The show started with a solid, but fairly straight, run-through Badlands, No Surrender, We Take Care of Our Own, Wrecking Ball, Death to My Hometown and My City of Ruins. It then shifted gear with lively takes on Spirit in the Night and E Street Shuffle and Nils proved a more than sufficient replacement for Tom Morello on Jack of All Trades. From there, the show really took off.
The drums of Atlantic City shot out and were greeted enthusiastically by the crowd. The 'Meet me tonight...' section built exactly as it does on the Live in New York City version, and was helped by the superior sound compared to its outing on the Magic tour in London. Atlantic City's folky instrumentation, martial beat and economic hard-times lyrics chimed perfectly with the Wrecking Ball material, especially Easy Money and Death to My Hometown.
There were then scattered knowing smiles and beaming faces as Roy and Max struck up the backing for the '78 intro of Prove It All Night. A couple of people nearby were obviously a bit puzzled ('Presumably he'll be playing a song soon...'), but the intro really rocked and the version of Prove It All Night that followed was first class, with Nils doing his 'solo of the night' trick with added spins thrown in
Bruce then did pointed two fingers to his chest to call the 'visible' Two Hearts, which ran almost straight into You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch), including a little near-spoken-aside about premium rate phone lines, and a fun Darlington County. Jake really nailed the sax break in Darlington County and Bruce ran down to the crowd for some great interaction during it.
Shackled & Drawn seemed to start slowly and with a slight limp compared to the Austin take, but after the first chorus it really took off, ending with a great soul duet. Waitin' on a Sunny Day feels much more alive and fun with the horn section than it has on the past couple of tours.
We then had a little breather and Bruce introduced Save My Love as something left off Darkness on the Edge of Town for being too happy, and which he'd had specially requested. It started off quite sparse, but built really effectively and the extended ending, compared with the album version, was great.
The band then left the stage and Bruce walked over to the piano and introduced his solo The Promise as another request (I wonder if the requester specified that version!). Although there was chatter round the stadium during the song, it was a really intense highlight of the show and was greeted with huge applause at the end. Having a double-whammy of two of my favourite, and rarely played, Bruce songs was a real treat and a great highlight of the show.
Steve then came and stood by Bruce with his black 12-string and The River had almost the whole stadium singing every word. The cameras fixed on several tear-filled faces and even Bruce may have been taken back by the heartfelt reaction from the crowd.
The Rising, Out in the Street and Land of Hope and Dreams were well-received and created a strong end to the main set, although Land of Hope and Dreams fell slightly between the Live in New York and Wrecking Ball (and Austin) versions and suffered slightly for neither being one nor the other.
The band simply gathered and bowed before starting the 'encore' section. Bruce strummed and talked as he introduced We Are Alive. The sound was quite not clear enough for him to silence the slightly restless and wet crowd enough to all listen carefully to his introduction, but the song itself went down well with the crowd.
The crowd sang every word of Thunder Road and the horn assisted ending was fabulous. We then had a great fun party for thousands as the band ripped through Born to Run, Bobby Jean, Cadillac Ranch and Dancing in the Dark.
Bruce climbed onto the piano for the introduction of Tenth Avenue Freeze-out, stripping down to his t-shirt and really wrestling to take his rain- and sweat-soaked shirt off. The screened images after 'big man' line in Tenth Avenue Freeze-out were really affecting. Where in Austin, the silence and applause seemed a spontaneous reaction, the pictures seemed a great way to translate that to a stadium setting. Twist and Shout and its smidgen of Louie Louie was a great, fun way to finish as the repeated 'ah...ah...'s built and built.
During Twist and Shout trumpet player tripped as he came down to the front, which looked pretty painful, but he seemed Ok. Bruce was in stitches as he had to hold the trumpet microphone in place, saying 'I have never seen that happen before.' Once it was clear the guy was ok, it was a funny little diversion.
Overall, the Manchester gig was the best stadium show I've seen since The Rising tour (it doesn't seem fair to compare it with the O2 arena show or the Austin theatre gig where the acoustics are so much better). The sound was good, though Roy was pretty quiet, and the crowd really enjoyed it despite the driving rain that came down at times - Bruce said before Waiting on a Sunny Day that he wanted to do it quickly before the rain started again. Overall a really good show with some stunning moments.
