Everyone present at Alejandro Escovedo’s concert at the end of the Austin Music Awards during SXSW got a pleasant surprise when he told the audience that “we need another guitarist in the band”. That extra guitarist was none other than Bruce Springsteen.

Bruce Springsteen is this year’s keynote speaker at SXSW. He held a great speech, talking about his musical upbringing through all the different genres, from doo wop, via Elvis, through The Beatles, The Animals, Phil Spector, black soul, Bob Dylan, The Sex Pistols, James Brown, Hank Williams, Woody Guthrie – everything that has influenced him and made him the artist he is today.

Last night at the Award show, he was clearly the friend of Escovedo who came up to help his friend. He looked much more modest than we usually see him. But it didn’t take more than one song before the famous Springsteen grin was there, and he was obviously enjoying himself immensely.

All the pictures are © All Rights Reserved: Per Ole Hagen

You can see more pictures of Bruce Springsteen from this concert, plus some from a concert in Oslo at Artist Pictures.