The Boss Storms Kilkenny

“We’ve been losing so many people…” an emotional Bruce reflected before he signed off with an acoustic ‘This Hard Land’ which dates back to the Born In The USA sessions. “This tour has really been a wonderful time. The older you get, the more it means… the older you get, the more it means.”
Highlights for Boss connoisseurs included request sign renditions of ‘Wild Billy’s Circus Story’, which someone with far more spare time than me reckons he last played four years ago in Madison Square Garden; ‘Man At The Top’, which hadn’t got a run out since 1985 in Washington DC and an especially fab cover of The Searchers’ ‘When You Walk In The Room’, which was a Bruce staple in the ‘70s but, again, hadn’t been played live by the E Street Band since 2009.
‘Dancing In The Dark’ was notable for Springsteen not only having his traditional boogie with an attractive young lady, but also his plucking out of the crowd of a young lad holding a “Can I play guitar with you?” sign.
Following the throwing of some seriously impressive shapes, Bruce presented the twanging tween with one of his acoustics, albeit minus a beloved a capo that he removed first.
Born To Run got played again in its entirety; The Boss’ keening at the end of ‘The River’ sent shivers up many a Nowlan Park spine and a charged ‘American Skin (41 Shots)’ spoke not just for Amadou Diallo and Trayvon Martin, but all the people who’ve been ill-served by the US justice system.
The previous night had found Bruce reminiscing about Slane, and performing the whole of Born In The USA in honour of that legendary June 1985 night when, as he put it, “the whole of Ireland turned out to see us. Ireland has kind of adopted us... it's been a very special place for us."
It had been rumoured all day and, sure enough, Glen Hansard was summoned on stage to help Bruce sing ‘Drive All Night’, a song he’d previously jammed on live with Eddie Vedder and Jake Clemons. As the obligatory YouTube clip demonstrates (good, steady hand camcorder user!) Glen more than kept his side of the bargain. There’d obviously been some pre-planning with the duo trading verses and sneaking in a few lines of ‘Here Comes The Night’ as a nod to Van Morrison.
As Steve Van Zandt had told us earlier in the day before driving down to Kilkenny, E Street Band morale has never been higher with Bruce already laying down demos for his next album and the 130 shows they’ve just played in a year-and-a-half the measure against which every stadium outfit will now be judged.
“We'll be seeing you, take care of yourselves,” were The Boss’ final words to the “money-juggling, queue-forming, rain-dodging, hotel-booking, burger-munching, legendary E Street Fans!” who’ll be suffering severe withdrawal symptoms today.
We hope Graham Keogh's [link]www.hotpress.com/photos/photo_st.php?id=10087306[/link] gallery will go some way to alleviating the pain.

We’ll have a Bruce in Ireland report and the thoughts of Steve Van Zandt on the current state of the E Street Band in our next issue out on Thursday.