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Bruce Springsteen arrived to Australia on Tuesday, ready to start his second tour of Oceania in less than a year. In the next four weeks he will offer a total of thirteen concerts in the continent. During the Wednesday soundcheck in Perth Bruce rehearsed «Dream Baby Dream» a few times and then gave a press conference.

Later that night the first of three shows in Perth started with 3 songs off the new album: «Frankie Fell in Love», «High Hopes» and » Just Like Fire Would» before putting everyone on their feet with «Badlands» and «Hungry Heart» and then offer two jewels off his second album: «The E Street Shuffle» and «Kitty ‘s Back» (the latter with a small snippet of Roy Orbison’s «Oh, Pretty Woman»).  For the first time on this tour, Bruce performed 6 songs off the new album. Besides the three mentioned before, he also sang «Heaven’s Wall» , «American Skin (41 Shots )» and » The Ghost of Tom Joad».

Another welcome surprise was the great version of «For You» that Bruce sang solo at the piano. A powerful version of «She’s the One» included  a bit of Buddy Holly’s «Not Fade Away» in the intro, plus an extended guitar solo at the end. From then on the show followed the usual path, until «Ramrod» got its tour premiere, a welcome change to open the encores. As usual Bruce bid farewell with an acoustic version of «Thunder Road».

Meanwhile, Springsteen continues to deliver official live recordings of all the shows so far. Currently the 4 shows from South Africa are available in the official store, and the last two have greatly improved the sound quality.

Set list Perth 5.02.2014 and video of Dream Baby Dream rehearsals

Bruce Springsteen’s High Hopes tour began with three concerts in Cape Town, South Africa. It was the first time Springsteen had played in this country and all shows featured (almost) completely different set lists. If the first show was more oriented to the most well-known hits, along with some of the songs from the new album, the next two nights radically changed the tone, changing 14 songs in the second show and 16 in the third, totaling a staggering 57 different songs performed in those three nights.

Springsteen and the E Street Band finished their South Africa tour with a concert in Johannesburg on Saturday, February 1, in a huge stadium in front of more than 50,000 people. The audio of the Cape Town shows is now available for download from the official store. More shows will be available soon for download.

Setlist Cape Town 26.1.2014
Setlist Cape Town 28.1.2014
Setlist Cape Town 29.1.2014
Setlist Johannesburg 1.2.2014

Free Nelson Mandela (26/1/14):

Heaven’s Wall (ensayos 24/1/14):

Spirit in the Night (28/1/14):

Prove it All Night ’78 (28/1/14):

Rosalita (29/1/14):

The Ties That Bind (28/1/14):

Trapped (28/1/14):

This is Your Sword (29/1/14):

The Ghost of Tom Joad (26/1/14):

Resumen del primer concierto (26/1/14):

This Hard land (28/1/14):

Ensayos y rueda de prensa (24/1/14):

Sun City (29/1/14):

Andy Greene had the chance to interview Bruce for Rolling Stone recently. Part of the interview has been published at the magazine’s website and print issue, but now the full 54-minute interview has been posted online. It’s a fascinating read, and Bruce reveals a lot of details. Here are some of the most interesting:

·»The Ghost of Tom Joad» was originally a rock song, written for the Greatest Hits album. It didn’t work so it became an acoustic song, and was the spark that led to the acoustic album of the same name. Then it became «part of our live show, but miss getting on the studio record because they didn’t necessarily fit with the sonic picture. So «Ghost of Tom Joad» ends up on this record as the rock song it was, perhaps, intended to be 15 years ago».

·Bruce is now working on the record he was doing before Wrecking Ball.

·Bruce recorded a full album with loops back in 1994 when he wrote «Streets of Philadelphia». He listens to it a lot

·The songs for Devils & Dust were mostly written while he was writing the Ghost of Tom Joad songs.

·»Frankie Fell in love» was an outtake from the Magic sessions. Recorded again with «Steve and drums and bass».

·About releasing old bootlegs officially, Bruce keeps thinking about it: «I never close the door on any of it. I suppose it would be nice to get some of the classic concerts that have kept people’s interest over the past 20, 30 or even 40 years and maybe formalize them in some way. That’s not off the drawing board either. It’s all there».

·Tracks #2: it’s a matter of time. «I kinda keep all these things wide open. I’m in search of the context for different things to be released, and what feels right, timing-wise».

·The essay Springsteen wrote for the Superbowl made him start writing some sort of autobiography. But as he says «I wouldn’t call it a book yet. It’s writings, miscellaneous writings».

·The River box set will happen if there’s enough unreleased material for it: «That’s something we’re working on. If we have enough, it’ll happen. If there’s not enough there, then it wouldn’t».

Read the full interview at Rolling Stone