Bruce Springsteen is soon landing in Sweden for the first of two concerts at Strawberry Arena. The 74-year-old artist has been responsible for many classic moments on Swedish soil – but which performances from his career belong in a Springsteen live canon?
The selection is vast. When Bruce Springsteen's ongoing tour comes to an end, he will be able to look back on over 3,500 completed performances in his career.
Trying to select a live canon from his extensive CV may seem foolhardy, but there are a few concerts whose five-star status is something fans can agree on. This is particularly noticeable in bootleg circles, where certain recordings are more sought after than others.
Below is a selection of legendary "Boss" performances:
The Main Point
In February 1975, the concert venue The Main Point in the small college town of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, was threatened with closure. A benefit concert with the then relatively unknown Bruce Springsteen (this was six months before "Born to Run" was released) became the rescue.
Thanks to the arrangements with the Israeli violinist Suki Lahav, who was part of the band at the time (and whose playing can be heard in the intro to "Jungleland"), this performance is one of the absolute favorites among connoisseurs.
Back Home
The "Darkness on the Edge of Town" tour in 1978-1979 is generally considered Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band's finest hour together. The band threw themselves out on the roads with burning hunger, after a lawsuit had kept Springsteen away from the studio for three years.
The result is a string of legendary performances, where the first of three concerts at Capitol Theatre in Passaic, New Jersey, in September 1978 has achieved eternal classic status. "Racing in the Street" and "Thunder Road" have never sounded better live.
New Year's Eve
"New Year's bell" in all honor, but it's doubtful whether Jarl Kulle would have managed to ring in the new year for three hours and 38 minutes. But that's exactly what Bruce Springsteen did on New Year's Eve in 1980. The 38-song-long concert at Uniondale, New York, was a sweaty, chaotic, and joyful party that never wanted to end.
Acoustic High Mass
In the early 1990s, Bruce Springsteen was in the middle of a long break from the studio. The band was dissolved, and his focus lay instead on family life. But that didn't stop him from dusting off the guitar for a couple of acoustic solo performances at Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles in November 1990.
The revered first evening became the blueprint for Springsteen's future acoustic solo tours.
Bruce Springsteen's first concert in Sweden took place at the Concert Hall in Stockholm in 1975, a concert where it's said that "2,000 people went in, 20,000 came out", referring to how many claim to have been there.
But when it comes to listing Springsteen's best Sweden visits, there are a few other dates that stand out.
Stockholm, Hovet, 1981:
Back on European soil again after having completely skipped performances outside the US during the previous "Darkness" tour, Springsteen and the band were specially hungry to make an impact. The second of two evenings at Hovet, on May 8, is considered by many fans to be the best performance of the entire European leg of "The River" tour.
Stockholm, Stadium, 1988:
Although the album "Tunnel of Love" has been reevaluated since its release, its synth-driven production was not what Springsteen's fans were craving when it came out. All the more delighted were they when it became clear that the following tour would be precisely the muscular, rock-solid showdown they had missed on the album. This was most evident on July 3 at Stadium, in a nostalgic hit cavalcade that was also broadcast live on radio in several countries.
Gothenburg, Ullevi, 2003:
Yes, the concert at Ullevi on June 8, 1985, is legendary due to the audience literally jumping apart the arena during "Twist and Shout". But in terms of quality and content, Bruce Springsteen's two performances during the midsummer weekend in 2003 in Gothenburg are an ecstatic double whammy that rings in exactly why he should be awarded the Nobel Prize in arena rock – if such an award existed.
Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band will perform at Strawberry Arena on July 15 and 18.
