Bruce Springsteen review: The rock icon’s curfew-defying act bends the entire stadium to his will at Wembley Stadium
“Do you sense the spirit?” As “Spirit in the Night” begins its crazy Saturday night down on Gypsy angel row with G-man, Killer Joe, and that seductive Crazy Janey, Bruce Springsteen yowls with preacher-like zeal. It’s a sleazy rock rumble from Springsteen’s 1973 debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ, but somehow, that spirit hasn’t diminished over 50 years later in the hands of a 74-year-old veteran of blue-collar heartland songs.
He may have recorded his thought-provoking album about mortality and aging (2020’s Letter to You) and his hat-tipping covers albums (The Seeger Sessions in 2006; 2022’s soul and R&B set Only the Strong Survive).
He may have written his memoirs, produced a Broadway production, and made hundreds of millions of dollars selling his catalog. Peptic ulcer problems may have even forced him to postpone performances on this two-year world tour, as they posed a permanent threat to his singing voice.
Every sign along the final stretch of the Rock Legend Road. But when Springsteen clocks in for another three hours of blazing, high-octane rock ‘n’ roll at a party-ready Wembley, dressed in a waistcoat and tie but with his sleeves rolled up for the evening’s actual business.
There are no indications of the deterioration plaguing other notable figures from the 1960s and 1970s. With his foot firmly planted on the gas, he roars, gnashes, stomps, and perspires just as much as the renegade rebel rocker from “Born to Run” ever did. He has recently developed into the new leader of what they will soon be referring to as Gramps Power, if Iggy and Mick continue on this path.
“Hun, hoo, hee, haw,” Springsteen grunts, and the E Street Band blast into “Lonesome Day”, a cut from 2002’s The Rising. It’s a song that encapsulates both the fullness and gleam of his post-millennial work, as well as the way he’s continually bolstered and rejuvenated his prime setlist canon to move nimbly on from any one particular albatross era. That “Wrecking Ball” and gospel rocker “The Rising” have become such crowd-pleasers, for instance, allows him to skip “Born in the USA” and “The River” tonight and know there’ll be a short queue for refunds.
Of the opening hour, only thunderclap anthem “No Surrender” and “Hungry Heart” could be considered classic Springsteen hits, but even his relative rarities are made of showstopping stuff. “Seeds”, a track left off the 1984 Born in the USA album, is resurrected as maximal roadhouse rock, Springsteen wrenching a solo from his guitar like cast iron from a furnace. The 2020 single “Ghosts” may be a tribute to lost rock brothers like E Street legends Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici (“By the end of the set we leave no-one alive!” Springsteen bawls) but it’s built on a very tangible, tumbling melody. Even stark Nebraska tracks “Atlantic City” and “Reason to Believe” are beefed up into canyon rock powerhouses, the latter now bearing more than a passing resemblance to Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky”.
