BRUCE--THE EPILOGUE: Nostalgic for the days of...

BRUCE--THE EPILOGUE: Nostalgic for the days of dancing in the dark and racing in the streets? Missing your hometown, Jungleland, where you could prove it all night on fire alongside the river with Mary, Sherry, Wendy, Candy and Rosalita? In short, are you a Bruce Springsteen oldies buff ?

If so, you aren’t alone, but part of a small but vocal minority coming away a little less euphoric than usual after the singer’s three L.A. Sports Arena appearances, due to a lack of some former tour set pieces. After much tinkering on the road, Springsteen had settled by the time he reached the Southland into a program dominated by his two ’92 albums, “Human Touch� (playing six or seven of its 14 songs nightly) and especially “Lucky Town� (usually performing nine of its 10 tracks).

And when the hits were played, like the Vietnam-themed “Born in the U.S.A.,� they were usually paired with thematically complementary new songs, like the Iraq-themed “Souls of the Departed.�

“I’m more interested in trying to maintain my vitality . . . in trying to bring something new to the segment of my audience that’s interested in it,� Springsteen said, sitting down to talk after a sound check preceding the first show here.

“And also, hey, we throw in plenty of things that have come from the past and at different times feel like they fit for one reason or another in particular shows. The show’s three hours long, so it’s a pretty broad range of music. But I try to keep the focus basically on contextualizing what I’m doing now.�

That was more apparent than ever at the taping of “MTV Unplugged,� taking place two nights prior to the first Sports Arena gig. After some Angst , Springsteen decided he was too much in a rock ‘n’ roll mood to get kinder and gentler. So he brought the band along for what became “MTV Plugged� and played something close to his regular arena set--but with even more of the new material and even less of the old.

“Actually, it was Jon’s idea to play with the band,� Springsteen said, affixing blame or credit for the MTV switcheroo to manager Jon Landau. “We already knew the songs that way, so it was easier, I guess. The acoustic thing--I’ve only done it really when I played here for the Christic Institute (at the Shrine), and I really enjoyed that a lot. At some point I definitely wanna go out and tour by myself, probably in theaters, very similar to what I did that night.�

All was not lost for nostalgia hounds during Bruce’s L.A. run. On a few of the old standards that typically round out the show’s encore section, ex-E Street Band keyboardist Danny Federici emerged to play organ alongside fellow alumnus Roy Bittan on closing night.