The hot ticket for Tuesday 30 May 2023 was without a shadow of a doubt for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s gig at BT Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh, Scotland.
At precisely 5 minutes before 7 the band assembled on stage ready for a prompt start followed closely by the Boss himself. No prima donna keeping the crowd waiting this was going to be a performance for the fans (and if there’s one thing Springsteen is known for it is delivering for his fans).
With 21 albums to his name (at time of writing) there’s a lot of material to choose from and rather than playing a greatest hits set Springsteen (and the famously phenomenal E Street Band) treated the crowd to a varied succession of songs spanning his career right back to 1973’s ‘The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle’ all the way to his latest album ‘Only the Strong Survive’.
Highlights included a moving tribute to his former band mates from his first band (which he joined in 1965 aged 15), a banging cover of ‘Nightshift’ by the ‘Commodores’, a few big numbers at the end to please the entire crowd (including the casual attendees who were perhaps surprised to have experienced two and a half hours of tracks they’d never heard of!) and well everything in between.
This was an accomplished performance by a veteran musician (who’s well into his 70s now) and band whose chemistry was there to behold. Three hours never passed so quickly.
Set List:
No Surrender
Ghosts
Prove It All Night
Death To My Hometown
Letter To You
The Promised Land
Out In The Street
Candy’s Room
Darkness On The Edge Of Town
Kitty’s Back
Nightshift (cover of original song by Commodores)
Mary’s Place
The E Street Shuffle
Johnny 99
Last Man Standing
Backstreets
Because The Night (cover of original song by Patti Smith)
She’s The One (no not the Robbie Williams song!)
Wrecking Ball (again not by Miley Cyrus!)
The Rising
Badlands
Thunder Road
(brief intermission)
Born In The USA
Born To Run
Bobby Jean
Glory Days
Dancing In The Dark
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
I’ll See You In My Dreams