Some guys come home from work and wash up and go racin’ in the street

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Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – Wembley Stadium, London; July 25th, 2024

Seeing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at Wembley Stadium in London was a wonderful experience. I met friends I had not seen in some time, we got a great setlist and some surprises too. What a fun night that was.

Originally I had only planned on seeing the Saturday show and only bought a ticket for tis one a few weeks before going to London. After both of the Milan shows had been postponed, I felt I needed one more this year and was happy to get a ticket, especially a front of stage one.

Arriving at the stadium around 3 pm, I didn’t spend all that much time queuing and could have gotten a spot about ten rows back from stage. However, I did not feel like being squeezed in and choose the back of the pit instead. Talked to a few people while I waited and finally spotted C., M. and S., who arrived long after I did. They joined me and we spent the time until the show start chatting. C. and S. talked about which songs they wanted to hear and I really didn’t care all that much, just wanted to be there.

It had been a short night for me, so I felt dead tired, but the moment the band stepped on stage at 7:15 all that tiredness left and I cheered with everyone else. They kicked off the show with ‘Lonesome Day’ and I immediately felt the rush I always feel when seeing Bruce, clapped and sang along. It was a perfect start. Next up was the first surprise with ‘Seeds’ and I could not remember when I had last heard it. Bruce got us all to clap along. So far it felt less like the shows he did the previous year, where he was telling a story, but we were only two songs in and I honestly didn’t remember all that many details.

A great ‘My love will not let you down’ followed, with Nils, Bruce and Steve coming to the front of the stage to play guitar together.  Then, with ‘No Surrender’ came he first time I cried. It was unexpected and the very moment I felt I had fully arrived. I danced, sang at the top of my lungs and had a big smile on my face throughout. This! This was it. C. had said that she wanted to hear more songs from ‘Letter to you’ and got her wish granted with ‘Ghosts’. It was fantastic. I love that album too and truly felt it when we sang “I’m alive…” Bruce ventured out on the runway in front of the stage, singing to the front row.  As he walked back he yelled “London!” and we replied “Bruuuce!”

Meanwhile, it had started to rain and we all just put our raincoats on and continued singing, clapping, dancing and watching the band perform. Jake joined Bruce at the mic, like Steve had before and I loved all of it. ‘Letter to you’ started with showing Charlie and Roy on the screens. The camera crew always took us to where the action was, not only following Bruce, but focussing on the band just when it was important. The song was just great.

For ‘The Promised land’, Bruce ventured out to the crowd again, stopping when he saw a sign “Boyfriend will propose if he can have your harmonica’. He finished the harmonica solo, took the sign, showed it to the camera, motioned for them to come closer and handed over the harmonica. We then witnessed the proposal right then and there. The next song was the only one I could have done without, ‘Hungry Heart’. Luckily it was over quickly.

“Can you feel the spirit” Bruce asked the crowd. Hell, yes! ‘Spirit in the Night’ was awesome and I loved it when Jake joined him and he let us sing the “We closed out eyes and said goodbye” line three times until he was satisfied. It is always fascinating to see how the audience answers to him every time. 🙂

When they started playing ‘Reason to Believe’ I had no idea what it was at first, but it rocked! “Say yeah!,” Bruce sang and we responded. Fantastic version of the song. ‘Atlantic City’ was awesome too, with great work from the horn section. Then we got a killer version of ‘Youngstown’ that made me so happy. I smiled especially much when I watched Nils work the guitar and shed a tera or a few as well – it has always been one of my favorites. <3

“This is a prayer for my country,” Bruce announced and the launched into ‘Long walk home’. What a wonderful treat. C. was especially happy, not sure she’d ever heard that song live. It had been a long time for sure and was really powerful too. 🙂 ‘The E Street Shuffle’ still comes as a surprise to me, even though it has been a setlist regular since the previous tour. Still a great song and the start was so much fun, because Bruce directed the horn section and for a moment they sounded like a circus band. It ended it an impressive drum duel between Max Weinberg and percussionist Anthony Almonte.

I admit that I was not much impressed with the ‘Only the strong survive’ album, but I really have come to enjoy ‘Nightshift’. With the amazing E Street choir it very much feels like a mass at the church of Bruce. After that came the biggest surprise of the night. Roy started playing ‘Racing in the Street’ and it made me so happy. Everyone held up their phone lights and the stadium looked like it was filled with stars. I wasn’t the only one who got emotional singing along, the tears just kept streaming down my face, I couldn’t help it. Such a beautiful performance.

The stage turned dark with only one light focussing on Bruce. He told us about George Theiss knocking on his door when he was a teenager and looking for a guitar player for their first band. Now, many years later, Bruce is the ‘Last Man standing’ from that band. The song always gets to me and Barry Danielian on the trumpet only makes it better. It continued into ‘Backstreets’ where Bruce speaks about all the memorabilia he has left and how he carries the memories in his heart. “Right here,” as he says, when he puts his hand on his chest. This time he really felt it and we all saw the tears in his eyes.

We got an amazing version of ‘Because the Night’ straight into ‘She’s he one’ and I loved ‘Wrecking ball’ too. ‘The Rising’ brought a great sing-along and it wasn’t the only one. As always, so many people sang along to all the words of all the songs. <3 From time to time I saw familiar faces on the screens, when I wan’t busy dancing or jumping, like I was for ‘Badlands’. It still is one of those songs I can never get enough of. The main set ended with ‘Thunder Road’ and Bruce really tested if we knew all the words. Of course e did. <3

When the band returned almost immediately for the encores, I saw there were a lot of people on the stage, watching from there. They had not been there before and I wondered briefly who they were and where they came from until I got caught up in the music again. ‘Land of Hope and Dreams’ was beautiful and I recalled first hearing it back in 1999, when I could not believe I was finally seeing the E Street Band on stage. Now, 25 years later, they are still going strong.

At some point, when Bruce was out, close to the crowd the screen showed a woman holding a sign that read “80shows, time for a hug” and he obliged. It was lovely. ‘Born to run’ was a big party and I spotted a few Italian flags with “Our love is real” written on them, one quite close to us. ‘Bobby Jean’ was another song I didn’t need, but the awesome ‘Dancing in the Dark’ immediately made it better. Bruce introduced the band and we cheered for each one of them.

As always, ’10th Avenue freeze-out’ brought images of Clarance and Danny and so many memories. The real surprise was ‘Twist and Shout’ though. What? I loved it, despite being slightly rushed, because the show had a curfew. We all sang along, jumped and partied for the last time, before the band left the stage and Bruce said goodbye to each one of them. Then he stood alone and gave us a beautiful goodbye with ‘I’ll see you in my dreams’. The show was perfect.

We stood around for a while, talked about how great it had been and I did not want to leave. It had been such a fantastic night and I loved seeing a show with friends. Finally we said goodbye outside and I left with a happy sigh.

Setlist

Lonesome Day
Seeds
My Love Will Not Let You Down
No Surrender
Ghosts
Letter to You
The Promised Land (a couple proposed in the front row)
Hungry Heart
Spirit in the Night
Reason to Believe
Atlantic City
Youngstown
Long Walk Home (introduced as a “prayer for my country”)
The E Street Shuffle
Nightshift (Commodores cover)
Racing in the Street
Last Man Standing (acoustic; with Barry Danielian on trumpet)
Backstreets
Because the Night
She’s the One
Wrecking Ball
The Rising
Badlands
Thunder Road

Encore:
Land of Hope and Dreams (with The Impressions “People Get Ready” outro) –
Born to Run
Bobby Jean
Dancing in the Dark (followed by band introductions)
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out (pictures of Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici on screen)
Twist and Shout

Encore 2:
I’ll See You in My Dreams (Solo acoustic)

I’ve already seen the bottom, so there’s nothing to fear

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P!nk – Borussia Park Mönchengladbach; July 21st, 2024

Seeing P!nk live always means a great time and her show in Mönchengladbach was no exception. After 2023 this was my second go around on the summer carnival and totally worth it. Great spot, great audience, great night.

Getting there took me a bit longer than expected, but I made it around 3 pm, 2 hours before the doors opened. There were signs for the FOS area line, but still some confusion between FOS 1 and FOS 2. Eventually I was in the right line and got a wristband too. Talked to some nice people near me, but lost them on the way in, because the people inside the stadium didn’t know where the FOS entrance was(!). WTF? Either put up clear signs or tell everyone where it is. I lost some valuable minutes there.

Ended up near the main stage and the catwalk on the right side, which was a nice change in view compared to last year’s front of stage left. At the catwalk were some super fans, one of whom had seen P!nk 80 times already. Wow, I tip my hat to you. everyone was in a good mood and sat down for a while before the show started, even during Kid Cutup’s first DJ set. It was nice music, but it would not have made a difference had they just played it over the speakers.

Support was the same as last year and I had fun with them. First up was Gayle,  playing some new songs and some I had already heard then. I enjoyed her energetic performance and the interaction between her and the band. She covered Queen’s ‘We will rock you’ , which gave us a great sing along and ‘abcdefu’ included a “Fuck you” call and response from everyone. I also remember taht she introduce ‘Ur just horny’ as a song about a “horny fucker” and I think there was a a rant about an ex in there somewhere. It was fun and a good warm up too.

Setlist (from Amsterdam)

internet baby
i don’t sleep as good as i used to
ur just horny
We Will Rock You (Queen cover)
Unknown (Everyone always forgets me)
butterflies
ALEX
snow angels
abcdefu

I had loved The Script the previous year and I still thought they were great, but it bothered me that the singer was mostly on the front catwalk and I only saw his back (or had to watch him on the screen). I enjoyed their song selection, with them even playing a new one, called ‘At your feet’ from their upcoming album.

‘If you could see me know’ was dedicated to Mark Sheehan, their former guitarist, who had died and during ‘Nothing’, the singer asked someone to called their ex and give him the phone so he could sing the song to them.The woman who did it, apparently had her phone out before he was even done speaking. It ended with all of us yelling  “Bye asshole!”. The finale was of course ‘Hall of Fame’ and everyone showed their phone lights as instructed. It was a good set and I was all the more hyped for P!nk afterwards.

Setlist (from Amsterdam)

Superheroes
Rain
At Your Feet (new song)
The Man Who Can’t Be Moved
If You Could See Me Now (dedicated to Mark Sheehan)
Nothing
For the First Time
Breakeven
Hall of Fame

I was taking in all of the deco on stage, while waiting for the concert to start, it really did look like a Carnival and with the Words “Summer Carnival” framing a huge smiling mouth, al up in the air, it looked like an entrance garte. A litte before 9 pm, a video of P!nk appeared on the big screen, where she welcomed us to the show and ended with “It’s a carnival, let’s get this party stated”. Then, the song started and the big mouth opened up and we could see her inside, soon dropping down to the stage in the first aerial stunt of the night. She sang, framed by her dancers and everyone in the audience sang with her. The she was lifted up in the air again, while still singing and ‘Get the Party started’ was mixed with elements from the Eurythmics’ ‘Sweet Dreams’ or at least it sounded like that to me.

She was back on the ground for ‘Raise your Glass’ and there were lots of big beach balls and two huge Flamingoes involved in the dancing. P!nk ventured out on the catwalk for a moment and then returned to the main stage, where she went over to guitarist Justin Derrico and planted a kiss on his cheek. For ‘Who knew’ first two female dancers, then two male dancers, then one woman and one man,  danced a beautiful choreography, while she sang her heart out. P!nk came out all the way to the front of the catwalk for ‘Just like a pill’ and it might have been there that she saw someone holding up a poster to her and bent down and signed it. I could have been later, but I knew she signed stuff and received presents a few times during the show. 🙂 ‘What about us?’ was a gorgeous dance number that took them all to the front of the catwalk and back. There was so much to see, I hardly could follow it all.

She and most of the dancers left the stage for a moment, while we saw like an EKG line of a beating heart on the screens, we heard a heartbeat too and one sole dancer was on the catwalk, performing to words spoken by P!nk: “Breathe. What do you see? What colors? Look around. Look at me. What can you feel? Get low. Touch the ground. Touch the rug. Touch me. What can you hear? Can you hear the birds? Hear the wind? Hear my voice? Now breathe. Breathe. Blow out your candles. Breathe. You are (?). You are safe. You are with me. You are safe. I am with you. Thank you. Breathe.” With the last few sentences, P!nk walked up to her and touched her shoulders, then walked past towards an aerial rope, where she was joined by another dancer and lifted up for ‘Turbulence’. It was beautiful and I loved it especially, because the previous years this stunt had not been part of the concert due to stormy weather.

Next up we saw her playing a guessing  game with musical director and pianist Jason Chapman, who played a part of a tune she had to guess. It was ‘God is a DJ’ and because she guessed it right, she received a box of chocolates from him. She explained it was her only way of getting candy, because otherwise her kids would eat it. She took one piece and passed the entire box on to the fans in front row, telling them to share. <3 She sat down at the piano saying something along the lines of that this was the only song she managed to learn and played us Bob Dylan’s ‘Make you feel my love’.

Jason returned and she sat down on top of the piano, singing ‘Just give me a reason’. <3 we all sang the “oh-o” part. For the second verse Nate Ruess appeared on the screens, singing his part and she hopped off the piano and walked out onto the catwalk. It was wonderful. ‘Fuckin’ Perfect’ was just that and we all sang along loudly. ‘Just like fire’ brought flames shooting up from the stage, which looked especially great, because it had gotten dark by now. It included a partial cover of Pat Benatar’s ‘Heartbreaker’ and ended in one hell of a guitar solo.

The third part of the show started with a beautiful acoustic version of ‘Please don’t leave me’. It was P!Nk, Justin and the backing singers – a perfect choir. Afterwards, she went out on the catwalk, receiving gifts and signing stuff on the way. Justin joined her and they played a wonderful version of ‘Don’t let me get me’. I noticed people around me blowing up balloons and remembered someone giving me one outside and the instructions to hold it up during ‘I am here’. Next up was ‘When I get there’, a song she mentioned was about her father. Many people held up their balloons l ready, lighting them up with their phones, others just used their phone lights. I looked gorgeous and the song brought me to tears. <3 For ‘I am here’ she and Justin were joined by the band. Everyone raised their balloons and jumped in unison during the chorus. So much fun! She commented on nothing being better than balloons.

The stage turned dark and when it lit up again we saw P!nk flying above our heads inside a sort of ball made of metal pipes. At first she was in there alone and then joined by two, later four dancers. It was a beautiful aerial stunt paired with a beautiful song. We got a spoken word interlude with ‘Are you gonna fall’, while we saw stairs and a trampoline at the back of the stage and the dancers flying high. It all lead to a beautiful version of ‘Trustfall’ where in the end, she stood at the top of the stairs.

She started ‘Blow me’ up there, while we saw more trampoline stunts, then walked down and out to the catwalk again. The song ended with band introductions and I knew the show was almost over. ‘Never gonna not dance again’ brought all the dancers out to the catwalk and she introduced them too. BAnd and dancers were all shown on the screens during the introductions. 🙂 They left the stage and returned for the encore and grand finale ‘So what’ where P!nk was flying all over the stadium. I still can’t fathom how she does that, much less sing through it all. It’s absolutely fantastic. As they all waved goodbye, the stage lit up with fireworks an there was confetti everywhere.

It was a brilliant show and I loved every moment of it. Would I do it again? Hell, yes!

Setlist

Act I
Intro Montage
Get the Party Started
Raise Your Glass
Who Knew
Just Like a Pill
What About Us

Act II
Heartbeat (Dance sequence to tape)
Turbulence
God Is a DJ (Snipped as part of nightly guess that tune game with pianist)
Make You Feel My Love (Bob Dylan cover)
Just Give Me a Reason
F**kin’ Perfect
Just Like Fire / Heartbreaker (Partial Pat Benatar cover)

Act III
Please Don’t Leave Me (Acoustic)
Don’t Let Me Get Me (Acoustic)
When I Get There
I Am Here
What’s Up? (4 Non Blondes cover)

Act IV
Try (Aerial stunt)
Are You Gonna Fall? (Spoken word interlude)
TRUSTFALL
Blow Me (One Last Kiss) (With band introductions, extended outro)
Never Gonna Not Dance Again (With dancer introductions, extended outro)

Encore:
So What