Chimpomatic

Bruce Springsteen

O2 Arena

I was not without trepidation approaching this show. Springsteen has been top of my “most wanted gigs” list for longer than I care to remember. A bit like a kid who has been saving his pocket money for months, when it came to the crunch did I have the guts to go through with it? What if it couldn’t match my expectations?

Three tracks in and all fears had been completely dispelled. The opening chords of Radio Nowhere, from this year’s album Magic, made the hairs on 20,000 necks stand sky high. No Surrender and Night quickly followed and then he spoke for the first time. “Hello London. This is a really big building…but that’s okay…cause we’re the big building killers” And he was right. Despite the size of the show, both Springsteen and the E Street Band pulsated with the raw energy you imagine they had back in New Jersey 30 years ago. The political fervour from that era is also still there, denouncing the current US administration in the lead in to Magic “Its not Magic. It’s tricks”

It speaks volumes for an artist who has been recording and producing this long that half the show was made up of tracks written and released this side of the millennium. Magic and 2002’s The Rising produced songs that were as well received as all the classics we had come to hear.

The tempo of the night was perfect as we were taken up and down at all the right moments, never tired of rocking, or weary of some truly moving ballads. Racing in The Street was a particular highlight, with rasping vocals over Roy Bittan’s piano. The main performance closed with a rousing Badlands with the entire audience calling out the background vocal.

So to the encore, with a plethora of some of the best hits still not heard. It was Jungleland that raised the bar again. Piano leading the whole band into a mass of power and expression on stage with Clarence Clemons’s incredible saxophone. And then more, Born to Run, Dancing in the Dark, and American Land. Finally, Christmas hats were thrown on stage from the audience for Santa Claus Is Coming to Town. We felt like he'd already arrived.