The Land of Hope and Dreams Tour, Manchester Edition

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band have completed their three-night stand opening the European run of rescheduled shows. (“Land of Hope and Dreams Tour” is a much snappier name.) By now, everyone on planet earth has heard what Bruce has had to say about Donald Trump and his current administration, and so that is not what we’re going to be talking about here. What I had originally planned to write about after Manchester was an analysis of if and how the setlist had changed, and so that is exactly what we’re going to do right now.

We’ll start with the show on May 14th. 

LAND OF HOPE AND DREAMS / DEATH TO MY HOMETOWN / LONESOME DAY / MY LOVE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN / RAINMAKER / DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN / THE PROMISED LAND / HUNGRY HEART / MY HOMETOWN / YOUNGSTOWN / MURDER INCORPORATED / LONG WALK HOME / HOUSE OF A THOUSAND GUITARS / MY CITY OF RUINS / LETTER TO YOU / BECAUSE THE NIGHT / HUMAN TOUCH / WRECKING BALL / THE RISING / BADLANDS / THUNDER ROAD / BORN IN THE U.S.A. / BORN TO RUN / BOBBY JEAN / DANCING IN THE DARK / TENTH AVENUE FREEZE-OUT / CHIMES OF FREEDOM

This set is a runaway freight train. I’m not going to say something cute like “no notes” because I always have notes. But any notes I have are trifling, even things like “Lonesome Day” in the cleanup spot – I understand the role that it’s playing, I just think there are better choices. But, leaving that aside – LOHAD is the global, macro view, DTMH is local, while “Lonesome Day” is the personal level. 

MLWNLYD is the greeting to the overseas audience -- I wrote about this in my Road Diary essay – and then he really gets down to business, with the world premiere of "Rainmaker," a song I was sure we would never, ever hear live.

When Letter to You came out, I called “Rainmaker” the best song on the album: 

I’m not surprised to hear him say that he wrote it years ago, because, I mean, meet the new boss, same as the old boss has always been true, and I’m sorry he has to say it because it doesn’t matter, it is such a great song, both lyrically and musically. You can see the dust on the ground, the red sunset, you can feel the heat. He sets the scene, carries you through it, points out the things you need to know, is part of the scene but isn’t a participant nor is he sitting above the fray. “Some come to make damn sure, my friend/This mean season’s got nothin’ to do with them” and “‘Cause they don’t care or understand/What it really takes for the sky to open up the land” are simply breathtaking.

(And we will never hear it live. I am very certain of this.)

I wasn’t wrong at the time, but I’m glad that I’m wrong now. He's pulling no punches in the set that goes Rainmaker / Darkness / Promised Land, which acknowledges the malevolence and its impact, with TPL as Bruce’s own hope and belief that “we’ll survive this moment,” as he said in Manchester. “Hungry Heart” is when we get to take a breath, which we will need because of the next five songs. “My Hometown” and “Youngstown” are different versions of the same story, “Murder Inc.” is directed at the forces that created those two songs, and “Long Walk Home” is about the hard reckoning, the path forward, and the work that needs to be done.

I am not trying to read Bruce’s mind here, I am just going off of the messages in the songs and things he has said about them over the years and the way they are juxtaposed together. Other people could have different interpretations and they probably wouldn’t be wrong. But this is also why he went out onstage and TESTIFIED, instead of just relying on the songs or the performance to get the message across. Because if there’s anybody who knows that no one listens to the lyrics, it’s the author of “Born In The USA.” 

“House of A Thousand Guitars” is acoustic, he gets to have a break at this point in the set. And then we get to MCOR. 

MCOR is both macro and micro, it’s personal and local as much as it could apply to so many places in America. “Letter to You” remains, but this time he’s applying it to relationships and not just friendships, with BTN and then “Human Touch” – what a fucking genius thematic pairing, the juxtaposition of early love/lust with grownup reality. We are still alive, as Patti Smith would remind us, we still have to get up and do our work and live and love, even if the world is falling apart around us.

I can’t even take issue with “Wrecking Ball” here because it is thematically appropriate – even, if like “Lonesome Day,” I think there are better songs that could serve that purpose. And then we’re in the warhorses, BITUSA comes back, and then? OH MY GOD

The first Chimes since the last Amnesty show in 1988. I appreciate that he has not squandered it previously, that he has kept it in reserve for when it was needed. KEEP YOUR POWDER DRY. (I will write about Chimes in more detail soon.)

5-17-2025 | LAND OF HOPE AND DREAMS / DEATH TO MY HOMETOWN / LONESOME DAY / OUT IN THE STREET / RAINMAKER / ATLANTIC CITY / THE PROMISED LAND / HUNGRY HEART / THE RIVER / YOUNGSTOWN / MURDER INCORPORATED / LONG WALK HOME / HOUSE OF A THOUSAND GUITARS / MY CITY OF RUINS / GHOSTS / BECAUSE THE NIGHT / HUMAN TOUCH / WRECKING BALL / THE RISING / BADLANDS / THUNDER ROAD / BORN IN THE U.S.A. / BORN TO RUN / BOBBY JEAN / DANCING IN THE DARK / TENTH AVENUE FREEZE-OUT / CHIMES OF FREEDOM

For the show on the 17th, the shape of the setlist remained largely the same, except for some key switches: this time, “Rainmaker” is before “Atlantic City,” which is an even bigger FUCK YOU to the current occupant of the White House, given his history with that particular locale. “The River” swaps in for “My Hometown,” which, once again, retains the global/local/personal set up already in place. “Ghosts” swaps out for LTY. (I had a video of "Atlantic City" up this morning but it already got taken down for a copyright claim.)

The precision with which these first two setlists were created is just fantastic. I never judge a set's success solely based on whether it is different from night to night, I judge it by how it works and how it's performed.

5-20-2025 | NO SURRENDER / LAND OF HOPE AND DREAMS / DEATH TO MY HOMETOWN / SEEDS / SOMETHING IN THE NIGHT / RAINMAKER / THE PROMISED LAND / REASON TO BELIEVE / THE RIVER / YOUNGSTOWN / MURDER INCORPORATED / LONG WALK HOME / HOUSE OF A THOUSAND GUITARS / MY CITY OF RUINS / BECAUSE THE NIGHT / GHOSTS / WRECKING BALL / THE RISING / BADLANDS / THUNDER ROAD / BORN IN THE U.S.A. / BORN TO RUN / GLORY DAYS / DANCING IN THE DARK / TENTH AVENUE FREEZE-OUT / CHIMES OF FREEDOM

For the show on Tuesday the 20th, it was time to move things around a little, time to fine tune a little more. “No Surrender” to open is always shots fired, “Seeds” is a given, “Something In The Night” is an expression of pain and anguish and suffering, and “Rainmaker” into TPL is even more powerful than the previous juxtapositions, and then moving into “Reason To Believe” as the bridge into the next set of songs is just incredible. He doesn’t even give the audience the respite of OITS or “Hungry Heart,” it is just a bulldozer moving forward. We do lose “Human Touch,” there is a tradeoff here but this is definitely a slightly different ball of energy. “Glory Days” swaps out for “Bobby Jean,” and we’re still closing with CHIMES OF FREEDOM.

This set is brave, powerful, unequivocal. It is admirable, but it is also fucking fantastic. I can’t wait to hear these shows. It is a political statement but also an artistic one and it holds up and it continues to breathe and evolve. I am so excited to see how the rest of these shows continue to grow and evolve. I would love to see him take some chances, I would love to see something like “Sugarland” get added, especially given it’s being officially released in a little more than a month. I think “Easy Money” might work in place of “Lonesome Day,” especially in Europe. 

On the topic of “Sugarland,” I was also thinking about the other songs that specifically address the economic impact on working people, and how a set with things like “Seeds,” “Youngstown,” “Held Up Without A Gun” (it’s less than two minutes! it could work!), and, again, “Sugarland” would be fantastic additions/alternates. “My Hometown” also belongs there, MCOR probably fits too. (What else am I missing?)

When they announced that this series of rescheduled dates was suddenly now a tour, and it was a tour with a name, I have to admit that there was a fair amount of snark on my part in the group chats. A colleague said “I think a setlist change is coming too” and my response was:

I have never been so glad to be thoroughly wrong about something Springsteen-related since the time I argued with a U2 fan who told me that Bruce was going to show up for the last show at the Garden in 2015. 

I want to acknowledge that these sets and Bruce's remarks were absolutely carefully planned and executed. This was one of the reasons for the announcement that this was The Land of Hope and Dreams Tour, it was no longer about Letter to You and the focus was going to change. They were prepared with the text of the speeches to post to the official channels as soon as the show was over. They absolutely knew it would be all over the press as soon as it happened, and they were ready for whatever the reaction would be. I also want to acknowledge the risk that every musician on that stage is taking.

I was glad to see him getting support from Pearl Jam this past weekend at their shows in Pittsburgh. 

We are in a different world now. The rules have changed. This is what you’re supposed to do with your privilege. Solidarity.

Long-time UK fan Dan French – who you may know 1) from his legendary early UK fanzine Point Blank or 2) from his great videos of the European shows uploaded to YouTube over the years – has written a massive travelogue/remembrance ocalled Grab Your Ticket and Your Suitcase. I have not yet had a chance to read it but given that it's his work I have zero problems recommending it wholeheartedly!