Recommendations of the Editorial team
This tour is called “Land of Hope and Dreams”, and it is precisely this mythical country that you enter when you can visit Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Unfortunately, it is in the Berlin Olympic Stadium that evening, so the sound is spongy again. And half of the audience has to blink against the sun for an hour until she can really see the stage. But actually it doesn’t matter. It’s about much more that evening, namely everything. Freedom, about democracy, for our lives as we had hoped for and dreamed.
You don’t have to be an American, the United States does not have to consider it a “beacon of hope and freedom” to understand Bruce Springsteen. Its worldwide effect is based on a fairly simple, deeply human feeling: we all want to be hugged (psychopaths like Trump and Musk may be excluded), and a bit of luck would be good. But how is that supposed to work, 2025?
“The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to appeal to the righteous power of art, music, rock’n’roll in dangerous times.” That’s how it works! It fits that after the bulky “Death to My Homeetown”. Giving up is not an option if there is so much at stake. Trump hovers like a demokles sword over this sometimes almost grim evening, which lasts three hours and leads from a passionate plea to the next strong moment. The force of the E Street band It is unbroken, even if the main tenants are now well over 70. Musically, they are a bank, they understand each other blindly and still have enough energy to grow beyond pure routine. The newer “rainmaker” becomes a great protest song, and the resignation of “The River” hits you particularly hard. “Long Walk Home” is now a gospel, a mantra: there is always a reason for a fresh start!
Springsteen can never be down on Trump’s level
When Springsteen sings in “House of a Thousand Guitars” of the “Criminal Clown” who stole the throne, everyone laughs briefly, but the subsequent speech shows that Springsteen never lets itself down to the cheap level of the president. He only remains steadfast. He always wanted to be a good ambassador for America, he says – and then reports for almost five minutes of everything that is going wrong. That the richest men let the poorest children down. That it gives them sadistic pleasure to torture workers and to pry them out of civil rights. America will also survive because it is a great country with great people, he says. And who would want to contradict him if the E Street Band stands in front of you?
Hope is the big topic that evening. Hope despite the times. He concludes with a quote from James Baldwin: “There is not as much humanity in this world as you would like, but there are enough.” (Here it made sense to show the German translation on the screens. In some pieces, it steered it too much – and if you don’t know the texts, you can read it later if you are interested. So please abolish this service!)
“Badlands” transforms the Olympic Stadium into a kettle full of defiant joie de vivre
While the E Street band “My City of Ruins” plays, you may think “we never needed Springsteen as much as now”. But that’s nonsense – you will be reminded of three songs later. With “The Rising” he was a ray of hope in darkness after September 11th. And the same in the mid-1980s. And … in short, we just need Bruce Springsteen – or just: people like him. Compassion and solidarity, paired with zest for action and strength, which has nothing to do with power. Anyone who has witnessed how “Badlands” turns an entire stadium in a boiler full of defiant joie de vivre will understand it. It ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive – that applies even now.
It would have been a little better if Springsteen “Thunder Road” had played alone instead of in the hands-down-and-Mitsing version, in which the audience roars the most beautiful lines, i.e. spoils. The encores compensate for this: “Born in the USA”, “Born to Run”, “Bobby Jean”, what more could you want. With “Dancing in the Dark”, as so often that evening, the sparks fly. Nobody lights a stadium better than Bruce Springsteen. (At least when U2 are not on tour right now.) And then of course the “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” comes with the memories of Danny Federici and Clarence “Big Man” Clemons that have already preceded them. The last Springsteen tour was a kind of ghost caution. This does this by the way – while the focus is on the very earthly problems.
Once again we celebrate the E Street Band and the freedom
It is good to cheer all living e-street residents again: Nils Lofgren, The Mighty Max Weinberg, Roy Bittan, Garry Talent and Steven van Zandt. (Patti Scialfa is unfortunately not there again.) And the associated Jake Clemons, Soozie Tyrrell and Charles Giordano. Blowers and background singers still exist – there is nowhere else going on as much as on this stage. And because they all don’t want to get down from the criminal clown, treat themselves to exuberant like “Seven Nights to Rock” and “Twist and Shout” before Bob Dylans “Chimes of Freedom” ends the evening. The shirt is sweaty, the bow closes: Rock’n’roll celebrates freedom, and dictators will always be our natural enemy. It fits that he dedicates the song to the fans who were in East Berlin at his 1988 concert.
After Springsteen has all adopted with a handshake, tapping or hug, he tackles the fist together with Jake Clemons – and points his finger towards the sky. Bruce Springsteen must never die, but it is comforting to know that the big is received when it is so far. Until then there is still a lot to do.