“As you get older,” notes Bruce Springsteen wryly, “death gives you pause to think.” The singer and his 17-strong band are being held briefly at the halfway mark of a nearly three-hour set that segues fluidly from song to song, rarely pausing for breath – just a “one, two, three, four!” from Springsteen, before powering up again.
We’ve reached the part where he recalls joining his first band in the mid-60s and how, 50 years later, he found himself at the deathbed of George Theiss, who had hired the teenage guitarist into the Castiles. You could hear a plastic half-pint cup drop in the 60,000 capacity stadium, bathing in unfamiliar late evening Scottish sunshine. “And death’s final and lasting gift to the living,” Springsteen intones, as though trading elevated oratory with his podcast buddy, former president Barack Obama, “is an expanded vision of this life.” Naturally, Springsteen urges us to “seize the day”. Then he launches into Last Man Standing, from his 2020 LP Letter to You – a song about the loneliness of outliving all of your comrades, and the transformative powers of rock’n’roll. And if Springsteen’s soul revue-calibre rock show remains consistent in drumming home music’s alchemical powers – 2016 was the last time the E Street Band came to the UK – its joy delivery system is so sound, there’s little point in rolling your eyes at how tremendously Boss-like the man is.
