Why Bruce Springsteen Stopped Changing His Set List

Sometimes things can change for the better.

In a new documentary from Hulu and Disney+ Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, the singer and his many bandmates are taking fans behind the scenes of their latest tour. It was a group first in six yearsand this time, Springsteen made major changes. Instead of shaking up the set list every night, the 75-year-old musician had one set list for the entire tour.

And, as the document says, most of the group members are delighted with these changes. “On other tours, we always got the set list about 30 minutes before we went on stage,” notes keyboardist Charlie Giordano.

“On the last tour he was much more spontaneous,” singer Michelle Moore says of Springsteen. Fans would write songs they wanted to hear on signs, and Springsteen would go out into the crowd, grab them, and ask, “Can we stump the band?” Moore adds, “If you knew it, you knew it, and if you didn’t, you just had to figure it out.” Giordano calls the practice both “exciting and nerve-wracking.”

Susie Tyrell, who sings and plays both violin and acoustic guitar, adds that when Springsteen found some songs, she thought, “We haven’t played these in 10 years. I don’t think I’ve ever played this. Is there a diagram somewhere? Quickly, quickly!

“We play 15 different songs a night,” notes guitarist, accordionist and mandolin player Nils Lofgren. “Nobody knows what the hell is going on. There’s an energy to it, but you can’t really dive deep into any one song because you just don’t play it that often. One of the things I love about this tour is that you get to hear your bandmates develop.”

Bassist Harry Tallent says: “It’s not a jam session and it doesn’t put the band on edge. It’s an experience. This is a show. Bruce carefully put together this set list. Start listening more carefully: each song evokes a different emotion every time you hear it.”

Springsteen also explains some of his thoughts through the set list in the documentary. “(The set list) will convey the story you’re trying to tell your audience this time,” he says. “And the 25 songs I decided to focus on will complete the narrative of what I wanted to say and give the audience a sense of who I am at this point in my working life.”

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In the doc, viewers see Springsteen bring the band a set list for the first time. It’s three hours. “After six years of thinking we should scale back a little bit,” notes Jake Clemons, the saxophonist who replaced his uncle. Clarence Clemons since his death in 2011. “I can’t do this. I can’t disappoint the fans,” Springsteen jokes.

The setlist for the tour, which began in 2023, ultimately included four songs from the band’s 2020 album. Letter to you as well as Springsteen classics such as “Thunder Road,” “Born to Run,” and “Dancing in the Dark.”

Many of the songs are about death, as well as about friends, family and members of Springsteen’s band who are no longer there. This includes the show’s final encore, which features Springsteen alone on stage singing an acoustic version of “I’ll See You in My Dreams.”

Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band streaming now on Hulu and Disney+.