Teatro Verdi

Firenze, Italy - May 21, 1997

The Ghost of Tom Joad / Atlantic City / Straight Time / Highway 29 / Darkness On The Edge Of Town / Murder Inc. / Highway Patrolman / It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City / Red Headed Woman / Two Hearts / The River / Born in the USA / Dry Lightning / Long Time Coming / Sinaloa Cowboys / The Line / Balboa Park / Across the Border
Encore #1: Happy Birthday (to Jon Landau) Growin' Up / Working on the Highway / This Hard Land / No Surrender
Encore #2: Galveston Bay / The Promised Land

After the two French shows (Nice and Toulon), which I liked a lot, especially Toulon for the set-list (right Phillip?!?) I was very happy that Bruce had a day off before the Florence show. First because I was so sick during those three days that I couldn’t 100% enjoy the two French shows. So I just wanted to relax a little bit, hoping to feel better the day of the show. And second because it was a good chance to visit my cousin who lives in Florence.

Bruce arrived in Florence the night before the show. The airport remained open especially for him ‘til 2 AM. He stayed at the hotel Villa Medici in Pavarotti’s favorite suite on the upper floor with a big terrace and a wonderful view of probably Italy’s most beautiful city. He spent the day in Florence’ history. Visiting the most important monuments and doing shopping.

Now to the show: The Teatro Verdi is an old Opera-theatre but beautiful, with a not too bad acoustic. When Bruce entered the stage a lot of cameras were flashing. Bruce looked to the audience and said: "ah!!! no photos please!". But the audience kept flashing all the time.

He started as usual with The Ghost of Tom Joad followed by Atlantic City, Straight Time and Hwy 29. Bruce asked again the audience, but this time in Italian not to doing flashes. People were still doing it but less then before. Murder Inc. and a beautiful Hwy Patrolman followed, then introducing the surprise of this European tour For You he said in Italian: "this is for my old fans...". Bruce was in a very good mood and talked a lot in his funny Italian. "Is there any red headed woman out there???" asked in Italian again before doing a new and very funny version of Red Headed Woman, followed by Two Hearts, The River, Born in the USA and a story about men and women in and outside of cars before Dry Lightning. After the new song about children Long Time Coming "border-set": Sinaloa Cowboys, The Line, Balboa Park and Across the Border, my favorite on the album. Already after The Line a few people started to run in front of the stage but after Across the Border the front of the stage was already full and the audience stood up.

For the first encore Bruce asked the audience to sing Happy Birthday to his friend Jon (probably Landau) followed by Growin’ Up, Working on the Highway, This Hard Land and No Surrender, sung along with Bruce by almost the entire audience!

Bruce left the stage; people were asking for Thunder Road, when he came back he smiled and said: "Are you putting some pressure on me?". For the last encore he played the usual Galveston Bay and The Promised Land.

It was a very good show; Bruce seemed very happy to play there, with the exception that the Italian fans always scream too much but Bruce was not disappointed about that.

I was expecting to hear Point Blank, that would have been a nice present for the Italian audience, well, there’s always a next time (I hope so). Thanks anyway Bruce.

A couple of hours after the concert, I took the train for Zurich, I was happy to go back home, but I think I left my heart in Florence. Till next time Bruce!

by Alfonso Augelli