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Bruce returned to Sydney yesterday and celebrated it with a special concert, following the thread of the two Melbourne concerts, and performed a complete album: Darkness on the Edge of Town.

The show was marked by the absence of Jake Clemons, back to the US to attend his father’s funeral. Bill Clemons (Jake’s father and Clarence’s brother) passed away this week due to injuries sustained during a fire at his Arizona home some days ago. Bruce dedicated a few words to him at the show: «I want to thank Ed Manion tonight, who is taking Jake’s solos. Jake’s pop passed away, Clarence’s brother Bill, who was in the Marine Corps, played trumpet… another great Clemons musician. We send our prayers and our condolences out to Jake’s family. And thanks Eddie!«. Veteran Ed Manion took care of all the sax parts at this show.

Bruce and the E Street Band opened Sydney’s gig with «Friday on My Mind», the Easybeats classic. As Bruce said in an interview in Australia in 1995 , the song was the inspiration for «Out in the Street» in 1980. So obviously, Bruce sang it next and then «Cadillac Ranch», along with some tour standards («High Hopes», «Just Like Fire Would», «Spirit in the Night») before performing the full Darkness album.

No big surprises during the rest of the main set (perhaps because of Jake’s absence), until the encores, which featured another song by an Australian band: INXS’s «Don’t Change». The show ending brought a beautiful acoustic version of «Surprise Surprise» and the pump-organ solo version of «Dream Baby Dream» (like in the Devils & Dust tour), which was fantastic.

Foto: Patrick Lion (Twitter: @patricklion)

See complete Sydney set list

For the second night in Melbourne Bruce offered another ‘album show’, this time with the full Born to Run being performed. Before that, the show opened with a powerful «Born in the U.S.A.» paired with «Badlands» and then the tour premieres of «Lucky Town» (Bruce is slowly adding more songs off Human Touch & Lucky Town) and «Roulette».

There was also time (it was a very long show that lasted 3 hours and 48 minutes) for three songs off his debut album: «Growin’ Up», «Spirit in the Night» and «Lost in the Flood». And Bruce, apparently tired, dedicated quite a long time to tell a story about his childhood durting «Growin’ Up». The same happened during «Spirit in the Night», which featured some more storytelling, this time about the Jersey Devil and the New Jersey woods.

After a stunning performance of the Born to Run album, «Sunny Day» was back in the set, though «Shackled and Drawn» got dropped for the first time in this tour (leaving only 5 songs that have been performed at every show: «Badlands», «Born to Run», «High Hopes», «Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out» and «Dancing in the Dark»).

The encores featured some not-so-usual stuff to replace the Born To Run songs, with «We Are Alive», «Ramrod» or «Twist & Shout», before saying goodbye with the acoustic version of «This Hard Land».

Set list Melbourne 16.02.2014

Photo: Patrick Lion (Twitter: @patricklion)

Photo gallery from Melbourne #1
Photo Gallery from Melbourne #2

Today’s show at Melbourne’s AAMI stadium kicked off with a big surprise: Eddie Vedder onstage to sing «Highway to Hell» and «Darkness on the Edge of Town» with Springsteen & The E Street Band. After this special performances came «Badlands», «Seeds» and the tour debut of the classic cajun song «Jole Blon».

The second surprised was the performance of the full Born in the U.S.A. album, a first for Australia, after which, surprise surprise, came «Factory» (instead of «Waitin’ On A Sunny Day», which was left off). The encore started with «Heaven’s Wall» and included «Rosalita», «Seven Nights to Rock» and the now usual ending with a solo acoustic «Thunder Road».

See complete set list from Melbourne 15.02.2014

Photos: Frontier Touring (1), Joe Wall (@JPwall) (2)