Why pretend when you can be serious?

That’s how I ended last summer's Meazza concert review.

And this is how I begin this one. Yet another love declaration inviting all non-devotees not to read. Yes, because this group of splendid sixty-year-olds, play rock as if commanded by the God of Taste, and they still have fun. And there we are beneath, praying and enjoying.

The great weapon of the E Street Band is their camaraderie, second only to their leader, an exceptional Artist all around: brilliant songwriter, great voice, unparalleled performer.

And on the grass-covered field of this small and poetic downtown stadium, there we were. And it couldn’t have been any other way.

The "school year," better yet the 2008-2009 season, saw us in squares and venues bringing around, with devotion as modest and kneeling students, His Music.

Thus, on that field, almost all of us, the Hungry Hearts brothers, were there (two unforgivable absences), jaws dropped, feet tapping, and hips swaying, despite our (also) not-so-young age.

And the Boss gave us many gifts, even while omitting many "smash hits" that lit up Milan last year (no "Thunder Road," to be clear, just as no "The River" or "I'm On Fire" and many others...), but illuminating our hearts with the unexpected "Drive All Night" (a hallmark for us), or with the splendid "Two Hearts." Truly an ideally "B-side" setlist from last year's concert, with gems like "Loose Ends" (really?!), "Outlaw Pete," very evocative and decidedly western, far better than the performances at the tour's start.

Pure Rock 'n Roll in the "band version" of "Johnny 99" with a silly yet brilliant guitar duel between the Boss and a Little Steven who hasn’t been this sharp (and prominent) for ages.

Then the usual and very real request corner (the Band supposedly has about 200 songs in their repertoire, unafraid of anything). Unpredictable and hilarious, for example, the impromptu "Travelin' Band."

Almost three hours of songs all glued together.

The Boss, as everyone knows, gives the audience everything he has. Always. It’s a vow he made many years ago, and he keeps it every night, at every concert.

And it works. As a little musician from the lowlands, I confirm that being serious is much better and much easier than pretending. And that giving it your all is much better than holding back. And that Bruce Springsteen is the best teacher a student could have and wish for, despite his obvious and outrageous unattainability.

And, as I said, all that you have read, probably nauseating for all others, is the Truth of faith for all us devotees. For all of us who go online in the mornings to check the previous day's setlist, who dream, pay tribute, listen, sing, play the Boss and his Music.

And thank that such a giant exists, is still in form, and is around.

Every now and then even in our Little Italian World, illuminating stadiums and sports halls too often filled by crooning yet useless little creatures, created at the hands of mass idiocy of cretintelevised fashion...

There, in front of that band of young old men, you breathe the essence of rock.

Because, as someone in America commented, rock is surely dead, but they forgot to let Bruce Springsteen know.

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