Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band opened their show on Friday night in Croke Park with a harmony-laden lung-busting version of Darkness on the Edge of Town.

Many, many thousands gathered for the epic 3½-hour gig.

People were singing along. There were hands in the air. People waved favourite song titles written on cardboard. The E Street Band shared microphones. My Bruce Springsteen-obsessed friend brought sandwiches (“It’s a long gig”).

There is no such thing as a casual Springsteen fan.

Early on I was shocked to hear some people were booing.

They were actually calling “Bruuuuuuce.”

Michael Crowley, aged 49, brought a posse of eight family members that spanned the generations. He'd seen Bruce play four times, including at his first Irish gig in 1985. "My car broke down," he recalled. His younger relatives found the notion of a car breaking down hilarious. "Cars broke down in those days!" he protested.

Bruce had never let Michael down. “Always good live,” he said, before adding darkly: “Not like Neil Young.”

Nives Healy was meeting her brother and sister-in-law with whom she first saw Springsteen play in Slane in 1985. “I like him because he’s never changed,” she said. “It’s the same man, his attitude, his music, his ideas.”

She was curious about what the audience would look like now. “In 1985 it was all people I their 20s,” she said. “Looking around the bus on the way up, I think it’s the same people, just 30 years older. And I’m going with the people I went with the last time,” she laughed. “Will it be the same people standing in the same places?”

‘Roll call’

Outside the Hogan Stand some fans gathered around a long handwritten list. This is the “roll call” an honour system run by hardcore fans in conjunction with security which allows people queue up in advance to get up front for Sunday’s gig.

To remain on the list, people have to turn up here at set times between now and Sunday to check in with the list-taker. Gill McMahon who lives nearby is coming to Sunday’s gig and wants to be up front. “Where you can smell him,” she said and laughed.

“Where he might spit on you,” joked another woman. She didn’t want to give her name “because I’m skiving”.

The Fairley family are also going to Sunday’s gig and were supervising this sacred list. Former navy man Ian Fairley and his daughter Erin and son Oliver came from Scotland for this and have been to 11 Springsteen gigs as a family. “We used to play Springsteen for them instead of nursery rhymes,” said Ian.

“We were totally brainwashed,” says Oliver. “We love him now.”

“A lot of the things he writes about reflect things we all go through,” explained Ian.

“Plus he’s very handsome for a man in his 60s,” said the woman who’s skiving off work.

“And three hours playing,” said Gill McMahon. “That’s pretty good value for money.”

Later a nice security guard let me into the pit with more hardcore fans (“I’ll let you in if you promise to do my ironing”). There I met Odhran Patton who has spent all of his 31 years preaching the word of Bruce.

“I even managed to get 500 words on Bruce into my thesis,” he said. “It was about how the Vietnam War influenced popular culture.”

Was Bruce integral to the thesis? He laughed. “It was more something I could write without research.”

“He has a lot to say about Bruce,” said his friend Padraig Morrison.

A lot of people do.