Only in San Siro: the second epic evening of Springsteen in Milan
“See me in Your Dreams”, reads the stands of San Siro: a gigantic choreography takes the whole second ring, and a part of the first. It is the greeting of the stadium to the boss, to his 9th concert in 40 years in this place: it could be the last one because, you know, the fate of the Meazza is uncertain, Inter and Milan have wanted a more modern stage and for years they treat with the Municipality.
Springsteen comes out on stage, admire the writing: “Only in San Siro”, he says, in front of the show organized by the guys of Our Love Is Real. Then he attacks “My Love Will Not Let You Down”, with all the strength of the and Street Band. And no that he does not disappoint his fans.
The second evenings in the same place – fans know – are always different, when not epic. And this was – all the more so because it was also the one that closed the tour.
Changes in the lineup (and not only)
Scaletta changed at the beginning: via “No Surrenter” and “Lonesome Day”, inside a 1-2 creepy, “test all night” and “Darkness on the edge of Town”. We saw the old Bruce again, the one that changes everything to the last, because in the original scaletta there were “Darlington County” and “Working on the Highway”.
The rest of the concert then took the consolidated structure of the “Land of Hope and Dreams Tour”, with the most narrative and political sequence immediately after opening, the songs with alternating subtitles with the stadium classics. Few other variations: the presence of “My HomeTown” instead of “I’m on Fire”. The difference was that this evening Springsteen seemed more vocally in form and musically also the band turned better. Some failure in “Youngstown” and “Because the night”, but as we already said on Monday, that’s not the point. The point is the emotion – and we have also seen in parcels on Bruce’s face, taken on the mega -screen – and the exchange with the public. San Siro is the show in the show. It is no coincidence that to see the concert there were people from all over the world and that there were many Americans to follow the boss – even several representatives of the show system: actors, singers, television characters.
Everyone imagined that this would be an evening in his own way to put on the annals. And it was.
Only in San Siro
Maybe you have to update the famous phrase, which we have also written here many times: there are those who love Bruce Springsteen, and those who have never seen him at San Siro. It is difficult to explain the emotions of a “Thunder Road” sung by all the stadium, or of a “Born in the USA” that opens the encore with the lights that light up with a bang, together with the battery and the keyboards, with a power that makes everything tremble, even if 40 years have passed since the first time, and on stage there is now a 75 -year -old rocker and a band of its peers. However, which still brings most of the musical world to school today.
Often you find yourself watching the stands of San Siro as much as the stage. And also for those who saw it the first time in this stadium, I can confirm that you never get used to it.
The closure of a circle
At the end of the evening there are the emotions of “10th Avenue Freeze-out” with the memory of Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici; There is the party of “Twist and Shout” and there is the narrative closure with Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom”, which tells the search for freedom that is the heart of this tour. Then comes the last surprise: Springsteen attacks John Fogerty’s “Rockin ‘” All Over the World “. It is the first time he plays it on this tour. But it is also the same song with which Springsteen had closed the first concert in this stadium, in 1985. It is the closure of a circle: everything returns.
We hope it is not the last time in these parts, because for Springsteen no place is like San Siro. And San Siro with Springsteen becomes a different, almost transcendent space.
The anger, the political dimension that Springsteen has chosen to give to these concerts of 2025 have made it more focused, more motivated. The space -time paradox of his concerts – which fully realizes in this stadium – is that you are simultaneously immersed in the story of reality – “Rock ‘n’ Roll in Dangerous Times”, as he says – but you are also in a dimension that takes you out of time and brings you back to an idealism and a musical romanticism to which it is beautiful and useful, let yourself go for three hours. Something that remains on you when you go out, thinking that “Love is real” really, even if everything that surrounds us seems to suggest the opposite.
