Springsteen in Adelaide - Show 1

For his first night in Adelaide, Springsteen made sure that the burning hot South Australia city had a personal experience, complete with heartache, regret and of course redemption.

Themes perhaps shared with many of those in the crowd who had, like Perth, waited 40 years for the spirit of E Street to be unleashed in their city.

And they're probably even more shared by those devoted fans who have spent night after night holding up signs  for Human Touch, Back In Your Arms or If I Should Fall Behind - and to be told by everyone else in the pit 'he'll never play that' - only to miss Adelaide from their tour dates.

Those three songs, on a night in which Spirit In The Night was introduced with jokes about former lovers, and alongside the bruising Jack Of All Trades, really showed Springsteen's ability to reach into the heart of an individual among a crowd of thousands.

Not before he had everyone on their feet for a good time though.

Summertime Blues was the surpising opener, and followed immediately by a sign request for Detroit Medley, in honour of Danny Federici and Clarence Clemons.

Max Weinberg had an early drum solo as My Love Will Not Let You Down came before tracks from High Hopes and Wrecking Ball established a steady pace.

Here Human Touch was one of the stand out performances of the night. Starting slowly but winning over any doubters with Springsteen's guitar solo to drive it home.

It was another brilliant three-song pillar that held up the middle of the night when it was followed by Spirit, and Back In Your Arms. When, after a little coaxing, Springsteen had most of the crowd admitting they too had fucked up something good in their lives. Before telling them sometimes you just have to get on your knees to fix it.

Springsteen's vocals and accompanied by Roy Bittan's piano and Jake Clemon's sax, meant that this song was one of the highlights of the show. And maybe even won over those who questioned the dedication of those who wave the sign every night because they are determined to hear it played.

Another sign request favourite was also answered last night with the Prove It All Night ('78 Intro). To established fans this needs no introduction, but instead comes with a lot of pressure to hear Springsteen play the immense solo as perfectly as he did 36 years ago. 

Although I wasn't around then, from what I've heard it's fair to say he did and the end result was an incredible rendition, with Nils Lofgren on reliably excellent form for his part.

Also worthy of mention are the Australia 2014 debuts of Darkness On The Edge of Town and Mary's Place - both getting the crowd back in full voice.

There were a few stumbles for Adelaide's first show however.

Springsteen's solo guitar in Ghost Of Tom Joad seemed a little out of pace at times, and no one seems to know what happened during Waitin' On A Sunny Day. During his lengthy walk around the crowd Springsteen disappeared from the screens, the sound was patchy and even the band looked confused for about a minute until he resurfaced and headed back to the stage.

The encore however soon blew away any problems.

Starting with the AC/DC cover Highway To Hell, which has become a YouTube sensation since it opened Perth's night 3, it smashed the crowd and never looked back.

When the acoustic guitar appeared for the solo closing, now a common feature on this tour, it was If I Should Fall Behind that brought the entire arena into a stunned silence.

The most powerful and moving solo song of the tour, Springsteen's vocals were again at their very best.

Setlist:

1. Summertime Blues
2. Detroit Medley (request)
3. Badlands
4. My Love Will Not Let You Down
5. High Hopes
6. Just Like Fire Would
7. We Take Care of Our Own
8. Wrecking Ball
9. Death to My Hometown
10. Jack of All Trades
11. Human Touch
12. Spirit in the Night
13. Back in Your Arms (request)
14. Heaven's Wall
15. Darkness on the Edge of Town
16. Prove It All Night ('78 intro)
17. Mary's Place
18. This Is Your Sword
19. Darlington County
20. Shackled and Drawn
21. Waitin' on a Sunny Day
22. The Ghost of Tom Joad
23. The Rising
24. Highway to Hell
25. Born to Run
26. Ramrod
27. Dancing in the Dark
28. Tenth Avenue Freeze-out
29. Shout
30. If I Should Fall Behind (solo acoustic)
31. Thunder Road (solo acoustic) 

Run time - 3 hours 30 mins. (approx)

Tour so far: 114 songs in 4 shows, 69 different.

#BruceBooks - Rocking The Wall

Just finished the latest Springsteen book in my rapidly growing collection and it’s one that every fan should give a read.

Erik Kirschbaum’s Rocking The Wall has great insights and recollections into the concert in East Germany 16 months before the collapse of the Berlin wall in 1989 and explores the impact Springsteen had on the fall of Communism in the region.

It’s not a long read and doesn’t rerun the life of an icon like the many Bruce biographies flooding the bookshelves at the moment, but it is a well-researched and presented chapter in the influence Springsteen has had in people’s lives.

Well timed with the release of Springsteen & I documentary (not out here for another week) Kirschbaum talks to people who were among the 300,000 fans in East Berlin and looks at the rising desire for change in the country’s youth.

For someone who was seven-years-old when the Wall was torn down it’s an interesting history lesson but what I really got out of it was the incredible lengths people went to get in to see the show, and how eager Springsteen was to perform there.

It also makes me think of last year’s Hyde Park concert where Springsteen was cut off during the band’s final moments.

In 1988 a concert in a country dominated by rules and regulations was supposed to entertain a maximum of 160,000 people. But when nearly double that amount turned up, the ticket booth was smashed and fences were torn down and the usually strict authorities let the overcrowded, totally unsafe show go ahead regardless. 

The book details how the concert went ahead because the country’s rulers thought it might entertain the youth of the nation, and keep order. Instead it did the very thing they were trying to avoid - hundreds of thousands of empowered young people motivated for change. 

In comparison to the Hyde Park concert 24 years later, just after Springsteen was joined on stage by English music legend Sir Paul McCartney, the power was cut on a concert of 50-80,000 people because he was running a few minutes over.

The result was tens of thousands of people spilling across the London streets trying to make it out of a city centre park with no clue what was happening and little directions on how to get out without disrupting nearby residents and businesses. 

The very thing those who pulled the power were trying to avoid.

Two different situations but with similar lessons…

(Never underestimate Springsteen or his fans).