What did Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band play on first night of The Land of Hopes and Dreams tour

The start of The Land of Hopes and Dreams tour in Manchester saw Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band play a hits-laden set.

The Boss and the band were back in the UK on their The Land of Hopes and Dreams tour, which saw the veteran artists play twenty-seven songs, including a Bob Dylan cover that Springsteen has not played since 1988. The setlist at Manchester’s Co-Op Live Arena also featured Rainmaker, played live for the first time in Springsteen’s career, and the reintroduction of Murder Incorporated, which has not been played live since 2017. Those who attended the Sunderland show last year may recognise a few deep cuts which have survived the setlist changes, including a cover of a Patti Smith Group song. Inevitable hits like Born to Run and Dancing in the Dark were reserved for the end of the show.

Springsteen also had plenty to say about the state of the United States, hitting out at President Donald Trump when speaking to the crowd before Land of Hope and Dreams. He said: “The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock ‘n roll in dangerous times.  In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for two-hundred-and-fifty years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration.   

“Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experiment to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring!” A full setlist of what Springsteen and The E Street Band played can be found below.

• Land of Hope and Dreams
• Death to My Hometown
• Lonesome Day
• My Love Will Not Let You Down
• Rainmaker (live debut)
• Darkness on the Edge of Town
• The Promised Land
• Hungry Heart
• My Hometown
• Youngstown
• Murder Incorporated
• Long Walk Home
• House of a Thousand Guitars
• My City of Ruins
• Letter to You
• Because the Night
• Human Touch
• Wrecking Ball
• The Rising
• Badlands
• Thunder Road
• Born in the U.S.A.
• Born to Run
• Bobby Jean
• Dancing in the Dark
• Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
• Chimes of Freedom

When introducing My City of Ruins, Springsteen called out the “dangerous shit” in the United States, with The Boss hitting out at the “sadistic pleasure” taken by those in power. He said: “There’s some very weird, strange, and dangerous shit going on out there right now. In America they are persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. This is happening now.    

“In America the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death. This is happening now. In my country they’re taking sadistic pleasure in the pain they inflict on loyal American workers.  They’re rolling back historic civil rights legislation that has led to a more just and plural society. They are abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom.

“They are defunding American universities that won’t bow down to their ideological demands. They are removing residents off American streets and without due process of law, are deporting them to foreign detention centers and prisons. This is all happening now.    

A majority of our elected representatives have failed to protect the American people from the abuses of an unfit president and a rogue government. They have no concern or idea for what it means to be deeply American. 

“The America l’ve sung to you about for 50 years is real and regardless of its faults is a great country with a great people. So we’ll survive this moment. Now, I have hope, because I believe in the truth of what the great American writer James Baldwin said, he said ‘in this world there isn’t as much humanity as one would like, but there’s enough.’ Let’s pray.”