I landed on Friday night at 23:20 in the airport Charles De Gaulle and realised there were no more trains for the day, so I decided to take a taxi to the hotel. Unfortunately the taxi driver didn’t know any English and my knowledge of French is limited to just a few words: “oui, no, merci, bonjour and bonne nuit”. These words would prove to be very unhelpful in the situation I was in. I managed to explain to the driver where he would take me by showing him the address of the hotel on my phone (he had to get his glasses from his car to be able to read it). However, I was not quite sure he had got it right because he kept talking aggressively to me while we started driving towards Paris. I kept an eye on Google Maps on my phone and it seemed like he was driving in the right direction.
To cut a long and frustrating story short, I finally ended up at the hotel and Oliver was waiting outside. Before I paid, the driver gave me a long lecture and it might have been about the correct way to tell a French address. 🤷🏻♀️😅
Cut forward to show day and the final roll call 1pm, where a long day’s wait became even longer and frustrating due to lack of organisation and information from the arena security. The volunteer fans had done their job nicely but then we were lined up and security took over we were moved around like sheep from one stockyard to another and had to sit/stand in the scorching sun for hours.
Once we had entered the arena we saw that the roof was closed and that would be the explanation to why we hadn’t heard any soundcheck from the outside. It was a huge pit again and one weird thing that happened was that security didn’t allow us to go to the back of the pit in the first place. They tried to force us up front and when we refused they made us stand in the middle for five minutes before we were allowed back. To the question “why?” the guard (who probably didn’t know any English) pointed to his headphones and said “directives”. When we got to the back of the pit we saw the open cables on the floor again, just like in Barcelona.
It was a solid show with no surprises. I realise I’m beginning to be a bit spoiled after seven shows but don’t get me wrong. It is a good setlist, but it would have been nice to get at least one surprise song each show. We all know how many songs there are to choose from. The audience was very good this time. They were on the go from the start, even in the stands. Towards the end of the show the front of the pit made a try to convince Bruce to continue a little bit longer by holding up signs that said “Bruce dont’t stop tonight”. Unfortunately he didn’t listen to that.
The subtitles for Letter To You (“Lettre pour toi”) and Last Man Standing were back. I wonder if that is a normal routine now for every country that doesn’t have English as an official language. Oh, I forgot to mention Curtis King’s extraordinary pipes. His performance during Nightshift was spectacular as always. It amazes me every time.
I enjoyed myself dancing, fist pumping and singing ugly as I always do. I don’t know why but I got a little emotional at the end during I’ll See You in My Dreams. It was probably a combination of standing with his arms around me while I was suffering from dehydration/starvation 👻.
After the show we had the chance to meet new and old friends and to take photos.
This was concert number 8 of our #SpringsteenTour2023. Sadly we’re not able to see Paris 2. Next show: Amsterdam 25.05 (Oliver only) and 27.05 (the two of us together).
SETLIST:
📸 @pita_oli and I= @annalind1
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I am so sorry it was a trial 4 u both in the Paris show, Anna. It makes me think that my lone one show on 3 April in Brooklyn was quite enough, in its rarity. Sometimes doing a summer of Bruce & E Street is just excessive, especially w these complications in each venue. Respect your body too, in terms of the eating/drinking. It’s gonna get plenty hotter this summer, as it goes on. Being outdoors for hrs is a significant risk, in terms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke even. I am just trying to look out 4 u and Oliver, as u traverse Europe, hearing and seeing Bruce close up…enjoy it safely!
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Thank you Marsha! I promise to take better care of myself.
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