The memory that Bruce Springsteen leaves in Barcelona after two intense concerts will be difficult to erase. Not only because of the monitoring that has been done by land, sea and air (to him and his guests), but, and above all, because of the intensity of the emotional discharges that he has triggered in two sessions of almost three hours.
The start of the European tour has been celebrated accordingly, on the one hand because the rocker from New Jersey is an essential and indisputable reference to stadium rock, and on the other because at the same time it represents the end of an era in which rock was the music of rebellious youth. The average age in the stadium was high, despite having children willing to resist the hours of waiting and songs with the epic of nostalgia seasoned with the desire to live in the present. generational transmission.
Every end has a beginning, and if most of the concerts on the tour –on Friday too– began with a hymn like No Surrender, the start of Sunday allows the audience to see a declaration of intent: My love will not let you down ( My love will not disappoint you). And he did not disappoint on either of the two days, not even with the changes in the repertoire. There is something for everyone, and if the vigorous Candy's room, the half-time of Human touch and the festive Pay me my money down fell, they were replaced by themes between the vindictive power of Trapped (reggae song by Jimmy Cliff that in the eighties Springsteen incorporated into the live repertoire) or the pure rock'n'roll of Johnny 99 featuring the whole band and especially the wind section, and Ramrod.
It is true that on Sunday there was not the –relative– tension of whether Barack Obama was in the stadium, after the surprise of seeing the former first lady doing choirs with Patti Scialfa and Kate Capshaw, and the filming of the second concert made the night more festive. relationship with Steve van Zandt, recovering complicity and perhaps playing like the teenagers who appear in his songs, without the need to impost anything because everything is already done. The Boss no longer throws himself on the ground, nor jumps like before nor runs up and down the stage, but he maintains the spark and vitality together with a leadership that distributes game and directs the E Street Band with energy and forcefulness at 73 years of age .
A repertoire full of looks to the past, to friends lost along the way –Ghosts, Backstreets, Glory days or Bobby Jean–, and recovering the soul that also inspired him at the beginning –in addition to the Nightsift version, old songs like The street shuffle or Tenth avenue freeze out–. Not to mention the parallel chronicles of Thunder road or Born to run or the renewed solemnity of Born in the USA.
But there is also space to open up to his audience in Letter to you: “I have tried to gather everything / what my heart believes to be true / and I send it to you in my letter. / Things I have learned in good times and bad / I have written them with ink and blood. / I have delved into the depths of my soul / with my heart in my hand / and I am sending it to you in my letter”, subtitled in Catalan.
And, after remembering Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici, with hearts up, lower the curtain with a farewell like I'll see you in my dreams: "I'll see you in my dreams / when our summers are over (... ). Because death is not the end." The party is over.
Catalan version, here
