julio 2009

Roy Bittan’s 60th birthday was celebrated in Munich with a splendid show, full of set list changes and some special surprises.

To begin, «My Lucky Day» and «Kingdom of Days» return to the set, making the number of WOAD songs in the set up to four. «Atlantic City» stayed in the set, along with «Johnny 99», making it two songs off the Nebraska album.

The biggest surprises arrived thanks to sign-requests. There was «Seven Nights to Rock», «Because the Night», «This Hard Land» and the tour premiere of the wonderful Roy Orbison classic «Oh, Pretty Woman», a first with the E Street Band. Once again the main set had an extra song after «Born to Run», and this time it was «Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out».

The encores included a much welcomed «Detroit Medley», and finished with the now classic duo of «Dancing in the Dark» and «Glory Days».

photo: Bergen 2009, copyright Miguel Angel Fernández

See complete Munich set list.

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Springsteen’s show in Bern, Switzerland, brought the surprise factor back to the show. Like in Scandinavia, Nils opened the concert with a traditional Swiss song on the accordion, followed by «Badlands», «No Surrender» and «She’s the One», a strong trifecta. Later on the show, «Atlantic City» took the spot of «The Ghost of Tom Joad».

The sign-requests brought a varied mix of fan favourites and rarities, including «Hungry Heart», «I Fought the Law» (by The Bobby Fuller Four, tour debut), «Downbound Train» and «Because the Night». The intense set was closed with the classic John Fogerty song «Rockin’ All Over the World».

See complete Bern set list

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

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