Three years ago, in 2009, Bruce Springsteen had to cancel his show in Kansas City due to the unfortunate death of his cousin, and crew member, Lenny Sullivan. Bruce came back to Kansas last Saturday, and delivered a magnificent and beautiful reward to the town. The show opened with Wilbert Harrison’s «Kansas City» in a fantastic version where the horn section shined. It was inmediately followed by a rock’n’roll blast in the shape of «Prove it All Night», «Candy’s Room» and «Not Fade Away / She’s the One», followed by the always fun «Hungry Heart».
After the exciting and funky «The E Street Shuffle» it was time for crowd requests, and so they got a fun «Fire», followed by «Incident on 57th Street» (Lenny’s favorite song) and an incendiary «Because The Night», with Steve Van Zandt on the guitar solo. «Cover Me» came from a weird sign request, after someone threw onstage a shining blue bra with the words «Cover» on one side and «Me» on the other. It was the first of 3 songs from Born in the U.S.A. (the others were «Downbound Train» and «I’m On Fire»). Then came «Waitin’ On A Sunny Day» with the most absurd moment of the night when the kid brought onstage literally didn’t sign nor say a single word. (More on this matter at Caryn Rose’s blog).
After «Land of Hope and Dreams», the song that usually closes the main set, Bruce went on with a fiery and unexpected «Light of Day». The encores brought «Santa Claus is Coming to Town» again (and we presume this will go on for the rest of this year’s tour) and a fantastic «My Beautiful Reward», dedicaded to Lenny.