HE NEVER tires of playing in Ireland and his Irish fans never tire of hearing him play.
"Good evening Dublin," Bruce Springsteen said in that characteristic New Jersey accent at the beginning of three sell-out nights at the RDS in Dublin.
A thunderous roar erupted when he emerged on stage at 8.10pm under slate-grey skies and a light drizzle before launching into an old standard, The Promised Land, with its distinctive harmonica intro.
He later handed the same harmonica to a fan who had battled his way up to the front.
The mutual appreciation society that has become Bruce and his Irish fans was everywhere in evidence. One female fan made her point with a banner. "Bruce come back with me," it read.
The set was heavy on material from his acclaimed new album, Magic, but it was another classic, Darkness on the Edge of Town, which featured most prominently.
Springsteen apologised for the absence of his wife and backing singer Patti Scialfa, who was in New Jersey for the graduation of one of his three teenage children.
"She's taking the cookies out of the oven as we speak," he said, adding: "and the Guinness out of the fridge."
He prefaced the title track of Magic, a highly politicised album, with a cut at George W Bush. "Here's to the end of eight years of mismanagement," he said.
By the end of his concerts, which continue tonight and on Sunday, Springsteen will have played eight dates here in 18 months. All 110,000 tickets for his RDS concerts sold out on the day of issue in November.
In an interview to be broadcast on RTÉ One tonight, Springsteen said the reception he received at the Point in May 2005 during the Devils Dust tour convinced him to record a live album there.
"There was something about the shows that we did at the Point that, for me, I felt some deepening of the connection there, and then we came back with the sessions band [ Seeger Sessionsband] and that was just a perfect place for us to play that music," he said.
He described the Live in Dublin DVD, which was a recording of his Seeger Sessions concerts at the Point in November 2006, as "one of the best things we ever put out on film". "Now we're coming back with the band [the E Street Band] and I want to feel some of that electricity and passion again," he said. Though 58, Springsteen remains a compelling live performer and his show last night lasted more than 2½ hours.
He said he and his band still had a work ethic and he wanted fans to see the "heartstopping, pants-dropping, lovemaking legend of the E Street Band at their best".
Among those who are expected to attend his series of concerts at the RDS is U2's the Edge.
The Edge said Springsteen's concert at Wembley Arena in 1981 changed U2's approach to live shows. "I was a fan at that point, but seeing him live is a whole other thing. We certainly borrowed from Bruce in terms of trying to reach out to the guy at the very back of the room. As a musician and a songwriter, he changed the game."