We arrived early Sunday morning and Milan greeted us with two things: brutal heat (35°C) and a not-so-warm welcome at the hotel. Our room wouldn’t be ready until 15:00 and the staff gave off such a bad vibe that we decided to carry our backpacks around rather than leave them.
To kill time and to avoid melting. We hopped on one of those classic hop-on-hop-off buses. There are several companies operating in Milan; ours, City Sightseeing Milano had four routes and we ended up trying three of them. It was hard to ignore the heat. Later, my Italian friend Andrea confirmed it was officially ”Bollino Rosso” (red ball); Italy uses a traffic light system during heatwaves: 🟢 means no risk, 🟡 indicates moderate risk, and 🔴 signals a serious health danger. Milan was glowing red that day and I was a sweaty mess.
Back at the hotel, things didn’t improve. The room was a disappointment: the built-in AC was broken, replaced with a noisy portable unit that had a large ”tube”to push the hot air to the outside, meaning that the window couldn’t fully close. All night we had to listen to the very loud unit AND the traffic noise. Add a toilet that required that you turned a handle to manually flush the toilet. Let’s just say Oliver was not in his best mood.
To comfort ourselves, we headed to the elegant Four Seasons for a pair of painfully overpriced beers. Bruce and the band stayed there back in 2012 and 2013 and we popped in for some harmless stalking in 2023 (wrong hotel that time, oops). These days, Bruce stays at Palazzo Parigi good to know if you’re planning some stalking. 😃
After a pretty miserable night, Oliver marched to the front desk to complain. After some back and forth, they found another room for us, an upgrade. At first they tried to charge us for it (!) but Oliver stood his ground. The broken air conditioning wasn’t exactly our fault. The new room was so much better: proper AC, double-glazed windows, and a toilet that actually flushed with the push of a button.
Later, we planned to meet Donna from BruceFunds. BruceFunds is a wonderful grassroots initiative that helps fans who are down on their luck experience the joy of seeing Bruce live. Since 2012, Donna has selflessly helped distribute donated tickets and travel support, all fan-run, all heart. You can read more at brucefunds.org. Follow BruceFunds on Instagram.
Donna was sitting at a table in Mercato Centrale Milano when we arrived. Ann-Sofie and Jennifer were already there, and soon more familiar faces showed up, like Anne and Bodil from Denmark, along with new ones we’d only seen online until now. We stayed a while chatting before heading back to the hotel to cool down a bit.
The show
Let’s start from the beginning with our arrival at the mighty, and almost mythical, San Siro, not only for the fans but also for the band. You might remember it from the film ”Letter to You”, where the band toasted to and dreamed of San Siro.
We went with Werner, after meeting up for some pasta. When we arrived at the arena, the heat hit us. The large area surrounding San Siro is all asphalt and it had soaked up the sun all day and was now radiating it back like an oven. As we usually do, we walked over to the roll call line to say hi to some friends. The line was starting to move. Some Italians without numbers were clearly frustrated (and overheated), voices were raised, and we watched the woman who had been running the line doing her best to calm the situation — “calma, calma”.
After that, we took a full lap around the arena in search of a spot with some shade where we could have a cold beer. We found one, a familiar bar that Oliver and Werner had been to before, tucked away under trees and umbrellas. Uwe, a friend of Werner’s, showed up with his son Ben before we’d even ordered our first beer. We sat there together, catching up and trying to stay cool until almost 18:00.
Then it was time to enter the stadium. Oliver and I had front of stage tickets, while Werner, Uwe and Ben had seats, so we parted ways. Inside the pit, we said hello to a few more friends, made a quick stop at the toilets and stocked up on beer and water.
We found a spot a little to the left of the centre line, about two-thirds of the way back. A guy behind us started chatting. It was Brandon from New Jersey. Like many Americans, he was open, curious, and genuinely interested in hearing our story. We ended up enjoying the show together and exchanged contact details afterward. During Wrecking Ball, when Bruce sang “swamps of Jersey”, Oliver and I instinctively turned around and gave Brandon a smile. He smiled back with a little shrug of his shoulders, as if to say, “Yeah, I know.” A small, but good moment.
The concert started at 19:56 (a bit ahead of schedule). To my surprise, Stevie was back. Bruce walked him on the stage. The crowd went wild and I suddenly felt emotional seeing him again. But to be honest, I’m not sure it was the right night for his comeback. Maybe it would have been better to wait until Thursday’s show. He looked pale and a few times I saw him clenching his teeth. By the end of the night, he was bent over with his hands on his knees. Hopefully he didn’t ruin it for the next show.
The setlist was almost the same as in Gelsenkirchen (the only change was Darkness on the Edge of Town being swapped for Atlantic City). The atmosphere was great, even if I still think the Spaniards had a bit better when it came to energy and singing along. That said, Bruce really encouraged the Milan crowd to step it up. He even let them sing the “Oooo” at the end of The River, which he normally doesn’t. And instead of his usual “Milan!”, he shouted “San Siro!”
San Siro is a compact stadium with steep stands that seem to trap the sound and throw it back at you, which made it a spectacular experience. A couple of times during the night I took out one of my earplugs just to feel the full effect, but I quickly put it back in. I’m committed to keeping my ears safe. No tinnitus for me, thanks!
By the way, during the London show (27 July 2024), a mystery from the pit was finally “solved”, though it only left us more confused at the time. Already the year before, we’d noticed two signs in the crowd that made us laugh. From where we stood in the back of the pit, they read “land” and “jungle.” We knew, of course, that when flipped, they would say Jungleland, but we always wondered what the other side showed. That night in London, we finally saw it: “Kiki’s” and “back.” 🤔🤔
If you were reading my blog back then, you might remember I asked if anyone knew who this mysterious Kiki was. Since then, I’ve been in contact with her on Instagram, but we’d never met, until last night.
It turns out Kiki is Kirstin from Germany. She came up to me and shared her story. Her first Springsteen show was in 2023 and unlike many longtime fans, it was the setlist that got her hooked. She loved songs like Nightshift, Kitty’s Back and a few others that have been somewhat controversial in the last two years.
Her friends found it funny that her nickname is “Kiki”, so for the Gothenburg show in 2023, they made a double-sided sign. One side said “Kiki’s Back,” playing on Kitty’s Back and her name. The flip side said “Jungleland”, but from the back of the pit, that became “Land” and “Jungle,” which caught our (and Bruce‘s) attention and puzzled us for a year.
This year, Kirstin brought the sign back for the Frankfurt show, and again, Bruce responded. During Dancing in the Dark, he pointed at her sign and said “Kiki’s back!”. You can hear it in the video and you can even see the sign.
After the show last night, Oliver and I had a beer with her, her boyfriend, and a group of Bruce friends. As it turned out, some of them were already familiar faces to us. It’s a small world, especially in the E Street Nation.
We’re staying in Milan for the second show on Thursday, the last show in Europe (of this leg or forever). In between, we have a couple of smaller trips planned (more on that in the next post).
Oh, and before I forget: the Cookie Monster, who I mentioned in another post, had a moment with Bruce during the show (see pic).
Setlist
- No Surrender
- My Love Will Not Let You Down
- Land Of Hope And Dreams
- Death To My Hometown
- Lonesome Day
- Rainmaker
- Atlantic City
- The Promised Land
- Hungry Heart
- The River
- Youngstown
- Murder Incorporated
- Long Walk Home
- House Of A Thousand Guitars
- My City Of Ruins
- I’m On Fire
- Because The Night
- Wrecking Ball
- The Rising
- Badlands
- Thunder Road
- Born In The U.S.A.
- Born To Run
- Bobby Jean
- Dancing In The Dark
- Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
- Twist And Shout
- Chimes Of Freedom
Stray Bullet 
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