Live Archive: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Oakland, CA, October 28, 1999

Setlist: ADAM RAISED A CAIN / PROVE IT ALL NIGHT / TWO HEARTS / THE PROMISED LAND / ATLANTIC CITY / MANSION ON THE HILL / INDEPENDENCE DAY / YOUNGSTOWN / MURDER INCORPORATED / BADLANDS / OUT IN THE STREET / TENTH AVENUE FREEZE-OUT / WORKING ON THE HIGHWAY / THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD / SINALOA COWBOYS / BACKSTREETS / LIGHT OF DAY / HUNGRY HEART / RAMROD / BORN TO RUN / THUNDER ROAD / IF I SHOULD FALL BEHIND / LAND OF HOPE AND DREAMS / BLINDED BY THE LIGHT

An official archive release

Three nights in Oakland at the old arena, three different opening numbers. Night one it was “My Love Will Not Let You Down,” night two was “The Ties That Bind,” and the last night was for the diehards: “Adam Raised A Cain,” but not just any “Adam,” an “Adam” that’s guaranteed to bring you back to Winterland in 1978 whether you were pressed up against the stage or only experienced it through the magic of FM radio or later, the tapes that passed from hand to hand to hand around the Bay Area and across the country. Those opening cuts, threaded together, tell a story that you don’t have to be a scholar to decipher. 

You also don’t need any advanced knowledge to understand the guitar as it opens this version of “Adam Raised A Cain” to know that you’re about to have your hair lit on fire. I was there that night and I remember it with great fondness, but I did not remember it being this completely fucking insane. In my defense, I’m never not going to be out of my mind with happiness to have this particular song in the set, especially in pole position. My first Reunion show was August 6 at CAA and that was the opener and I took it as a personal omen. (It was also the first time that Bruce had ever used “Adam” as a set opener. There’s a reason for that!)

Tonight in Oakland, “Adam” begins with the world-building, the noise-gathering, the pronouncement, a mighty noise indeed -- but once it starts, Bruce is already pouncing on the strings. And when he steps to the mic, his voice is warm and full-throated. He is declaring, he is declaiming, get out of the fucking way, do not try to stop him. The Lost Boys are shouting in the chorus in the background, they are urging him on, and then we get to the first guitar break and the whole thing goes up in smoke. 

I sometimes wonder to myself why certain shows make it to the Archive release and in this case I imagine Bruce receiving it, putting it on, and halfway through "Adam" saying, “Yeah, we’re good, let’s go with this,” big smile on his face.

In the bridge where everyone is chanting, arms in the air, Bruce even adds some additional YEAHHhhhhhhhhhh, a little bit of punctuation, an excited utterance - which then pumps him up for the last chorus, which is raw and a little bit of untethered. Listen for Roy in the background with the melody, just underneath the surface. 

If you thought you could catch a breather with “Prove It All Night,” you would be dead wrong. The Bruce/SVZ harmonies are sweet, Steve is matching his intensity. “Come on now, baby,” Bruce declares just under the melody, as the Big Man comes forward for his solo. The audience applauds with a little extra relish, but no one knows what’s coming. Wait for the closing tradeoff between the Bruce and Steve and you will want to pinch yourself, especially if you were not old enough to have been seeing shows in 1978. (I saw one. I still pinched myself at this point.) 

Oh wait, is there also a guitar solo coming up? It is fluid and loose and full of motion and energy, and then when you think Bruce has settled into it he takes it up another notch – but with the greatest amount of self-control he still cues the band earlier than you think he will – a lesser guitarist would have just kept going – and the whole thing comes sharply to a close.