Land of Hope And Dreams Tour, 2025 San Siro + Wrap Up
This tour had a very specific purpose and Bruce did not waver from it.
I hadn’t planned on watching any unofficial live streams from Thursday’s final show from San Siro, but I had finished an assignment earlier than expected and had a couple of extra hours. I don’t like watching bootleg streams, I prefer the U2 fan community’s practice of just streaming audio via the mixlr app (it’s also less resource intensive, you won’t use up your entire battery) but I thought maybe I could look for friends who were there on the big screen and so I decided I’d tune in. And then once I was in, and had the audio streaming through the big speakers, and then before I knew it I was writing down the setlist in real time.
The setlist has not changed that much since Manchester. That’s a statement of fact, not a criticism. I feel bad for the fans who thought that Bruce would get to Europe and break out the entirety of Tracks disc 2 (or something similarly improbable), even before he made the political statements that became part of the show. Before that happened, these were rescheduled shows to replace shows on the tour that was ostensibly in support of Only The Strong Survive. I say that recognizing what happened to the tour that was ostensibly in support of the River anniversary box set, or the tours where the band was suddenly playing entire albums in full. I know it can change. It just wasn’t going to change the way anyone was fantasizing it would.
Back to the actual setlist. This tour had a very specific purpose and Bruce did not waver from it. It was interesting to watch fans complain about the speeches – not their content, but the fact that he was making the same statements about the current American presidential administration night after night. At some point you would think that rabid, engaged fans would understand that they are the minority at every show. 99% of the people in the stadium aren’t going to more than one show so for those 39,000 people who have not seen the show before, it is all new to them, and judging by the crowd responses in the videos I’ve watched over the past month, no one was complaining.
I can’t not make this political, because this show was political, the act of going onstage was political. The fact that no one kept reporting that he didn’t stop saying those things that first got him international attention didn’t make it non-political.
The set remained immovable because he was trying to tell a story, he was trying to make a point, he was offering commentary beyond the actual spoken commentary. It’s the place that he’s always done his best work, in the actual songs. After Manchester, “Land of Hope and Dreams” came back to the opening slot for Lille and Marseille, but then he’d drop back into “My Love Will Not Let You Down” the first night in Liverpool.
“Ghosts” opened the second night in Liverpool. “We are so glad to be here, because without this town, there would be no E Street Band.” Absolutely perfect.
On the note of “dumb things people are saying out loud on the internet” was a thread on a message board stating unequivocally that the lack of special guests in Europe was because of Bruce’s political statements and if McCartney didn’t show up in Liverpool, that would be the reason why. Of course, that surprise was spoiled long before showtime (or at least it is if you live on the internet).
Caryn Rose
Other surprises whose origins I have not yet discovered: “Seven Nights to Rock” in the encore in Berlin and “Trapped” in Frankfurt. There’s a lovely crowd vocalization during the intro to “Trapped.”
The second San Sebastian show was one of those rainstorm shows where Bruce tries to thank the audience by adding extras. And it was already the one show that maintained the core of the set while doing some judicious rearranging: opening with “Lonesome Day” into “Prove It” before heading into the LOHAD/Death to My Hometown run. MLWNLYD gets added towards the end of the main set, right after “Growin’ Up.” Then there’s a three-song BITUSA run of “Darlington County,” “Working On The Highway” and “I’m On Fire” before going back through the standard encore – during which they get both “Bobby Jean” and “Glory Days.” It was the longest set of this tour, coming in at 32 songs.
(These were shows that I repeatedly tried to get myself to – did you know you can absolutely fly into Paris and get a combination of trains that will easily get you to Donostia? – and since that didn’t happen I am at least consoling myself that it was at least good instincts on my part.)
I want to talk about the “Rainmaker” sequence, probably the thing I am most sorry to have never witnessed. “Rainmaker”/”Darkness on the Edge of Town,” “Rainmaker”/”Atlantic City,” or “Rainmaker”/”The Promised Land.” It was so incredibly versatile, so prescient, so fucking depressing that these songs he wrote before our current situation apply with vast and never-ending validity. I heard some reliable reports from Europe that the crowd was not as familiar with “Rainmaker” as one might expect/hope so I don’t know how it actually landed or how it felt there in the crowd. But on paper, I am applauding this. Frankfurt wins, because it was “Rainmaker”/”Atlantic City”/”Trapped”/”Promised Land.” That says a lot. That says everything.
Back to the last night at San Siro. Of course he’s going to open with MLWNLYD. Then “Prove It,” “Darkness,” LOHAD before heading into the core of the set. The gut punch of LOHAD into “Death to My Hometown,” the beauty of the anger of “Rainmaker” into the redemption of “The Promised Land.” Dancing in the dining room to the transition from “Youngstown” into “Murder Inc.” and then bursting into tears at “Long Walk Home.” But I almost always cry during LWH so this was probably just muscle memory.
There are so many aspects to this experience. Is this the last time we’ll see the E Street Band onstage together? It’s not hysterical to think that, it’s simply a possibility. There is the unconscious, involuntary choreography, you are raising one hand in the air when Bruce sings about believing in the faith that can save you. I wasn’t there in San Siro but I was at least connected energetically. I was grateful for that, at least.
Then there are the random thoughts: I’m really glad we stopped pulling people out of the audience during Dancing in the Dark.
HEY BABY…and Bruce and Jake are pogoing together.
It’s like homecoming. You know who people are, you understand what is going on, you could have teleported into the venue in the middle of the show and oriented yourself within seconds. I’m so grateful they retained the Clarence/Danny montage for 10th Avenue.
At the end, at the very end, Bruce yells “Key of B” and, well, of course. It can only be that one thing. “Rockin’ All Over The World.” I saw it for the first time in Kansas City in 2008, I saw it in Buffalo in 2009, I saw it in Hyde Park in 2012.
And now the tour is officially over, but not before Bruce hands everyone in the band off the stage, before he hugs Jake, and then he steps to the mic and he sings the chorus back to the crowd, who don’t have to be asked twice. They sing it back to him, so that he can walk offstage to San Siro singing “Rockin’ All Over the World” to him. I am so incredibly glad I got to see that happen in real time.
Finally, some comic relief.
This was the very first post in the setlist thread for the final San Siro show from the Greasy Lake message board, which I favor because it doesn't require you to have to log in just to read it. This will be hilarious to most of you, I hope.
