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Boss level: David McCullagh on Springsteen's triumphant Dublin shows

Updated / Wednesday, 10 May 2023 13:39

"Thank you, Dublin; thank you, Ireland; the E Street Band loves you."

Bruce Springsteen's parting words on Tuesday night, after three epic, sold-out shows at the RDS arena.

Judging by the crowd reaction, the love goes both ways – Springsteen has a soft spot for Ireland (he made a trip to Kildare to check up on some of his ancestors while he was here), while Ireland certainly has a soft spot for him. Deservedly so: these shows were great, and got even better as they went along. Tuesday night’s show was possibly the best I have ever seen – it certainly featured the most outstanding rendition of Thunder Road I’ve experienced.

As with any Springsteen show, there was plenty of fun – Bruce and Steve Van Zandt mugging for the cameras, Springsteen teasing drummer Max Weinberg for missing a cue, harmonicas and guitar picks being doled out to the superfans at the front.

There were plenty of crowd-pleasing anthems across the three nights for casual fans – Glory Days, Bobby Jean, Born in the USA, Dancing in the Dark (far from a favourite of mine, but what the hell, everyone was dancing).

And for the hardcore followers, blistering versions of Kitty’s Back and The E-Street Shuffle, as well as rarities – Something in the Night, Johnny 99, Darkness on the Edge of Town and Candy’s Room.

But the emotional core of the shows was the material from Springsteen’s second last album, Letter to You (his recent covers collection only contributed one song, Nightshift, to the setlists – and no harm). The album is about ageing and loss, inspired by the death of his friend George Theiss, who invited him to join his first band, The Castiles, as a teenager. When Theiss died, Springsteen realised he was the only survivor of that group – literally, the Last Man Standing, as his song puts it.

Part of the magic of the show was Springsteen’s ability to weave songs from across his career to fit the theme, and to stress that while ageing is inevitable, swapping a guitar for a cup of cocoa of an evening is not – Wrecking Ball, with its defiant challenge to the encroachment of time, Glory Days with its evocation of youthful triumphs, and Badlands - "I want to find one face that ain’t looking through me, I want to find one place, I want to spit in the face of these Badlands..."

Of course, I’m a fan, so perhaps my verdict can’t be trusted. After I rated one of his concerts on this tour as among his best ever, a friend’s wife pointed out, accurately if rather unkindly, that I always say that. She has a point, I suppose.

So, why not assess the performances through less biased eyes?

Exhibit one, a young woman who, through no fault of her own, has been exposed to Bruce’s music literally since the day she was born 22 years ago, but had never seen him live. Watching her reaction to Sunday’s show, and hearing her admit afterwards that she now understood what I’d been going on about all these years, was a very special moment for me. Mind you, any other reaction would have led to her being written out of the will.

Exhibit two, a pal who has seen Springsteen quite a few times, but would not be a fanatic. For example, he kept texting me during one of the Croke Park shows in 2016 to give out about the setlist. According to reliable sources he insisted on remaining seated for most of the set in the RDS on Friday – even during Badlands! But while not as blown away as I was, he was impressed enough to say he’d go again on Tuesday if he had a ticket (if that was a hint, he was out of luck).

Exhibit three, the Metallica fan at his first Bruce concert on Tuesday who afterwards said, simply: "One of the best concerts I’ve ever seen".

So it’s not just me. And by the way, despite suggestions to the contrary, I’m not anywhere near being Bruce’s biggest fan. I’ve seen him 37 times since Slane in 1985. But on Sunday in the RDS I was in the company of two people who saw the original River tour in 1981, and one who saw Springsteen in London in 1975; one of them claimed not to know exactly how many times he’d seen Bruce live – later, I overheard him admit to 115. So, I’ve a long way to go to catch up.

Nor do I have a personal relationship with Bruce. During the week, one newspaper reported that Bruce "gets on well" with Irish people like Enda Kenny, Niall Horan, and... me. Now, I can’t speak for the other two, but I can definitively state that Bruce couldn’t pick me out of a line up if his life depended on it. I’ve interviewed him twice, which was very memorable for me – for him, not so much.

But I do know enough to know when I’ve seen something special, and these three shows in the RDS were certainly that. And perhaps for reasons other than their sheer quality.

At least since the Reunion Tour in 1999, fans have been wondering if they’d ever see Bruce play with the E Street Band again in Ireland. It’s hard to say this time – while the performers are as energetic, as proficient and as passionate as ever, there was a feeling of an ending.

Maybe it was the themes of loss and remembrance which suffuse so many of the songs Springsteen chose for the setlists, but I wouldn’t bet on seeing shows like this again. I hope I’m wrong, but if I’m not, what better way to end than to quote Bruce from Tuesday night: "I want to thank you for treating us like Dubliners. We hate to leave, but I’ll see you in my dreams."

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