2023-04-28 Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, Barcelona, Spain

Scheduled: 21:00 Local Start Time 20:58 / End Time 23:52

Info & Setlist | Venue

The European tour begins with a 28-song set including the tour debut of "Human Touch". Patti Scialfa does not participate in most of the show, but does join on backing vocals and tambourine for "Glory Days" along with Michelle Obama and Kate Capshaw. First ever performances in Europe for "Ghosts", "Letter To You", "Nightshift", "Last Man Standing", and "I'll See You In My Dreams". "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" is dropped for the first time on the tour.

Mike Saunders

It was a challenging day. As mentioned before, I’m getting too old for this shit but I keep on keeping on, as you do. On the way to the venue, we took a detour to Palau Robert to check out the great exhibition of photographs by Francesc Fabregas from Bruce’s first Barcelona show in 1981. While there, we met our old friend Salvador, who contributed to and collaborated on the project. After that, it was back on the funicular to Montjuic to join the long and winding GA queue, which snaked around the stadium and curled back on itself at one stage. Organization did not appear to be a strong point. Those with pit tickets and normal GA tickets were required to join the same queue and would apparently be divided up later. There was a disturbing lack of stewards, informative signage, toilets and crowd control barriers, with ever-present opportunities for people to push in. As did four loudmouthed drunks from the UK, right in front of us. Cheers guys. Luckily we lost them later. It was otherwise a pleasant sunny afternoon in the company of thousands of others just like us, eagerly anticipating an E Street show for the first time in over six years. After a seemingly interminable circuit of the entire sports complex around the stadium, up and down numerous flights of steps, we were finally split up into designated lanes, fitted with wristbands and allowed into the back end of the stadium. We then had to walk the length of the field to gain access to the pit. We’d hoped for a comfortable position at the back, but it was already very crowded there (and would get worse later), so we decided to head for the far right, where there was an all-important barrier to lean on or sit against, plenty of room to move and a great uninterrupted view. And there we stayed, relaxing and talking to friends who passed by (Danny, Sergio, Malcolm, Paul, Beverly, Laurie, Roger, Winni) until just before 9, when the stadium lights dimmed to a deafening roar from one of Bruce’s most fervent audiences, and the first show of his 2023 European tour got under way with No Surrender. I don’t intend to bang on for too long about the gig because many of you out there will already know everything about it thanks to the interweb and my main priority today has been to celebrate my birthday once I woke up. Suffice to say that it was a powerful performance, the band were firing on all cylinders and Bruce appeared to have lost little of his vocal power since he last toured with E Street. The sound was excellent from our position, as was the lighting. The basic set hasn’t seen any significant changes since the tour began in February, so it was nice to get the tour debut of Human Touch, with hundreds of cellphones held aloft. Patti Scialfa usually features on that one, but she only turned up to sing backing vocals on Glory Days with friends Michelle Obama and Steven Spielberg’s wife Kate Capshaw. Having started this journey over 40 years ago, and being a fan of the early 70s material, it was wonderful to hear Kitty’s Back and The E Street Shuffle, not to mention Backstreets and She’s The One. Admittedly I was less enthused about Mary’s Place and the BITUSA material, but to each his own. The inclusion of songs from Letter To You was always a bonus, and the solo acoustic (often less is more) Last Man Standing and I’ll See You In My Dreams were among the highlights, with the lyrics (and spoken intro) translated in Catalan on the high-definition screens. Throughout the set, Jon Landau wandered unrecognized around the pit, passing close to us on several occasions. The show seemed to fly past, and before we knew it, Bruce was saying goodnight as midnight approached, our first taste of the new tour in its outdoor phase (the default setting in Europe) at an end. The long trek down to ground level with thousands of others was another test of endurance, as we traversed hundreds of steps (and rode on the occasional life-saving escalator). By the time we got back to our apartment around 1.45, my knees were screaming for me to get horizontal. In the past, we took long hours of queueing and challenging locations in our stride, but as the years pass, they become more of a struggle. What we once didn’t even think about is fast becoming unthinkable. After spending a while on our favorite balcony discussing the show, we finally retired to bed around 2.45.

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