Tickets just arrived for the Boss's biggest ever "indoor" show. His first ever gig in Wales.Can't wait!!

Pants - have you seen him this tour?

Is he up to the usual standard? i haven't seen him since The Rising tour at Manchester.

I've seen this tour.

All the songs start to sound the same after a while, if you don't know his works inside out.

If you're into him, though, I reckon you'll love it.

We've seen him twice on this tour (Toronto and Buffalo) and it kicks ass. The new album is strong, so that helps.

Seen him twice on this tour, bovril. At the O2 just before Christmas (great) and last week at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium (absolutely fucking brilliant). The band are on fire, the setlist is to-die-for and you can tell that the man himself is loving every minute of it. At The Emirates (great place for a stadium gig), he rocked the place for three hours, including the encore from heaven: Thunder Road, Born To Run, Glory Days and Rosalita!

I still think the new album isn't really up there with his best stuff, but the band's so tight and so good at building songs to a crescendo, that it works really well live. And the stuff they played from 'The Rising' was wonderful: Mary's Place rocked and Waiting On A Sunny Day was a brilliant, cheesy crowd singalong.

I went with my mum, which was a joy. We had a blast. And all around us there were loads of family groups, with uncool blokes doing Dad Dancing, wives rocking out, kids singing along. It was a really communal feel.

(Oh yeah, they're doing an amazing, shit-hot version of 'The Promised Land' at most of the shows on this tour. It send shivers down my spine.)

I don't usually get into personalities here, but if you're not dead hot on the new album but you're championing Mary's Place (a forced, "hey...we're having a lot of fun here, right?....right?" mess if I've ever heard one), you need to sit down and have a good think about yourself. Jeebus.

/smiley

Right, that's it WOM: aaahtside, now!

Nah, I wasn't saying Mary's Place is one of his greatest songs ever; just that it worked really well in a rockin'-stadium-mass-singalong-party-vibe kinda way. As I've said before, I think Livin' In The Future is brilliant - and works really well live preceded by The Boss's little political speech. I really wanted him to play I'll Work For Your Love and/or Girls In Their Summer Clothes but he didn't (at The Emirates). Devil's Arcade is just a bit...Boss By Numbers and Magic (the song) doesn't work that well in a stadium.

Well, alright then. <pulls sleeves back down thin, reedy arms...reinstalls glasses>.
'Girls in...' is a wonderful live song. Same with 'Livin' in...' and 'Radio Nowhere'. As a whole, I prefer it to The Rising. With maybe three exceptions, it hasn't really stood up for me.

You can get pills for that.

Well played.

<Hands jacket to fellow OTFer, adopts Marquess Of Queensbury stance.>

Yeah, the three songs from 'Magic' you mention are great live (as we parked up outside The Emirates and walked into the stadium, they were doing 'Radio Nowhere' - it sounded so exciting, my mum and I started running up the steps to get in). But for me, 'The Rising' has an enormous emotional power that comes out of its connection to 9/11. I love the fact that it's really angry and downbeat in places but still ends up being hugely uplifting. There must have been so much pressure on him; it was as though a massive chunk of America was counting on him to articulate how they felt. To his credit, it doesn't feel forced or contrived. It feels big, robust, substantial, considered, intelligent. Up there with his best work, I reckon.

Magic is very weak — agreed.

The Rising is up there with his best work — agreed.

There must have been so much pressure on him; it was as though a massive chunk of America was counting on him to articulate how they felt.

Not sure about that. Do you really think he woke up at night sweating, wondering how he was going to encapsulate the mood of Main Street? Were Mr and Mrs Joe Lunchpail also pacing up and down waiting for their troubadour to express a nation's collective anguish? If either of those things were true then I don't think the result could have been anything but contrived. However, as you rightly say, it isn't at all, because I don't think that's what he was doing, nor indeed what any artist worth their salt does. If you attempt the sweeping Grand Gesture you fall flat on your face, the trick is in succeeding without trying, which I think he does brilliantly.

I think he did, actually. Apparently he was pondering doing an album about it when a fan spotted him and bellowed something like "Come on. We need you now, man.", so I'm sure he felt there was a bit of an expectation of a statement.

I disagree Magic is weak. But I can't get into a punch up with a man of your...er...um....alright, dad?

As for The Rising, track by track, on the Excellent - Good- Poo scale.

Lonesome Day - Exc.
Into the Fire - Good
Waiting on a Sunny Day - Exc.
Nothing Man - Good
Counting on a Miracle - Good
Empty Sky - Good
Worlds Apart -Poo
Let's Be Friends -Poo
Further On Up The Road - Good
The Fuse - Poo
Mary's Place -Poo
You're Missing -Good
The Rising -Exc.
Paradise -Good
My City of Ruins -Good

Pants, you were late for a show? What the....

Ha, yeah, I missed one song and, guess what? It was 'Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out'. Bollocks!

Oh yeah - Amor, I think WOM's right about Springsteen partly feeling a sense of duty before 'The Rising'. I don't think it's as straightforward as you put it - "Oh dear! This situation is terrible. We really need The Boss to tell us what to think." But I do think that in dark times, there's a kind of public feeling that we need art and artists to help us make sense of events, put them into context. It seems to me like part of the communal healing process.

Apparently he was pondering doing an album about it when a fan spotted him and bellowed something like "Come on. We need you now, man."

Ha ha! I've an image of our man wrestling, Hamlet-like, with his thoughts: "Should I or shouldn't I. To Rise or not to Rise." When Banquo's Ghost in a baseball cap hollers in his ear: "C'mon man, do it. Ya hafta!"

I dunno it sounds like a piece of post-facto Landauesque myth-making to me.

But I do think that in dark times, there's a kind of public feeling that we need art and artists to help us make sense of events, put them into context. It seems to me like part of the communal healing process.

I agree, but if the artist attempts to address the need directly you almost always end up with bad art. You can make a case that Guernica, for instance, expressed a societal sense of pain and outrage, but it wasn't what Picasso was trying for — just the opposite in fact, it was a profoundly personal work. The fact that people have found common cause before it is glorious and extremely moving but it wasn't his intention.

Great to hear about the shows you saw.

I think that Magic is a very solid album, it lacks the fatty tissue of The Rising and really brings the sound of the live band into the studio.

I really hope he plays You'll be Coming Down - i don't think he's done it this tour yet...

I have seen some of the setlists.. th