Openers

Here are how many times each song was played as an opener at a concert this year*:

Badlands	43
Wrecking Ball	12
No Surrender	3
Outlaw Pete	3
Jackson Cage	2
Seeds	2
Sherry Darling	2
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out	2
Thundercrack	2
Who'll Stop The Rain	2
Cadillac Ranch	1
Coma Girl (by Joe Strummer)	1
Downbound Train	1
London Calling	1
Loose Ends	1
Night	1
Prove It All Night	1
Seaside Bar Song	1
The Price You Pay	1
The Ties That Bind	1
When You Walk In The Room	1
Working On The Highway	1

As a whole I'd say the openers were pretty good...most of these really rock and are a great way to start off a 3.5 hour concert!  I was lucky to see 4 of these this year (in order, Badlands, Wrecking Ball, 10th Ave**, and THUNDERCRACK!!!!)...

Thundercrack was quite awesome... I imagine the Philly shows opening with Seaside Bar Song and The Price You Pay also must have been amazing.

Some people complain about Wrecking Ball, but I think most of these complaints are silly.  It's got a good beat, a killer trumpet solo that is so good you wonder why its never been in a song before, and (despite what some may think) solid lyrics.  We're talking classic Springsteen stuff here.

The song is full of power, and if the "ONE, TWO, ONE TWO THREE FOUR [TRUMPET SOLO]" doesn't get you dancing then you better get your ears checked.  Lyrically, it's one of Springsteen's better songs in recent years.  The narrator of the song could be read as "Giants Stadium" itself, but of course there's much more going on here.  It's got all the Springsteen thematic trademarks... redemption, endurance, desperation, pain, and celebration.... But it is more relate-able and powerful than other recent songs tackling the subject of aging (such as the less subtle Kingdom of Days).  In the earlier E. Street Band years, the darkness in the songs was accompanied by redemption and the hope and possibility of escape.  Wrecking ball has all the same darkness, but the possibility of permanently escaping has dwindled.  The highway might still be "alive tonight" but the hope of one day leaving the "town full of losers" is gone.  It is that reduced possibility of escape that makes Wrecking Ball all the more darker.  In that context, ("When your best hopes and desires, are scattered through the wind,") there is nothing left to do but stand tall, and call out to "BRING ON YOUR WRECKING BALL!".

*Data was compiled from http://www.brucespringsteen.net/live/2009setlists.html.  This data does not include private concerts or special events (such as the Super Bowl, and November 2009 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame show).

**At the R&R HOF show.