In light of the ruckus that has erupted this week in Barcelona with the arrival of Bruce Springsteen and his acolytes –nothing, some guys called Barack Obama and Steven Spielberg–, being a rock star with decades of stage experience behind him is not enough. in that world of big tours: you also have to look like it. Dragging for example icons of the free world. Figures of the stature of a former president of the United States, with whom you also have a podcast of those who fix the world, and an acclaimed Hollywood filmmaker who knows even Tato. Characters to whom you are also attached by a friendship and who have flown in a breath to this side of the Mediterranean so as not to miss your start on your European tour… in Barcelona, of course.
Where exactly they were following the concert at the Olympic Stadium last night was the best kept secret by security. Some pointed to the corridor that opened from the side of the court to a chamber located in the center. “See that red fence? They are not here, but they will be”, said one, amused. Another assured that it was in front of the stage where they had been placed, glued to Springsteen, which seemed improbable with the ups and downs of The Boss up to that first row of stalwarts on whom the camera focused.
It was a waiter from the area near the grandstand who gave the clue. "The three of them are there." Tom Hanks too? Has he seen them with his own eyes? No, no, but he knows it for a fact, he says.
Would they be in the VIP gallery, with politicians like Xavier Trias and types of earpieces who looked indecisively at The Boss with his coarse guitar playing, his well-muscled brazines and his well-fitting black shirt... shouting: “Catalonia, Catalonia! Barcelona, esteem us, esteem us, esteem us! And it was at the end of the concert, in the encores, when the wives, Michelle Obama, Kate Capshaw and Patti Scialfa, came out to do the choirs in Glory Days to the cheers of the respectable.
B-B, Bruce and Barack, did a virtual and cosmic pincer yesterday at the Estadi, like two giants of goodwill. His podcast (Renegades: Born in the USA) wants to be a haven for missfits. “We don't have much to do with it”, the politician begins by saying in one of those conversations at The Boss' house, surrounded by his thousand guitars, singing gospel well watered with alcohol. Now in Barcelona, Bruce starts with dixieland / country airs... perhaps thinking of his friend, his friends... Spielberg too.
“You're a rock star, white, from New Jersey, and I'm a Hawaiian-born mixed-race lawyer and politician. Why do you say you were an outsider, if I see you very white?" And The Boss tells him that being the son of a schizophrenic was not ideal in his country. Country they want to change... "a more just, egalitarian and free society". Obama's word.
Their Barcelona meeting has been presided over by friendship, culture and good food. Springsteen's guests took advantage of yesterday morning to enjoy the city. They had dined the night before at the Palace Hotel's Amar and went to bed well into the early hours of the morning. So the Obamas and the Spielbergs left the hotel at noon for the Moco museum, on Montcada street, where they spent 50 minutes on a private visit –they were also scheduled to visit the Picasso– before going to the Sagrada Família, where a tour private led them to the balcony of the Juvé and to the nave. Half an hour later, they left through the Naixement façade, with a multitude of tourists recognizing them.
With a delegation of eight vehicles, they went to eat at the Martínez restaurant, in Montjuïc. Mediterranean agape, with some American surprise... Springsteen's friends had a salad, ham and fried fish for lunch. For second course, the Obamas opted for arroz con prawns, while Spielberg misled the staff by ordering a cheesecake. And the wine came from the Lluís Llach winery.
Dinner the day before, at Amar, took place after midnight, accompanied by security guards, without the slightest sign of fatigue or an iota of arrogance. Neither towards the restaurant team nor towards the diners, who were amazed when, in the middle of the after-dinner meal, they saw some customers enter who greeted them with sympathy. They were the six most wanted friends in the city all day: Springsteen, Spielberg and Obama with their respective partners.
The table had been reserved the same day, although the origin of the choice came from days ago, when José Andrés, a great friend of Obama, visited the restaurant in Zafra with the Adrià brothers. The Asturian chef told Pol Perelló, once a key figure in the El Bulli dining room and today the director of the Zafra restaurants, the culinary preferences of those who would visit them, as well as that they were "most normal people" to the who likes to look at the menu and try everything. This time they allowed themselves to be advised and served the Zafra classics, from the bikini with truffle to the brioche toast with butter and caviar, the clams, the anchovies, the spectacular prawns from Roses or the macerated oysters, in homage to Albert Adrià. Nor was there a lack of lobster carpaccio, a tribute to El Bulli; the sole to the meunière and the meat, of wagyu, cooked to the Josper. What Perelló describes as "a dinner with true friends."
Yesterday it was Bruce who would have embraced the entire city if that had been possible, to the cry of Because the night, Patti Smith's anthem. There were those who claimed that the echoes of his voice could be heard from the Gràcia neighborhood. The Boss was yesterday of the entire city. Tomorrow, the revalidation.
