Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Wembley Stadium (London, UK. June 15th 2013)

I hate large stadium arenas but I adore Bruce Springsteen. I’m with the purists who argue that shows in such venues are much less satisfying than in smaller, intimate venues but, but, but….Springsteen is one of those artists who make a large venue seem small. For him it’s all about the music and the energy of the performance – no laser beams, no pyrotechnics, no circus – just a blacked out stage with three huge video screens and an E Street Band, most of whom have been playing with him since the ’70’s. Add into that mix a five-piece horn section, soulful backing singers, Soozie Tyrell, on fiddle and you have the making of a show that will surely become the stuff of rock and roll legend.  

A spectacular three-hour plus of music, most of it familiar but some of it rarely performed, is making me wonder how can I possible condense last night into a few hundred words???

Springsteen has been in the business for forty years or so. His back catalogue is vast so how does he choose his set lists? Well, sometimes the audience chooses for him. It’s become common for people to write their song requests on placards which they wave in front of the stage; he ventures out into the crowd, collects a selection and then shows his band what they are going to play next – as a consequence we got Save My Love followed by Rosalita, after which he declared ‘this is too easy’ whereupon he launched into This Hard Land and Lost In The Flood – he’s full of surprises!

Chatting to his adoring fan base he offered to ‘do something special’ and then sang the whole of DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN – ten songs in album track order – now that was very special, Bruce! 

Other highlights – Nils Lofgren’s extended guitar playing on Prove It All Night, giving the microphone over to a young boy who had been crowd-surfed to the stage for Waitin’ On A Sunny Day, two young female fans dancing on the stage with Springsteen, one handed a guitar to play, and the video screens showing footage of the late Clarence Clemons when Springsteen sang the line ‘and the big man joined the band’ from Tenth Avenue Freeze Out which then segued into clips of the late Danny Federici. What a wonderful tribute to those two E Streeters who may no longer be physically in this world but their spirit lives on in Springsteen’s soul and in his music.  

For me, he saved the very best until last – a solo acoustic Thunder Road. That sent me, and many tens of thousands, in to the good night. A good night it was, no, it was a fabulous night and I’ll be back for more next time – I would be thrilled to bits if that next time was a solo acoustic show in a small venue but that isn’t going to happen is it? I’ll be there in the stadium – wouldn’t miss him wherever he plays! Jela Webb 

Setlist:

• Land of Hope and Dreams
• Jackson Cage

• Radio Nowhere

• Save My Love

• Rosalita

• This Hard Land

• Lost in the Flood

• Wrecking Ball

• Death to My Hometown

• Hungry Heart

• Badlands

• Adam Raised a Cain

• Something in the Night

• Candy’s Room

• Racing in the Street

• The Promised Land

• Factory

• Streets of Fire

• Prove It All Night

• Darkness on the Edge of Town

• Shackled and Drawn

• Waitin’ on a Sunny Day

• The Rising

• Light of Day


~~~~~~~~~~~~~


• Pay Me My Money Down

• Born to Run

• Bobby Jean

• Dancing in the Dark

• Tenth Avenue Freeze-out

• Twist and Shout

• Thunder Road (solo acoustic)