Bruce Springsteen launched his 2023 tour tonight in Tampa, Fla., marking his first live performance with the E Street Band in close to six years.
“Good evening, Tampa!” he declared as he stepped on stage, greeted by thunderous applause from the fans in attendance. From there, Springsteen jumped straight into opening song “No Surrender,” the side two opener from 1984’s “Born in the U.S.A.“.
He then proceeded to deliver material from throughout his career. Early on the set featured some of Springsteen’s more recent tunes, such as “Ghosts” and “Letter to You” from 2020’s album of the same name. Two other songs from that album made their live debut this night: “Last Man Standing,” which he delivered solo acoustic and “Burnin’ Train.” He also performed his rendition of “Nightshift,” the Commodores classic he covered on 2022’s “Only the Strong Survive”.
After 21 songs, Springsteen took a breather, only to return for an encore featuring many of his most beloved hits. “Born to Run,” “Glory Days” and “Dancing in the Dark” ramped up the energy, with the Boss then closing his night with a solo acoustic rendition of “I’ll See You in My Dreams.”
Springsteen’s last concert with the E Street Band took place on February 2017 in Auckland, New Zealand, though he has participated in some other projects since then — he launched “Springsteen on Broadway” in the fall of 2017, co-hosted a podcast with former President Barack Obama and released three albums, “Western Stars” (2019),”Letter to You” (2020) and “Only the Strong Survive” (2022).
“I’m going to consider myself lucky if I lose just a year of touring life,” Springsteen said to Rolling Stone in 2020, about six months into the pandemic. “Once you hit 70, there’s a finite amount of tours and a finite amount of years that you have. And so you lose one or two, that’s not so great. Particularly because I feel the band is capable of playing at the very, very, very top, or better than, of its game right now. And I feel as vital as I’ve ever felt in my life. … It’s not being able to do something that is a fundamental life force, something I’ve lived for since I was 16 years old.”
Springsteen will continue touring across the U.S. in the coming months, and then bring the show to Europe for a string of dates that begin on April 28th in Barcelona. He’ll then return to the States for a second North American leg that starts in August.
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, 1st Feb 23, Amalie Arena, Tampa
1. “No Surrender”
2. “Ghosts”
3. “Prove It All Night”
4. “Letter to You”
5. “The Promised Land”
6. “Out in the Street”
7. “Candy’s Room”
8. “Kitty’s Back”
9. “Brilliant Disguise”
10. “Nightshift” (Commodores cover)
11. “Don’t Play That Song (You Lied)” (Ben E. King cover)
12. “The E Street Shuffle”
13. “Johnny 99”
14. “Last Man Standing”
15. “House of a Thousand Guitars”
16. “Backstreets”
17. “Because the Night” (Patti Smith Group cover)
18. “She’s the One”
19. “Wrecking Ball”
20. “The Rising”
21. “Badlands”
22. “Burnin’ Train”
23. “Born to Run”
24. “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)”
25. “Glory Days”
26. “Dancing in the Dark”
27. “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”
28. “I’ll See You in My Dreams”
The Fat Angel Sings 