Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band @ P.O.P.Bercy, Paris

Critics have long pointed to Bruce Springsteen's wealth as evidence that his songs about working people lack authenticity, as though storytelling were only legitimate when confined to autobiography. It is a curious argument. Nobody expects filmmakers to have lived through every historical period they depict, nor novelists to share every experience of their characters. More importantly, it misunderstands what Springsteen has spent his entire career doing. His songs are not journalistic reports from a factory floor. They are stories, observations and acts of empathy, drawn from a distinctly American landscape.

What remains striking, however, is how little of a rock star Springsteen appears to be once he steps on stage. Despite leading the seventeen-piece E Street Band and playing to arenas packed with tens of thousands of people, his approach remains rooted in craft rather than spectacle. The production is large, the sound enormous, but the focus is always on the songs and on the connection they create with the audience.

For decades, stories have circulated about Springsteen concerts, marathon performances stretching beyond the three-hour mark, fuelled by seemingly endless reserves of energy and an almost obsessive desire to give the audience everything he has. The reputation is entirely deserved. The sheer physical commitment on display is staggering, not only from Springsteen himself but from the entire band. By the end of the evening, the audience appears almost as exhausted as the musicians. It is the rare concert that leaves a crowd feeling genuinely spent.

Of course, the songs do much of the heavy lifting. Over the course of more than thirty numbers, Springsteen moves effortlessly between beloved classics, deeper catalogue selections, a handful of covers and material from the then-recent Wrecking Ball. Few songwriters possess a body of work capable of sustaining that kind of set. Fewer still can make a venue of this size feel intimate while doing so.

That may be Springsteen's greatest gift. He thrives on contradictions. He sings deeply personal songs to vast crowds. He is one of the most successful musicians of his generation while remaining stubbornly attached to ordinary people and ordinary lives. He is simultaneously larger than life and entirely approachable. Like the country that shaped him, he contains multitudes. For a few hours, all of those contradictions coexist perfectly.

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