Bruce Springsteen Live in Cardiff May 2024

 

My last concert of 2023 was Bruce Springsteen And The E  Street Band in Monza. My first concert of 2024 was Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band in Cardiff. But get this: The last concert of the 2023 Bruce Springsteen And The E  Street Band European tour was in Monza. And the first concert of the 2024 Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band tour was in Cardiff. So, effectively I attended back to back Bruce Springsteen concerts! I didn't go to any concert or gig during the winter, there just wasn't much I was interested in and when the 2024 tour was announced and I realized that the first two concerts were during my Easter holidays from work, plus the fact that the second one was in Northern Ireland which was the only part of Britain I hadn't been to yet, I jumped at the chance. I thought, for once, I'll have a stress-free summer with no packing or travel arrangements. Looking back, as I'm writing this today, with Bruce being unable to perform having postponed some of the concerts because of problems with his voice, it proved to be a wise choice as well.

After having seen my last three Bruce concerts from a standing position, I decided to choose a seated one for this (Not that they were any cheaper). Plus, I knew I would be travelling at the very last moment. So after celebrating Easter, for the first time, on a plane, I landed in Gatwick after midnight, where I waited until 6 o'clock to get the National Express to Cardiff. (Trains are currently extremely unreliable in the UK with lots of strikes announced all the time, so I didn't even consider them).

When I arrived in Cardiff, already familiar to me from the U2 concert back in 2009, I met my friends at the city centre. (Thanks to Facebook I have Bruce friends in several countries). After a pint, and as it was getting close to 3pm I went to check-in at my hotel. And guess what! There was a queue there as well, and most of the people checking in were Bruce fans.

After that, it was time to get back to the city centre and head straight from the stadium. By that time it was close to the time Bruce had announced he would be on stage. But I made it in time. It wasn't raining that day, but, just to be on the safe side the stadium roof had been closed. So, in effect, instead of a stadium concert, this felt like a large arena concert. My first Bruce indoor concert in fact!

 

Finally, the lights went out and it was time for that unique moment: The beginning of a tour, the first concert when the band finally appear on stage. And so they did, one by one. And the last one was, of course, Bruce. They immediately launched into "So Young And In Love". We were expecting it of course since it was already known on social media that they had soundchecked it the day before. After that it was time for the welcome return of "Lonesome Day". On previous tours, going back all the way to 2009, some of my Bruce friends, even myself were wondering "Why is he still playing these songs from "The Rising"?" (meaning the title track, "Waiting On A Sunny Day" and "Lonesome Day"). Well, as far as "The Rising" is concerned, it's obvious. it's one of his trademark songs and with a special meaning as well. "Waiting On A Sunny Day" on the other hand, apart from being catchy, served as a vehicle to ask children to sing along with him. (A fact which parents took advantage of, forcing their bemused children to learn the words by heart and then drag them along to the pit, in the hope that Bruce will choose them to sing with him). But "Lonesome Day"? Why? Was it because it was the first single from that album? We all know that the first single isn't necessarily the best track on a Bruce album. However, when, last year, while "preparing" for the concerts at Hyde Park, I listened to "The Essential Bruce Springsteen" 3CD set again it started growing on me after a long time. Probably for personal reasons. I don't know. But the truth of the matter is I was happy to hear it. And it seems that it is a regular on this tour. Another regular is "Better Days". After 16 Bruce concerts the only song from "Human Touch / Lucky Town" that I had heard live was "Lucky Town" in Milano in 2016.

 

 

 

As far as other songs are concerned this year's setlists seem to be based on the core of last year's. Although there is no "Kitty's Back" this year ("My City Of Ruins" seems to have taken its place), "Nightshift" is still the only regular from the "Only The Strong Survive" covers album. From "Letter To You", "Ghosts" is always played while the title track is probably perfomed on every other concert, especially if it's in the same country. The part where he's reminiscing about George Theiss, his friend and bandmate from the Castiles with "Last Man Standing" and "Backstreets" is still there. The solo ending with "I'll See You In My Dreams" is there as well. Along with all the other regulars towards the end. The good news is that "Thunder Road" also seems to be a regular on this tour. However there are more changes to the setlists than last year and requests are starting to come back.

 

But there was one more surprise (well, not a "surprise" per se, since it had also been soundchecked), a song that had been requested on the US leg of the tour by American fans: "If I Was The Priest". One of the old songs that had been reworked for "Letter To You". I was on Viber when he announced it sending video from the concert to a friend. I immediately hung up with "Sorry, I have to go, he's going to play "If I Was The Priest"". And one more piece of good news is that it seems that this is also becoming a regular, at least on the European Leg.

 

And so it was time for the end of the concert. He got us in such a party mood with "Twist And Shout" that I found myself thinking "Please Bruce, go away now, don't end this with "I'll See You In My Dreams"! Let's end this on a happy note!". But of course he did play it. And he still plays it every night. He obviously has his reasons. As he said "Grief is the price we have to pay for having loved well".

It truly was an amazing concert with a more-than-amazing setlist. Everyone agreed on that. By the way, it was my 17th. And now it was time for Belfast (which for me included a short, sightseeing tour in Liverpool...)

 

SETLIST:
01. So Young And In Love
02. Lonesome Day
03. No Surrender
04. Prove It All Night
05. Darlington County
06. Ghosts
07. Better Days
08. The Promised Land
09. Spirit In The Night
10. Hungry Heart
11. If I Was The Priest
12. My City Of Ruins
13. Nightshift
14. The River
15. Last Man Standing
16. Backstreets
17. Because The Night
18. She's The One
19. Wrecking Ball
20. The Rising
21. Badlands
22. Thunder Road
Encore:
23. Born In The U.S.A.
24. Born To Run
25. Bobby Jean
26. Dancing In The Dark
27. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
28. Twist And Shout
Encore 2:
29. I'll See You In My Dreams

U2 Live Under A Cardiff Sky

Now that I have seen U2 live in Rome not just once, but twice, I thought it was time to revisit the previous two times I had seen them, first in Cardiff 8 years ago and then in Athens 7 years ago, both times almost to this day. But first a little bit of history.

I first saw the name "U2" back in 1982 in a Greek (short-lived) magazine called "Phenomenon". I thought it was a strange name for a band but I didn't investigate any further. A year and a half later I read in another Greek magazine, POP+ROCK (the best selling music magazine in Greece at that time) this: "Jim Kerr, lead singer of The Simple Minds got on stage at a U2 concert to sing "Gloria" with their lead singer Bono". Simple Minds were one of my favourite bands at that time so I went and bought the U2 live album that had just been released "U2 Live Under A Blood Red Sky" the opening track of which was "Gloria". The rest is, as they say, history...

I managed to see Simple Minds live for the first time in 2006 when they came to Athens. During that gig I was thinking "now I've seen Simple Minds but I haven't seen U2 yet". I finally managed to do that, 3 years later in Cardiff.

On the day of the concert, from early in the morning the city was dancing to the beat of U2.

It took place at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium which was celebrating its 10th anniversary.

They played all those songs I expected to hear, some that I didn't expect ("Mysterious Ways", "Stay" - I thought they wouldn't play anything from Zooropa anymore - Plus their best live track ever "Bad").

There were several songs from their latest - at that time - album "No Line On The Horizon" which I enjoyed since it was the first time I had liked a new U2 album so much since "Achtung Baby".

"Magnificent", "Unknown Caller" and especially the title track "No Line On The Horizon" were my favourites. I didn't think much of "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight", which was the next single, and seemed to have been added to the album at the last minute (I made this assumption based on the fact that it was not featured in the Anton Corbijn film featured on the DVD that is included with some editions of the album). A better choice for a single, in my opinion, would have been "No Line On The Horizon" or "Moment Of Surrender".

The highlights of the night were the Desmond Tutu intro to "One" and the volunteers who walked in front of the stage during "Walk On".

The encore started with "Ultraviolet", and just as we were thinking, during "With Or Without You", that everything was over because they said goodbye and the time was 10:30pm (the curfew), they also played "Moment Of Surrender", one of their best songs of the album.

As can be seen from the photo, the 360 degree stage was not placed exactly at the centre of the stadium.

And although all 4 band members were moving all over its length and width (including the "bridges¨), most of the action was taking place at the front part.

And that's how, with the Cardiff concert, the 2009 European leg of the U2 360 Tour ended.

On another note, Cardiff was a wonderful city, and very easy to move around in, since in a radius of only a few metres the railway station, my hotel and the Millennium Stadium were located.

I was in a very central place, where later at night I could witness all the people coming out of the clubs and pubs. They were mostly eating takeaways and throwing their rubbish on the street. At some point they would go gome and then... that's when the seagulls would appear landing on the high street, walking around it as if they owned it and enjoying all the leftovers that were thrown away. They would only leave in the late morning when the municipal garbage trucks appeared.

So that's what I saw in Cardiff, a year later I would see U2 again in Greece...

CARDIFF Setlist
01. Breathe
02. No Line On The Horizon
03. Get On Your Boots
04. Magnificent
05. Beautiful Day
06. Mysterious Ways
07. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
08. Stay
09. Unknown Caller
10. Unforgettable Fire
11. City Of Blinding Lights
12. Vertigo
13. I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight (Remix)
14. Sunday Bloody Sunday
15. Pride (In The Name of Love)
16. MLK
17. Walk On
18. Where The Streets Have No Name
19. One
20. Bad
--------
21. Ultraviolet
22. With Or Without You
23. Moment Of Surrender

Πέρσι στο Cardiff

Είδα για πρώτη φορά το όνομα U2 το 1982 στο PHENOMENON, ένα περιοδικό που έβγαζε τότε ο Μάκης Μηλάτος (δεν κράτησε και πολύ, αλλά ίσως να ήταν μπροστά από την εποχή του μια που χωριζόταν σε ενότητες - Μουσική, Κινηματογράφος, HI-FI, κτλ...). Τι περίεργο όνομα, σκέφτηκα...
Δεν το έψαξα παραπέρα. 1 1/2 χρόνο αργότερα διαβάζω στο ΠΟΠ+ΡΟΚ : "Ο Jim Kerr των Simple Minds, ανέβηκε στη σκηνή σε συναυλία των U2 και τραγούδησε μαζί με τον Bono το Gloria". Επειδή οι Simple Minds ήταν ένα από τα αγαπημένα μου συγκροτήματα εκείνη την εποχή και μια που μόλις είχε κυκλοφορήσει live δίσκος των U2, ο οποίος άρχιζε μάλιστα με το Gloria (U2 LIVE UNDER A BLOOD RED SKY), τον αγόρασα. The rest is, as they say, history...
Είχα την τύχη να δω τους Simple Minds το 2006 που ήρθαν στο Αθηνών Αρένα. Δεν μπόρεσα να πάω το 1997 στους U2 στη Θεσσαλονίκη γιατί ήμουν φαντάρος. Τελικά, πέρσι στο Cardiff της Ουαλίας τους είδα για πρώτη φορά. Και απόψε στο Ολυμπιακό Στάδιο, αν όλα πάνε καλά, θα τους δω για δεύτερη.

Από νωρίς το πρωί η πόλη ζούσε σε ρυθμούς U2

Η συναυλία έγινε στο Millennium Stadium του Cardiff που γιόρταζε τα 10 χρόνια του

Έπαιξαν όλα αυτά που περίμενα να ακούσω, κάποια που δεν τα περίμενα (Mysterious Ways, Stay - νόμιζα ότι δεν έπαιζαν πλέον τίποτε από το Zooropa - και το καλύτερο κομμάτι των U2 για live το Bad).




Αρκετά κομμάτια από το καινούργιο, κάτι που δεν με πείραξε, μια που το τελευταίο album το θεωρώ πάρα πολύ καλό, για την ακρίβεια, πρώτη φορά μου άρεσε τόσο πολύ καινούργιο album U2 από την εποχή του Achtung Baby και μετά.



Magnificent, Unknown Caller και το αγαπημένο μου ομώνυμο κομμάτι (No Line On The Horizon). Δεν με πολυενθουσίασε το I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight, που ήταν και το επόμενο single, αλλά φαίνεται να μπήκε στο album τελευταια στιγμή (κάνω αυτή την υπόθεση μια και δεν υπάρχει στο φιλμάκι του Anton Corbijn στο DVD που συνοδεύει ορισμένες εκδόσεις του album). Πιο καλή επιλογή για single θα ήταν το No Line On The Horizon ή το Moment Of Surrender.
Highlights της βραδιάς η εισαγωγή του Desmond Tutu στο One και οι εθελοντές που περπάτησαν μπροστά στη σκηνή στο Walk On.

To encore ξεκίνησε με το Ultraviolet, και εκεί που νομίσαμε στο With Or Without You ότι είχαν τελειώσει όλα μιας και μας αποχαιρετήσανε και είχε πάει η ώρα 10 και μισή (το curfew), έπαιξαν και το Moment Of Surrender, ένα από τα καλύτερα του τελευταίου album.

Όπως φαίνεται και στη φωτογραφία, η σκηνή των 360 μοιρών δεν ήταν τοποθετημένη ακριβώς στο κέντρο

και παρόλο που και τα 4 μέλη της μπάντας μετακινούνταν σε όλο το πλάτος και το μήκος της (συν τις "γέφυρες¨), η περισσότερη δράση λάβαινε χώρα στο μπροστινό μέρος

Κάπως έτσι, με τη συναυλία στο Cardiff, τελείωσε η περσινή Ευρωπαϊκή περιοδεία των U2

Κατά τ'άλλα, πολύ ωραία πόλη το Cardiff, και με μεγάλη ευκολία στις μετακινήσεις, μια και σε απόσταση λίγων μέτρων μεταξύ τους βρίσκονταν ο σιδηροδρομικός σταθμός, το ξενοδοχείο μου και το Millennium Stadium.



Ήμουνα μάλιστα σε κεντρικό σημείο, όπου το βράδυ βγαίναν όλοι από τα clubs και τις pubs. Πηγαίναν τότε για το δικό τους αντίστοιχο βρώμικο και πετούσαν τα χαρτιά κάτω. Κάποια στιγμή πηγαίναν σπίτι τους και τότε... εμφανίζονταν οι γλάροι που προσγειώνονταν σαν κύριοι στον κεντρικό δρόμο της πόλης και αναλάμβαναν όλα τα πεταμένα αποφάγια. Έφευγαν, μόνο όταν εμφανίζονταν το πρωί τα οχήματα καθαριότητας του δήμου.

Αυτά λοιπόν είδα πέρσι στο Cardiff, για να δούμε τι θα δούμε και στο ΟΑΚΑ απόψε...

CARDIFF Setlist
Breathe
No Line On The Horizon
Get On Your Boots
Magnificent
Beautiful Day
Mysterious Ways
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Stay
Unknown Caller
Unforgettable Fire
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight (Remix)
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Pride (In The Name of Love)
MLK
Walk On
Where The Streets Have No Name
One
Bad
--------
Ultraviolet
With Or Without You
Moment of Surrender