Bruce recently said that the audience makes the difference – the only instrument that’s different every night, and when you play the audience like he does, you can see the point. Emirates last year had a good, potentially great, setlist but a slightly subdued audience, so it was “merely” a very good show. Hampden last night had a great setlist and an audience who gave the feedback to let him turn the good to great.
Despite the less than clear signage pointing you at alternative turnstiles for The Pit, which I only noticed after 20 minutes at the allocated spot, I was in place 12 rows back in front of Stevie just after 5.30 and in time for a long, heavy downpour that made the “t-shirt, shorts, new trainers” selection seem unwise. Fortunately the rain abated and the hypothermia risk diminished.
At 8 sharp (as always) Nils wanders out with his accordion and launches into Flower of Scotland. As crowd-pleasing beginnings go, this is a good move, and he is soon joined by the rest of the Mighty E-Street Band and we’re into Badlands.
You simply can’t underestimate how good these guys are – they have to be on their toes for the frequent and random changes; the audibles, the switches, the drawing out of songs. The E-Streeters are the foundation of the show, never missing a beat, taking all that’s thrown at them, rocking thunderously and letting The Boss boss. Next up is an audibled “Out In The Street” and what follows is the usual mix of the old, the new, the obscure and the awesome, perfectly crafted into a 3-hour set.
So many highlights – the obvious high of “Born To Run”, getting to hear “The River” again, “Thunder Road” and the newly jazzed up “Johnny 99” sitting next to “Atlantic City” in a rare Nebraska back-to-back. Singing with the little girl in the pink cowboy hat, clearly terrified, but leading the Waiting On A Sunny Day sing-along brought the house down - you could go to a million concerts and not get a moment like that.
And then, the requests. Who else takes request boards from the crown and picks songs at random to play – nobody. And not safe regular picks from the rotating setlist either. Cover Me doesn’t get much play, but Pink Cadillac gets none – last heard in 2003 according to my setlist archive trawl – “we don’t play this for ANYONE”. This is the closest the band get to looking worried, so Bruce starts himself “so we don’t fuck it up straight away” until they remember it and join in - and it rocks. The show highlight was the first request though – off a sign big enough to hide the drum riser behind, and the one "I never thought I’d get to hear". Incident On 57th Street was simply breathtaking.
Perhaps he’ll never pass this way again – if he does it’ll need to be a shorter wait than these 28 years – but if that’s the last time I see him live, it’ll be one to treasure. Best gig ever? Probably. Stevie seemed to enjoy it too “Outrageous”, he tweeted…
Full SetlistFlower of Scotland
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