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Fifteen years after Bruce Springsteen was inducted in the Rock’n’roll Hall of Fame and the band reunited, finally The E Street Band joined the Hall.

The event took place in the immense Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, quite a leap from previous ceremonies held in smaller places. This year’s inductees were Peter Gabriel, Kiss, Nirvana, Cat Stevens, Linda Ronstadt… and The E Street Band. Springsteen gave the introduction speech, which lasted 16 minutes (read the full speech), then there were speeches from all members of the band, after they each received their Award for Musical Excellence. Bruce did not forget Clarence and Danny in his speech, nor drummer Ernest Boom Carter (surprisingly left off the Hall despite his contribution to the studio version of Bruce’s most famous song, «Born to Run»).

With both Max and Vini onstage playing drums, Davis Sancious on the organ and the E Street Horns onstage, the band launched into a gorgeous «The E Street Shuffle», followed by «The River».

The performance ended with a long, epic version of «Kitty’s Back» that allowed the E Streeters to jam and shine, particularly David Sancious on the organ (for the first time since 1974).

The High Hopes tour was back on track last night with an indoor show in Cincinnati that featured a more classic approach to the set list. The show started with «High Hopes» and included a few more tracks off the new album, such as «Heaven’s Wall», «American Skin» and a great «Dream Baby Dream» to close the show in majestic mode after more than three hours onstage. Springsteen spiced up the setlist with a few great tracks from his back catalog, with «Night», «Lost in the Flood»,  «Because the Night» and «Growin’ Up» (which featured a birthday boy onstage singing with Bruce).

See complete set list

The US leg of the High Hopes tour kicked off with a free, open-air show in Dallas, at the March Madness Music Festival. Steve Van Zandt was absent as he’s still filming episodes of the Lilyhammer series in Norway. Nils took the right side of the stage, along with Patti Scialfa (her first show with The E Street Band since September 2012), while Tom Morello was in the left side (Lofgren’s usual spot).

The show, which  was broadcast live via streaming, started with a jumpball (and guitar tech Kevin Buell dressed as a referee) and the debut of Van Halen’s «Jump», followed by «Badlands» and «Death to my Hometown». From then on Springsteen traced a setlist based mostly on hits and singalong songs, with 6 off Born in the USA and very few from his most recent albums («High Hopes», «The Ghost of Tom Joad», «Wrecking Ball», «Shackled and Drawn» and «Death to my Hometown»).

It was a classic festival show which ended with the acoustic version of «Thunder Road», sung as a duo with Patti.

See complete Dallas set list

See photo gallery

(TV screenshots: Raúl Nieto)

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band will kick off their High Hopes US tour with a free show at the March Madness Music Festival in Dallas, this next Sunday April 6th. The show will be live streamed at the festival’s website thru U-Verse.