BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN (London Wembley Stadium, 15/06/13)

Now I understand why he's called the Boss. For years, I'd ignored Springsteen due to a distaste for “Born In The USA” and his reputation for over-earnest cheesiness, but I've come to realise my terrible error. For this three hour show plus at Wembley Stadium was truly worthy of the epithet “epic,” a showcase of quality songwriting, peerless musicianship and the all-consuming charisma of Bruce. His tricks and gimmicks may be well practiced (the placards, the back-to-back runthrough of an entire album, the getting a child up to sing on stage), but they're so effective they feel spontaneous and natural. Jake Clemons has taken up his legendary uncle's mantle with aplomb - although they didn't play Jungleland (the sole disappointment of the night), he absolutely killed the solo of “Born To Run”- and the rest of the E-Street Band were tight as fuck despite the partly-unplanned setlist and the sheer length of the show (31 songs!) Doubtlessly the gig of the year, and one that made me sincerely regret not checking him out sooner.

(Photo: petereduk)