The Springsteen 2023 Tour Began Wednesday, February 1st In Tampa: Here Is The Setlist, Some Video, And Some Grumbling

I realize that by any normal standards two hours and forty five minutes is a hefty helping of the Boss, but when you’re used to a steady diet of 34 song sets, going up as far as a mindbending 40 songs over four hours, well, it feels stingy.

Let’s take a look at the setlist:

No Surrender
Ghosts
Prove It All Night
Letter To You
The Promised Land
Out in the Street
Candy’s Room
Kitty’s Back
Brilliant Disguise
Nightshift
Don’t Play That Song (You Lied)
The E Street Shuffle
Johnny 99
Last Man Standing
House of a Thousand Guitars
Backstreets
Because the Night
She’s the One
Wrecking Ball
The Rising
Badlands
(Encore)
Burnin’ Train
Born to Run
Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
Glory Days
Dancing in the Dark
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
I’ll See You in My Dreams

This is the sort of setlist that makes you wish you had held out for his return later in the season (he always does) by which time Bruce should be sick and tired of performing six songs off the turkey A Letter To You and only two songs off his recently dropped soul album. That makes nearly a third of the set. And while any show that enters stage right with “No Surrender” can’t be all bad certainly are hindered when the conceptual bookend “Ghosts” is a terrible song. What remains has its moments and I am sure you know precisely what they are and I bet he kills em on stage. I got a tix for the Barclay gig so I’ll update you then