Bruce Springsteen Conjures Up Magic In Dublin

Having spent his first few days here variously pumping iron in the gym, visiting Shane MacGowan at home in Donnybrook, recording at Windmill Lane Studios and running round Kildare tracing his ancestors - the O’Springsteens mainly to seem to hail from Rathangan - tonight finally sees Bruce and the chaps getting down to live business in the home from home that’s the RDS.

It’s Irish concert no. 29 for The Boss and with no brand new album to plug, he’s been digging deeper than ever into his back catalogue.

Pretty much the regular opener on this run of dates, Born In The USA’s ‘No Surrender is introduced with a beaming “So happy to be here!” from Bruce. He looks even more happy to be here as he does his time-honoured duelling guitar thing with Steve Van Zandt who joins in with the requisite la-la-la-ing towards the end.

Now, that’s what I call a grand entrance!

Still locked in his personal battle with Keith Richards to see who can look most like a swashbuckling 17th century pirate - love the long, dangly mismatched earrings, fella! - Steve looks great having dropped a fair few kgs and plays the trusted lieutenant role with customary elan.

It’s noticeable too on the following ‘Ghosts’ just how confident and integral a member of the E Street Band former Dublin resident Jake Clemons has become.

The money track from Letter To You, it’s also a reminder of just how physical a singer Bruce is as he strains every sinew in his body as if in that gym.

You always expect the E Street Band to be on it, but to a man and woman they’re truly exceptional tonight. An unexpected COVID bonus, perhaps - you can only imagine how frustrating it was for them to be caged up at home rather than being engaged in essential rock ‘n’ roll business.

Bruce’s harp comes out for ‘The Promised Land’, which also marks his first foray into the crowd to inspect the sea of song request placards.

The lady wanting ‘Candy’s Room’ is almost instantly granted her wish with an all-guitars-blazing rendition of the Darkness On The Edge Of Town stomper which strays into heavy metal territory.

That’s followed by ‘Kitty’s Back’, which is the E Street Band at their most bluesy and Bruce at his most Waits-ian.

The night’s first goosepimples on your goosepimples moment is supplied by his take on ‘Nightshift’, Lionel Richie and The Commodores’ eulogy to Marvin and Jackie who, one imagines, would be as blown-away by the six-piece harmonies at the end as the rest of us are.

Like all of his covers, Bruce manages to make it his own without losing the original essence of what made him fall in love with the song.

You can hear a pin drop in Ballsbridge as he recalls saying his goodbyes in 2018 to George Theiss, the only other surviving member of his first band, The Castiles, who died from lung cancer.

“When you’re young, it’s all tomorrows,” he reflects, “and then as you get older there are too many yesterdays and farewells. It made me realise how important it is to be alive in the moment. That’s probably why we keep meeting like this.”

Indeed.

With only his trusty acoustic and Barry Danielian’s haunting trumpet for accompaniment, he then cuts to the bone with 'Last Man Standing'.

Among his finest from a whisper to a scream songs, 'Backstreets' is immense tonight with the "Slow dancing in the dark on the beach at Stockton's Wing/ Where desperate lovers park, we sat with the last of the Duke Street Kings" lines whisking the entire Showgrounds off to New Jersey.

There’s always a moment when an E Street Band gig goes into interstellar overdrive and tonight it’s when they belt out ‘Because The Night’ with evangelical gusto, Nils throwing serious shapes and the leader of the band popping more veins as he lays testament to the enduring powers of love and lust.

That segues into 'She's The One', which with its chugging down the tracks harmonica reminds this writer of Johnny Cash, and further delays any plans to nip off to the Gents for a waz. Indeed, the Clarkian bladder is almost exploding by the end of the night, such is the fear of vacating my seat and missing something magical.

It’s at this point in my review that I wonder if I’m indulging in hyperbole but, no, this really is vintage Brooooooce with a defiant ‘Wrecking Ball’, stampeding ‘The Rising’ and mass singalong version of ‘Badlands’ - I doubt the Leinster crowd has ever been this loud - leading the charge towards the seven-song encore.

Kicking it off is ‘Land Of Hope And Dreams’ which is touchingly dedicated to Charlie Bird who he met beforehand (scroll down) and, as usual, borrows a couple of verses from Curtis Mayfield’s ‘People Get Ready’ and ‘Born In The USA’, that most misunderstood of Bruce songs, which he’s clearly fallen back in love with and bristles with the same righteous anger as it did in the ‘80s.

That “1, 2, 3, 4!”-s into ‘Born To Run’, still the most eloquent distillation of what Springsteen and the E Street crew are about.

Also managing to sound as fresh as the day it was penned is ‘Dancing In The Dark’, which sends an already adoring crowd into even deeper raptures. This really is rock ‘n’ roll as church.

After a reminder (if needed) that we’ve just seen the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, hard-rocking, booty-shaking, love-making, earth-quaking, Viagra-taking, justifying, death-defying E Street Band, The Boss theatrically rips open his shirt - verdict: this 73-year-old is ripped - and pays tribute to fallen comrades Danny Federici and The Big Man, Clarence Clemons, with ‘Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out’.

The RDS lights are dimmed as, flying solo again, Bruce bids us goodnight for the third and final time with ‘I’ll See You In My Dreams’, an ode to life, friendship and the need to cherish both while we all still can.

STUART CLARK

What a magical moment for me and my beautiful wife Claire. Bruce was so kind and a fantastic human. I played my voice app and I really believe we connected. I told Bruce Land of Hope and dreams was on my bucket list, and he said he would play it for me. And God he did. I love him pic.twitter.com/kP9KInCUpX

— Charlie Bird (@charliebird49) May 6, 2023