Bruce Springsteen

So now we have another thing to thank Liverpool for. Anfield roars its approval as Bruce Springsteen takes the stage and announces that without this town there would be no E Street Band. We know what he means and we get further proof of it later on, but for now 50,000 people are ready to be given a masterclass in “the righteous power of art, of music, of rock & roll in dangerous times.”

He really does show us that power. Yes, we get a speech early on about the corruption and venality of the Trump administration, and yes it’s a good speech. But midway through the set he plays ‘My Hometown’, evoking blue collar decline and strength through community in a way that is much more elemental. Oratory can be visceral, but songs cut through and last in a way that speeches rarely do. The best of Springsteen’s work has always been shoulder to shoulder with the struggling and his skill has been to speak directly to the banality of that experience while still offering hope.

As with every Springsteen gig, we get a set that does both and more. Ghosts gets things moving along nicely before ‘Death to My Hometown’ and ‘Rainmaker’ rage at injustice and greed. ‘The Promised Land’ fills the stadium with full throated optimism (and if some ambiguity in the lyrics gets lost, at a gig like this it’s probably a good thing). At this point the Boss trades his harmonica to a lucky woman in the crowd for a slug of whisky. It does him absolutely no harm and the band launch straight into ‘Hungry Heart.’ Before the encore we get ‘Badlands’, which is as raucous as you’d expect, followed by ‘Thunder Road.’

Those two would beat the best ten minutes of most rock gigs. Not this one though. After a break, The Boss and his mighty E Street Band play ‘Born in the USA’ (a song that demands to be sung in a stadium) followed by the shimmering brilliance of ‘Born to Run,’ ‘Glory Days,’ ‘Dancing in the Dark’ and a magisterial ’10th Avenue Freeze Out.’ Which you would rightly expect to be the high watermark, except that we are in Liverpool and half an hour earlier Paul McCartney walked out and played ‘Can’t Buy Me Love.’ There is very little I could say to convey the thrill of that moment. If you were there you know what it was like. The Boss first picked up a guitar when he heard Elvis Presley, but it wasn’t until he heard the Beatles that he really committed to playing it. Watching them play together, in Paul McCartney’s hometown, the hometown of rock & roll, it looked like he was happier than anyone. Tonight Liverpool is his hometown too.