LONDON, England – Bruce Springsteen was not going to let event promoters cancel his performance at Hyde Park 11 years ago.

“F— ’em is right,” Springsteen exclaimed, feigning fear that an impending curfew might stop his sold-out event Thursday in front of 65,000 fans.

Springsteen, still going strong at 73, had an earlier start and raced through a three-hour set Thursday in rapid succession. He took a few steps to think about the passage of time and the loss of friends.

The 28-song set included anthemic classics such as “Born in the USA,” “Prove it All Night,” and “Born to Run,” as well as several newer songs and one cover in a show that leaned heavily on a message of mortality but felt more like a celebration of life as an enthusiastic audience sang along on a beautiful summer evening.

“London, is anyone alive out there tonight?” he yelled in an entrance to “Mary’s Place,” one of the numerous songs that featured the E Street Band’s crisp horn section, dueling keyboards, and excellent collection of backup singers, all backed up by tens of thousands of amateurs. “If you’re still alive, I’m still alive.” And that is why we came here.”

The tour, Springsteen’s first in seven years, began in February in Tampa and has included nearly the same set list every night, which is rare for a performer who has frequently played requests fans leave on handwritten placards.

Springsteen and the E Street Band took the stage shortly after 7 p.m. to a shout of “Bruuuuuuce,” which can be misinterpreted as booing by the uninformed. Springsteen donned a black button-snap shirt with short sleeves folded to show off his still-taut pipes, dark pants cuffed at the ankle, and oxblood Doc Martens boots with short-cropped silvery hair slicked back.

Following the obligatory ‘Hello London’, he quickly counted out ‘one, two, three, four’ for the chest-thumping drum opening to ‘No Surrender’, which had fans howling and the band rushing forward as a hard-rocking goods train.

Bruce Springsteen would not let event promoters cancel his performance at Hyde Park 11 years ago.

Even the opening monologue about camaraderie and the power of music, with its memorable statement about learning “more from a three-minute record… than we ever learned in school,” caught the evening’s subject.

“Young faces grow sad and old,” he sings in a line that leads to “I’m ready to grow young again” before the chorus pledge of “no retreat… no surrender.”

He then sang “Ghosts,” a soaring ode to his bandmates, ending with “I’m alive and I’m out here on my own/I’m alive and I’m comin’ home.”

Springsteen, though, was not alone. He was joined by 17 members of the E Street Band, which has been rocking for 50 years, including some of the band’s longest-serving members: guitarists Little Steven Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren, drummer Max Weinberg, bassist Garry Tallent, and keyboardist Roy Bittan.

At the climax of the song, saxophonist Jake Clemons, the nephew of Springsteen’s longtime sax player and friend Clarence Clemons, who died in 2011, placed his arm around Springsteen’s shoulder as they sang a seemingly endless string of la-la-la’s. Then, as he had done throughout the night, Clemons stepped center stage and screamed on his gleaming sax.

Despite a few tour cancellations due to undisclosed sickness, Springsteen remains a powerful performer, moving slightly stiffly as he rushed along the stage or descended several steps to slap hands and pose for photographs with the exuberant front-row audience.

Bruce Springsteen would not let event promoters cancel his performance at Hyde Park 11 years ago.

During a rousing rendition of “Out in the Street,” in which he sings, “I walk the way I want to walk,” he staggered back to the stage. It wasn’t as uncomfortable as a tumble on stage during a May engagement in Amsterdam. Clemons sat next to him on the steps as he finished the song.

He led the E Street Band like a symphony, flailing his arms, swinging his right hand to signify a downbeat, or counting out time with his right hand. He joked about doing the motions in the mirror at night.

After a more than ten-minute jazz jam on “Kitty’s Back,” in which Springsteen opened the song by running his fingers along the fretboard of his Fender electric guitar, producing a screeching wail of feedback and growling like Tom Waits, the band eased into “Night Shift,” a Commodores tribute to R&B singers Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson. The song on his last album of soul covers, “Only the Strong Survive,” included wonderful backup vocals by Curtis King, whose astonishing ability to nail high notes made Springsteen smile.

The band took a break halfway through the show, and Springsteen approached the mic alone with an acoustic guitar. The crowd remained motionless as he described how, in 1965, he “embarked on the greatest adventure of my young life” by joining his first band, The Castiles. A half-century later, he found himself on the deathbed of the band’s founder, George Theiss, and realized he’d soon be the only survivor of that bunch of guys.

“Death is like standing on the railway tracks with a train bearing down on you,” he explained. “It brings a certain clarity of thought, purpose, and meaning.” Death’s final and lasting gift to all of us is a broader perspective on life. “How vital it is to seize the day whenever possible.”

“At 15, it’s all hellos, and later on, there’s a lot more hard goodbyes,” he explained. “So take care of yourself and those you care about.”

Bruce Springsteen would not let event promoters cancel his performance at Hyde Park 11 years ago.

He then sang “Last Man Standing,” inspired by Theiss’ death, from his most recent album of original material, “Letter to You,” released in 2020.

Springsteen classics such as “Because the Night,” “Badlands,” “Thunder Road,” “Glory Days,” and “Dancing in the Dark” were then ripped through by the band. Even with everyone singing loudly, they couldn’t drown out Bruce’s tremendous voice or the sound system that was amplifying it.

During a rollicking “Tenth Avenue Freezeout,” a video montage featuring the larger-than-life figure called “The Big Man,” and former organist and accordionist Danny Federici, who died in 2008, played behind the band.

Springsteen appeared alone with an acoustic guitar and harmonica for an encore, joking that he was only getting warmed up.

He then sang, “I’ll see you in my Dreams,” a lullaby-like ode to mortality inspired by the death of yet another buddy.

“For death is not the end,” he sang, “’cause I’ll see you in my dreams.”

SOURCE – (AP)