Bruce Springsteen will not surrender: 5 songs you'll hear when his tour hits Austin

Editor's note: You can now read the American-Statesman's review of Bruce Springsteen's Austin concert.

The biggest show to hit town this week arrives Thursday, when the Boss clocks in for his 7:30 p.m. shift at the Moody Center.

Despite steep prices, tickets to Bruce Springsteen's first Austin concert since a 2012 South by Southwest Music Festival appearance were swiftly scooped up moments after they went on sale in July. At press time, resale tickets starting at $200 were available at ticketmaster.com.

Worth noting: When the tickets for the tour were released, Ticketmaster's demand-driven "dynamic pricing" system surged prices out of the reach of the majority of Springsteen's fan base. The working man's hero brushed off criticism of the late-stage capitalism pricing structure; he told the Asbury Park Press that while he can set a price for tickets, he can't control their value, and he'd rather see the surplus profit go to "the guys who are sweating up on stage for three hours" than ticket brokers.

Disillusioned by the exorbitant prices, the 43-year-old Springsteen fan site Backstreets shut down this month.

If you aren't among the lucky (or wealthy) 15,000 who landed tickets to the show, Springsteen is releasing recordings of each concert online for $14.99 on his website (brucespringsteen.net).

We've explored the setlists for the first five shows of the tour, and here are the stories behind five songs you are likely to hear.

1. 'No Surrender'

There have been a few minor setlist adjustments during the early part of Springsteen’s tour, but Track 7 on Springsteen’s 1984 album “Born in the U.S.A.” has been a consistent opener.

The song has undoubtedly taken on new meaning to the Boss over the nearly four decades he’s played it, but at its heart, it’s a testament to his Day 1 posse. It transports the listener back to his early days as a barroom rocker living for a dream and leaning on his crew.

"'Cause we made a promise we swore we'd always remember/ No retreat, baby, no surrender,” he sings.

Springsteen wrapped up the “Born in the U.S.A.” tour — a 15-month outing that crossed four continents — in Los Angeles in 1985. As he introduced ''No Surrender,'' he told the crowd, “This is for my band. I can't measure what their friendship has meant to me over the years,” United Press International reported.

2. 'Last Man Standing'

Songs from Springsteen’s 2020 album “Letter To You,” make up a good portion of the setlist for this tour. In a recent interview, the Boss told Howard Stern that he wrote the entire album in two weeks or less because "I knew I wanted to write.”

This was the first song he wrote, shortly after the death of George Theiss, the last remaining member of the Castiles, his first band. Springsteen traveled to visit his friend in the final days before Theiss died from cancer. He returned home and wrote this sepia-toned meditation on mortality about a week and a half later.

“Rock of ages lift me somehow/ Somewhere high and hard and loud/ Somewhere deep into the heart of the crowd/ I'm the last man standing now,” he sings. He’s been playing the song as a solo acoustic number on the tour.

3. 'The Rising'

Like the rest of America, Springsteen watched televised coverage of the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2011, transfixed as the horror of the situation sank in. Later that day, he went to a beach club on the Jersey Shore and saw “a thin gray line of smoke, dust and ash spread out due east over the waterline” where the Twin Towers had fallen, he wrote in his 2016 biography, “Born To Run.”

As he was driving off, a man in another car yelled, “Bruce, we need you.”

He heard the calling. Over the next few weeks as he tried to process, he was haunted by the image of the rescuers who climbed the stairs of the towers as other people fled to safety. “The sense of duty, the courage, ascending into … what? The religious ascension, the crossing of the line between this world, the world of blood, work, family, your children, the breath in your lungs, the ground beneath your feet, all that is life, and … the next, flooded my imagination,” he wrote.

“What I wrote was a prayer,” he told Stern.

Accompanied by a gospel choir, Springsteen played the song to kick off the “We Are One” concert celebrating President Barack Obama’s inauguration on the National Mall in January 2009.

4. 'Nightshift'

In late 2022, Springsteen released “Only the Strong Survive,” an album of Motown covers. It’s a joyous celebration of some of the rocker’s favorite music.

A review of the album in Springsteen’s hometown paper, Asbury Park Press, recalled him talking about his love of soul music to an audience at the famed Apollo Theater in 2012:

"As we struggled to learn our craft in the VFW halls and high school gyms, the supermarket openings, drive-in theaters, at the teen clubs, we learned to play to many, many different audiences," he said. "When you played soul music, everybody danced — Black people, white people, everybody got on the dance floor."

Springsteen told Stern he’s always loved this song, the first big hit the Commodores logged after Lionel Ritchie left the band. “It’s a great, great song. It’s just a beautifully written song,” Springsteen said.

5. 'Born to Run'

The song that would become one of Springsteen’s definitive hits was not an easy one to write.“I wanted to craft a record that sounded like the last record on earth, like the last record you might hear … the last one you’d ever need to hear. One glorious noise … then the apocalypse,” he wrote in his autobiography.

He holed up in a rental cottage, searching for inspiration from the masters of 1950s and ‘60s rock & roll, and eventually, the song’s signature guitar riff came to him. Then he found the hook, “Tramps like us, baby we were born to run.” And then for six months, he struggled to find the rest of the story.

He wanted to tell a classic rock tale of love, cars, the open road, but in the context of the post-Vietnam world, with the illusion of American glory and innocence that dominated ‘50s rock laid bare. It took six months for the story to reveal itself.

The song was engineered in a haze of exhaustion after a marathon all-night session at the mixing board with the next artist on the studio’s roster banging on the control room door, but when the mix came together, it was magical. When the studio executives told him they wanted more vocal, Springsteen pushed back.

“The singer was supposed to sound like he was fighting to be heard over a world that didn’t give a damn,” Springsteen wrote in “Born To Run.”

More live music in Austin this week

Thursday: Z-Ro and Slim Thug at Empire Garage. The H-Town heavies are supported by a solid roster of Austin talent that includes Chakeeta B, Nook Turner and DJ Hella Yella. $50. empireatx.com.

Thursday: Night Drive, Urban Heat, Holy Wire at Parish. A night of dark synth and new wave in the newly reopened East Austin space. $15. parishaustin.com.

Friday-Saturday: Poi Dog Pondering at 3Ten. For a shot of old school Austin, you can catch the Hawaiian fusion act at ACL Live's intimate side venue. $55. 3tenaustin.com.

Saturday: Black Joy and Resistance Series at Austin Public Libraries. At 3 p.m., Riders Against the Storm plays a set at the library's central branch and Money Chicha plays at the Windsor Park branch. Shows are free and open to the public. library.austintexas.gov.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Explore Bruce Springsteen tour setlist before Austin Moody Center show