Two flags flew atop the Stadium of Light on Wednesday evening. One was the Union Jack, the other bore the Stars and Stripes of the USA. A cute touch by the hosts of this gig by Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band.

By Miles Salter

It wasn’t exactly summer; weather warnings had been in place with heavy rain for hours. Around the time punters were streaming towards the stadium, Rishi Sunak announced the 2024 UK General election, coincidentally on Independence Day in the US, also getting wet.  Roadies did their best to keep the water off the stage, delaying the start of the gig. 

Opening with Waiting On A Sunny Day, Bruce and the E Street Band instantly put smiles on the faces of the 45,000 punters, many of whom had travelled some distance to attend. The crowd featured a large proportion of fans aged 45 – 65, but there were younger ones too. 

Springsteen has a large bank of songs to draw on, with a recording career that stretches back to 1973. I really wanted to hear some tracks from the first two albums (for my money his first three albums are peak Bruce), but unfortunately classics like Spirit In The Night and Rosalita weren’t dusted down tonight. The two albums with Born in the title got the strongest showing of the night, with multiple songs from Born To Run and Born In The USA, which turns 40 this year. Darkness On The Edge Of Town and The River also featured. A magnificent Racing In The Street featured an extended piano solo by the brilliant Roy Bittan. Other long term allies include Steve Van Zandt, bassist Gary Tallent and the rock-solidly consistent drummer Max Weinberg, who gets a starring moment in a cute joke at his expense. 

Springsteen’s oeuvre of the last twenty years has contained numerous nods of the head to mortality. The two deceased E Street Band Members, Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici, are featured in video clips, and Bruce tells the crowd about his old friend George Theiss (they performed together in the 60s) before performing Last Man Standing from Letter To You, a song about losing old comrades. Springsteen told the crowd that the gift of death is ‘an expanded vision of living’, and that’s exactly what the whole concert felt like. After a rousing final section that included Thunder Road, Born To Run and Dancing In The Dark, Bruce thanks the departing band before playing an acoustic I’ll See You In My Dreams, another valedictory song. 

No artist has moved me as consistently as The Boss, and tears were in my eyes several times during this gig. Bruce is now 74, his voice is ragged with overuse and he doesn’t bound about the stage as he did as a younger man. But this three hour gig, with its brilliant band and use of cameras and visuals, is a raucous celebration of the joys and travails of life, ‘an expanded vision of living’. As the words of Badlands insist, ‘it ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive.’ 

Miles Salter is a writer and musician based in York. He fronts the band Miles and The Chain Gang and is co-host of the York Calling podcast. 

Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band played at Stadium of Light, Sunderland on Wednesday 22 May 2024. A 40th Anniversary version of Born in the USA is set for release 14 June 2024 and you can pre-order it here.

Set List

• Waitin’ On A Sunny Day
• Lonesome Day
• Prove It All Night
• No Surrender
• Ghosts
• Letter To You
• The Promised Land
• Hungry Heart
• Light of Day
• Atlantic City
• Darlington County
• Nightshift
• The River
• Racing In The Street
• Last Man Standing
• Backstreets
• Because The Night
• She’s The One
• Wrecking Ball 
• The Rising 
• Badlands
• Thunder Road

Encore 

• Born To Run
• Glory Days
• Dancing In The Dark
• Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
• Twist and Shout
• I’ll See You In My Dreams