June 7: Stockholm (night #3)

The final show in Stockholm, which lasted 3 hours and 10 minutes, featured the tour premieres of "The River" (in the place of "The Ghost of Tom Joad") and "Fade Away", the exquisite track off The River that hadn't been played with the band since 1981 (and only a few times by Bruce solo on the Devils & Dust tour).

For the first time since the public rehearsals "Surprise Surprise" is performed live, though that doesn't add up to the amount of WOAD songs in the set (still 4) as both "The Wrestler" and "Kingdom of Days" are dropped. "Night", "No Surrender", "Spirit in the Night", "Mony Mony" and "Working on the Highway" make it to the set list tonight.

Springsteen said goodbye to Sweden with 7 encores, that started with "Thunder Road" and "Jungleland" (no "Hard Times" last night) and had a farewell with a delirious "Twist & Shout".

Video: No Surrender

See complete set list.

Photo: Pinkpop Festival 30.5.2009. copyright 2009 René Van Diemen