The last weekend was an absolute triumph for Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band in the UK. Springsteen is again on top of the game and surprised a lot of young people in the audience at the legendary Glastonbury festival, and the same happened the next night at the Hard Rock Calling festival at Hyde Park in London.
The set list didn’t change much and was clearly oriented to a more casual audience. Still, there was a good bunch of rarities both nights. Joe Strummer’s «Coma Girl» opened the Glastonbury performance. Then came «Badlands» and a strong «Prove it all Night», with Springsteen performing with rage and spending lots of energy the whole night.
And there was a hot «Because the Night», and «No Surrender», performed with the Gaslight Anthem’s Brian Fallon (a few hours before, Bruce shared the stage with the Gaslight Anthem to sing «59 Sound»).
The Glasto performance lasted well past curfew, and about 90 minutes were broadcast on BBC TV (in High Def!) and BBC radio. Two more songs were aired the next day on BBC TV.
In the beautiful Hyde Park and under an unusually hot sun, Springsteen rendered tribute again to Joe Strummer when he opened the show with The Clash’s «London Calling» (previously performed in Philadelphia in April), followed by «Badlands» 
and an audibled «Night». There weren’t much surprises at Hyde Park («Bobby Jean» and «Trapped» were the sign-requests) until the highlight of the night arrived: a beautifully performed «Racing in the Street».
«Rosalita» ended the main set, and the encores included another impressive version of «Jungleland», which Clarence Clemons nailed. As in Glasto, Brian Fallon came on stage to sing on «No Surrender», returning the favour to Bruce, who previously in the afternoon also joined the Gaslight Anthem to sing on «59 Sound».
Max Weinberg is back on the tour and playing as good as ever. Patti is still missing.
See complete set list and photo of Glastonbury.
See complete set list for Hyde Park.
See photos at the BBC website.
photos: Hyde Park Londres, copyright 2009 José Antonio Abad
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLbv8cIaWzI]