If there’s one thing Bruce Springsteen is known for, aside from the music and lyrics, it’s the effort that goes into his live shows. Make no mistake that there will never be a half-arsed gig when ‘The Boss’ and his E Street Band roll into a town near you, because if he ever has a mantra when it comes to performing live, it’s that he can never be satisfied until the roof is well and truly blown off the place.
On the road to achieving this, it’s also equally true that any Springsteen show is a very good bang for your buck. Regardless of whether you saw him in 1975, 2025, or any time in between, the energy remains as palpable and electric as the first time he ever graced the stage. The laborious sets and expanding times must surely now be taking its toll on an ageing 75-year-old, but if it hurts, Springsteen’s certainly never lets it show.
While fans rocking up to any of the singer’s shows can still expect a performance in excess of three hours or longer as standard, it doesn’t quite match the heights of the longest gig that ‘The Boss’ has ever performed, which clocked in at an absolutely mammoth length. That crown goes to his show at the Olympiastadion in Helsinki on July 31st, 2012, which most definitely was a turn for the books.
Standing at some four hours and six minutes, the Finnish stop of the singer’s Wrecking Ball Tour was undeniably the hottest ticket in town that night, not least because fans didn’t need to worry about heading back home anytime soon. Playing no less than 33 songs, including an acoustic set and four covers, the show was unequivocally Springsteen in his prime. Other fans can claim that their gig displayed The Boss at his best, but those inside the stadium in Helsinki that night have every right to differ.
What does Bruce Springsteen have to say about the length of his shows?
Springsteen has form when it comes to staging gigs of similarly staggering lengths, with his longest US show taking place in Philadelphia in 2016, which clocked in at four hours and three minutes long. But when asked at the time by Stephen Colbert why he insists on such an endurance test, he had one very simple answer: “It’s medicinal”.
“I was this incredibly neurotic young kid, with a lot of anxiety which I didn’t know how to chase away,” Springsteen explained. “So, all I found out was, after I played, I calmed down and felt very centred. It was really the first thing I did to medicate myself, [and] it may explain why it [the shows] goes on so long. It was an easy drug to take. It still affects me like that.”
Anyone who has ever bagged a ticket to see the man in action will attest to that. But more than just pleasing the crowd or catching a few headlines, performing is, for Springsteen, an act of catharsis that is now clearly and utterly integral to the functioning of his life. Any time you see him in concert, you can rest in the knowledge that not only is he putting on a show for the sake of the fans’ enjoyment, but for his own sanity, too. Nothing speaks more volumes to the power of music than that.
