Emirates House Party
Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band. Friday 30th and Saturday 31st of May 2008, Emirates Stadium, London. Arse**l's new home hosted its first set of concerts, much to the annoyance of the local residents. With lots of talk about a worried Islington council enforcing noise and curfew restrictions, I was a bit concerned that Bruce would be reduced to performing a short acoustic set!
I shouldn't have worried. Friday night was an immense rock 'n' roll experience - "Nobody's played here before? We gotta test that structure tonight!". An incredible selection of 28 songs, opening with a storming Tenth Avenue Freeze-out and including an intense 'Darkness' 3 pack of Candy's Room, Prove It All Night and Because The Night with Nils Lofgren spinning like a top on his closing blistering guitar solo. After which, without pause, Bruce swung into a series of uplifting singalong crowd pleasers, and then finally quietening things down with a rare and reflective Point Blank before building up again through tales of redemption to a barnstorming encore.
Setlist: Tenth Avenue Freeze-out/Radio Nowhere/The Ties That Bind/Lonesome Day/The Promised Land/Magic/Atlantic City/Reason to Believe/Candy's Room/Prove it all Night/Because the Night/Working on the Highway/Cadillac Ranch/Livin' in the Future/Mary's Place/Waitin' on a Sunny Day/Point Blank/Devil's Arcade/The Rising/Last to Die/Long Walk Home/Badlands
Encore: Thunder Road/Born to Run/Glory Days/Rosalita/Dancing in the Dark/American Land
Observer Review Guardian Review
Phew! Saturday night. Could Bruce and the band match or top the show from the night before? No, not quite, but it was great nonetheless. The strict 10:30pm curfew meant a few less songs, however there were 12 different choices from what was played on Friday. Old classics like Sandy and Growin' Up resurfaced, and Downbound Train and I'm On Fire made their tour debuts.
Changes to the set on the fly, whilst good, affected the flow of the show a bit and at times it came across a bit disjointed compared to Friday. But hey, a total of 40 different songs over the two nights is pretty incredible. For me, Saturday's highlights were the performances of the Born To Run heavyweights, Backstreets and Jungleland, holding the stadium audience in awe.Setlist: Out in the Street/No Surrender/Darkness on the Edge of Town/Gypsy Biker/Radio Nowhere/4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)/Growin' Up/Downbound Train/I'm on Fire/Because the Night/She's the One/Livin' in the Future/Mary's Place/The Promised Land/Backstreets/The Rising/Last to Die/Long Walk Home/Badlands
Encore: Girls in Their Summer Clothes/Jungleland/Born to Run/Tenth Avenue Freeze-out/American Land
Next stop for the E Street juggernaut, Cardiff Millennium Stadium in two weeks time. Looking forward to it already :-)
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