Springsteen Turns To Classic Albums For NJ Gigs

The setlists for the upcoming Bruce Springsteen shows at Giants Stadium won’t be as spontaneous as fans have grown accustomed to as The Boss turns over a portion of each night’s concert to playing one of his best known albums.

The albums are 1975’s Born To Run, 1978’s Darkness On The Edge Of Town and 1984’s Born In The USA. The game plan calls for Springsteen and E Street to play one of the albums in the middle of each night’s set.

A typical night for Springsteen often involves a higher degree of spontaneity than most bands are known for, including taking requests from the audience as well as “Stump The Band” moments where fans challenge Springsteen and Co. to play a song they’ve never attempted before. However, the album mini-concerts represent about 50 minutes each night where audience members will know every song to be played before they walk through the turnstiles

Look for Springsteen and E Street to play Born To Run Sept. 30 and Oct. 8; Darkness On The Edge Of Town Oct. 2 and Born In The USA Oct. 3 and 9.

Fans may gripe about Darkness getting only one night, but Springsteen has been drawing heavily from that album since its 1978 debut. With standards like “Badlands” and Promised Land,” look for audiences to get a good dose of Darkness every night, regardless of which album is scheduled that evening.

Why, after all these years, is Springsteen doing entire albums? Apparently Bruce and E Street really enjoyed playing Born To Run from start to finish recently in Chicago.

“Chicago convinced us that this was really worth doing,” said Springsteen’ manager Jon Landau. “The audience was so supportive of the concept that it convinced us to go ahead with this at Giants Stadium.”