Bruce Springsteen Continues To Switch It Up In Tampa

There was a time when Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band would play basically the same show every night. If you look at setlists from the band’s Born In The U.S.A. Tour, there’s not much variation between performances. However, since the group returned in 1999 from a decade-long hiatus, The Boss started switching it up more frequently. This year, for the High Hopes Tour, the New Jersey-native and his band have changed it up more than ever, with most shows containing at least a few tour debuts over 30 performances into the run. Bruce and the recent Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductees might night be a jam band, but they subscribe to the ethos of making each performance unique thanks to plenty of tour debuts, previously unplayed covers and even a splash of improvisation; having Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello -who’s always up for anything -aboard, doesn’t hurt.

#Springsteen on fire in Tampa last night: @Angie_1949 @springsteen @BruSpringsteen @blogitallnight @_BOSS_TALK_ pic.twitter.com/egv7xFTtKp

— Lawrence Kirsch (@KirschComm) May 2, 2014

Let’s take last night’s Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band show at MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre in Tampa, FL as an example. The show opened with the live premiere of a cover -Earl Robinson’s “Joe Hill” -and a whopping four other tour debuts. Bruce and the band have played over 160 different songs over the course of the tour thus far with a week of shows remaining.

Six songs into the set the E Street Band dusted off “Jesse James,” off Springsteen’s Seeger Sessions LP. While Bruce had performed the song a number of times with The Seeger Sessions Band in 2006, this marked the first time the E Street Band tackled the tune. Later in the evening came “Brothers Under The Bridge,” which had gone unplayed by the group since April 11, 1999 -a span of over 15 years. The 15th song of the evening was the tour debut of “Gloria” by Them and the final tour debut of the evening was “0 Mary Don’t You Weep,” another Seeger Sessions song, during the encore.

Now, The Boss and the E Street Band head to New Orleans to headline Saturday’s action at the Fairgrounds. If there’s anything we’ve learned, it’s that Springsteen’s set won’t look anything like the one he played in Tampa last night.

Check out the setlist from last night’s show: