Review: Bruce Springsteen, Anfield, Liverpool

The Herald Scotland

05-06-2025

Five or six songs into the set, a friend's Apple Watch alerted him that the sound levels had reached 100db. To which the only meaningful response was: yes, it's loud, but it's not often we get the chance to see Bruce Springsteen live on stage, so the risk of hearing damage somehow seems worth it.
This was an extraordinary show at Anfield stadium, home of Liverpool FC. Springsteen, playing the city for the first time, reminded us that he is rock music's great showman. He was playful and energetic the next, sombre and understated the next.
Several times he walked down a flight of steps to where the front rows of fans were corralled behind barriers and touched outstretched hands. At one point he performed a brief harmonica duet with a girl who was perched on someone's shoulders and had arrived with her own harmonica. The huge video screens appeared to show him presenting her with his.
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Without mentioning Donald Trump by name Springsteen made his contempt for him crystal clear, repeating the much-publicised message about a 'corrupt, incompetent and treasonous' US administration he had delivered at a Manchester gig a few weeks ago. Other songs, such as Death to my Hometown and Wrecking Ball, were delivered with a venomous edge.
Throughout it all - and this was a standard-length set for Springsteen and the E Street Band, beginning at 7.38 and finishing at 10.22 - he was never less than compelling. And, at the end, he looked genuinely touched by the warmth of the Liverpool reception he received.
The concert opened with My Love Will Not Let You Down, Lonesome Day and an impassioned Land of Hope and Dreams, the song that has given the tour its name.
The great Springsteen songs came one after another, with barely a pause for breath inbetween: No Surrender, Rainmaker, which was introduced with a reference to a certain unnamed demagogue, Atlantic City, The Promised Land (with that impromptu harmonica duet), Hungry Heart, The River.
Murder Incorporated was particularly rousing, notable for a guitar duel between Springsteen and Steven Van Zandt. The lines in House of a Thousand Guitars about the 'criminal clown' who has 'stolen the crown/he steals what he can never own' occasioned a rousing cheer.
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The E Street Band, augmented by a brass section and a handful of backing singers, were in blistering form. Jake Clemons replicated perfectly the original sax parts played by his late uncle Clarence. Guitarist Nils Lofgren performed axe heroics that hearkened back to solo albums of his, such as Cry Tough. Max Weinberg was as ever a powerhouse behind his drum kit.
The Rising, Thunder Road and Badlands gave way to a dazzling series of encores, the stadium floodlights illuminating the exuberant crowd on the pitch, including a young woman who had been dancing with a saltire held up behind her back, like angel's wings.
And what a way to end the gig, as the threatened rain finally came on: Born in the USA, Born to Run, Bobby Jean and Dancing in the Dark all ushering in a joyous Twist and Shout - a nod to the Beatles in their home city - and Bob Dylan's 1964 classic, Chimes of Freedom, introduced by Springsteen as 'one of the great songs of freedom'.
Springsteen's progressive politics, and his distaste at what has been termed 'darkness on the edge of America', are well known. It's not often that a major artist can urge his audience to rise up against authoritarianism and make them want to sign up for the cause. At Liverpool he did all this and more, and enthralled his fans, young and old, with songs of beauty and unfeigned compassion.
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band play Anfield on Saturday night