Before Supergrass however, The Damned appeared. This was an added extra for me as they are considered one of the classic bands of the punk era. In fact, if I am not mistaken, they were the first punk band to release a single. Throughout their career they changed musical styles several times but it was their punk songs I wanted to hear and they did play several of these on the latter part of their set. Unfortunately they suffered from "the curse of the festival setlist" which meant that they had to cut several songs from their usual setlist. One of the songs omitted was their cover of "Alone Again Or" which although it's not a punk song it's my favourite of theirs. At least they played their cover of "Eloise" from roughly the same period. Captain Sensible also acknowledged his solo career when he mentioned "Happy Talk". We said "Captain", he said "Wot?"
We then rushed back to the front to see Supergrass who were celebrating the 30th anniversary of their first album. They played all of it plus a few songs from their other ones. They told us that they had expanded their setlist since they didn't expect to be headlining this date and they also made a joke about Morrissey not being able to appear because "he had cut his little finger" (or something like that).
To sum up it was an unexpected and enjoyable night out and all thanks to Morrissey. Thank you Morrissey!
SETLISTS: THE DAMNED 01. Love Song 02. Machine Gun Etiquette 03. Wait For The Blackout 04. Stranger On The Town 05. Lively Arts 06. The History Of The World (Part 1) 07. I Just Can't Be Happy Today 08. Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde 09. Fan Club 10. Eloise 11. Life Goes On 12. Beware Of The Clown 13. Neat Neat Neat 14. New Rose 15. Smash It Up Encore: 16. White Rabbit 17. Ignite
SUPERGRASS 01. I'd Like To Know 02. Caught By The Fuzz 03. Mansize Rooster 04. Late In The Day 05. Mary 06. Strange Ones 07. Sitting Up Straight 08. Alright 09. Time 10. She's So Loose 11. Lenny 12. Sofa (Of My Lethargy) 13. St. Petersburg 14. Richard III 15. Moving 16. Grace Encore: 17. Sun Hits The Sky 18. Pumping On Your Stereo
When I saw Offspring at Release Athens Festival last year, I thought to myself "Now, if I could only see Green Day as well". I had somehow made a connection in my mind between these two bands, probably because they were both punk bands of the 90's. Well somebody out there must have been thinking the same thing, because a few months later Green Day were announced. So, it goes without saying: I had to go!
I first noticed Green Day when I heard "Basket Case" back in the 90's. In fact I saw the video on MTV. And my first thought was "This sounds like The Jam!". The Jam were of course my favourite band in the early 80's and that's why I liked the song. The next song of theirs that I heard was "When I Come Around". This of course sounded nothing like The Jam, but I liked the song on its own merit. The rest is, as they say, history.
On the day of the festival, I decided to get there earlier than usual. The reason was that one of the support bands were Inhaler. I googled them and found out that their singer was Bono's son. Yes THAT Bono! So while I was approaching the venue, Inhaler were already playing and on hearing them I thought "My God! It's Bono who's singing!". Indeed their voices are so similar. And when I approached the stage I noticed that he looks a lot like his father did when U2 were first starting back in the late 70's and early 80's.
Next up were the Kooks. Now, I had heard that name before and I thought it was in the line up of one of the Greek festivals. However they said that this was their first time in Greece. So I guess it must have been on the line up of a UK festival. In fact as I was writing this I decided to look into the matter. And why was it that every time I heard their name The Killers came to mind? Turns out I was right. They had played at the Hard Rock Calling festival in 2009 supporting The Killers. And I was there! During their set however, I was at the other stage watching Echo And The Bunnymen.
At the end of The Kooks set I headed towards the food stands because I had noticed that my favourite Greek food chain, Jackaroo, was serving food there. So I helped myself to some fried chicken fingers.
By that time Green Day were due to appear soon. I headed back to the stage and their set intro started with a medley of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody and The Ramones' Blitzkrieg Pop while a "Drunk Bunny" was dancing on stage. Then the band came on stage and they launched into "American Idiot". My two favourites, "Basket Case" and "When I Come Around" were played back-to-back, followed a bit later by what seems to be everyone else's favourite Green Day song "Wake Me Up When September Ends" which everybody posts on social media on the first day of September. The highlight of the night was something else though: the snippet of "Iron Man" that they played as a tribute to Ozzy Osbourne who was alive at the time but had appeared in his farewell performance at the Back To The Beginning festival in Birmingham the night before. They also played a snippet of Tom Petty's "Free Falling" as well.
To sum up, the crowd enjoyed it immensely and my only complaint is probably the ticket price which seemed a bit expensive if you compared it with the ticket prices of other festivals or indeed the price of Ejekt Festival's other date.
When, last year, the tickets of this year's tour went on sale, I didn't have any money. But even if I had, it would be very difficult to get a ticket, because this tour basically was a series of rescheduled shows that were cancelled last year when Bruce got sick and had problems with his voice. Which meant that most tickets were already sold and only the tickets of those who had requested their money back would be available. However, i have never since 2008 not attended at least one show each time Bruce was touring Europe. I thought to myself "maybe later I will try to find a second-hand ticket for Milano". Why Milano? Probably because it was the closest - and easiest - destination and I had done this several times in the past.
And so it happened, that during the Christmas holidays I saw a post on a Facebook group of someone selling a ticket fro Milano. After making several enquiries about it (I was mainly concerned about the name printed on the ticket and whether the Italians were going to check ID's), I grabbed it. It was quite a rare specimen because it was a proper printed ticket. Not a computer printout, a proper old-fashioned ticket. A couple of months later I booked my hotel and during the Easter holidays I booked my flight.
When the day finally came, I got on the plane, got to Milano and then went straight to the stadium because my hotel room wasn't ready yet. My usual hotel in the city had been renovated during the pandemic and had now raised its prices to unaffordable levels, but thankfully I found a new affordable one which is also close to the train station. I met an Italian friend outside the stadium and I was able to get my customary tour t-shirt in peace before the crowds arrived. Then I finally made my way to the hotel where after a quick shower (there was a heatwave in Milano during that period) and buying some supplies from the supermarket I headed back to San Siro full of anxiety and doubts on whether the ticket would be recognized when scanned because it was from last year or that I would not be allowed entry because of the wrong ID. Of course nothing of the sort happened and within minutes I was in San Siro for the first time in almost nine years!
Once I was in, I headed for my seat. Thus situation was different this time. Although I wasn't in the arena, I didn't have to climb all the way to the 3rd tier. My seat was at ground level on the first row, just beside the arena. One of the best seats in the house you could say. All around me were people of different nationalities. In fact, beside me there was a Scottish mother and daughter. And while we were waiting there was another thing to worry about: Would Steve make it to the concert? He had undergone surgery a few days before while on tour in Spain and had not performed in the last couple of concerts, the second one at San Sebastian and the one at Gelsenlkirchner. He had said that he hoped to make it for the second one in Milano. However, this was the first Milano concert...
So when Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band appeared on stage starting with "No Surrender" we were both surprised and relieved that Steve was with them. They then continued with "My Love Will Not Let You Down". Naturally, I have loved that song ever since I first heard it on "Tracks", but now it always brings to my mind the version performed by Meryl Streep (yes, you've read that right, Meryl Streep) and her backing band which included Rick Springfield (who many people back in the day confused with Bruce) in the film "Ricki And The Flash". They followed that with "Land Of Hope And Dreams" which you would of course expect them to play since it's the song that lends its name to this year's European leg of the tour, but it has a special significance for me and San Siro, because it was this song that opened the 2013 concert in that stadium and the next one that I attended which was the first 2016 one once again in San Siro!
As they went on I realized how different - and happier - this year's setlists were compared to the ones from 2024 and 2023. Bruce hasn't forgotten his "Letter To You" album, but each year he focuses on different tracks from it. In 2023 and 2024 he was performing the title track and "Ghosts", but also, in acoustic versions, "Last Man Standing" and "I'll See You In My Dreams" which along with "Backstreets" and the story that he was telling us before this song gave the whole setlist a sad feel, remembering friends who had gone. I went along with it because I had then also experienced a loss in my family. Last year he also added "If I Was The Priest", my favourite from that album. Yes, I know that it was one of his old songs that he had reworked for "Letter To You" but that doesn't change the fact that it is a masterpiece and I was glad that I got to hear it both in Cardiff and Belfast. This year however Bruce has decided to celebrate life. So both "Last Man Standing" and "I'll See You In My Dreams" were gone, but he chose two different tracks from "Letter To You". One was a special acoustic version of "House Of A Thousand Guitars" (another favourite, but I prefer the full band version) and the other one was "Rainmaker" which fit into another theme that he was exploring this year: protest (mainly having to do with the situation in the States).
Which is why he also plays "Death To My Hometown", "Youngstown", "Murder Incorporated" and closes each concert with "Chimes Of Freedom" which is another song that I was first eager to hear when I realized that it was a regular this year, and then glad that I finally got to experience it. Along with "Death To My Hometown" he also played the title track from "Wrecking Ball" which goes to show that he still holds that album in high regard. Now, there are several people who say that all Bruce albums after "The Rising" aren't that good, but I strongly disagree. "Magic" was a great album, and "Wrecking Ball" was of course, not just a great album but also very relevant to the time when it was released and I argued about that 10 years after it had come out. Of course most people agree that "Working On A Dream" and "High Hopes" are not that exceptional because they were written and recorded while on tour, but I have a special connection with the former because i had attended four concerts from that tour in which "Outlaw Pete" and the title track were regulars. As if to prove my point about "Magic" (I attended my first Bruce concert on that tour) he also brought back "Long Walk Home". Most of the regular tracks were also performed especially during the encore (from which "Glory Days" was strangely missing) in addition to a full band version of "Thunder Road".
As I left the stadium and headed to the San Siro underground station (with the by now familiar counters showing how many people can enter each time) I had a smile on my face and a satisfaction that even with those difficulties, I managed to attend at least one Bruce concert this year. As I was saying to a friend of mine during the Hooters concert a few days before, Bruce is my therapist. And a week later, from the comfort of my own home I had the chance to somehow relive the experience when a friend of mine who had attended the second Milano concert (which was a lot similar but had a few differences) played the whole setlist on his radio show...
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