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Bruce Springsteen said goodbye to Italy today with a third show in the country, in Trieste, near the border with Eslovenia and Croatia. Highlights included the returns of «Downbound Train», «Because the Night» (with Steve Van Zandt doing the guitar solo), «Youngstown», «Murder Incorporated», «Johnny 99» and the «Apollo Medley», plus a spectacular duo formed by «Thunder Road» and «Rosalita» to close the main set.

The encores have started with a powerful «Born in the U.S.A.» (no «Rocky Ground» this time), followed by the regular greatest hits  (including «Born to Run» –with Elliott Murphy guesting-, «Dancing in the Dark» and «Hungry Heart») and «Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out» to close after three hours and twenty minutes onstage.

See complete set list.

Photo: @Vacirca_BRTOUR

Another marathon performance, another extra long show in Italy last night. In Florence Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band have been onstage for 3 hours and a half. From the initial «Badlands» til the unexpected closing with «Who’ll Stop The Rain?», fans have watched the show under a heavy rain storm.

The show has featured the tour debuts of «Be True», with Ed Manion on the sax solo, and «Burning Love» (both rehearsed during the soundcheck in San Sebastian). Before «Jack of All Trades» Bruce mentioned the recent earthquake in Italy. The show has included also «No Surrender», «Trapped», «Prove it All Night», «Backstreets» and the «Apollo Medley».

See complete set list.

Photo: Marco Innocenti via Twitter.

Yesterdays’ show in Milano, the first of three in Italy, can only be described with one word: epic. It was long, intense, extraordinary. Perhaps, on paper, it wasn’t the most spectacular set list of the tour, nor it had the biggest or oldest rarities, but the energy level from Springsteen and the E Street Band, along with the always enthusiastic italian audience, made it for an explosive combination.

The result was Springsteen’s second longest show ever, with a show that lasted 3 hours and 40 minutes, and a staggering 33 songs performed. The prize for longest show ever still remains for the New Year’s Eve Nassau Coliseum show in 1980, which lasted 3 hours and 45 minutes (of music, the intermission doesn’t count).Up til yesterday, the honor of being the second longest show was for the July 1st, 2000 performance at Madison Square Garden, which clocked in at 3 hours and 36 minutes (The DVD «Live in New York City» comes from that show). Twelve years later, at 62, Springsteen proved he’s in top shape and still can deliver amazing performances, like no one else in show business does nowadays.

The show was full of special moments, with «Spirit in the Night», «The E Street Shuffle», a double performance of «No Surrender» (Bruce and the band had to play it twice due to some mistakes), or the tour debut of the solo piano version of «The Promise». All of it topped with the longest encore of the tour, with 10 songs, including two extras («Glory Days» and «Twist and Shout») after the regular ending with «Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out».

See complete set list.

According to serveral sources, Bruce Springsteen plans to continue his Wrecking Ball tour in 2013. The tour plans are in the works now, pending to be confirmed, and they could include shows in the U.S., Europe, Japan, Australia and South America, though nothing is set in stone yet. And if you think this is just the usual rumour, just a few days ago Steve Van Zandt was interviewed in Lisbon by the Argentinian newspaper La Nación and mentioned the possibility:

-It’s common to say everybody comes to Buenos Aires to play, and seems this is gonna happen when you come back.

-We’re gonna try this year. I assume at the end of this year or, at the most, early next year, we’ll be down there with this tour. It is ridiculous, isn’t it? We don’t know why we hadn’t come all these years. We know we have a lot of Argentinian fans, people who’d love to see the band. Maybe my TV succes can bring us down there (laughs). Please tell all your readers that we want to go and we’re gonna try it.

(extracted from La Nación)