Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band
Written by Kahmel Farahani on July 19, 2023
As part of British Summer Time’s glorious run of summer show, Bruce Springsteen finally made his long awaited return to the UK.
Coming on with the sun still firmly in the sky at 7 pm, Springsteen & The E Street Band launch into My Love Will Not Let You Down before Death To My Hometown. Darkness On The Edge Of The Town is one of the early highlights in tonight’s set. It’s Springsteen at his most raw and authentic and it strikes the perfect tone in a set that could just as easily have been greatest hits and sing along anthems all night.
Indeed, Springsteen has always been one to mix things up with the setlist and tonight he adds The E Street Shuffle to the set which was absent on Thursday’s performance. The E Street Band themselves are still in fine fighting form with Little Steven, Nils Lofgren and Max Weinberg in particular looking like they’re having a ball.
Watching Springsteen interact with the crowd is a show in itself. There is a level of adoration towards him that goes far beyond mere celebrity or even rock star. It’s that star power of a world beating athlete paired with the dignity of that rarest of beasts, a popular politician. Young and old in the front rows are holding up signs declaring it their first gig, their hundredth Springsteen gig or simply requesting a song and a pick.
It could be argued that Springsteen is still the one to measure up against, the gold standard of live performance for all younger artists and bands to aspire to reach. However this is still such a lofty target one imagines the vast majority simply giving up the ghost if they compared themselves. There is simply nobody coming up with the same stage presence, work ethic or indeed, songbook.
The Rising is followed by a rousing performance of Badlands that that seems to grab every person in Hyde Park by the collar and lift them off the ground. The applause barely fades before The glorious E Street Band return to start their first marathon encore with Born To Run.
The mega hits come one after the other, with Glory Days, Dancing In The Dark and Tenth Avenue Freeze Out all going back to back. As Bruce once again makes his way into the crowd and sings it directly to the front rows, it’s genuinely staggering and awe inspiring to see him still playing 3 hour plus concerts with a massive smile on his face. As The E Street Band are given the nod from Bruce, they jump right into Twist And Shout and La Bamba while Hyde Park dances and sings along in pure joy.
After taking their bows, and very aware of the ever present curfew closing in, Bruce Springsteen returns to the stage with acoustic guitar in hand to once again thank the crowd and to serenade us home with a touching I’ll See You In My Dreams. A perfectly beautiful end to a fabulous gig and indeed a whole series of summer time shows.
