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July 11, 2023 3:44 pm
It’s been seven years since Bruce and the E Street Band played in the UK. I saw them in 2016 at Wembley Stadium. A great show it was too, though the best of all was Wembley in 2013, when they played the whole of Darkness on the Edge of Town midway through the set. Since then I did have the immense pleasure of seeing Bruce’s solo storytelling show on Broadway in 2018. But five years have passed since then, so when the new tour was announced we had to go, even if Hyde Park is far from my favourite place for a concert. Great the rest of the time – I walk around there frequently. Dave did the business and got the tickets – pricey, but it’s Bruce so it had to be done.
We were six for the evening: me, Kath, Dave, Jon, Tony and Gordon. We met at the Star Tavern in Belgravia and had a couple of drinks there before moving to a favourite pub, the Grenadier, for a bite to eat. Suitably fortified we made it to Hyde Park at 6.45 for a 7pm start. We weren’t bothered about getting anywhere near the front, so we stood quite far back near a screen, which turned out to be a great decision, as the camera work was excellent, just as the sound was very good. There was slight synching issue between the sound and vision given the distance from the stage, but it wasn’t a big deal. We were seeing everything in close up, which was the next best thing to being close up.
Early on
The weather was perfect – low twenties, no rain. We were all set up. At 7.05 the band came on and launched into five up-tempo songs before Bruce even said anything. Relentless, precise, bursting with energy. These guys still know how to rock’n’roll, and they do it with unbelievable professionalism. No messing around tuning guitars or whatever – they just get on with it. That high energy start set the scene for the rest of the evening, though there were some ballads and moments of reflection. Here’s the setlist – a journey through Bruce’s back catalogue. Not every one of your favourites – how could there be? – but so many of the iconic songs.
No Surrender – Ghosts – Prove it all Night – Letter to You – The Promised Land – Out in the Street – Darlington County – Working on the Highway – Kitty’s Back – Nightshift – Mary’s Place – My Hometown – The River – Last Man Standing – Backstreets – Because the Night – She’s the One – Wrecking Ball – The Rising – Badlands – Thunder Road. Encore: Born in the USA – Born to Run – Bobby Jean – Glory Days – Dancing in the Dark – Tenth Avenue Freeze Out. Second encore: I’ll See You in My Dreams.
Twenty-eight songs. Just under three hours. Bruce still gives you value! That four song sequence straddling the start of the encore – Badlands, Thunder Road, Born in the USA, Born to Run – that’s just absurdly good. Takes your breath away.
It’s hard to pick out other highlights, as it was all so good, but I’ll give you two. I loved the sequence of My Hometown and The River. So heartfelt, so moving. Truly anthemic – I exercised my vocal chords considerably more than usual tonight! And I thought Kitty’s Back was sensational. I’m not sure I’ve heard them play that live before. It’s from the second album, The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle. It starts with a searing guitar, which Bruce played with some heavy distortion, before it settles into a meandering jazzy shuffle, with all sorts of instrumental interludes: vibrant brass, piano runs, more guitar solos. Heavy with the atmosphere of downtown Manhattan. Like nothing else in the set. The crowd around us weren’t that responsive – I guess a lot of them probably didn’t know it – but for me it was pure joy. That was followed by a cover of the Commodores’ Nightshift – more bewilderment for some! It was the one song he played from his recent album of soul covers, Only the Strong Survive.
Survival – that was a theme of the evening, as Bruce reflected on those he has lost. He paid tribute to George Theiss, a member of Bruce’s first teenage band, the Castiles. The only surviving member now is Bruce: he commented that in those youthful days it was all hellos; now there are more hard goodbyes. Hence the need always to seize the day. An acoustic version of Last Man Standing, from his 2020 album, Letter to You, followed. Embellished by a wistful trumpet solo. There were more tributes on the screen during the celebratory Tenth Avenue Freeze Out: to past E Street band stalwarts Danny Federici and of course, the Big Man, saxophonist Clarence Clemons. Clarence’s influence lives on through his nephew Jake, who has played sax in the band since 2012.
After Tenth Avenue Freeze Out, Bruce came back on his own for one more elegiac song, an acoustic take on Letter to You’s closing song, I’ll See You in my Dreams. Is this the last time we will see Bruce and the E Street Band touring? They are all well into their 70s – Bruce is 73 – so if this is the last stand, they are certainly going out with a bang. But again, on this showing it may not be the final episode. Their love for the music, and for each other, is plain to see. I reckon they might just keep on seizing the day.
A few more photos below – in order of proceedings.
Our bespoke screen
Promised Land
With one of the singers who helped with the high notes!
Setlist FM says the trumpeter was Barry Danielian
Our vantage point
Jake leads the brass section!
Steve van Zandt
Guitar maestro Nils Lofgren
Max Weinberg on drums
They go back a long way!
Serious shoes! Bruce’s Docs looked like he’d just bought them
Rock and roll!
Caressing those strings!
Roy Bittan, piano. The last of the orginals, Garry Tallent on bass, barely featured on screen
Darkness falls
I’ll See You in My Dreams
Posted by John S
Categories: Music - concerts, lists, reflections
Tags: Bruce Springsteen, Bruce Springsteen at Hyde Park, concerts, music
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Wonderful show, nicely written up and the great pictures capture the essence- especially the sun setting on the E Street Band…
By dc on July 11, 2023 at 9:44 pm
Thanks! Writing this and compiling the photos reminded me how brilliant it was.
By John S on July 11, 2023 at 10:18 pm
Wow! The man still does those marathon sets, huh?
On a different note, reading this post set off a discussion between me and a mix engineer friend on live sound and delay stacks (prompted by the audio-visual sync issue you mentioned) and other geeky thingummies 🙂 Harked back to my sound tech days.
By Bantering Ram on July 12, 2023 at 4:24 am
Down to a mere three hours. showing his age!
By John S on July 12, 2023 at 2:53 pm
Yes, the (very brief) sound delay was an issue for some, but I personally could ignore it. John was right – we chose wisely in standing close to that screen, so the sound delay was a very small price to pay for such a good vantage point.
It’s a great review, John. If I’m totally honest, I’d forgotten that he sang several of those monster songs – the evening seemed to pass in a delightful blur. My own knowledge of his back catalogue is less encyclopaedic than yours, but I can still see at least twenty stone-cold classics on that playlist.
As an event, I agree with you: it didn’t match the intensity of the 2013 Wembley gig, or I would say the perfection of his 2016 return. That 33-song setlist was just amazing:
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/bruce-springsteen/2016/wembley-stadium-london-england-5bfec7f4.html
Despite the stunning skies and London night-time views, Hyde Park simply can’t provide the same sense of inclusiveness and focus of a stadium gig, or the sense of being totally wrapped in the music?
But if someone’s going to play Hyde Park, I’d say that Bruce would make as good a job as any – and a better one than most. That was a stellar evening.
By Dood on July 12, 2023 at 9:26 am
Thanks Jon. yeah, that 2016 set is something else, but I thought we got a good one. Saturday didn’t look quite as good – no Thunder Road, Born in the USA, The River. That said, our mate Steve went to both and claims Saturday was better.
By John S on July 12, 2023 at 2:56 pm