As he headlined the Hard Rock Calling weekend in London last night, the pressure was on Bruce Springsteen to match his triumphant Glastonbury debut on Saturday, when his curfew-busting 25-song marathon stretched well beyond two hours. The London show proved even more epic, a revved-up three-hour power drive through Springsteen’s America — that seductively simplistic Pop Art heartland where every factory worker is a hard-knuckled hero and every waitress a golden-hearted goddess.

Springsteen folklore has it that the E Street Band reshuffle their song selection from night to night, but in truth they follow a fairly rigid tour template, leaving just a little room for wild cards — such as the boisterous, crowd-pleasing cover of the Clash’s London Calling which opened this show. Otherwise the set list was a director’s cut of their Glastonbury performance, expanded and lightly remixed.

As on Saturday, the Boss relied on a discreetly placed autocue screen to prompt his lyrics. But given the sheer volume of songs he played, and the steam-belching effort he put into each, such minor sleight of hand is forgivable. There were also a few lulls in the middle of the show, when a clutch of overextended saloon-bar jams began to sound sluggish and clumsy rather than heroically ragged.

All the same, nobody could fault Springsteen’s energy. In a sweat-soaked grey shirt, pinballing between saxophonist Clarence Clemons and guitarist Steve Van Zandt, the singer seemed remarkably energised for a man who turns 60 in September. He even joked about his age after stumbling on the stage steps after one of many meet-and-greet sessions with the crowd. “Somebody get me an elevator!” he roared. “I’m f***ing 60!”

Although this is Springsteen’s third mini-tour of Britain in two years, it feels like his most momentous for decades. For all their corny sentiments, the righteous rock’n’soul clamour of Rosalita or Glory Days seemed to carry the sheer rumbling weight of pop history behind them. Woven into the very fabric of Springsteen’s music is a century of Americana, from John Steinbeck to Johnny Cash, Pete Seeger to Phil Spector, Elvis Presley to Arcade Fire, the Supremes to The Sopranos.

There were hints of darkness, including a mournful Racing in the Street and a blues-folk ballad Hard Times Come Again No More. But most of the set, from the stirring redemption song The Rising to the Obama-inspired hope anthem Working on a Dream, conjured up a shining musical kingdom where honest toil and defiant optimism eventually triumph.

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