Back after a little hiatus, but what better excuse than to have spent the time seeing  the three shows in Munich, Frankfurt and Herning respectively. The good news, for those who haven't had a chance to see it for themselves: Bruce still has it. In spades! My personal gauge is that as long as I can come out after a show and honestly feel it was the best I've ever seen, then there's nothing to worry about. It doesn't happen with every show, but probably with every fourth or fifth show on average. So the day I've seen 7-8 shows in a row that didn't give me that "best ever" feeling, I may reluctantly start to admit that Bruce is over the hill.

But you know, that's for some distant future. I can happily declare that this time it was the show in Frankfurt on July 3 that, when the last note of "Twist and Shout" had died out, made me spontaneously burst out, "Best show ever!" Everything about that night formed a glorious synthesis of pure perfection. The crowd, the setlist, Bruce's mood, my own mood, the pace and energy of the band. It all clicked. No, it didn't have that one mega-rare tour premiere that so many fans long for. There was no "Drive All Night" or "Fade Away" moment, but there was still plenty of unpredictability and spontaneity. And these days that's really one of the most important things that sets Bruce apart from most other major live acts.

While Frankfurt may have been the only one of the three shows that gave me the "best show ever" feeling, that does not mean the two other shows were in any way sub-par. Let there be no doubt that Bruce and the band are on a roll this summer. How many other artists of his league would work their asses off in some anonymous wind-swept Danish provincial town far away from the international media radar? How tempting it would be to go through the motions and take a little breather before the much higher profiled pair of Dublin shows. But not Bruce. He gives his all no matter what. And if things don't quite click right away, as may have been the case in Herning, he doesn't give up and say, "Ok, we'll do better next time". No, he just works even harder and brings it up another notch and another notch and another notch, until every soul has been touched and all skeptics have unfolded their arms and are waving them in the air while singing along to "Twist and Shout". That's the Bruce you can witness this summer if you are able to catch a show. Which of course is nothing new. It's what he's always done. But if you were under the impression that it was a thing of the past and that this tour is some kind of half-assed afterthought, think again.

Of course, no one knows the future and what goes on behind the scenes, but nothing I have seen or heard suggests that this is the last we will see of the band or that they are no longer among the top acts of the world. If at this point they can still add another "best ever" show to this (admittedly pretty non-cynical) veteran's Bruce CV, I hope that will make any doubters sleep just a little better. It's all good.