn’t realized that McCartney was in the audience until after the fact, and when I found out, my first reaction was surprise that he and Springsteen didn’t perform together. I guess disappointment too, as it would have been quite a thrill to see those two legends at the same time, especially from the vantage point I held that night! After all, in past tours, Springsteen has brought up a number of musicians onstage to join him for a song or two (including McCartney himself as recently as during Springsteen’s last tour in 2017), and Springsteen’s reverence for The Beatles as the force that jump-started his passion for rock & roll is well known. In addition, just a year ago at a Paul McCartney concert, Springsteen guested and sang his own “Glory Days” and two Beatles songs, sharing vocals with McCartney.
In fact, although a number of famous rock musicians have attended shows to see Springsteen on this recent tour, his first since the COVID shutdown, this time Bruce hasn’t asked any of them to jam with him. This is further evidence that we’re experiencing a different type of tour than Springsteen has planned before, along with not taking song requests from audience signs, limiting his legendarily lengthy spoken introductions to songs, keeping a fairly predictable setlist, and eschewing the playing of one-off versions of some of his more obscure songs. As I have noted before, Springsteen is on a very specific mission this tour, determined to demonstrate and share his continued vitality simply through tirelessly and joyfully blasting out his music without so much as a pause. Thus distractions, even from the likes of a Beatle, are limited if not completely unwelcome. Well, at least Springsteen posed for a photo with McCartney.
4) Here is the setlist for the Brice Springsteen concert at Madison Square Garden that I attended on April 1, 2023. No joke!
5) I scooped up the NYC newspapers today, looking for coverage of the concert. This was in the New York Post:
But, my favorite story was in the New York Times, which juxtaposed Springsteen’s MSG appearance with the news that former president Donald Trump was set to arrive in the City early the next week. Trump would be surrendering in a Manhattan courthouse for his criminal arraignment on charges that he paid hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels:
“I don’t wanna go home,” Bruce Springsteen told some 20,000 cheering fans on Saturday night in Madison Square Garden. “New York, wanna go home?” On this night, during this week, home for New Yorkers is a a complicated and unsettling place…The arrival of Donald J. Trump in the heavily Democratic city he long called home promises to be met with with fervent protests and counter-protests…So no, Bruce, we do not want to go home. Keep playing.”
The article concludes by pointing out that Springsteen shows are the “stuff of myth,” a place to celebrate with a “shared community of fans.” While Springsteen did not directly address Trump, the article took Springsteen’s closing message to the crowd as his way of addressing the unprecedented moment about to play out in New York City. So, according to the New York Times, this was Springsteen’s advice to his fans as we were finally forced, after the shot of communal joy and transcendence we received at MSG, to face reality, brace for the week to come, and grudgingly head home:
“Be good to yourself. Be good to those you love, and be good to the world around you.”
As for me, I was actually (not grudgingly) headed to Springsteen’s home, the New Jersey Shore.