The latest from the Bruce Springsteen archives comes to you from Orlando, FL on April 23, 2008. Stream this show, along with the full archival catalog, exclusively on nugs.net.
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I Don’t Know How I Feel Tonight
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Amway Arena, Orlando, Florida, April 23, 2008
By Erik Flannigan
The delta between going and gone is a chasm.
Danny Federici took a leave of absence from the E Street Band in November 2007 to battle melanoma. March 20, 2008, he returned to the stage in Indianapolis to play one last time with his band of brothers, a performance available in the Live Archive series. He died on April 17 of the same year.
With Springsteen on tour, two concerts were rescheduled by a few days to accommodate Federici’s funeral and attendant events. The show in Tampa on the 22nd was released in the Live Archive series in early 2019. Now, Orlando, April 23, 2008 completes a two-show celebration of life for Phantom Dan.
The 25-song set blends perseverance, nostalgia, and catharsis via a very special guest, all while still supporting Magic, the album Springsteen released the previous September. There’s a noticeable sense of purpose in the evening’s attempt to counterbalance undoubted emotional exhaustion. Another coping strategy employed seems to be turning up the guitar amps.
Like the night before in Tampa, the show begins with a five-minute video tribute to Federici played on the arena’s big screens accompanied by “Blood Brothers” from Greatest Hits. But in Orlando, the true set opener is also “Blood Brothers”; this time it is a full-band rock arrangement similar to the one released in 1996 on the Blood Brothers EP.
Rehearsed in soundcheck, the electrified “Blood Brothers” is captivating. With a slight quiver evident in his voice, Springsteen sings the first verse a capella before the band smashes into a take that sounds like a cross between a great River outtake and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “Refugee.”
Moving into more familiar territory, “Night” retains its sharp edge. The Magic tour was something of a renaissance back to 1977 levels for the song, where it regularly featured, as it does here, paired with “Radio Nowhere,” played with vigor and a helping of Stevie Van Zandt vocal sauce. “Out in the Street” carries forth this strong opening salvo ahead of “Spirit in the Night,” dedicated to Dan and the first of three songs from Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ to honor him.
Professor Roy Bittan places a lovely prelude in front of “The River” in a stately, fitting version. Interestingly, for all its up-front piano beauty, the end of the song eschews any keyboard flourishes. Back to Greetings for a ragged-but-right audible of “Does This Bus Stop 82nd Street?” A return to sharper focus with the always welcome “Candy’s Room” which bristles with big guitar energy that sustains into a cracking “Prove It All Night.” Nils Lofgren takes his guitar solo into intriguing Theremin directions, then trades riffs with Van Zandt down the stretch.
“She’s the One,” like Born To Run counterpart “Night,” was having a moment on the Magic tour. It cooks in Orlando, and it’s right about here in the set when you might start to ask yourself, “are those guitars louder than they usually are?”
Clarence Clemons comes to the fore on the always sprightly “Livin’ in the Future,” its sentiment eerily apt in 2025. “The Promised Land” precedes the night’s setlist outlier, “Fire,” included as the result of a radio promotion. “What puzzles me,” Springsteen says, “[is] everytime I mention this, everybody goes, ‘Huh? Huh? I didn’t vote’,” before doing what all great artists do in a situation like this, blame management. “Fire” is buoyed by a long introduction where Springsteen recounts the history of the song including several known covers, his favorite of which is Babyface’s 1998 version featuring Des’ree.
The third and final visit to Asbury Park comes as “Lost in the Flood,” that rare OG song that isn’t played often but is always played well. In Orlando, the band really grabs hold of it, turning the entire performance up a notch and staying there. Springsteen takes a ripping guitar solo and again the gain knob seems to be moving clockwise.
“Devil’s Arcade” follows, arguably the best Magic song translated to the stage, and the guitars go off again; this gripping rendition might be the best of the night. Two more from Magic follow “The Rising”: the melodramatic “Last To Die” and the anthemic “Long Walk Home.” Fun fact: “Last to Die” namechecks “Truth or Consequences,” a town in New Mexico renamed after the radio and late TV game show of the same name.
“Badlands” gratefully accepts the night’s guitar settings to close the set ahead of a unique encore. “We have a special guest with us tonight,” Springsteen says, “somebody whose music we really grew up on and who’s been a tremendous influence in my music. This is the guy that kind of single-handedly invented Country Rock, invented jangling guitars, Folk Rock and Space Rock too…. So much incredible, beautiful, beautiful music. We´re honored to have on our stage, from the Byrds, Mr. Roger McGuinn.”
McGuinn leads a primed and ready-for-the-feels E Street Band through “Turn! Turn! Turn!” which delivers a measure of release given the occasion. This version was previously released on the Magic Tour Highlights EP back in July 2008, but not McGuinn’s second song, the Bob Dylan-written Byrds’ hit “Mr. Tambourine Man” which is played splendidly. What a treat.
Putting an exclamation point on the night is a request for “Jungleland.” Soozie Tyrell echoes Suki Lahav’s pre-Born to Run era violin intro and the band delivers the goods across the board, with a strong showing by Clemons and Van Zandt on their solos, and purging vocals from Springsteen for the song’s epic conclusion.
It’s hard to believe Danny Federici has been gone for 17 years. While he didn’t perform on Orlando 2008, his presence in this welcome Archive addition is undeniable.
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