Q interview

The great Q magazine has published in their website an extract of their exclusive Bruce Springsteen interview. Read it at Q's website. Check out the magazine at newstands, it's well worth reading the full interview and the many great photos.

Bergen: Because the night

from the pit... in High Def.

Jon Landau responds to ticket controversy

Bruce Springsteen's manager addresses ticketing accusations in a letter published today at BruceSpringsteen.net.

Read the letter at bs.net

Fuse TV offers 'The Best of Bonnaroo'

Fuse TV will broadcast today "The Best of Bonnaroo", a one-hour special program which will include 2 songs from the Bruce Springsteen concert at the Bonnaroo festival. See it here at 9pm today (EST).

New photos from Stockholm and Bergen

photo: copyright Fernando Goy (Bergen 9.06.2009)

See Stockholm photo gallery

See Bergen photo gallery

Bonnaroooooo!

More Springsteen at Bonnaroo!

There was apparently not enough for Springsteen with his energetic 3-hour set on Saturday night at Bonnaroo, so he took the stage again on Sunday to join Phish for their encores.

Bruce sang lead vocals on "Mustang Sally", "Bobby Jean" and "Glory Days".

Update: the 3 tracks (and the full Phish show) is available for download on the official Phish website.

Meanwhile in Cleveland,the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame & Museum celebrated its "Springsteen Fan Fest" during three days. The highlight was Thom Zimny's Sunday presentation of unreleased Springsteen live footage. The fortunate ones present at the Hall had the pleasure of seeing the following previously unseen footage:

• "Thunder Road", Bruce at the piano, Bottom Line, New York 16/8/1975
• "Everytime you walk in the room", Bottom Line, New York 16/8/1975
• "The E Street Shuffle", Lenox,MA 23/7/75
• "Prove it all night", unknown show (possibly, according to experts, Houston 12/1978)
• "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out", Red Bank, NJ August 1976, with the Miami Horns
• "Born to Run", Philadelphia 31/12/1975
• "Sherry Darling", The River tour rehearsals (different location than commonly circulated video)
  
• "Sandy", Garden City, Ny, 15/12/1973
• "New York City Serenade", Garden City, NY 15/12/1973

June 13: Bonnaroo Festival

Thousands of people saw Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band perform yesterday at the Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee. Though the set list might seem rather standard, the energy level was extraordinary and Bruce delivered a strong performance for almost three hours. No big surprises, except for the inclusion of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town".

"Growin' Up", "Thunder Road" and "Santa Claus" were the sign-request performances of the night. A film crew directed by Danny Clinch shot the concert (and apparently the other shows at the festival).

Max Weinberg was back with the E Street Band for most of the show, until Jay came up to play "Radio Nowhere" and forward. Evan Springsteen joined the band during the encores.

Fuse, the official festival TV, will offer highlights from the show today at 4.oopm ET.

See complete set list.

Springsteen sings at new John Fogerty album

36 years after the release of John Fogerty's The Blue Ridge Rangers, it's been confirmed John will release a follow-up this Fall. Under the name The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again the album will feature covers of the following songs:

“Paradise” (John Prine)
“Never Ending Song of Love” (Delaney Bramlett)
“Garden Party” (Rick Nelson)
“I Don’t Care (Just As Long As You Love Me)” (Buck Owens)
“Back Home Again” (John Denver)
“I’ll Be There (If You Ever Want Me)” (Ray Price, Rusty Gabbard)
“Change In The Weather” (John Fogerty)
“Moody River” (Gary Bruce)
“Heaven’s Just A Sin Away” (J. Gillespie)
“Fallin’, Fallin’, Fallin’” (D. Deckleman, J. Guillot, J.D. Miller)
“Haunted House ”(Robert Geddins)
“When Will I Be Loved” (Phil Everly)

The good news is that the last song on the album is sung as a duo by John Fogerty and Bruce Springsteen. The vocal duo was recorded at Bruce's NJ studio last January.

photo: Dave Matthews, John Fogerty, Eddie Vedder y Springsteen in 2004, Vote for Change tour.

Video: Johnny 99

Bruce on the cover of Q magazine

Q magazine features Bruce in the cover of its July issue. The magazines includes an extensive 10-page tour report and interview with Bruce.


See Q's Springsteen photogallery.

June 10: Bergen

In his second show in Norway, Bruce delivered an intense 25-song set. Though it may seem short, it was a long set of nearly three hours, which surprisingly started with a hot "Prove it all night" followed by "Badlands" and "My Lucky Day". There were 9 different songs from the first show, including "Spirit in the Night", "Cover me", "Thunder Road" and the tour premieres of "Boom Boom" (the classic John Lee Hooker tune) and "Two Hearts".

Because of the wind and intense cold, there was no interruption after the end of the main set with "Born to run", and the encores started straight away with "Rosalita". Five songs later the night ended with "Twist & Shout", and the band quickly left for the airport, where they had a 1am flight to the U.S.

Next: Saturday at the Bonnaroo Festival, in the state of Tennessee.

See complete set list.

Video (Bergen 9 June): Because the Night.

June 9: Bergen

For the first show of the two-night stand in Bergen, Norway, Springsteen recovers "She's the One" and brings a tour debut: "Back In Your Arms", soundchecked a few days ago in Stockholm. Amongst the sign requests Bruce picks to play "Hungry Heart", "Because the Night", "Darlington County" and "Cadillac Ranch".


See complete set list

Video: Badlands/My Lucky Day

See Dagbladet newspaper: review and more videos.

New Summer shows added

Though there's no official announcement yet from BS.net, new shows are being added to the tour schedule and being announced locally by Live Nation. Two Mansfield shows are already on sale, plus another one in Hartford and one in Saratoga Springs going on sale this coming Thursday.


Here's the full info:

Aug. 19, 2009 Comcast Theatre, Hartford, CT (on sale June 12, 9.00 am EDT)
Aug. 22 & 23, 2009 Comcast Center, Mansfield, MA (on sale NOW)
Aug 25, 2009 Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY (on sale June 11, 10.00 am EDT)

Stockholm photo gallery

See photo gallery - Stockholm 7th June 2009

photo copyright 2009 Pierre Verhoeven

Fade Away

June 7: Stockholm (night #3)

The final show in Stockholm, which lasted 3 hours and 10 minutes, featured the tour premieres of "The River" (in the place of "The Ghost of Tom Joad") and "Fade Away", the exquisite track off The River that hadn't been played with the band since 1981 (and only a few times by Bruce solo on the Devils & Dust tour).

For the first time since the public rehearsals "Surprise Surprise" is performed live, though that doesn't add up to the amount of WOAD songs in the set (still 4) as both "The Wrestler" and "Kingdom of Days" are dropped. "Night", "No Surrender", "Spirit in the Night", "Mony Mony" and "Working on the Highway" make it to the set list tonight.

Springsteen said goodbye to Sweden with 7 encores, that started with "Thunder Road" and "Jungleland" (no "Hard Times" last night) and had a farewell with a delirious "Twist & Shout".

Video: No Surrender

See complete set list.

Photo: Pinkpop Festival 30.5.2009. copyright 2009 René Van Diemen

June 5: Stockholm (night #2)

Stockholm has always got one of Springsteen's strongest fanbases, and it shows. The second concert at the Stadion featured the longest show of the tour so far, with 29 songs and 3 hours and 7 minutes. Once again the show started with Nils Lofgren on accordion playing "Idas Sommarvisa", followed by "Downbound Train".

A varied set list included "Candy's Room, "My Lucky Day", "La Bamba/Good Lovin" (for the sign requests collection) and the premiere of another song from the new album: "Queen of the Supermarket". The crowd requests included "Hungry Heart", "Growin' Up", "Thunder Road" and, later in the set, "Lost in the Flood", a welcomed highlight.

The show, and the 7-song encore, featured many songs off the Born in the USA album, now that we celebrate its 25th anniversary.

See complete set list

Bruce, interview by Expressen.tv:
"We are commited to new material, new growth, new audience. I come out onstage at night, I look into the faces of the audience, an audience that will outlive me. They will want to hear our music beyond what we will probably be able to play. And that’s a wonderful thing. I see so many new kids that just saw us on the last tour or the tour before that one. I met a kid the other night, 18, that never saw us and saw 12 shows on this tour. That new audience is also something that inspires you"

See complete Expressen interview with Bruce

June 4: Stockholm (night #1)

On a rainy day, Springsteen opened the first of three shows in Stockholm with John Fogerty's "Who'll Stop The Rain?". Rain didn't stop, but the show grew in intensity. "Badlands" was next, followed by the return of "My Lucky Day", and then "Prove it All Night".

In the "sign request" department: "I'm Goin' Down", "Cadillac Ranch", "Because the Night" and "Wild Thing". The return of "The Wrestler" to the set list made the show special: there were 5 songs off Working on a Dream in the set, something that hadn't happened in a long time.

The encore was extra long, with 7 songs again, including the necessary "Twist and Shout" (now known in Sweden as 'The Stadium Breaker').

Video: Who'll Stop the Rain?
Video: Badlands
Video: My Lucky Day

See complete set list.

New website for the Springsteen Special Collection

There's a new online home for the Bruce Springsteen Special Collection and you'll find it at http://www.brucespringsteenspecialcollection.net. The site contains the most up-to-date listing of the more than 11,100 documents in the Collection, including the results of the microfilming project made possible by a grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission to The Friends of the Bruce Springsteen Special Collection. There's also an expanded "want list" which includes shows for which the Collection is seeking reviews.

The new site is the first step in a long-anticipated reorganization of the Collection that will eventually allow The Friends to begin accepting historic Bruce items in formats other than books, magazines, fanzines and other printed documents. Please change your bookmarks, and check back frequently for updates.

Live at Pinkpop Festival

The Dark End of the Street

More Boston dates

Check out WZLX's website. Two shows at the Comcast Center in Mansfield (for Aug 22nd and 23rd) have been announced there.

June 2: Tampere

The second show of the European tour has brought Bruce and the E Street Band to Finland, where tonight they have delivered a very long 28-song set, which has included the tour premiere of the fantastic soul song "The Dark End of the Street", a jewel written in 1967 by Muscle Shoals' Dan Penn and Chips Moman, and originally sung by the great James Carr (see video).

Other songs Springsteen has played thanks to sign-requests have been "Cover Me", "Thunder Road" and "Because the Night". Tonight's set list was far more varied than last Saturday's at Pinkpop, and thus the finnish have got the chance to hear "Prove it All Night", "Hungry Heart", "Kingdom of Days" and "Bobby Jean", plus a 7-song encore which has ended with "Glory Days", "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" (another, very early, tour premiere) and "Dancing in the Dark". Jay Weinberg is the drummer for this part of the tour.

Thursday begins a 3-show stand in Stockholm.

Photo: copyright 2009 René Van Diemen

See complete set list.