Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band displayed their power this Friday night in a concert at the Estadi Olímpic in Barcelona with the sold out tickets to which some 60,000 people have attendedand with which he kicks off his tour of Europe.

“Hello Barcelona, ​​hello Catalonia! One, two, three, four”, the artist yelled as he went on stage with the first chords of ‘No surrender’, a greeting returned by a burst of applause from the audience and characterized by an energy that was maintained throughout the concert, which lasted three hours.

Surrounded by the musicians of his powerful band and dressed from head to toe in black, ‘The Boss’ inaugurated the repertoire with ‘Ghosts’ and ‘Letter to you’from his album ‘Letter to you’ (2020), and continued to review hits such as ‘Prove it all night’, from the album ‘Darkness on the edge of town’ (1978).

On stage he was accompanied by the guitars and voices of Stevie Van Zandt, Nils Lofgren and Patti Scialfa –the latter, Sprinsteen’s wife–; Roy Bittan on piano and synthesizer; Charlie Giordano on keyboards; bassist Garry Tallent; drummer Max Weinberg; saxophonist Jake Clemons and Soozie Tyrell on violin, guitar and vocal accompaniment.

Thus, he continued to conquer the public with other great hits such as ‘The promised land’ and ‘Out in the street’, during which the musicians exuded virtuosity, followed by ‘Kitty’s back’ and a version of ‘Nightshift’ by The Commodores, during the one who left her guitar and danced complicit with the first rows of attendees.

before a enthusiastic and dedicated crowdwith thousands of people who have lined up in front of the venue since Thursday, Springsteen shared ‘Human touch’, ‘The E Street Shuffle’ and ‘Mary’s place’, and to introduce it he shouted: “Catalunya, Barcelona! Us esteem, us Estimem, us estimem (We love you, we love you, we love you!).

The show continued in style when the musicians joined forces for the version of ‘Pay me my money down’, original by The Weavers, to then move people with ‘Last man standing’, which Springsteen introduced recalling his beginnings in music and highlighting “the importance of living in the ‘here’ and the ‘now'”.

“I’ll take you here to the end”, he confessed, touching his chest when singing ‘Backstreets’, and continued to captivate the public by covering Patti Smith’s ‘Because the night’, an occasion that Stevie Van Zandt took advantage of to reign in the Estadi with a powerful and long guitar solo, followed by ‘She’s the one’, ‘Wrecking ball’ and the epic ‘The rising’.

Later, the tide of attendees went crazy with the first bars of ‘Badlands’ and with the introductory harmonica of the exciting ‘Thunder Road’, sealed by Jake Clemons showing off his mastery of the sax, and ‘The Boss’ facing the final stretch of the night with the highly anticipated ‘Born in the USA’ and ‘Born to run ‘.

And after saving himself for the final blast ‘Glory days’ and ‘Dancing in the dark’, he sealed the night in style by throwing a party with his band for ‘Tenth Avenue freeze-out’ and with an acoustic and intimate version of ‘I’ ll see you in my dreams’, and before leaving the stage he claimed the E Street Band as “legendary”.

He will give another concert in Barcelona this Sunday

It is the first of the two concerts that he will offer in the Catalan capital, where he will perform again on Sunday the 30th -also with sold out tickets-, and has been attended by personalities such as Former President of the United States, Barack Obamato, his wife, Michelle Obama, and filmmaker Steven Spielbergwho landed in the city on Thursday and have visited various landmarks ahead of the concert.

With this concert Springsteen, 73, returns to Barcelona seven years later to perform at the Camp Nou as part of his ‘The River’ tour, and he does so the same month as the 42nd anniversary of his first concert in the city, in 1981.

After the double date in Barcelona, ‘The Boss’ will continue his tour of Dublin (Ireland)Paris (France), Ferrara, Rome (Italy), Amsterdam, Landgraaf (Holland), Zurich (Switzerland) and Gothenburg (Sweden), among other cities, before sealing it on July 25 in Monza (Italy).