My first Bruce show and a great one.
Bruce was VERY loose (drunk?), which led to some hilarity such as the pull your pants down bit and starting Back in Your Arms in the wrong key.
He opened with the fantastic Beautiful Reward on the organ and then Reason to Believe on the bullet mic, a lousy instrument on boots and nearly intolerable live.
After a bit of listening to what sounded like Bruce screaming nonsense into a microphone, a nice but somewhat boring Devils and Dust into a fabulous Empty Sky on electric guitar.
Next came long time comin'-it was great to hear this live, but the lack of backing instrumentals took something away. The next song, however, Black Cowboys, sounded eons better than on the album.
From that haunting gorgeous performance, next was an equally beautiful Back In Your Arms (as previously stated, started in the wrong key.) Then what may be the ultimate For You (after the pants down speech), and another bullet mic song (Johnny 99, not that you could tell).
A haunting State Trooper and a fun All I'm Thinking About led up to a very strong performance of a mediocre song, Cautious Man, and then Reno, which I hate but was probably not bad.
The next two songs were easily the highlight of the night-Lost in The Flood and Real World. Gorgeous duo. Two of his best songs sung in their element.
He pulled out the electric for two more songs, a decent Rising and the great new Further On, before nearly ruining Jesus Was An Only Son by interspersing his banter through the song.
Then a pleasant Two Hearts and a strong Hitter, before closing the first set with Matamoros Banks, a song which I have no clue why he thinks is so good.

The encores were without exception fabulous. A great ukelele I Wanna Marry You was followed by another highlight, Open All Night in basically original form, and the acoustic Land of Hope and Dreams, which is as close to a showstopper as you can get in an acoustic show.
The no-longer-new Promised Land followed, and then a surprise harmonica only rendition of Dirty Water, which was loads of fun.
Finally, the never-ending Dream Baby Dream closed the show (ok, so excellent encores with one exception!)


The show had some flaws (bullet mic, Dream Baby Dream), but overall was a gorgeous performance by Bruce of some of the all time greatest songs.