October 10 / E. Rutherford, NJ / Continental Airlines Arena
Notes: Springsteen was a man on a mission tonight -- very on, very pumped, and putting on a "this is how it's done" kind of show at the Meadowlands. This one hit all generations of fans, stretching out to 25 songs, with no less than four tour premieres. Not the kind of show Jersey often gets, frankly. But for this last scheduled stop in his home state -- which found Bruce repeating, "let me hear from my homies!" -- he was clearly determined to deliver. Anyone with VH1 got to see that opening three-fer, a delicious "Night" sandwich... but the big surprises came after the cameras were off. The tour debut of "Adam Raised a Cain" was shit hot and rocking, to quote a favorite old bootleg title; "Cynthia," an audible (and only the second time the E Street Band has done this one live), kicked ass, too. The live debut of "Your Own Worst Enemy" came with a few false starts, Danny starting things off at first, then a change of guitars... Bruce said it was a "debate society" up there. Once they got this "never before attempted" Magic song going, though, it was a success. (Well, to us, anyway. Bruce said afterwards, "That's close!") Strangely, there was a bigger response for this one than for tonight's "Incident on 57th Street." But the Jersey crowd has its own sensibilities: based on the cheers for the items on his list of what makes America great, Bruce remarked, "Ah, the Bill of Rights is under Max's hot dogs, that's not good!" The fourth tour premiere, "You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)," featured some fiery guitar solos, and a particularly fine performance from the Big Man: "Hey you! Get out the car!" In the encore, "Thundercrack" was dedicated to "our good friend Lenny Kaye," the dean of garage rock, Patti Smith Group guitarist, and curator of the original Nuggets. Kaye was in the pit tonight, and as he said to a friend as "American Land" wrapped up the show: "...and a great time was had by all."

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