I may have been nine-years-old but I vividly remember the day Bruce Springsteen played at Slane Castle. It was a perfect summer’s morning and all my older brothers and sisters were buzzing around the house getting ready to go to the gig, as was most of the town. Strabane was to be pretty sparse of teenagers and twenty-somethings that day and I remember looking on in envy as those old enough to go jumped into Slane-bound cars and buses and did so joyfully with obligatory farmers’ tans and ‘Born In The USA’ bandanas and T-shirts – well it was the eighties!
It’s a testament to the endurance of Springsteen as a performer and as an artist that on Sunday past, twenty-three years after Slane, I dragged myself out of bed, earlier than any Sunday morning this decade, to jump onto a Dublin-bound bus to catch the final of three sold-out shows at the RDS by the man himself and the legendary E-Street Band.
The band arrived on stage at 8.15pm, forty-five minutes later than advertised, and went straight into ‘No Surrender’. The overcast sky and strong breeze were genuine concerns, with the wind causing havoc with the sound, bouncing it all over the place, giving the technicians quite a headache from the off. Things thankfully began to settle down a few songs in and by the time the band kicked into ‘Spirit in the Night’, Springsteen made it very clear that everyone present was here for a party, as he got up close and very personal with the audience closest to the stage. Springsteen was very much in his element and has a passion and joy about performing that has never left him, so much so that he delivered the thirty-five-year-old ‘Spirit in the Night’ with a youthful exuberance that suggested he had just written the song that day.
Indeed, the setlist tonight covered every period of Spingsteen’s career, from 1973’s ‘Greeting’s From Asbury Park, N.J.’ to tracks from last year’s ‘Magic’ album. Full stomping band arrangements of ‘Atlantic City’ and ‘Reason To Believe’ from 1982’s classic acoustic album ‘Nebraska’ were followed by a moving tribute for E-Street Band member Danny Federici, who passed away last month after a lengthy battle with melanoma. The band performed ‘4TH Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)’, which was the last song Federici performed live with the band back in March. This was followed by the very apt ‘Growin’ Up’, a song that typified so much about Federici, Springsteen and co at an earlier time in their lives.
Live favourite ‘Because The Night’ allowed Nils Lofgren to demonstrate what an amazing lead guitarist he is, with a sharp blistering solo that has now become the central focus of it’s performance each night, and rightly so. All eyes were back on ‘The Boss’ for ‘Mary’s Place’, where he single-handedly got every pair of hands in the audience up in the air, even those shy punters you normally see serving no other purpose at live shows but to be an eight foot statue that blocks your view of the stage.
‘Mary’s Place’ is such a stereotypical E-Street sounding track, designed for no other purpose than to kick an outdoor party into overdrive. “We’re gonna have a party,” screamed Springsteen as he slid on his knees across the stage, putting guys half his age to shame. The rain started to descend but failed to dampen the high spirits of the forty thousand capacity crowd – to borrow from Springsteen, it wasn’t rainfall but a ‘rock n’ roll baptism’!
The breeze and rain helped create the perfect setting for a breather in tempo. Ballad ‘Racing in the Street’ had just enough in softness, darkness and light to fit perfectly into the set at the time it did: a ‘not dark yet but it’s getting there’ vibe and a one of the highlights of the night.
The 8.15pm start meant that the stage lighting could be appreciated better at the later stages of the show and it worked to full effect for ‘The Rising’. With a red backdrop engulfing the stage, the sight of rainfall only added to the effect. Recent single ‘Long Walk Home’ with its infectious chorus was just begging for a sing-along and that’s what it got – guitarist Steve Van Zandt getting into the action too with his own take on it.
As the song was ending, Springsteen gave one of his many ‘one, two, three, four’ counts and the band kicked into the classic ‘Badlands’ – a reason to be at the RDS that night alone! Roy Bittan’s choppy piano line instigated the lights being beamed on thousands of hands and fists in the crowd. The momentum increased for possibly Springsteen’s most famous song, ‘Born To Run’ – played every night of the tour and played with the passion of a brand new song each time. The nine-minute epic ‘Rosalita’ followed by ‘Dancing In The Dark’ had even those in the seated areas on their feet and the Celtic flavoured ‘American Land’ saw the atmosphere become that of a Pogues concert.
Looking at our watches we thought that was going to be it. Yet Bruce and the band were going nowhere and rocked us home with ‘Ramrod’ and fever-pitched ‘Glory Days’. The time was 11.05pm. After almost three hours on stage Springsteen bid Dublin ‘goodnight’. It was a glorious night; one that outdoor music should be all about if the right performer is on the stage.
Nobody comes close to owning the big stage the way Bruce Springsteen does. In a recent interview with RTE’s David McCullagh he said, “I want kids to come to the shows today and be able to go home to their mom and dad or older brother who maybe saw us back in 78 or 86, and be able to say to them, “tonight I saw the E-Street Band at their peak!”” Well, to all who were at Slane in 1985 while I had to stay home getting sunburnt in the garden – on Sunday night I saw the heart stopping, pants dropping, earth shattering, hard rocking, hips shaking, earth quaking, nerve breaking, Viagra taking, history making, legendary E-Street Band at their peak!
