Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - Manchester Review

Both of the previous times I saw Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band live, I thought that I could be doing so for the last time. Following seeing what still ranks as one of the best gigs that I have ever been to at Wembley Stadium in 2016, I really hoped that I would be able to see Springsteen live again. Following taking some time out of touring the world to undertake his Springsteen on Broadway residency, and then the enforced break due to the pandemic, Springsteen finally returned to the UK again in 2023 - and I headed up to Birmingham's Villa Park to catch him and his legendary backing band live for the second time. There were rumours that Springsteen was essentially on his farewell tour - so I left Villa Park thinking that there was a strong chance that I would not see him live again. That was, though, until a few months later when some more shows were announced for 2024 - and I quickly snapped up a ticket to the show at Cardiff's Principality Stadium. Both the 2023 and 2024 shows were excellent, even if Springsteen is a little more reserved these days due to his age, and they rank up there among some of the very best live experiences of my life - even if that Wembley night will likely never be topped. Walking back to my Cardiff hotel in May last year, I again assumed that was it. There is only so long that he can keep delivering the mammoth shows he has become known for - and at 75 now I thought that he might start to take it easy. Late last year, though, another run of European shows was announced - and it took me very little time to decide to try and get a ticket for a fourth time. The options were Manchester and Liverpool, but the former seemed the best in terms of logistics - and the fact that the city's shows were at the new Co-op Live indoor arena rather than at a massive football stadium made Manchester extra appealing. I thought that it would be interesting to see Springsteen in a 'smaller' venue than he usually plays - so I got a ticket for what ended up being the last night of a three-show run at the Co-op Live which would open the tour. The last few months have been filled with excitement for the show, then, and I was also looking forward to returning to Manchester for the first time since 2019. Due to its distance from home, it is not somewhere that I visit regularly - and this trip was only my third solo trip there for music reasons. I experienced what is now the AO Arena back in 2015 and 2019 took me to the Club Academy - so I was looking forward to seeing what the Co-op Live had to offer, since it is now quite possibly the country's premier indoor arena. I remember reading all of the news articles about its rocky opening month or so - but since then things have settled down and it is starting to get a good reputation. I certainly thought that it was a good venue - with even my 'cheap' seat having a good view of the stage, and I felt closer to the action than I would at the O2 Arena in London which is comparable size-wise. It seems to be a really well-designed space, then, and the sound throughout the show was excellent, too.

True to form, too, I was sat at the back of the room - although not in the very last row as has often been the case with previous Springsteen shows. As always there was a real buzz in the room during the lead-up to the show - and when the lights went down and the musicians all took to the stage the place erupted. This current tour, dubbed Land of Hope and Dreams after song of the same name, finds Springsteen angry about the current direction of America - so the setlist was much more downbeat overall compared to the last couple of years' tours. He was also much more vocal in between songs, calling out Donald Trump and his government on a regular basis - setting the tone before the music even started as the band defiantly kicked into the upbeat No Surrender. I had seen Springsteen open with the track before, but following his opening speech it felt like a true anthem - and he remains in fine voice despite his age. I have wondered each time that I have seen him recently whether this will be the show to somewhat disappoint - but last night was another really special one. It might not have been as long as his shows have often been - but he still played for nearly three hours, and the 26 songs played included a number I had not seen him do live before. Despite this bouncy opening, the early part of the set generally was quite restrained. Soozie Tyrell's (guitar/violin/percussion/vocals) violin saw plenty of action, then, with the tour's namesake Land of Hope and Dreams setting the tone for much of what was to follow early on before the folk rock stomp of Death to My Hometown saw Jake Clemons (saxophone/percussion/vocals) put down his saxophone and prowl the stage with a big bass drum. In truth, this was probably not a show for the casual fan. Whilst there were plenty of hits towards the end, this show felt different to the crowd-pleasers of the last couple of years. Springsteen still has plenty to say after all these years - and clearly the current political situation has spurred him on to do so. Given that this tour was his third in as many years, the vibe shift was welcome - and I enjoyed hearing a lot of different songs and seeing a slightly different side to the E Street Band at times. When Nils Lofgren (guitar/lap steel/banjo/vocals) later laid into the heavy opening riff of Seeds the energy levels did rise somewhat, though, with the tough hard rocker easily being the crunchiest moment of the night. This feeling was short lived, though, as some plaintive piano from Roy Bittan (keyboards) soon introduced the ballad Something in the Night - and the brasher, slower rock of the newer Rainmaker was pointedly directly at Trump. Perhaps knowing that the casuals would be struggling by this point, a bone was then thrown out in the form of The Promised Land - but this was a brief respite from the mire as a fairly rare outing of Reason to Believe returned to the downbeat vibe. Steven Van Zandt (guitar/mandolin/vocals) opened the song on the guitar, over which Springsteen sung - and the duo kept going even when Van Zandt broke a string. The rest of the band did join in after a while - but the magic was established early on, and the following rendition of The River saw plenty of singing from the crowd during the moments when Springsteen held out the microphone.

My favourite part of the night came around half way through, though, with the introduction of Youngstown. I had never taken much notice of the song before, but last night it really came alive - with Springsteen singing the heartfelt lyrics backed by Tyrell's violin and Charlie Giordano's (keyboards/accordion) accordion. It was one of the most powerful moments of the night, with Lofgren finishing it off with a busy guitar solo, and the transition into the tougher Murder Incorporated made for an excellent one-two punch. The latter morphed into a bit of a jam and allowed for some individual moments - with Giordano taking an organ solo before Van Zandt and Springsteen duelled with their guitars as it came to a close. This was the high point of the night for me, but there was still plenty more excellence to come. The melancholic duo of Long Walk Home and House of a Thousand Guitars, the latter played solo by Springsteen, returned to the evening's more downbeat vibe - which culminated in an excellent rendition of My City of Ruins. Springsteen gave his longest speech before the song started, and the track acted as both the culmination of the messages and vibes of the night up to that point - as well as a moment of hope for a better future. The song has often symbolised such - and it saw the set transition into the home straight, which felt a bit more hard rocking and upbeat. You could hear the sigh of relief from some of the casuals in the cheap seats when Bittan started the familiar piano intro of Because the Night, which was a big sing-a-long and included another Lofgren solo, before the classic rock riffing of Ghosts seems to have become a real setlist staple in recent years. The closing four numbers were the same as the four which have generally closed things out over the past couple of years - with the bombast of Badlands feeling like the glass breaking on the gloom of earlier. Clemons nailed the big saxophone hooks as always - and the mid-section saw the crowd singing the melodies back at the band. A poignant version of Thunder Road followed, closing out the main set, with strains of harmonica and some of the most recognisable piano motifs in rock, and the band took their well-deserved bows afterwards. There was time for a few more, though, and the encore section again largely followed the structure of the past couple of years. The anthemic Born in the U.S.A. kicked things off but it was perhaps Born to Run that really got the Co-op Live on their feet - with the chorus ringing around the room and the famous saxophone solo hitting the spot. The stomp of Glory Days was full of joy, with Springsteen and Van Zandt vamping during the mid-section as they often do, before a spirited Dancing in the Dark had everyone singing along and dancing in the isles due to the synthy beats of the hit single. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out, with the horn section really filling it out, felt like the true climax of the evening - but on this tour Springsteen has dusted off his old cover of Bob Dylan's Chimes of Freedom to close things out - with the plaintive song returning to some of the set's core vibe following the joyful rock of the rest of the encore. It was a great way to end nearly three hours of music - and as a pretty long-standing fan at this point the setlist felt like a treat. The setlist was:

No Surrender

Land of Hope and Dreams/People Get Ready [The Impressions cover]

Death to My Hometown

Seeds

Something in the Night

Rainmaker

The Promised Land

Reason to Believe

The River

Youngstown

Murder Incorporated

Long Walk Home

House of a Thousand Guitars

My City of Ruins

Because the Night [Patti Smith Group cover]

Ghosts

Wrecking Ball

The Rising

Badlands

Thunder Road

-

Born in the U.S.A.

Born to Run

Glory Days

Dancing in the Dark

Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out

Chimes of Freedom [Bob Dylan cover]

Perhaps the only negative of the night was that, due to Manchester City also playing at home, a large portion of the Co-op Live crowd was funnelled along the canal towpath to get back to the city centre. I am not sure that it was a good idea to encourage so many people to walk down a narrow, poorly lit, and poorly maintained towpath following a show - particularly given some of the very low bridges which people needed to negotiate in the dark. The crowd management on multi-event days likely needs some work, then, but otherwise I was impressed with the venue - and it helped that the show within it was so good. Springsteen never disappoints and I liked this more downbeat show as it was something different compared to the more hit-filled sets of the past couple of years. Whether I get the chance to see him again remains to be seen, but I have now seen four Springsteen shows - and each has been extremely memorable and enjoyable for different reasons.