Euphoria and melancholy – that’s how Springsteen was at Ullevi

— One two three four!

Then the summer’s concert trilogy with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at Ullevi began. Midsummer Day’s concert began with “The ties that bind”. The song from ‘The river’ album has only been heard a few times during the current tour, and the packed arena responded with great cheers in the sunshine. Which grew into a thunderous sing-along crescendo already during the second song, “No surrender”.

The crowd of 60,000 or so was made up of fans of all ages, but with a certain slant to blissfully smiling white men with graying heads.

Among die-hard fans, there is a sense that this could very well be the last trip for “The Boss” and his E Street Band. It’s not something that’s actually been stated, but Springsteen himself recently hinted at that point in an interview with American radio personality Howard Stern.

How much longer can you gather a bunch of 70-somethings to travel the world and put on sweaty four-hour discharges night after night? Not forever. Not even if you are steel grandfather Bruce Springsteen.

Bruce Springsteen together with guitarist Steven Van Zandt and drummer Max Weinberg. Played “The river”

Unlike many previous tours, this trip leaves less room for spontaneous changes, patches of obscure song requests from the audience, or classic albums played in their entirety.

At Ullevi, it was as if all parts of Springsteen’s career were getting their fair share. Here there were cover songs like “Because the night” with Nils Lofgren’s howling solo, but without his famous pirouette. Here was the political “Wrecking ball”. Here was the party turn from the first albums, like a “Kitty’s back” where the brass and choir had to show where the soul cabinet should be.

Meanwhile, some departures from the typical 2023 tracklist were made, such as cheer and sing-along favorites “The river” and “My home town”.

Ullevi was packed when Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band played. Talked about death

Interlude chatter was kept to a minimum, such as on the four-stroke count-ins. Except for the ballad “Last man standing” when Bruce Springsteen strapped on an acoustic guitar and talked about his old band The Castiles, about bandmate George Theiss who passed away last year and about how death starts to feel like standing in the middle of the rails and staring straight ahead into the headlights of an approaching train.

To be safe, both the conversation and the ballads from “Letter to you” were subtitled in Swedish, so that the sad message would not be missed by the audience.

At the same time, both death and retirement felt very far away as Springsteen brought everything he had into “Backstreets,” doing his old “well, we’re going home” routine with a pirate-clad Little Steven and getting the very back rows of the audience to stand up and sing ” the wööö” choruses in “Badlands” just like he always has.

Bruce Springsteen plays three nights at Ullevi in ​​Gothenburg.

The concert ended with the usual sing-along to the encores “Born in the USA” and “Born to run” while the whole arena was bathed in light. “Dancing in the dark” had a euphoric gospel ending with a bare-chested Bruce.

— We’re not going the hell home, Springsteen said, and played a few more songs

The last discharge with the whole band was “Tenth avenue freeze out” with its text about how it happened when the band was formed and with tributes from Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici on the screens.

The last song of the evening was a stripped down “See you in my dreams” – with a dimmed arena, a lonely Bruce Springsteen on acoustic guitar and a lyric about meeting your friends in your dreams after all the summers are over. A sad end to the evening, and perhaps to the whole thing.

Bruce Springsteen with saxophonist Jake Clemons and drummer Max Weinberg.