A fantastic performance brought a lot of unexpected changes and surprises to the second show in Brisbane. Bruce Springsteen changed 12 songs and even left aside standards such as «We Take Care Of Our Own», «Hungry Heart», «Jack of All Trades» or «Thunder Road». The show started with Bruce and Everett in the front of the stage playing the first notes of The Havalinas’ «High Hopes», a world premiere, then joined by the whole E Street Band. The song had previously been recorded at the Greatest Hits sessions in 1995, and is available in the documentary DVD Blood Brothers and on the very rare CD-EP that was sold together with the VHS video of the film.
Next was «The Promised Land» followed by «Wrecking Ball» (thus skipping «We Take Care of Our Own» for the first time on the tour).
«Out in the Street» featured the amazing, and crowd-pleasing, crowdsurfing. One of the highlights of the show was the first version in Australia of «Incident on 57th Street» which sure pleased a lot of veteran fans, followed by «The River» and a double dose off Nebraska with the swing version of «Open All Night» and «Atlantic City».
The main set’s ending featured an epic «Racing in the Street», then «Badlands», then a killer «The Ghost of Tom Joad» (with Tom Morello shining again) and «Land of Hope and Dreams». Bruce held another surprise for the encores, when he sat down at the front of the stage to perform an acoustic version of «Blinded By The Light» before going with the band into the usual encores, which today also included «Bobby Jean».
The tour party travels now to Sydney, where there’ll be three shows next week. The australians, with 8 shows left, are in for a real treat if we judge by these first two shows.
Concert photos courtesy of @patricklion (1) and Michelle Anderson (2)
