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Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s 2023 Tour Has Begun
Here’s the first setlist
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band kicked off the American leg of their 2023 world tour in Tampa last night, which means we got our first glimpse at what the setlist will look like going forward. He will invariably change it up some, usually by adding a song or two and dropping others, but for the most part the setlist will remain consistent until the tour moves to European stadiums in the spring (so don’t hold me to this one, Alex Markham and Mark Holburn).
The Tampa setlist is a solid one, and proves that Bruce is not simply doing a nostalgia tour here. While there are many of the expected classics and a few deep cuts from the early albums (I hope he is still playing “Kitty’s Back” when they hit Dallas in 9 days), there is a lot from his recent work as well, with six tracks from the Letter to You album and two from the Only the Strong Survive covers album.
The entire setlist is below, and if you know me, you know the one I hope he replaces by the time I see him is “Glory Days.” I look at this song the same way I do Hemingway’s Across the River and into the Trees and the John Wayne film McQ: even the gods screw up sometimes. The ideal replacement would be “Night,” the only song from Born to Run I have not seen live. Hope springs eternal for…
