Kingdom of Days: June 19

New for 2024: Audio for 1988; video for 2016

1967: Bruce Springsteen graduates from Freehold Borough High School. He does not attend, however, but instead picks up his diploma later.

1968: The Castiles play a gig at Le Teendezvous in New Shrewsbury, New Jersey.

1970: Steel Mill takes a trip down to Richmond, where they play the first of two nights at The String Factory. The set list includes a twenty-minute “Garden State Parkway Blues” and the only known performance of “Where Was Jesus in Ohio?”

1971: The Sundance Blues Band plays the Student Prince in Asbury Park.

1974: Bruce cancels a scheduled date at the Cowtown Ballroom in Kansas City.

1988: Bruce and the E Street Band bring the Tunnel of Love Tour to Paris for a single show at the Hippodrome de Vincennes.

1999: At Night One in Arnhem on the Reunion Tour, Bruce and the E Street Band tour premiere “Stand On It.”

2003: The Rising Tour stops in Oslo for a night, where “Where the Bands Are” gets a rare outing. Word gets out about where Bruce and the band are staying, and crowds form to greet him as he leaves for the show.

2004: In support of her new album, 23rd Street Lullaby, Patti Scialfa drops by Weekend Today for an interview.

2005: Bruce plays “Adam Raised a Cain” for the first time on the Devils & Dust Tour, opening with it at his solo acoustic show in Rotterdam. Before the show, Bruce sits down for an interview with a local reporter.

2006: The Seeger Sessions Tour stops at the Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, where “Buffalo Gals” makes its final tour appearance.

2012: The Wrecking Ball Tour stops in Montpellier, where Bruce and the band tour premiere “Growin’ Up” and “Fire.”

2016: Bruce and the E Street Band tour premiere “My Lucky Day” at their tour stop in Berlin. This show is available to stream or purchase here.

2018: News has been building surrounding the Trump administration’s inhumane child separation policy, and Bruce has had enough of it. He deviates from his Springsteen on Broadway script mid-show at New York City’s Walter Kerr Theater in order to address it:

I never believed that people come to my shows, or rock shows to be told anything.

But I do believe that they come to be reminded of things. To be reminded of who they are, at their most joyous, at their deepest, when life feels full. It’s a good place to get in touch with your heart and your spirit, to be amongst the crowd. And to be reminded of who we are and who we can be collectively. Music does those things pretty well sometimes, particularly these days when some reminding of who we are and who we can be isn’t such a bad thing.

That weekend of the March for our Lives, we saw those young people in Washington, and citizens all around the world, remind us of what faith in America and real faith in American democracy looks and feels like. It was just encouraging to see all those people out on the street and all that righteous passion in the service of something good. And to see that passion was alive and well and still there at the center of the beating heart of our country.

It was a good day, and a necessary day because we are seeing things right now on our American borders that are so shockingly and disgracefully inhumane and un-American that it is simply enraging. And we have heard people in high position in the American government blaspheme in the name of God and country that it is a moral thing to assault the children amongst us. May God save our souls.

There’s the beautiful quote by Dr. King that says the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice. Now, there have been many, many days of recent when you could certainly have an argument over that. But I’ve lived long enough to see that in action and to put some faith in it. But I’ve also lived long enough to know that arc doesn’t bend on its own. It needs all of us leaning on it, nudging it in the right direction day after day. You gotta keep, keep leaning.

I think it’s important to believe in those words, and to carry yourself, and to act accordingly. It’s the only way that we keep faith and keep our sanity.

I’ve played this show 146 nights with basically the same set list, but tonight calls for something different…

Bruce then played “The Ghost of Tom Joad” in place of “Long Walk Home” to drive home his message. The set list change will stick. In attendance tonight: Christina Aguilera.