Noé initially asked the Daft Punk member Thomas Bangalter, who had composed the music for Irréversible, to create an original soundtrack for Enter the Void. Bangalter was occupied with work on Tron: Legacy and had to decline. As a compromise, he provided Noé with an arrangement of ambient sounds and samples from existing experimental music, from which Noé compiled what he envisioned as "a maelstrom of sounds."[33] Bangalter is billed in the credits as sound effects director, and the film features his track "Désaccords" originally composed for Irréversible. One of the sources of inspiration for the soundtrack was "Revolution 9" by The Beatles, a sound collage which Noé describes as a work "where you catch the beginning of a note, or of a melody and then it's already somewhere else."[33] The two main musical themes of the film are "Freak" by the British electro artist LFO, which is played during the opening credits, and a recording by Delia Derbyshire of Johann Sebastian Bach's "Air on the G String", which serves as the theme for Oscar's childhood and his relationship with Linda. The beginning of "ANS" by the British band Coil is heard during Oscar's first DMT trip. The Throbbing Gristle song "Hamburger Lady" plays as Oscar tries to deliver drugs to Victor at the bar. The soundtrack notably includes excerpts from nearly every part of Jean-Claude Éloy's two compositions, Shânti and Gaku-no-Michi. Other songs on the soundtrack include Toshiya Tsunoda's "Music for Baby", Alvin Lucier's "Music for Gamelan Instruments, Microphones, Amplifiers and Loudspeakers", and works by Denis Smalley, Lullatone, and Zbigniew Karkowski.[33]
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The tour was shorter than a typical Springsteen outing, but for the first time in his career, it placed an emphasis on performing at music festivals, especially in Europe. Even more unlike all his previous tours, the Working on a Dream Tour featured little of his new album. Instead, several trends from the latter stages of the previous year's Magic Tour were carried forward: a focus on topical content, this time the late-2000s recession; a repetition of some of the stage raps and antics; and most visibly, continuation of a 'signs' segment, in which audience members would hold up signs requesting rare Springsteen songs or decades-past oldies and the band would stage (sometimes impromptu) performances of them. The final leg of the tour often featured another first as Springsteen played one of his classic 1970s or 1980s albums all the way through. Critical reaction to the tour's shows was generally positive, although the absence of the new material was noted.
On May 21, 2009, while playing at the Izod Center, Springsteen announced he would be playing three dates at next-door Giants Stadium in late September and early October, saying the band would "say goodbye to old Giants Stadium ... Before they bring the wrecking ball, the wrecking crew is coming back!"[22] The video screens on stage showed a huge banner being hung on the stadium, which was the forerunner of heavy advertising for the shows on local television. They sold out quickly, and two more dates were added, finishing on October 9.[23] These were scheduled to be the last concerts ever at the stadium.[23] The final show sold out quickly but not the one before it.[24] Subsequent U.S. tour dates in the late summer began to be announced as well, focusing on outdoor amphitheaters in the Northeast. In mid-July, a further extension to the U.S. tour was announced, adding shows in indoor arenas through November.[25]
Per past practice, Springsteen performed a couple of public rehearsal shows at Asbury Park Convention Hall before beginning the tour proper.[62] The eight-minute "Outlaw Pete" from Working on a Dream opened and various other selections from the album were played,[34] but the show generally included patterns and staples of the early Magic Tour and other previous outings.[63][64] Jay Weinberg did some of the drumming, and the band was augmented by Curtis King Jr. and Cindy Mizelle (both veterans of the Sessions Band Tour) as additional backing vocalists.[63][65]
An even more visible holdover was the 'signs' segment.[21] This would begin when Springsteen collected request signs from the pit audience as an extended introduction to "Raise Your Hand" was played.[66] Once that song completed, Springsteen selected two or three numbers to play from the requests. The first was often a garage rock classic such as "Wild Thing", "96 Tears", or "Mony Mony" or a punk rock staple such as "I Wanna Be Sedated" or "London Calling".[21] This activity was billed as "Stump the Band",[70][74] and led to impromptu arrangements being worked out onstage.[76] Springsteen would sometimes taunt the audience afterwards with declarations that the E Street Band could not be stumped, such as saying in Atlanta's Philips Arena, "...this is the greatest bar band in the land, and if they don't think we know 96 fuckin' Tears!"[85] The immediate introduction of the signs segment surprised even E Street guitarist Nils Lofgren, who thought Springsteen would hold it off until later in the tour.[21] The precise degree of challenge in this segment was unclear, as lyrics were often loaded into the teleprompter that Springsteen uses[21][74] and in some cases the songs had been soundchecked earlier.[86] In any case, most of the challenges were to the band's shared knowledge of British Invasion, Motown, Stax-Volt, and other 1960s material.[75] Springsteen subsequently said, "we started to take unusual requests and do songs that we'd never played before, just depending on the common memory that the band would have from everyone's individual playing experience as teenagers. We ended up with a system where we can jump on a lot pretty quick."[87] Other honored sign requests were usually for Springsteen songs not normally in the set list.[74][75]
Show lengths were generally between 2 hours 30 minutes to 2 hours 45 minutes.[66][70][74][78] Springsteen scheduled his two Philadelphia shows at the soon-to-be-demolished Spectrum,[68] commenting that "They don't make arenas like this anymore" and stating that the smaller size and lack of luxury boxes made the old venue "ideal for rock shows."[88] The Spectrum had seen Springsteen's first headlining arena show in 1976 during the Born to Run tours, and now he said they would "fulfill our solemn vow to rock the Spectrum one more time."[88] Accordingly, the band played local act The Dovells' 1963 hit "You Can't Sit Down" among other Philadelphia-related selections.[77][88] Springsteen voiced similar sentiments about the old-but-still-going Nassau Coliseum, and selected The Soul Survivors' 1967 hit "Expressway to Your Heart" as a tribute to the nearby Long Island Expressway.[84]
Once the show moved into its European second leg, more Working on a Dream songs began to sporadically appear, with "My Lucky Day" becoming a regular for a while and "Queen of the Supermarket" getting its first airing anywhere. For Scandinavian shows, as band members walked on stage, Lofgren opened with solo accordion performances of local summer-themed specialties, "Idas Sommarvisa" in Sweden[93] and "Du skal ikkje sova bort sumarnatta" in Norway.[94] Jay Weinberg did the first seven shows, as his father was now beginning The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.[92]
Springsteen and the band returned to the United States to make their first-ever appearance at the Bonnaroo Music Festival, as the headlining act on June 13, 2009.[95] Playing before festival audiences who were not guaranteed to be fans of his music was largely new to Springsteen, but after a slow start the show captured over most of the Bonnaroo audience.[96] The following night, Springsteen joined the recently reunited and headlining Phish for three songs, "Mustang Sally", "Bobby Jean" and "Glory Days".[95] Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio said later, "I got to play with Bruce. That's my hero."[95] The Bonnaroo performance of "Outlaw Pete" was included on a Fuse TV show of festival highlights, and the performance of "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" included a bit with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog singing along that was included on a Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien segment.[97] Springsteen subsequently reflected, "We played festivals for the very first time on this tour, and that was one of the greatest experiences of all of them. That was an eye-opener. When we played Glastonbury [...] you come out and there's like 100,000 kids in their 20s and under. It was fun playing on bills with other bands, and it's something I'd do again in the future."[87]
On June 25, Max Weinberg departed The Tonight Show temporarily for four weeks to join the band for the resumption of its Western European leg, via a comedy bit that had his drum riser turn into a float that took him outside and studio and purportedly to the airport.[98] During this stretch, Jay Weinberg did not appear during any of the shows until reappearing during the Spanish shows at the end of the leg. While Springsteen's wife Scialfa was nowhere to be seen in Europe, their son Evan appeared and played guitar during encores of a number of shows,[99] while Clarence Clemons' nephew Jake also made playing appearances and Springsteen's mother and aunt also took the stage.[100][101]
During the final stretch of the tour, the final encores of many shows presented a long, rousing, ebullient rendition of Jackie Wilson's classic "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher".[127][132][133] Showcasing featured vocals from Cindy Mizelle or Curtis King Jr. and trumpet solos from Curt Ramm, the song stretched to eight minutes with key changes, reprises, and walks through the pit area by Springsteen and the singers, and became recognized as one of the highpoints of the entire tour.[134][135] Springsteen dispelled any notion of this being the final E Street Band show or the last for a long time;[87][136] in an interview near the end of the tour he said, "We're playing to an audience now that will outlive us. But at the same time the band is very, very powerful right now. And part of the reason it's powerful is that it's carrying a lot of very strong cumulative history. You come and you see 35 years of a speeding train going down the track, and you're gonna get to be on the front end of it. We look forward to many, many more years of touring and playing and enjoying it."[87] 2ff7e9595c
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