The Boss delivers a masterclass at Wembley Stadium

Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band

Wembley Stadium, London, July 25, 2024

During the first of two nights at Wembley Stadium that mark the end of Bruce Springsteen’s current European tour, it’s abundantly clear that The Boss is primed for the occasion. Take for example, his ecstatic run through The Promised Land fromDarkness On The Edge Of Town. It wraps only once he has set a couple on the path towards holy matrimony, having dutifully fulfilled the requirements of a sign in the crowd reading: “My boyfriend will propose if he can have your harmonica.” Springsteen follows this with a rendition ofThe River’s Hungry Heart in which he doesn’t need to deliver a single word before Wembley takes over. Cutting a dashing figure in his waistcoat, soon enough he is busy eyeballing the front row, trading hugs, and holding aloft an inflatable doll bearing his own likeness. This kind of showboating normally signals the end of most stadium gigs. Only we’re 30 mins in. And there’s still 23 songs to go.

To be fair, Springsteen declared his intentions back in May as he took to the stage at the Ivor Novello awards for a quick acoustic detour down Thunder Road. As MOJO reported, the night before he had successfully defied some torrential freezing rain while playing in Sunderland but not the toll it had exacted upon his immune system; still he fought through the lurgee at the ceremony to reflect on what his first visit to London had meant to him, some 49 years ago.

“As we flew towards the UK in 1975, I was wondering, ‘What do I have that I could conceivably give back to those people who gave me so much?’” he said, noting the profound impact British music had on him. “And the answer is, everything I’ve got.”

Tonight, Springsteen honours his enduring commitment. His three-hour-plus expedition through his back catalogue begins with a rousing Lonesome Day from 2002’sThe Rising, withBorn In The USAoff-cut Seeds as a brilliant chaser. Neither appeared during his triumphant two-night stand in Hyde Park last year, which is telling. While his 2023 tour saw him keep things more or less the same, Springsteen’s latest jaunt has seen him deliver on his promise to shake things up. There remain reliable load-bearing pillars in his set ranging from old classics (No Surrender, Backstreets) to newer staples (Letter To You, Ghosts), but in 2024 you can never be fully sure what to expect.

One of many highlights, itself arriving after stunningNebraskacloser Reason To Believe, is Atlantic City – its haunting acoustic strains retrofitted for stadiums with electric guitar and gospel embellishments. It is a deft move to place it next to Youngstown from 1995’sThe Ghost Of Tom Joad, Springsteen singing the latter while wreathed dramatically in red light and the song ending with an orgiastic solo from Nils Lofgren. Migrating from the boardwalks of New Jersey to Ohio factory floors, here are two stories that could have been the basis for novels, or inspiration for a director, but have instead found perfect expression in song. The cinematic, one-two narrative punch they offer is both an overpowering combination and the mark of a masterful setlist tactician.

The power and poignancy of such moments are, of course, only accentuated by just how readily he can light a fire under proceedings elsewhere. The ticket says Bruce SpringsteenandThe E Street Band for good reason. Forget BST, tonight Wembley has set its watch to Max Weinberg Time long before his exuberant drum spotlight on My Love Will Not Let You Down. For all the setlist variations, one of the great joys of any Springsteen show remains fundamentally unchanged: it’s the glimpse of him leaning with his back to the crowd and gawking at his own band, every bit as transfixed as the fans behind him. During Hungry Heart he refuses to let the song end. “Go back into that!” he urges Jake Clemons. You don’t argue with The Boss. “My first real rock and roll band lasted for three years… Pretty good,” Springsteen quips. “But The E Street Band? These old fuckers have lasted for 50 years – and I’m only 45! It’s a magic trick!”

Disappointments exist only insofar as the set lasts for a mere three-plus hours, instead of, say, five, or ten. Some songs have to necessarily fall by the wayside because of this.The Rising’s Mary’s Place – a highlight at Hyde Park last year – has been lost in the reshuffle, at least for tonight. Radio Nowhere meanwhile – a song that recently came out of exile for the first time since 2017, and which is crying out for permanent integration into whatever setlist he curates – is also missing. Still, Springsteen gives a nod to that track’s parent album, 2007’s Magic, with a beautiful, meditative Long Walk Home, which is introduced as “a prayer for my country”. No matter what songs you might have personally wanted to hear, it’s hard to argue with what is presented. This holds doubly true with the arrival of Racing In The Street, the song MOJO christened as his greatest moment, arriving back-to-back with a spectacular rendition of Last Man Standing from 2020’sLetter To You. Anthems beget anthems from there, with Wrecking Ball, Badlands, The Rising and Thunder Road all receiving rapturous applause.

Another procession of heavy hitters constitute the encore, but there are some changes afoot. Out from the closing run witnessed in Sunderland in May is Glory Days, and in are Land Of Hopes And Dreams and Bobby Jean. When Born To Run begins, meanwhile, Wembley’s floodlights come on so everyone can bear witness to the euphoria it induces. After Dancing In The Dark has well and truly shaken its leg, at precisely 22:09pm, something significant happens. As Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out begins, Springsteen’s dapper waistcoat finally comes off. The shirt exposed beneath is presumably radioactive with sweat, and now far beyond the salvation of any legally manufactured detergent. The maroon tie he fixed-up with a little wink to the crowd hours before during Spirit In The Night has now been shaken loose.

“I think it’s time to go home,” says Springsteen, leaning on his mic stand as he gestures to Little Steven to initiate their comedic schtick. “Stevie, you want to go home?”

“Naaaaah,” the guitarist deadpans, forever a man sporting the cheekiest of cheeky grins on his face. “I don’t waaaanna go home!”

A quick survey of Wembley takes place. It soon transpires that no-one is ready to be catapulted back into reality. A riotous cover of Twist And Shout follows. Thirty songs in, and he’s still not done.

“The UK has been so good to us on this tour, The E Street Band loves you,” he says, harmonica at the ready, the house lights fading. “Thank you for such a wonderful time tonight, it’s the end of the tour and it really means a lot.”

Springsteen ends with I’ll See You In My Dreams, its elegiac potency undiluted despite the frequency with which it now serves as his preferred farewell kiss. As he strums away, a solitary figure standing in the dark with the whole stadium hushed before him, the gulf between a Springsteen At Wembley spectacle and the piercing intimacy of Springsteen On Broadway feels non-existent. That he manages this feat with such consummate ease and grace should not be overlooked. Indefatigable. Imperious. Incomparable. Just another night in which Bruce Springsteen elected to give London everything.

Set List:

Lonesome Day

Seeds
My Love Will Not Let You Down
No Surrender

Ghosts

Letter To You

The Promised Land
Hungry Heart

Spirit In The Night

Reason To Believe

Atlantic City

Youngstown

Long Walk Home
The E Street Shuffle

Nightshift
Racing In The Street

Last Man Standing

Backstreets
Because The Night
She’s The One

Wrecking Ball

The Rising

Badlands

Thunder Road

Encore:

Land Of Hope And Dreams
Born To Run

Bobby Jean

Dancing In The Dark
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
Twist And Shout

Encore 2:

I’ll See You In My Dreams

Picture: Gus Stewart/Getty