Bruce Springsteen live in Veltins arena, Gelsenkirchen

Happy to say that I have seen live my top favourite 'heartland rock' artists: John Mellencamp, Tom Petty, Bob Seger and Bruce Springsteen. They were all excellent, but at the quality of the live sound all other three surpassed Springsteen. As for energy only Bob Seger matched Springsteen. The Boss's live mix was acceptable, but not that high quality at all, especially the first 30 minutes. After that they tuned in ok-ish. But that was the only point which was not 100%. Every now and then his voice went off-note, but hey, he is 75 y.o., his energy is still enviable and his voice is still better than the majority of today's singers half of his age, or less. Pulling off song after song basically without pause between them, one barely ending and he counted down 1 2 3 4 to the next. The absence of Little Steven was compensated well by Nils Lofgren and The Boss itself. According to the press the crowd was 51,000 strong. Some songs had German subtitle on the screens, but the locals had no problem singing along at all. Very supportive crowd. Final note: totally worth it.