POSTED BY STUART LEVINE
Following Bruce Springsteen’s pair of Anaheim shows this week at the Honda Center, many fans were chatting up how these concerts felt much more off the cuff and extemporaneous than the two played at the Los Angeles Sports Arena in late October.
Looking back at Springsteen’s Southern California performances dating back to the mid-’70s, it’s tough to say if the second leg of a tour is traditionally a time for Springsteen to open things up, but it certainly was the case this time around.
The Oct. 30 pre-Halloween show — marked by Springsteen’s arrival on stage via a coffin — saw only four song changes in the set list from the previous night (“The Ties That Bind” in the “No Surrender” slot, “Night” for “Candy’s Room,” “Tunnel of Love” for “Backstreets” and “Kitty’s Back” for “Thundercrack” in the encore).
Shift to Anaheim six months later, and for night two, about a third of the set list offered different material from night one. Songs heard on Monday — “Light of Day,” “Trapped,” “Working on the Highway,” “The Devil’s Arcade, “The Rising,” “Girls in Their Summer Clothes,” “Rosalita,” “Ramrod” — were replaced by “Thunder Road” (as a stunning opener), “Atlantic City,” “Candy’s Room,” “Prove It All Night,” “Brilliant Disguise,” the rarely played “Meeting Across the River,” “Jungleland” and “Dancing in the Dark.”
Unlike at the Sports Arena, he acknowledged the change of new material Tuesday, asking the crowd who was there the night before and letting them know he’d be adding some fresh tunes for the repeat customers.
For both the current “Magic” tour and “The Rising” tour back in 2002-03, Springsteen was very much on message for the first legs, not wanting to differentiate the set too much from night to night — be it in L.A. or anywhere else.
That wasn’t always the case, however, when Springsteen came to L.A. Back in 1984, when he and the band arrived in town for seven nights at the Sports Arena to promote “Born in the USA,” Springsteen, who hadn’t toured for the stark “Nebraska” album, was trumpeting anti-Reagan themes for much of the night. Yet the only message the audience may have taken home was how long could this guy play without dropping dead of exhaustion? A 33-song set with an intermission was common, as were a handful of changes in the set list.
(All except for the four-song package of “Cover Me,” “Dancing in the Dark,” “Hungry Heart” and “Cadillac Ranch,” which were the post-intermission standards to open the second set almost every night.)
That changed on the second leg a year later when he arrived for four nights at the cavernous L.A. Coliseum to close out the tour, which had grown into industrial-strength size at that point. Of course, it can be much more difficult to call last-second audibles in a stadium because of lighting and other logistical circumstances.
The same was true of the second leg of “The Rising” tour, when Springsteen played a single night at Dodger Stadium and other ballparks around the country. The shows in each town didn’t vary all that much compared to years past.
As the tour continues into Europe this summer and then stadiums in America soon thereafter, it’s tough to say how much Springsteen and his E Streeters will toy with the set list.
Which brings us back to Anaheim. The Honda Center shows were prime examples of man who, while acknowledging his “Magic” message, didn’t let his political views get in the way of a good time for all.
A reunion of Manitoba’s Wild Kingdom - Handsome Dick Manitoba, Andy Shernoff, Ross the Boss and JP Thunderbolt - will be among the key acts at the eighth annual Joey Ramone Birthday bash on Monday at the Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza. 
