MOG

From the moment I reached the entrance to Emirates I knew I was in for something special. The atmosphere was electric. By the time we started queuing up at 4.15 the line for entrance N was up to S. the gates finally opened about two hours and looking at the t shirts on display I could tell this was by no means many fans' first show, and by the end of the night it was patently obvious why. An hour and a half passed until the "Mighty" Max took up his seat behind the drums alongside Proffessor Roy Bittan on Piano, and Charles Giordano on keyboards replacing the late, great Danny Federici. As soon as the opening bars of Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out the crowd began singing along in earnest. And this was just the beginning a barnstorming version of Radio Nowhere followed (even better than the version you could hear from outside during the soundcheck) and the night really warmed up. Bruce worked the crowd like a ringleader in the best circus, running to the crowd at every possible moments taking flowers, requests and hand shakes from the audience. For me the highlights were Because The Night with an amazing solo from Nils Lofgren, played just as dusk settled, and a brilliant rendition of Mary's Place from the Rising which both would have raised the roof if Emirates had had a roof. But the real treats came during the Encore, with a trilogy of my three favourite songs from The Boss's epic canon making appearances (Thunder Road, Born To Run and Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)) and a great version of American Land (which I hadn't heard before, and judging by the appearance of lyrics behind the stage I wasn't in the minority) acting as a rousing finale The evening was summed up by a girl I heard as I left who said "you know who I feel sorry for? Everyone else in the whole wide world who wasn't here" Jon Landau certainly knew what he was talking about 30 years ago when he said he'd seen the future of music... and fortunately, to quote the great man himself, we're living in the future