If you weren’t in Turku last night, you missed your opportunity. Not only did you miss a spectacle of a show from the E Street Band, you missed your opportunity to play with them. That’s right, by the end of the first show in Turku Bruce had pulled a young Joan-Jett lookalike onstage to dance, shred and sing on “Dancing in the Dark.” By the time the second night’s show approached the audience and Bruce alike had built up a huge head of steam.

Opening the set on the 8th at Turku’s HK Areena found Bruce onstage delivering a solo “I’ll Work For Your Love” from the Magic album. The E Street Band joined for an opening sequence (which included “Ties that Bind” and a crowd-surfing “Hungry Heart”) that led up to “Blinded by the Light,” which Bruce simply introduced as the “first song of the first album.” In less than an hour’s time Turku was straddling all of E Street History.

Bruce snatched up a sign for “Ain’t Good Enough for You” off of The Promise, and another one for “Wages of Sin.” Before the show, Bruce explained that a fan had been following the tour for years, and wanted to hear “Wages of Sin,” “…so that’s what we’re going to play.” He found the fan, grabbed his sign, told the audience that “…this is for Nikolas” and away we go.

Coming off of a hard rocking sequence, including a Nils Lofgren supercharged “Youngstown,” “ Johnny 99,” and “Open All Night,” the band launched into “Lonesome Day.” Not to be outdone by the previous night’s crowd, Turku’s HK Areena put forward their own show stealer. Rather than singing the chorus when Bruce walked him onstage, the young man launched into a rap verse! Pausing briefly to yell “Max, give me a beat!” the boy delivered an entire, self-composed verse and finished it off with a whooping “come on E Street Band!” Later on I managed to trade the young man’s notes to his rap for a set list and a promise to bring it to Bruce. He got it, by the way.

– Charles Landau