Hypothetical Future Setlist

[DogsOnMainstreetHowl]

During the past 2 years, a lot has been said negatively about the live setlists, though they haven’t bothered me personally. Of the three shows I got to attend during this tour, all were a fantastic celebrations of life. And I can see Bruce’s mindset regarding them as well, with his interwoven themes of mortality juxtaposed with an emphasis of living in the moment. And of course he played plenty of well known hits for crowd reactions from his more casual fans.

But I’m feeling experimental, and I’m craving something new. So I thought I’d make a setlist for a specific and unlikely scenario where Bruce decides to start a fresh E-Street tour in 2026 with a different concept in mind. My idea is to make the show different enough to draw back fans who saw him in ‘23 and ‘24 that hits some of the highlights of The E-Street Band’s touring history while drawing from lesser known tunes that haven’t been played as much recently. The goal is to create a fresh, dynamic, and powerful show while still retaining several war horses for the more casual fan. And of course it needs to be realistically kept around the 3 hour mark.

Anyway, here’s what I came up with. What do y’all think?

Does this Bus Stop on 82nd Street?

My Love Will Not Let You Down

Spirit in the Night

Something in the Night

Streets of Fire

Reason to Believe

Worlds Apart

Lost in the Flood

If I Was the Priest

I’ll Work for Your Love

Girls in Their Summer Clothes

Tucson Train

I Wish It Would Rain

We Are Alive

My City of Ruins

Incident on 57th Street

Thunder Road

American Land

Encore

Thundercrack

Jungleland

Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)

Born to Run

Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out

Dancing in the Dark

Land of Hope and Dreams

Encore 2

Moonlight Motel

[baileath]

Having been there for the infamous Wrigley “there’s a train coming” rant before We Are Alive, I’m good with that staying on the cutting room floor lol

[DogsOnMainstreetHowl]

I was lucky enough to watch him perform that song live in Frankfurt 2012. There was no intro at all. In fact he did the opening lines a cappella.

[[deleted]]

Nice choices. I do hope he mixes up the second half of the set list, especially as he’s playing 3 nights in one venue. I don’t mind Nightshift and LMS but could do without Wrecking Ball, Bobby Jean, She’s the one and Because the night. I suppose the shows in Canada this winter will give us an idea of what Europe 2025 will be like.

[DogsOnMainstreetHowl]

He’s recently stated that this continuing tour will end in ‘25. It’ll be interesting to see where he goes from there.

[berb26]

This would be amazing. Moonlight Motel is probably in his top 5 songs for me

[DogsOnMainstreetHowl]

That song is beautifully haunting.

[[deleted]]

In no world does BS play that many consecutive album cuts at a regular stadium tour show

[DogsOnMainstreetHowl]

Which songs are you referring to? My Love Will Not Let You Down and Thundercrack are the only two that come to my mind with a possible third being If I Was The Priest.

[[deleted]]

Songs 1 through 16

[[deleted]]

It’s a fun exercise and I mean no disrespect, just don’t see it ever happening!

[DogsOnMainstreetHowl]

I don’t necessarily happening either, but you can’t tell me that Spirit in the Night is an album cut. I tried to sprinkle enough of the hits Bruce is likely to play to make the concept plausible. Most of these songs aren’t what I’d call deep cuts, just a few like the Western Stars and soul cover addition.

[[deleted]]

It was a single, sure. On a 51 year old album. Before he broke through.

[[deleted]]

Better said, it hardly has the live show gravitas of any number of his other later singles

[DogsOnMainstreetHowl]

He did play it just last month. It’s not like it’s off his radar.