The boss calls the Trump government corrupt

An old show business saying reads: start your show with a bang effect-and from then on it will be continuously increasing. So they started Stones Your appearances with a lot of commitment to pyrotechnics, AC/DC drowned a bell, fell P! NK (roped) from the stage roof. Bruce Springsteen has cultivated the opposing draft for decades, the unspectacular concert start. Only one after the other the members of the E Street band stroll on the stage, last but not least, the boss appears, greets the round and counts « A One, Two, Three, for »-and the wild ride.

On his current European tour, Springsteen has further slowed down this ritual. Before the first tone sounded, the audience in Berlin also heard a political speech. Bruce Springsteen spoke plain text. « The America that I love and about which I have sung for so long … is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treacherous government. » And further: « Tonight we ask everyone who thinks of democracy and the best of our American experiment to get up with us, to raise your voices, to stand against authoritarianism with us. »

Bruce Springsteen gives a speech with German overtitles in the concert

The boss set the tone for the evening in the Olympic Stadium. Many of the 29 songs in the setlist could be interpreted as a political comment. Sometimes less, sometimes more, sometimes very obvious. « Twist and Shout » is of course nothing more than a simple good mood maker. « Rainmaker », on the other hand, alludes to the demagogues these days by telling the charlatan that promises the drought -plagued farmers the rain. In « House of a Thousand Guitars » the text line is loudly cheered, in which it is said that a criminal clown is now sitting on the throne.

In order for the message to come across unequivocally, Springsteen lets a German overtitement on the gigantic video walls run in some songs. There is also another five -minute speech to the middle of the concert in German. A proof that Springsteen does not spontaneously talk out of a mood. His text is carefully prepared, the words are chosen exactly. Almost pleaded he asks to believe that this great country USA, which he has been enthusiastic about for 50 years, still gives it.

Bruce Springsteen appears as the ambassador of the good America

Is that clear to everyone in the audience? Does it take care of it? Of course not. After the concert, in the subway, voices can also be heard as « so many speeches would not have needed it ». But overall, consent predominates significantly. Springsteen appears as an ambassador of another, good America, a country, not without mistakes. But despite everything, a « Land of Hope and Dreams », a country of hopes and dreams, a song title, according to the motto of this persuasion through Europe.

The man, whose name Springsteen never speaks once, has « far overestimated » the boss and cheated as a « Dörrplaum ». There are people who agree with him. Fans have lost fans in the USA. His guitarist and Compagnon Steven van Zandt even believes that half of the audience had turned their back on them at home.

There is nothing to be felt in Europe. In England and France, at the first stations of the tour, the arenas were full. Likewise the Olympic Stadium in Berlin. And there are no more tickets for the other two appearances in Germany, Frankfurt and Gelsenkirchen.

The boss also knows how to arouse emotions in the Berlin Olympic Stadium

In this country, the show also works for those who put or ignore the political factor. The now 75-year-old Springsteen is a show biz professional, one of those who has mastered the game in the arenas for decades. One who knows how to arouse emotions. One who has sweat, tears and goosebumps in the repertoire. One who, if you think, can now no longer be increased by the level of the euphoria, still conjures up an ace from the up rolled out sleeves. One in which the long -standing fans loudly agree if it is called « We ain’t that young exlyor » in « Thunder Road » – we are no longer so young. One that the audience ultimately forgives the sometimes suboptimal stadium sound. Because he offers something for everyone: hits for the average fans, rarities for the connoisseurs. And so, for example, the rather less common « My City of Ruins » becomes an elegiac highlight in the almost three -hour program.

At the end of the show, Springsteen said goodbye to his supporters with another American legend: « Chimes of Freedom », the bells of freedom, written by Bob Dylan, he dedicates all those who were already there when the young Bruce was allowed to appear in 1988 as one of the few western artists in East Berlin at the time. A concert that went into the history books.

In the British edition of the magazine Rolling Stone In an article about the Springsteen guest game in Liverpool last week, he had managed to change the life of those in the stadium that evening. Probably too high in the euphoria of the moment. But whether Liverpool or Berlin or anywhere else: Nobody will forget an evening with Bruce Springsteen. Even if the show didn’t start with a big bang.