If you’re mad, you haven’t been paying attention: Bruce Springsteen live in Liverpool
The Cavern Club is a pretty unassuming place. Tucked away on a street in Liverpool, if not for all the signs pointing in its direction and the flock of tourists surrounding the place to take photos, you’d be at risk of walking straight by it. Still a functioning pub that sees singers take to the stage to deliver crowd-pleasing performances, it’s one of the most historically relevant venues in the UK, as it’s where The Beatles once called home. Or, according to Bruce Springsteen as he took to the stage for his first ever show in Liverpool, it’s “where it all began”.
The Beatles’ stamp on music is something that can never be undermined. It wasn’t just what they were making, but the relevancy of the time they were making it. As both the UK and the US struggled to get back on their feet following the devastation of World War II, people worked dead-end jobs and tried to find a place in what were otherwise pretty miserable countries at the time. Then the Beatles came along and showed those people how to have fun again.
As many have put it prior, it was like going to bed in a black and white world, then waking up and it’s filled with colour. Those four lads from around the corner booted the door off the hinges and, in doing so, ushered in a world of hope and dreams. When four people with questionable haircuts have the potential to do that, how can you ever undermine the power of music?
Bruce Springsteen certainly never has. The first time he heard The Beatles track ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’, he knew that regardless of whether he was playing covers in coffee shops or originals in stadiums, he would dedicate his life to being a musician. He was with his mother in the car when the song first came on, and upon hearing the revolutionary ballad that would soon take over the States, he told her to stop the car so he could call his girlfriend from a payphone and tell her to put the radio on.
The music of The Beatles, paired with the lyrical stylings of people like John Lennon and later Bob Dylan, all gave Springsteen an early insight into the power of music. Not only that it could be fun, but also that it could mean something, that it could educate, and that it could convey a message more effectively than any other form of communication. Springsteen, now 75 years old, has dedicated the last six decades to perfecting his craft and learning to deliver these messages.
On his most recent The Land of Hope and Dreams Tour, we are seeing him do that more effectively than he ever has throughout his entire career, as everything from the setlist, to his speeches, to the colour choices of Steve Van Zandt’s guitar all make his viewpoint clear. Make no mistake, though, what he’s saying isn’t anything new; it’s just that the subject matter has never been in the public eye as much as it is now. Springsteen has been unwavering in his societal and political beliefs, and if you’re a fan angry by his recent outbursts, then you haven’t been paying attention.
The crowd takes a while to fill up as an anxious Anfield eagerly awaits the arrival of ‘The Boss’. Stadium halls are flooded with those navigating pints and pizza, talking about work, life and how expensive a can of Kronenberg is. The chatter on the ground is a mirror image, conversations are idle, mumbled and hurried at risk of missing the first glimpse of Springsteen when he takes to the stage. That focal point stands like a patriotic monolith, the UK flag blowing on the left side and its US counterpart on the right. Merseyside air runs cold on the face, overpriced pint in palm runs colder still, accents worldwide greet neighbours for the next few hours, and seats are taken in the packed-out stadium. Cheers rise up as the E Street Band make their way onto the stage, the loudest of which are reserved for Jake Clemons, Steve Van Zandt and the ceremonial “Bruuuuuuuce” as the main man enters frame.
This is Springsteen at his most emotional. His first pro-America anti-Donald Trump speech came before he had played a note, as he called out the “corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous” man who he believes currently sits in the Oval Office. He sings songs like ‘Land of Hope and Dreams’ and ‘Death to My Hometown’ with a pain and grit incomparable to other shows. A particularly poignant moment comes as he introduces ‘Long Walk Home’ as a “prayer for my country”, before he and the band deliver a gospel-infused rendition of a track that has never felt more politically relevant.
The messages don’t stop there. Springsteen shows the power of unity as he takes to the audience, shaking hands with those attending and revelling in those who have dedicated so many years of their lives to him. As the camera pans the front row, faces young and old scream in joy at the slightest glimpse from a man who many consider untouchable, reaching out to be touched. Steve Van Zandt switches guitar every song, one change of note being during the track ‘No Surrender’ where he opts for a Fender, the colours of the Ukrainian flag. When the E Street band play, sing, and solo, they do so with a pleading disposition, one that is not only trying to entertain but also to beg for a return to a country that Springsteen once called the “land of hope and dreams”. This is Springsteen at his most emotional, but his message is the same one he’s been delivering for 50 years.
“I’ve spent my life singing about where we’ve succeeded and where we’ve come up short […] but things are happening at home right now that are altering the very nature of our country’s democracy, and [they] are too important to ignore,” said Springsteen, beginning what became a four-minute speech about the place he calls home. “First, let me thank you for indulging me. In America, my home, they’re persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. This is happening now. In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in commanding the world’s poorest children to sickness and death. This is happening now.”
He continued, uninterrupted apart from cheers of agreement and the occasional “Bruuuuuce”. “In my country they’re taking sadistic pleasure in the pain they inflict on loyal American workers, we’re ruling back historic civil rights legislation that led to a more just society, we’re abandoning our great allies, and we are siding with dictators,” he said. “They are defunding American universities that won’t bow down to their ideological commands. They’re removing residents off American streets, and without due process of law, they are deporting them to foreign detention centres and prisons. This is all happening now.”
The power of entertainment isn’t lost on Springsteen throughout his political performance, though. Merely a half-hour drive away from where that tune ‘I Wanna Hold Your Hand’ was written, he recognises that sometimes, the best message music can deliver is one of love, unity and fun. The Land of Hope and Dreams Tour ends with a bang, as Springsteen rolls out the classics, and lights around the stadium go up so that he can see the crowd as well as we can see him. What happens next can only be described as a party. Arms go around strangers, those overpriced drinks are spilt, and the ale-stained breath of party-goers laces the atmosphere as the words to the likes of ‘Thunder Road’, ‘Born In The USA’ and ‘Dancing In The Dark’ are screamed with an almost childlike glee.
You can never question the power of music. Springsteen didn’t know when he first heard The Beatles, their song written, played and perfected close to where we stand, and I don’t, in this moment, watching Bruce. I don’t question it as he sings, I don’t question it as the E Street Band play, and I don’t question it as a man who has been delivering the same message for decades does so once again.
This is Springsteen at his most emotional, tears fill eyes with sorrow and joy and songs hopeful and doom-ridden pierce through what for anybody else was a regular Wednesday night. Springsteen proves in Liverpool that the music that inspired him so many years ago continues to inspire, that which moved him continues to move others, and his message continues to be heard loud and clear. This is Springsteen at his most emotional, but also his most authentic, the self that has always been. And if you’re mad at these songs, outbursts or sets, you haven’t been paying attention.
I’ll wrap this up with the words of the man himself. “We will survive this moment. I have hope because I believe in the truth of the words of what the great American writer James Baldwin said, ‘In this world, there isn’t as much humanity as one would like, but there’s enough’. Let’s pray.”
