Skip to content
Live Dates August 19, 2012

Notes from the road: Foxboro, MA

72x1000brucegilette7E1A1085

Photo by Jo Lopez

During sound check tonight at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, as Bruce and the Band were wrapping up “We Take Care of Our Own,” a praying mantis wandered on stage. When Bruce noticed the little wise guy, he picked him up to ride around on the back of Bruce’s hand, doing his own photo shoot, as the Band and crew crowded around for a look. He scared at least one E Street Band member right off the stage who shall remain nameless. Bruce finally held him up saying, “We got a new mascot now.” Management later revealed that this was a traditional sign of good luck for tonight’s show.

For their third show in the Boston area in just five days, Bruce and the E Street Band made songs like “The Rising,” “Working On The Highway,” and “Radio Nowhere” sound absolutely fresh. During an early “Hungry Heart,” the crowd sang the entire first verse, but if Bruce was worried about the whole stadium (all 50,000 attendees) stealing the show, all he said was “give yourself a round of applause!” During “Because the Night,” Nils delivered a different interpretation of his guitar solo. A thrilling “Shackled and Drawn” featured slight changes to Cindy’s powerful duet with Bruce. And the momentum kept building through a rougher version of “The Rising,” and then all throughout “Badlands,” ending the blitz with Max’s extended drum ending.

Emotion was pouring off of the stage as the main set transitioned into the encore with a now rarely played “Jungleland.” That song saw Roy and then Stevie lead the band into the final sequence where Jake sent us into the stratosphere with his sax solo. All the while, Bruce seemed nearly uncontrollable, thrusting his fist in the air as he was swept up by the force of the Band. Fittingly, a very soulful cover of Dobie Gray’s classic “Drift Away” followed, but only after Bruce had run through the crowd twice to the forty yard line, by “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out.”

No need for us to wonder how long Bruce and the Band can continue to reinvent themselves on stage: a blaring cry was heard in Foxboro when Bruce called out all the young people present, and Bruce shouted back, “We need some youth out here because we plan to be out here another thirty-forty years.” We should all hope so because as soon as they figure out how to bottle that performance of “Open All Night,” everybody is going to be living a few years longer.

– Charles Landau

72x1000gilettejolopez20127E1A0768

72x1000brucegilette7E1A9628

72x1000brucegilette7E1A0643

72x1000brucegilette7E1A9411

72x1000brucegilette7E1A9283

72x1000brucegilette7E1A9506

72x1000brucegilette7E1A9731

72x1000brucegilette7E1A1046

72x1000brucegilette7E1A9262

X
Save On Apple Music Save On Deezer Save On Spotify
X
X

We're sorry, a Spotify Premium account is required to use this service. Start your free trial here.

We're sorry, this service doesn't work with Spotify on mobile devices yet. Please use the Spotify app instead.

X

You're signed in! About the streaming player:

Songs play if you keep the player window open. The music stops if you close the window. To keep the music playing while you visit other pages, two options:

  1. In top row of the player, click Pop-Up Player button to open player in a new window.
  2. Keep player open in a browser tab. Visit other pages in a separate tab.
X

We're sorry, this service doesn't work with Spotify on mobile devices yet. Please use the Spotify app instead.

You're signed in! About the streaming player:

Songs play if you keep the player window open. The music stops if you close the window. To keep the music playing while you visit other pages, two options:

  1. In top row of the player, click Pop-Up Player button to open player in a new window.
  2. Keep player open in a browser tab. Visit other pages in a separate tab.