Bruce Springsteen made his name writing torch songs that roared in support of the blue-collar American. His most revered records, from Darkness on the Edge of Town to Nebraska, are fraught with the tension of balancing his deep love for his homeland with his indignation at its inequalities. When he last toured the UK – only last summer – reviews suggested that perhaps The Boss was beginning to wind down his live career: that, at 75, he might be fronting one last hits-laden victory lap for the E Street Band.
Before he even plays a note at the first night of his “Land of Hopes and Dreams” tour, he shatters that notion. He opens his first show of 2025 – and first indoor UK concert in 12 years, at Manchester’s year-old mega-venue Co-op Live – with a furious monologue that excoriates the Trump administration, which he describes as “corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous”.
“Tonight,” he goes on, “we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experience to rise with us, raise your voices against the authoritarianism, and let freedom ring!” And then the E Street Band tear into a rousing one-two of “Land of Hope and Dreams” and “Death to My Hometown”, and it’s clear that this is a different Springsteen, one simmering with hurt at the state of his nation, broiling with renewed political purpose.
Springsteen opened with a furious political monologue (Photo by Shirlaine Forrest/Getty Images) square LIVE REVIEWS Combine Beck, an orchestra and the Royal Albert Hall - the end result is fantastic
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Joy is his primary act of resistance. For as much as his onstage pronouncements suggest that he sees this tour as an act of advocacy for the decent America he knows still exists, you also get the sense that on a selfish level, he plays live chiefly because he loves it – and who wouldn’t enjoy being swept along by the tide of the magnificent, 17-piece E Street Band? They’re a joy to behold: throughout this three-hour set, wherever you look on the stage, something exhilarating is happening – guitarists Nils Lofgren and Steven Van Zandt weave in and out of each other’s solos, timeless drummer Max Weinberg is on powerhouse form, and every time saxophonist Jake Clemons (nephew of the late, legendary Clarence) wanders centre-stage for another triumphant turn, you feel the roof about to lift off of the place.
Springsteen rarely plays venues that actually have roofs outside North America; this is only his second non-stadium concert in the UK since 2006. The first gig at Co-op Live took place exactly a year ago after a disastrous soft opening period, and to have booked The Boss for three nights feels like precisely the kind of coup the venue’s operators promised they’d deliver.
The man himself appears ageless; like his contemporary, Mick Jagger, he has you wondering whether he might have made some kind of Faustian pact to still be this electrifyingly energetic long past his 70th birthday. His heartland howl is undiminished, and especially spine-tingling on the indefatigable likes of “Because the Night”, “Thunder Road” and “Born to Run”. His searing storytelling, meanwhile, remains as relevant as ever, particularly when he artfully paints portraits of the plight of America’s working classes on classics like “My Hometown” and “Badlands”.
The magnificent E Street Band were a joy to behold (Photo by Shirlaine Forrest/Getty Images)He shouldn’t be immune to criticism; like the president he rails against, Springsteen is a billionaire, and his ticket prices have inflated so dramatically over the past couple of years that the disillusioned editors of his Backstreets fanzine closed their operation down in protest. But the scale of his righteous fury seems to disarm even his most seasoned fans, as he rips through his catalogue with the vim and vigour of a man happy to stand on the frontline in the battle for democracy’s survival in America.
He closes, pointedly, with a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Chimes of Peace”, the first time he’s played it since 1988 – but it’s what he says mid-set, before “My City of Ruins”, that leaves the deepest impression. “I have hope,” he says, “because I believe in the truth of what James Baldwin said – in this world, there isn’t as much humanity as one would like. But there’s enough.”
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