The Boss

Bruce Springsteen finished off the Hard Rock Calling weekend at Hyde Park last night and it was clear to see what makes The Boss still relevant to anyone interested in new music. He’s got a back catalogue to make anyone envious – last night he played ‘Born To Run’, ‘Racing In The Street’, ‘Dancing In The Dark’, but despite a three hour set couldn’t find time for ‘Born In The U.S.A.’, ‘Thunder Road’ or ‘The River’ – but really, it wasn’t the old hits that underpinned the success of this relentless live performance.

Rather, it was the newer material that kept the show from ever feeling like a night at a karaoke bar. It was ‘Radio Nowhere’ and ‘Outlaw Pete’ that made the set feel fresh and it was ‘Working On A Dream’ that got Springsteen himself more fired up than ‘Badlands’ or even ‘Jungleland’ could. Midway through the title track of his latest album, the singer slowed the music and fought his way through a preacher-like sermon about taking all of everyone’s despair and building a house of hope. The effect was electrifying and could never have been replicated if Springsteen had simply been trying to rehash the emotion he felt when first writing ‘Johnny 99’ (tonight played with full-band and spiritually unrecognisable from the ‘Nebraska’ version). Those old songs may still stand out as some of the best in musical history but these days they belong to the people as much as Bruce and so the purity of the songwriter’s original tunnelled focus is always going to be compromised. It’s his more recent music, then, that actually proves much more interesting. It’s that which keeps him in charge of proceedings at Hyde Park.

On Friday night, The Killers headlined the first Hard Rock Calling show. They’re already starting to learn that same important lesson – give the crowd what they want, but know too that the crowd is never the best judge of exactly what that is. Given the choice, The Killers’ audience might demand ‘Mr. Brightside’ three times over and the better known songs off ‘Hot Fuss’ instead of the stuff they haven’t quite learnt the words to yet. But again it’s the newer material that hits home hardest in Hyde Park. ‘Human’ is blistering, and charges along – not just fuelled by the knowledge that it’s a great song, but equally by the fact that the emotion which created it still exists in that original form. Five years on from its release, ‘Smile Like You Mean It’ sounds good, but thin by comparison. The Kooks, main support for The Killers, are only on their second album and so the same distance may not exist between ‘She Moves In Her Own Way’ and the present day. As a result the ‘Inside In/Inside Out’ tracks still sound strong – it’s true nonetheless, though, that ‘Sway’ makes the most powerful impression of the night.

So, what to say about Saturday night’s headliner, Neil Young? The stand out moments of his show are ‘Old Man’ and ‘Heart Of Gold’, songs released thirty seven years ago! But in this case it’s worth bearing two things in mind. Firstly, I never really liked Neil Young much anyway and secondly, I was very drunk. Which just goes to show that if you’re drinking and messing about, well, you might as well save your ticket money and go listen to a jukebox instead.