Tour: The Rising Tour
Date: Saturday June 28, 2003
Venue: Stadio San Siro
City: Milano, Italy

Set List:

1. The Promised Land
2. The Rising
3. Lonesome Day
4. My Love Will Not Let You Down
5. Darkness On The Edge Of Town
6. Empty Sky
7. The River
8. Waitin' On A Sunny Day
9. Who'll Stop The Rain
10. Growin' Up
11. Worlds Apart
12. Badlands
13. Out In The Street
14. Mary's Place
15. Follow That Dream
16. Thunder Road
17. Into The Fire
18. No Surrender
19. Bobby Jean
20. Ramrod
21. Born To Run
22. My City Of Ruins
23. Land Of Hope And Dreams
24. Dancing In The Dark
25. Rosalita

My Review / Notes:



The following is my review which I posted on "The Lake". Please don't use my review without my written permission.

An amazing night in Milan
Milan was my sixth and last show of The Rising tour. So I’m sorry if this is too long. But I just want to try and explain what the show was like. If you don’t want to read it all…

The show was absolutely amazing! Bruce spoke Italian a few times. He said he’ll be back. Some might say the setlist wasn’t the best of the tour, well, you just had to be there…

Getting tix for the Milan show wasn’t easy. Thanks to a friend, whom I owe my eternal gratitude, I finally managed to get tix two days before the show and booked my flight on Friday. Needless to say, the week was a very stressful one.

I got to San Siro stadium at around 1.30pm. It was very hot and I wondered what it was going to be like during the show. I immediately realized that even tho I had GA tix, there was no point in lining up as there were already a lot of people at every single gate and there’d be no way I’d get into the pit. So instead, I tried to find the Greasy Lake banner but did not succeed.

My "ticketangel" got to the stadium a little past 3pm and handed me and my friend our tickets. Even tho I knew he wouldn’t let me down, I didn’t really believe I was gonna get into the stadium until I held that ticket in my hand.

When the soundcheck started and I could hear Bruce’s voice, that’s when I knew it was gonna be an unforgettable night. After The Rising was soundchecked, people outside the stadium started cheering and clapping. The crowd was all pumped up and we weren’t even inside the stadium yet! Hearing Follow That Dream, was great. I thought it could be the last song, but if you’ve seen the setlist, you’ll know I was wrong

Gates opened at around 5.15pm and I was inside at 5.30pm. The pit was already about half full and so were the seats in the upper half. I found a spot in front of the screen on Patti’s side about 30 rows back. However, as the show progressed I got closer to the stage. There was still a lot of time to kill before the show. People up in the seats, started putting banners up. There were also a few flags, including a Belgian one.
Some banners which I still remember
-“Thanks Adele” and the Italian equivalent banner “Grazie Adele”(I loved these 2 banners!)
-“You’ll Never Walk Alone” (was a banner for a fanzine? I think it was Loose-Ends)
-“21-06-85 --- 28-06-03 Now You Know Our Love Is Real”

At one point, during the checking of the instruments and the microphones, Kevin Buell came out with the acoustic guitar Bruce uses during Waitin’. Kevin played the opening chords, the crowd picked it up and started cheering and singing it. The guy testing the microphones couldn’t do anything for a while cause we were too loud.

The show:

Before the show started, some Italian music was played. As the song went on, the audience got louder and louder and as Bruce and the band took the stage, it looked like they were overwhelmed by the reaction they got.

The Promised Land What a way to open the show! I’d actually predicted this as an opener and it was great to hear it. Right from the start, the floor was into the show. Bruce looked great.

The Rising and Lonesome Day will always be great back to back. Milan was my sixth show and unless I win the lottery (and thus will be able to go to some US shows) last night was my last show of The Rising tour. As Bruce counted down for Lonesome Day, I realized that that would be the last time I’d hear those two songs. Luckily the crowd was so into the show, that there was basically no time for me to think about those things and all I could do was enjoy the moment.

My Love Will Not Let You Down I don’t know how he does it, but Max’s drumming is amazing on this song. It was hard to see what was happening behind me and unless I jumped up and down, I wouldn’t have been able to see the stage. Even half of the screen was blocked by hundreds of Bruce fans jumping up and down. The whole floor reacted to Max’s drumming and Bruce’s singing.

Darkness On The Edge Of Town I’ve heard Darkness both acoustic and full band and I love both versions. Before the show, a phone company (at least I think it was a phone company!) gave out folders and small lights. During Darkness, thousands of people, including me, turned these lights on. Bruce singing that “there’s a darkness on the edge of town” while the stadium is lit with all of those lights… I looked behind me for the first time during the show and I found it to be a very emotional moment. Bruce too looked moved by it all. The lights came back during most of the “slower” songs.

Empty Sky Towards the end of the song, it started raining… For the first few minutes, I was actually relieved, cause it was so hot, however…

during The River it started pouring down. By the end of the song, I was soaking. As Bruce sang “though I know the river is dry” I couldn’t help but laugh. Standing there, rain coming down, it really did not seem to fit the occasion lol!

Waitin’ On A Sunny Day is always a lot of fun in concert. Up until now, Bruce had stayed under the “roof” of the stage. Now however, after putting on a white cowboy hat somebody from the audience gave him, he moved towards both sides of the stage and he too got soaking wet. The crowd (and I too) went nuts. Bruce just had to stop the rain. There was now lightning and some thunder. At times I could barely see the screen.

Who’ll Stop The Rain? just had to follow. As Bruce sang “still I wonder, yes I wonder, who’ll stop the rain?” we shouted “you, you, you”. A lot of people seemed to leave the floor to move up into the stands (you were able to do this with the GA tix). I had sworn I wouldn’t leave, no matter how much rain came down and so as more people left, I slowly, but surely got closer to the stage.

Growin’ Up I’d love to see a written setlist, to see how much from last night’s show was actually on it. The song has become one of my favorites and it was great to hear this. Bruce did a story in Italian (My Italian isn’t that good, but it sure sounded fine to me). He told us about the fans back in 1985 which led to us shouting for “Bruce”. He seemed to like that.

Worlds Apart Around now, the rain became less. However, I was soaking. Everything was wet. The guitars on this song are very loud. I love it.

Badlands I might’ve been soaking and the rain and lightning might’ve started again, but when Badlands starts and thousands of people not just sing, but scream along, everything’s forgotten. The whole song is so powerful. The atmosphere and the crowd were amazing.

Out In The Street is always fun to hear.

Mary’s Place I didn’t see any slides or hanging upside down on the mic moves. It was probably too dangerous to do so. I was a little reluctant to sing “let it rain, let it rain, let it rain” as I’m sure you can imagine, but nonetheless we all sang along! The “ass rising” speech as I like to call it, was a lot shorter than the ones I’d heard before, but that’s cause the audience was really participating! Bruce even said “all the asses are already out of the seats!” so that tells you a lot about the crowd!

Follow That Dream was really beautiful. All the lights went back in the air. During the past two months, I followed one of my dreams… I just hope this wasn't the last time I saw Bruce and the band live…

Thunder Road I was surprised to hear this in this spot as I was expecting Into The Fire, however… goosebumps… an entire stadium singing along to one of the finest songs ever written. I will never tire of hearing this. Imo, there is no “bad” version of Thunder Road. Amazing.

Into The Fire I absolutely love it. Too much repetition? That’s what makes the song! It’s a prayer.

No Surrender is great fun. I’d been hoping to hear this acoustic, but I think I’ll just forget about that and enjoy the full band version cause it rocks.

First encore was Bobby Jean and although it isn’t my favorite song by far, there’s something about it and it just has to be there.

Ramrod is fun, fun, fun!!! When Roy is “left” on the stage to do his “thing” a woman (his wife?) gave him an AC Milan soccer hat and scarf. A “few” Italians around me completely lost it. They went even more nuts than before.

Born To Run What can I say about this… The stadium lights on, 70000 (or is it 80000?) people pumping their fists in the air, singing along. This is one of those show experiences I’ll never forget. Another one of those goosebumps moments.

Second encore started with My City of Ruins. What an amazing experience. At the other shows I attended, this always felt so powerful. Last night beat every other performance I saw. Again, thousands of people singing “rise up”. I still get goosebumps when I think about it. Bruce sat there, touched, smiling.

Land of Hope and Dreams Faith has been rewarded. It has. What a great song!

Bruce acted like the show would be over. He put his guitar down on the stage, the band joined him. He kept picking his guitar up and then putting it down again. We were having fun, he and the band were having fun. We knew it couldn’t end yet and he knew it too. Finally, he started playing Dancing In The Dark. This version is so much better than the BITUSA versions. Landau was on the stage.

Before the show, balloons were going round with “Rosie” written on them. Did I expect to hear Rosalita? Not in a million years. It was amazing. The lights went up, everybody was having a great time. It’s like the whole stadium just couldn’t stop dancing.

After Rosie, I was hoping for just one more song, but out of nowhere the technicians came and started taking everything down.

Was this the kind of setlist I was expecting for the final show of the European tour? No it wasn’t. But then again, I don’t know what I expected.

Did I have a great time?
You bet!!! It was one of the most awesome concert experiences I’ve had up till now. If you think the setlist isn’t that good, as I said, you had to be there. The crowd is so intense, no matter what Bruce plays, they are so into it, that every setlist becomes great.

A few more things…

A few times throughout the show, I screamed my lungs out, together with thousands of others, yelling “Bruce” and at one point “E-Street Band”. Very very powerful and the feeling I had at those moments, pure happiness, I’ll never forget.
At one point, Bruce threw his guitar around his neck a few times and even gave it a kiss. He was really enjoying himself.
Bruce said they’ll be back at least twice throughout the show. I don’t care if this is the standard way for him to end the show. Let me have a little hope...

How wet can a person get? Very wet as I found out last night. People’s mobile phones and watches stopped working and two days later, my sneakers were still wet! I wonder if we’d gotten a very different show if it hadn’t been raining…

I won’t be seeing any other shows on this tour, so this was it for me... I should really take some donations so I can go to a US show

Thanks Bruce.