2007-12-04 Oslo Spektrum, Oslo, Norway
Chartres Bruce kicked off the show, as usual, with the single "Radio Nowhere" more then an hour late. The first thing that hits me is that the Norwegian fans is very subdued, after the opening riff everyone stood virtually still. It took half the concert till they woke up by the classic "The Promised Land" — and when they woke up so did the E-Street Band (especially Clemons who smiled thru the entire song). The live highlights became the classics who were slotted in the end and in the encore that people really responded to — and that gave the band some well needed energy to feed from. By "Born To Run" Steve van Zandt, who had been running on and off the stage thru the whole set, woke up and began interact with the audience and by "Dancing In The Dark" he began to flirt with the audience. Still the performances of "Reason To Believe" and "Jackson Cage" were great and musically probably the best of the evening. It was a bit sad but I got the feeling that most people did not know much of the old material such as "She's The One" and "Cadillac Ranch", one explanation however might be that the sound quality was terrible. I stood two meters from the front (thanks due borderline incompetent security) and I wasn't able to hear much at all of Bruce's interaction with the audience (mainly involving civil rights & politics), I couldn't even hear a word of the band introduction! The quality during the songs were OK (but just OK) but "Tunnel Of Love" was barely recognizable. Not said that the concert did not have it's moments, Bruce's charisma is all you need and the decision to use "American Land" as the closer is perfect. And Clemons as Santa in "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" will be long remembered. The set list was in general very good, my only complaint is that his concerts has gotten shorter, but I guess that's something you have to accept. He leaves when the show is at it's high and we're all screaming for more, that's how a concert should end.
Thomas Eriksson It was a long and cold day. Got up at 4 a.m and stood in line with two friends for the Gothenburgh shows in July -08. After many hours we finally scored, and tired but happy we got in the car to drive for the Oslo show. Arrived about 4 hours before the show and joined our 2nd line of the day. Finally let inside the arena, excitement grew by the minute. By the time the bans took the stage the crowd was already going bananas. We stood about 5 meters from the stage and had great view of everything. The arena in Oslo is small, only about 9.000 people, so it felt kind of like a small club gig. Radio Nowhere opened and I immediately started crying like a baby, out of pure happiness. Sobbed my way all through No Surrender before I could control myself. The intensity of the show was great, due to the small venue, the band in a crazy mood (even Gary danced like a madman occasionally) and an enthusiastic crowd. The setlist was superb, and for myself, I have always wanted to hear Cadillac Ranch live. I got totally witless during that one and sang my heart out! Other personal favorites were No Surrender, The Rising and the dramatic version of Reason to Believe. Me and my friends were very happy afterwards. Only little complaint was that they "only" played for 2.15 hrs… we're used to about 3 hrs but hey, they're getting old… maybe summer shows will be longer.
Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License