Three hours of hits like ‘Born to run’ and ‘Badlands’ in front of some 60,000 people
BARCELONA, 29 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Bruce Springsteen
“Hello Barcelona, ??hello Catalonia! One, two, three, four”, he shouted as he went on stage with the first chords of ‘No surrender’, a greeting matched by an outburst of applause from the audience and characterized by an energy that has maintained throughout the concert, which lasted three hours.
Surrounded by the musicians of his powerful band and dressed in black from head to toe, ‘The Boss’ has inaugurated the repertoire with ‘Ghosts’ and ‘Letter to you’ -the latter with Catalan subtitles on the big screen behind him- -, from his album ‘Letter to you’ (2020), and has continued to review hits such as ‘Prove it all night’, from the album ‘Darkness on the edge of town’ (1978).
On stage he has been accompanied by the guitars and voices of Stevie Van Zandt, Nils Lofgren and Patti Scialfa –the latter, Sprinsteen’s wife–; Roy Bittan on piano and synthesizer; Charlie Giordano on keyboards; bassist Garry Tallent; drummer Max Weinberg; saxophonist Jake Clemons and Soozie Tyrell on violin, guitar and vocal accompaniment.
He has continued to conquer the public with other great hits such as ‘The promised land’ and ‘Out in the street’, in a constant display of virtuosity on the part of the musicians, followed by ‘Kitty’s back’ and a version of ‘Nightshift’ by The Commodores, during which he has left his guitar and has danced complicitly with the first rows of attendees.
Before an enthusiastic and dedicated audience, with thousands of people who have lined up in front of the venue since Thursday, Springsteen and the band shared ‘Human touch’, ‘The E Street Shuffle’ and ‘Mary’s place’, and to introduce it he said : “Catalonia, Barcelona! Us esteem, us esteem, us esteem! (We love you, we love you, we love you!).
The show has continued in style when the musicians have joined forces for the version of ‘Pay me my money down’, original by The Weavers, to then excite with ‘Last man standing’, which Springsteen has introduced recalling his beginnings in the music and highlighting “the importance of living in the ‘here’ and the ‘now'”.
“I’ll take you here to the end”, he confessed, touching his chest when singing ‘Backstreets’, and he has continued to captivate the public by covering ‘Because the night’ by Patti Smith, an occasion that Stevie Van Zandt has taken advantage of to reign in the Estadi with a powerful and long guitar solo, followed by ‘She’s the one’, ‘Wrecking ball’ and the epic ‘The rising’.
The crowd of attendees has gone crazy with the first bars of ‘Badlands’ and with the introductory harmonica of the exciting ‘Thunder Road’, sealed by Jake Clemons showing off his mastery of the sax, and ‘The Boss’ has faced the final stretch of the night with the highly anticipated ‘Born in the USA’ and ‘Born to run’.
And after saving himself for the final fireworks ‘Glory days’ and ‘Dancing in the dark’, he has sealed the night by throwing a party with his band for ‘Tenth Avenue freeze-out’ and with an acoustic and intimate version of ‘I’ll see you in my dreams’, and before leaving the stage he has vindicated the E Street Band as “legendary”.
It is the first of the two concerts that he will offer in the Catalan capital, where he will perform again on Sunday the 30th -also with sold-out tickets-, and has been attended by personalities such as the former president of the United States, Barack Obama, his wife, Michelle Obama, and filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who touched down in the city on Thursday and visited various landmarks ahead of the concert.
With this concert, Springsteen, 73, returns to Barcelona seven years after performing at the Camp Nou as part of his ‘The River’ tour, and he does so the same month as the 42nd anniversary of his first concert in the city. , in 1981.
After the double date in Barcelona, ??’The Boss’ will continue his tour of Dublin (Ireland), Paris (France), Ferrara, Rome (Italy), Amsterdam, Landgraaf (Holland), Zurich (Switzerland) and Gothenburg (Sweden), among other cities, before sealing it on July 25 in Monza (Italy).
