On Friday night (April 28th), Bruce Springsteen welcomed former-First Lady Michelle Obama up on stage with the E Street Band during their performance of “Glory Days” at Barcelona's Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys. The show, which was the band's European tour opener, also featured Steven Speilberg's wife, actress Kate Capshaw joining in and sharing tambourine duties with Mrs. Obama and Patti Scialfa.
The day before the gig (April 27th), a shot of Springsteen, Spielberg and President Obama posing with the kitchen staff of a local bistro went viral.
The opening night setlist didn't stray far from the E Street Band shows in the North America — but Springsteen did treat the crowd to his first performance of the 1992 classic “Human Town” since 2016.
Bruce Springsteen maintains that as a teen, witnessing the legends of the old Stax/Volt revue in concert set him on his way to becoming an expert showman: “It was just something that I learned from the soul bands who were the masters at grabbing the crowd by the throat. I used to see Sam & Dave all time. And Sam Moore, outside of being one of the great singers, is one of the great bandleaders of all time. He's incredible. And of course, James Brown was an incredible bandleader. Those were the bandleaders that, really, I learned my craft from. All that we do onstage comes from the great black bands and soul bands.”
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band will next perform on May 5th and 7th in Dublin, Ireland at RDS Arena.