Bruce Springsteen came, as did the people in their thousands ... along with the rain, hail and thunder.
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But clearly The Boss has clout, even in high places. After an opening song, appropriately enough, of Who'll Stop The Rain by Creedence Clearwater Revival, the weather cleared, and the 19,000 fans at Hope Estate had a ball.
For three hours Springsteen, dripping wet in sweat for the most part in his red and black checked shirt, and his E Street Band played. And they didn't stop - one song into another, and another.
Applause, cheering? Of course, but you had to be quick.This wasn't about applause - this was a man who loves his music, who loves his band, having the time of his life.
"It's our last night in Australia people," he told the crowd. "And we love it here."
Twenty nine songs in all, mostly but not exclusively their own. He surprised with an old favourite, I Fought The Law early in the set, and then at the end when he had managed to ramp up the crowd's rollicking to overdrive, he did a wonderful, drawn out, toe-tapping version of the Johnny O'Keefe anthem Shout. If O'Keefe was looking down on the Hunter Valley, he would surely have had those hips swaying and a smile on his face. It was a cracker.
With so many Springsteen hits over the years it was hard to keep track of them all ... but most of the big ones were there ... Hungry Heart, The River, Glory Days,The Rising, Mary's Place, Born to Run which led straight into Dancing in the Dark. Now that's a back to back double that's hard to top.
"What time is it Steve?" he asked his right hand man, guitarist Steve Van Zandt. And then he answered his own question. "It's ass kicking time."
Somehow, amid all this fun and non-stop action, he found time to pluck a guy from the crowd, from New Jersey in fact, The Boss's own part of the world. He had been holding up a sign, requesting No Surrender from Springsteen's 1984 Born in the USA album.
"Can you play," the Boss asked. The man nodded and next thing he was up on stage, acoustic guitar in hand sharing the stage and microphone with a rock music icon before 19,000 ecstatic fans. Talk about living the dream.
Like last time he was at Hope, Springsteen found time to walk out among the crowd, seemingly lost among the heads, only to reappear, holding out the microphone, inviting the crowd to join in. And sing and sway they did.
People of all ages .. the hard core old Spingsteen rockers with faded T-shirts from concerts past, the younger generation who clearly appreciate a geriatric genius, dads and their children bridging the generation gap, middle aged women in gum boots and rain-proof ponchos, way past worrying about how they might look. It might rain.
And after his band had signed off after 28 songs, The Boss stayed on, lights dimmed, spotlight on him and his acoustic guitar - for a final song, a stirring version of Thunder Road. You could hear a pin drop.
Springsteen started with rain, and finished with thunder, but even the weather gods were quiet for the duration, listening to a 67-year old still so very clearly at the top of his game, and whose energy was mesmerising.
But we shouldn't be surprised. This, after all, was a man who was born to run.