News and information about Bruce Springsteen, in constant update.
Wednesday, August 26
August 25: Saratoga Springs
Jay Weinberg was the drummer in the E Street Band last night. The last August show started with "No Surrender", and it seems it wasn't as intense as the most recent shows. Clarence missed a few cues, and later on Bruce had to stop both "Rosalita" and "Girls in their summer clothes" to have the band start them again.
A few unusual songs, like "Rendezvous" and "Atlantic City", made it onto the set list, and the sign requests brought "Summertime Blues", "Two Hearts", "Surprise Surprise" and "Because the Night". "Hungry Heart" was again the song that closed the show.
It is usual for Springsteen to start a 2-night stand with a good show, followed by a great 2nd show full of changes and surprises. Well, Mansfield already had a great show on its first night.
Last night's show had tons of changes, premieres and surprises, all with a hi-energy performance. "Night" and "Badlands" opened the set with fury, followed minutes later with a great "Saint in the City".
"Murder Incorporated" and "Johnny 99" were as hot as usual. The tour debut of "Independence Day" came next, and then an instrumental "(Love's Like a) Heat Wave", the great 60's hit from Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, during which Bruce picked up the sign requests.
And those signs brought "You Never Can Tell" (for the second time in the tour after its debut in Bilbao), "I'm Goin' Down", "Janey, Don't You Lose Heart" and "Prove it all night".
"The River" was added before Jay joined the band for the rest of the night. The encores were extra-long, with 9 songs, opening with "Girls in their Summer Clothes", featuring Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphy's during "American Land", finishing with "Twist & Shout", and then adding three more songs out of the blue: "Hang on Sloopy", "Growin Up" and "Hungry Heart".
The first of two shows in Mansfield was fully loaded with classic vintage songs like "Point Blank", "Backstreets" or "Rosalita". Springsteen opened the show strongly with "Jackson Cage" and "She's the One", moving "Badlands" after "Outlaw Pete". By request arrived the second tour version of "Burning Love", followed by "For You" and "Trapped", all sing requests.
Jay Weinberg was back onstage with the E Street Band after awhile, and performed all of the encores, which started with "Detroit Medley".
After a brief pause, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band resumed yesterday their Working on a Dream tour in Hartford. In a nice amphitheatre, with a small standing area in the front and with lots of heat, the show started with Nils, Charlie and Roy performing an instrumental "Sherry Darling", which was quickly followed by the full band version of this great summer song.
"Murder Incorporated" stays in the set as part of the 'Depression' trilogy (alongside "Seeds" and "Johnny 99"), this time followed by a great "Something in the Night". The sign requests brought "Mountain of Love" and, for the first time since 1975, Manfred Mann's "Sha La La" (a song Bruce used to play often in the Born to Run tour).
Before playing "Be True" Bruce went on to explain the song was left off The River in favour of "Crush On You", a decision he regretted (but apparently Steve doesn't). The main set continued nonstop after "Born to Run", with both "Rosalita" and "Thunder Road". The 4-song encore started with "Hard Times", a song that was left off most of the recent European shows. "Twist & Shout" put an end to a long and very hot show.
Yeah, there'll be a pit at every show, and access to it will be thru the usual lottery system. Check out the complete and detailed info at Backstreets.com. You got questions? They got the answers.
Bruce Springsteen has added today 3 more shows to the 2009 tour itinerary. The band will play in Des Moines, Baltimore and Buffalo, and according to the official press release Springsteen and The E Street Band "finalize remaining 2009 tour dates".
These are the new shows announced today:
21 Sept.2009 Des Moines, IA Wells Fargo Arena (on sale Aug. 22) 20 Nov. 2009 Baltimore, MD 1st Mariner Arena (on sale Sept. 25) 22 Nov. 2009 Buffalo, NY HSBC Arena (on sale Sept. 12)
The press release also announces: "They will perform the entirety of the landmark album 'Born To Run' at concerts on September 20 in Chicago, IL and November 18 in Nashville, TN."
The show in Nashville for Sept.10th has been moved to a new date: Nov.18, 2009.
According to BruceSpringsteen.net:
The Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band performance scheduled for September 10th at Nashville's Sommet Center has been rescheduled for Wednesday, November 18th. All tickets for the original September 10th date will be honored on November 18th.
As an added bonus for the Nashville audience, the band will be adding "Born to Run" in its entirety as part of the evening's full set list of Bruce Springsteen favorites!
After the end of the European tour, Bruce Springsteen has choosen Donostia (San Sebastián) to spend his holidays. Patti Scialfa and the children all arrived to the city on wednesday.
The newspaper El Diario Vasco has published numerous pictures of Bruce and his family visiting the center of San Sebastián. You can see the photos at Diario Vasco.
You can now visit John Fogerty's official website and listen to his duet with Bruce Springsteen on "When Will I Be Loved". The song is part of John's forthcoming album The Blue Ridge Rangers - Rides Again, to be released in September.
And one month later Bruce will appear dueting on another album. This time he'll sing at Rosanne Cash's new album, The List, in the song "Sea of Heartbreak".
The european leg of the Working on a Dream tour ended in Santiago de Compostela last Sunday with a show that will be difficult to forget.
To begin with, arriving thru a small road to the auditorium on top of the hill was a real adventure that took a long time. According to the press, the organization oversold various thousands of tickets, therefore resulting in a real overbooking, with around a thousand people who couldn't physically enter the venue and had to stay outside. Meanwhile, inside there were around 40,000 fans crushed and packing the house. The people outside tore down some fences trying to get in, and by just a pure miracle there wasn't a riot where people could get hurt. A lot of people ended up seeing the show from the grass outside the venue, and 50 of them went to the police station to file a report.
A bit after 10pm the best version of Bruce Springsteen came onstage to offer a vibrant performance, similar to the one in Bilbao just one week ago. Nils Lofgren played the very popular 'A Rianxeira' on the accordion, and the E Street Band quickly kicked off the show with a rousing 'Badlands'. Bruce was complety 'on' tonight, and the tension and excitement grew and grew song after song.
"Adam Raised a Cain" was the first highlight of the night. An audible that took the show to another dimension. Bruce sang and played with fury, and the song smoked. It was a tremendous electric storm that continued with a fabulous "Murder Incorporated", where the guitar trio shone, followed by "Johnny 99" and a really great performance of another classic: "Darkness on the Edge of Town".
(photo: the sing for Burning Love, that travelled from Roma to Santiago. Photo by René Van Diemen. Roma)
Thanks to a big sign held by a group of italian fans Bruce debuted a tremendous version of Elvis Presley's "Burning Love". A superb performance that was followed without stop by an exciting "Born to Be Wild" that segued into "My Love Will Not Let You Down". Max went crazy on this one, and his final drum fills received a huge roar from the audience.
This was Bruce Springsteen at his best. The excitement and energy level never went down and another sign request brought a beautiful "This Life", inmediately followed by an inmense "Backstreets" that filled the auditorium with emotion. Bruce sang with passion and epic and everyone in the green hill was in awe.
With such level of adrenaline going on both on stage and in the audience, there was a long 8-song encore that started with a rare acoustic version of "No Surrender", followed by "Land of Hope and Dreams" and "American Land", plus the crowd favourites "Glory Days" and "Dancing in the Dark", a rousing "Rockin' All Over the World", and the classic "Twist and Shout". The audience couldn't stop singing, dancing and jumping all over, and there was no way this could end. A totally unexpected and powerful "Born in the U.S.A." sent everyone hope with the feeling that we had attended a very special show.
Bruce Springsteen is enjoying his tour of Spain tremendously, having a lot of fun with these enthusiastic audiences. The audience in Valladolid was no different, responding louding to songs like "Badlands" or "Hungry Heart", combining oldstuff (gems like "Spirit in the Night" or a fabulous "Something in the Night") with the usual hits and crowd pleasers ("American Land" had the whole stadium dancing and jumping). The show started with a lot of energy, included an exciting "Spirit in the Night" and had some interesting sign-requests: Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire" (the sing dared to say 'If you have balls, play Great Balls of Fire'), "Something in the Night" (note-by-note perfect) and a really good version of "Surprise, Surprise" that reminded us of the best Roy Orbison melodies and chord changes.
But that was it. After that there was a change in peace and the energy level clearly dropped, though you couldn't tell by the audience reaction to songs like "Waitin' on a Sunny Day", "The Rising", "Girls in their summer clothes" (played at the slowest possible tempo), "Bobby Jean" or "Dancing in the Dark". Not a bad show, as it seemed to please everyone, but not the kind of show to rave about. Still, a more compelling performance than the one in Benidorm two days before. Tonight's show featured Roy Bittan opening the show playing a typical "Pasodoble" on the accordion.
Jay Weinberg was the drummer in the E Street Band last night. The last August show started with "No Surrender", and it seems it wasn't as intense as the most recent shows. Clarence missed a few cues, and later on Bruce had to stop both "Rosalita" and "Girls in their summer clothes" to have the band start them again.
