After the absolute horror of seeing Oasis at Slane Castle the weekend before, which was a bit like watching an (admittedly outstanding) Gallagher brothers on the set of 'Apocalypse Now', I had certain reservations about seeing a second outdoor gig in a week. But as I seamlessly entered the venue, blinking back the glorious summer sunshine, I saw before me what could only be described as a five-star concert experience - plenty of bars with corresponding picnic tables, merchandise stalls with laminate flooring and mood lighting and above all, a wonderfully, relaxed atmosphere. This was going to be like having the Boss play in my back garden!
We only got to the venue in time to see The Dave Matthews Band, missing out on the excellent Gaslight Anthem. It is hard to imagine a band further away from the E Streeters than DMB - a typical souless, pretentious college rock band, but their set (which seemed to consist of the same song played five times, just getting exponentially longer and more agonising) did nothing to dampen the spirits of a crowd who had only come to see one fella and his pals... and somewhere just after seven, one-by-one the E Street band filed onto stage and ripped into 'London's Calling', the local crowd vociferously joining in on '... live by the river!' and continuing their communal bellowing straight into 'Badlands'. From then on the crowd enthusiastically lapped up a stream of earth-quaking, soul-shaking hits, with new song ‘Working on a Dream’ and mid-eighties classics ‘Bobby Jean’ and ‘No Surrender’ (with Brian Fallon from Gaslight Anthem) particular highlights. Make no bones about it, we were in the presence of greatness here, experiencing musicians at the height of their powers, demonstrating that peculiar E Street ability to get under your skin, leaving us feeling at once both in awe of the people we were watching, but totally among them as equals.
The set-list did not disappoint, with a couple a hidden gems, mixed in with the stone bonker classics. In true Bruce tradition, the set progressively picked up pace, getting better and better with each song… ‘The Rising’, check. ‘Born to Run’, check. ‘Rosalita’, check. It was a glorious experience… by the time the Big Man busted the sax solo out in the middle of an epic version of ‘Jungleland’, there wasn’t a dry eye in the field. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, just when you thought your heart couldn’t swell any more and your lungs had screamed out their final chorus, The Boss hit us with ‘Glory Days’ and ‘Dancing in the Dark’ (which, by this time, we all were)… we literally flew with wings on our feet back to the train station, ecstatic at what we had just seen. The rumours that this may be the E Street band’s last performance in our wonderful city, made it all the more poignant. The Boss – the best there is, the best there was, the best they’ll ever be.
