The big question in my mind coming out of Night One in Philadelphia: how do you top a show that includes “New York City Serenade,” “Lost in the Flood,” “Kitty’s Back, “Incident on 57th Street,” “The Fever,” “Thundercrack, “Downbound Train,” “Streets of Philadelphia,” and “Jungleland” on Night Two?
Or would this be the exception that disproves the Night One/Night Two truism?
Turns out you top it by keeping a couple of those gems, like the by-now standard “New York City Serenade” opener (that still feels so strange to write)…
…swapping out the rest for genuine by-request wild cards (missing entirely from Night One) like “From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come),” “I’m Goin’ Down,” and “Loose Ends” (played in succession early in the set)…
…sharing the stage an old friend (even if he looked a little lost up there)…
…and a young fan (who couldn’t have seemed more at home)…
…and then performing what is easily the most exquisite “Racing in the Street” I’ve ever had the privilege to witness.
And it doesn’t hurt to restart my streak of getting at least one personal premiere per show going again, by playing my first “Lucky Town.”
I only have one regret from this show: Bruce was slated to start the encore with “Secret Garden” which by this point was at the very top of my chase list (this tour had knocked off pretty much everything else), but for some reason Bruce decided to play “Streets of Philadelphia” for a second night running.
I saw six of the ten shows on this final leg of the tour, and yet I still managed to miss “Secret Garden,” which was played at 3 of the 4 shows I missed. But that’s a minor complaint, and one that seems ridiculous in light of a magnificent eight-song encore that also included “Backstreets” and a show-closing “Jersey Girl” with fireworks.
And if the show didn’t set another longest-ever record, that was just fine, too: that night in Philly was one of the most humid I can remember at a show, and by the end of the night I was drenched and exhausted–it was Friday night, and I’d already seen three four-hour-ish shows that week without taking a single day off of work.
And I still had one more show to go that weekend–one that would be my last E Street show to date.
