Working on a Dream Tour
Encyclopedia
The Working on a Dream Tour was a concert tour by Bruce Springsteen
and the E Street Band
, which began in April 2009 and ended in November 2009. It followed the late January 2009 release of the album Working on a Dream
.
The tour was shorter than a typical Springsteen outing, but for the first time in his career, it placed an emphasis on performing at music festivals, especially in Europe. Even more unlike all his previous tours, the Working on a Dream Tour featured little of his new album. Instead, several trends from the latter stages of the previous year's Magic Tour
were carried forward: a focus on topical content, this time the late-2000s recession; a repetition of some of the stage raps and antics; and most visibly, continuation of a 'signs' segment, in which audience members would hold up signs requesting rare Springsteen songs or decades-past oldies and the band would stage (sometimes impromptu) performances of them. The final leg of the tour often featured another first as Springsteen played one of his classic 1970s or 1980s albums all the way through. Critical reaction to the tour's shows was generally positive, although the absence of the new material was noted. The tour was a commercial success, grossing over $156 million, being seen by over 1.7 million ticket holders, and finishing as the third-highest grossing tour in the world for 2009.
The tour had some logistical issues. Ticket sales were botched by Ticketmaster
, a situation further exacerbated by revelations of their holding seats back for their secondary market TicketsNow
. Before long, legislatures and attorneys general of several states, as well as members of the U.S. Congress and federal regulatory agencies, were weighing in on the matter, with various lawsuits, settlements, and proposed laws as the result. E Street drummer Max Weinberg
was not available for parts of the tour due to his bandleader obligations to The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
, which was just commencing. His 18-year-old son, Jay Weinberg
, became his replacement for parts or all of a number of shows, to a positive reaction from the rest of the band, the audience, and critics. The tour also gave Springsteen a chance to bid farewell to two famous venues he had played many shows at—the Philadelphia Spectrum and New Jersey's Giants Stadium
.
, where only 26 stops were planned. It did include a date in Oklahoma
, where Springsteen had not played in three decades and where officials at Tulsa's BOK Center
had been trying to lure Springsteen for years.
On February 23, 2009, it was confirmed that Springsteen would be headlining the Saturday night at Glastonbury festival
in June of the same year.
Springsteen also signed up for the Pinkpop Festival in the Netherlands and the Bonnaroo Music Festival
in the U.S.; playing such festivals was a departure from his normal routing, and challenged him with audiences that were not pre-selected with his fans.
One continuing subplot with the tour's scheduling was E Street drummer Max Weinberg
's availability vis à vis his job as The Max Weinberg 7 bandleader for Conan O'Brien
, given that during the first half of 2009 Late Night with Conan O'Brien
in New York
was ending and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
in Los Angeles
was beginning. The mid-January announcement that Late Night would continue until February 20 precluded any notion of starting the tour immediately following Springsteen's appearance at Super Bowl XLIII
, in addition to the band feeling that they had just gotten off the Magic Tour and "Wait, let’s stop a minute." Meanwhile, the June 1 start date of The Tonight Show posed problems for Weinberg's continued presence on the tour. O'Brien told a Variety
reporter at the time of the announcement that he hoped that Weinberg would follow him to Los Angeles and that he also hoped an arrangement could be worked out to let Weinberg go on the road with Springsteen as had been done for past tours. At NBC
, the coexistence between the drummer's two bosses was known as the Weinberg-Springsteen Rule, and was not typically extended to other talent at the network. In a high-profile Rolling Stone
cover story interview, Springsteen was vague about the matter: "All I know is this – it's all gonna work out, one way or another. If people wanna come out and see the E Street Band, they'll be able to come out and see the E Street Band." And whether Weinberg would stay with O'Brien and move or not was a subject of conflicting news reports until O'Brien confirmed on February 18 that Weinberg and the band were indeed coming with him. A few days later, E Streeter Steven Van Zandt
said of Weinberg's availability for the post-June 1, European leg: “We’re still figuring that out. We’ll see. I think Max will be there for most of it. ... I know he was very much trying to figure it out.” Weinberg had not missed an E Street Band show since joining the outfit in 1974, and Van Zandt said that no amount of rehearsal by another drummer could replace Weinberg's intuitive understanding of Springsteen's performance gambits.
As had been the practice since the Reunion Tour
in 1999, Springsteen and the band began rehearsals at Asbury Park Convention Hall
. Beginning on March 11, some of the Springsteen faithful listened outside closed doors for what songs and arrangements the tour might bring. The presence of Max Weinberg's 18-year-old son Jay
, a freshman at Stevens Institute of Technology
and also a drummer, at rehearsals indicated that he might be the one to replace his father for European leg shows where Tonight Show duties came into play. On one occasion on the Magic Tour
, Jay Weinberg had sat in on drums for "Born to Run
". This was confirmed by Springsteen on March 20, who said that Jay Weinberg would be drumming at a small number of shows during the tour. Springsteen added, "Once again, I want to express my appreciation to Conan O'Brien, and everyone on his team, for making it possible for Max to continue to do double duty for both us and for him. We promise to return him in one piece." Van Zandt said, "I’ve been avoiding this question for weeks! Thank God they finally announced it. We already did three days of rehearsals. Jay's a fantastic drummer. It’s in the Weinberg DNA."
By the time the American first leg was well underway, there was speculation of more American dates to come in the late summer and fall, but E Street guitarist Nils Lofgren
said that Springsteen and wife Patti Scialfa
would make a decision later on.
On May 21, 2009, while playing at the Izod Center, Springsteen announced he would be playing three dates at next-door Giants Stadium
in late September and early October, saying the band would "say goodbye to old Giants Stadium ... Before they bring the wrecking ball, the wrecking crew is coming back!" The video screens on stage showed a huge banner being hung on the stadium, which was the forerunner of heavy advertising for the shows on local television. They sold out quickly, and two more dates were added, finishing on October 9. These were scheduled to be the last concerts ever at the stadium. The final show sold out quickly but not the one before it. Subsequent U.S. tour dates in the late summer began to be announced as well, focusing on outdoor amphitheaters in the Northeast. In mid-July, a further extension to the U.S. tour was announced, adding shows in indoor arenas through November.
The November 22, 2009 performance in Buffalo, New York
was slated as the tour's last. After that the E Street Band was expected to take a one to two year hiatus, while Springsteen worked on another project.
The October 26, 2009 show in Kansas City, Missouri
was canceled an hour before its scheduled start time due to the death of Lenny Sullivan, Springsteen's cousin and assistant road manager for ten years. It was not rescheduled.
and Sweden
. The heavy demand caused a crash in the Scandinavian ticketing system. A similar situation due to heavy demand occurred in Finland
with the Lippupiste ticketing system.
On January 27, 2009, the day of the Working on a Dream
release in the United States, the official announcement of the tour came.
On February 1, 2009, Springsteen & the E Street Band performed at halftime of Super Bowl XLIII
. The following day, February 2, 2009, tickets for many of the U.S. shows went on sale. Despite the ongoing global financial crisis of 2008–2009, demand was heavy in a number of areas, both due to Springsteen's continued popularity and the high visibility from the Super Bowl appearance. Other areas failed to show the ticket fervor of past outings. The pair of shows in both New Jersey and Philadelphia sold out in about an hour. East Coast online sales through Ticketmaster
, including the New Jersey ones, were especially troublesome, as many customers endured long waits or were in the middle of a purchasing transaction, only to be hit with screens saying the site was down "due to routine maintenance". Ticketmaster acknowledged that the technical problem with the sales "wasn't our finest hour." Tickets for the New Jersey shows were in limited supply to begin with, as some 27 percent of them were held back from sale by the venue, the record company, Springsteen's organization, and others. Indeed, for one of the shows Springsteen's management held back all but 108 of the 1,126 seats in the four sections nearest the stage.
Frustration became a public outcry when many of Ticketmaster online customers, upon being informed shows were sold out, were directed to TicketsNow
, a Ticketmaster-owned site, where tickets were sold on the secondary market at extremely inflated prices. Ticketmaster even pushed fans to TicketsNow even when there were still tickets available for a given show. Bill Pascrell, the member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Jersey's 8th congressional district
, asked the Federal Trade Commission
and the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the relationship between Ticketmaster and TicketsNow, saying, "I am concerned that the business affiliation between Ticketmaster and TicketsNow may represent a conflict of interest that is detrimental to the average fan. There is a significant potential for abuse when one company is able to monopolize the primary market for a product and also directly manipulate, and profit from, the secondary market."
Springsteen issued a statement on his website where he chastised Ticketmaster and made it clear that he has no affiliation with them (the venues have the affiliation). Springsteen's organization, as well as record companies and promoters, held back substantial numbers of tickets from public sales and made their supply even tighter, especially for New Jersey shows. On the same day that New Jersey State Assemblymen Gary Schaer
and Wayne DeAngelo
called for an inquiry, New Jersey Attorney General
Anne Milgram
also said that her office and the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs
would investigate the sale of Springsteen concert tickets amidst a number of complaints. As the matter gained national attention, it became what The Washington Post
described as a "public relations nightmare" for Ticketmaster. On February 5, Ticketmaster issued an "open letter of apology" to Springsteen and his fans, saying that it would no longer link to TicketsNow from Ticketmaster during high-demand sales and promising it would refund customers who inadvertently bought secondary market tickets. Pascrell, whose office received over 1,000 complaints on the matter, and Connecticut Attorney General
Richard Blumenthal
also used the sales tales to indicate concern with the possible merger of Ticketmaster with Live Nation
. Springsteen also voiced his objection to the merger, and his comments also gained national attention.
On February 23, 2009, Ticketmaster agreed to an out-of-court settlement with the New Jersey Attorney General. Ticketmaster agreed to refund payments made to TicketsNow and reduce its visibility, and made some 2,000 tickets to the New Jersey shows available to complaints via random lottery, with promises of additional reparations if Springsteen scheduled a third leg to return to the U.S. in the summer. The company was not fined, but did reimburse the Attorney General's office $350,000 for investigatory expenses. Over 1,800 people qualified for the March 31 lottery, and those that got them eventually picked up their tickets at an amusingly-named "Attorney General Will Call Line" before the shows. In March 2009, Springsteen manager Jon Landau
emphasized that Springsteen never directly releases tickets into the secondary market, in the wake of revelations about other artists doing so. In May 2009 – and on the same day that Springsteen would perform at the local Xcel Energy Center
– Governor of Minnesota
Tim Pawlenty
signed into law "the Bruce Springsteen bill", which forbade online ticket sellers from sending frustrated customers to resale sites that offer inflated-price secondary market tickets.
Different but similar Ticketmaster drama occurred on March 20 when tickets went on sale for Springsteen's two Asbury Park Convention Hall
rehearsal shows a few days hence. Dozens of fans said that the Ticketmaster automated lines gave messages that no shows were on sale, while those using the human operator lines were able to make purchases. Ticketmaster denied that anything had gone wrong.
The secondary markets ticket saga re-emerged in mid-May during the first leg of the tour when TicketsNow announced they had oversold by some 300 persons the date at Washington, D.C.
's Verizon Center
. TicketsNow offered double refunds and inferiorally-located tickets to other Springsteen shows, but Springsteen manager Landau was quite unhappy: "We would like our audience to know that this is a problem caused entirely by Ticketmaster and its wholly owned subsidiary TicketsNow. Neither Bruce nor his management have any control whatsoever over these two troubled entities but we deeply resent the abuse of our fans."
When Springsteen's autumn Giants Stadium
shows were announced in late May 2009, secondary market sellers began advertising steeply-marked up tickets before they went on sale. This caused Attorney General Milgram to file suit against three such sellers for fraudulent behavior, especially given that some of the advertised seat locations did not even exist. On June 1, Congressman Pascrell announced proposed federal legislation, titled the "BOSS ACT" (Better Oversight of Secondary Sales and Accountability in Concert Ticketing), which would require primary ticket sellers to disclose how many tickets were being held back from sale, prohibit ticket brokers from buying tickets during the first 48 hours on sale, and prohibit primary ticket sellers, promoters, and artists from entering the secondary market.
In February 2010, Ticketmaster reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission
, which denounced the company's "deceptive bait-and-switch tactics" regarding phantom tickets, and made reference to an example in which the same 38 tickets to a tour show in Washington were sold and resold 1,600 times. Ticketmaster conceded no wrongdoing but agreed to stop the practice; they also agreed to $1 million in refunds for overcharges for secondary market sales via TicketsNow.
One idea under early consideration was to include a mini-set at each stop, containing a full performance of one of Springsteen's classic albums. Van Zandt predicted that they would play most of Working on a Dream during the initial stages of the tour, but what the rest of the show would be was uncertain. If the full album idea did go forward, he thought 1980's double album The River combined with outtakes from those sessions would make a full show on its own. Nothing came of the full album notion right away; it would have to wait until the tour's U.S. third leg to materialize.
Per past practice, Springsteen performed a couple of public rehearsal shows at Asbury Park Convention Hall
before beginning the tour proper. The eight-minute "Outlaw Pete" from Working on a Dream opened and various other selections from the album were played, but the show generally included patterns and staples of the early Magic Tour
and other previous outings. Jay Weinberg did some of the drumming, and the band was augmented by Curtis King
and Cindy Mizelle (both veterans of the Sessions Band Tour) as additional backing vocalists.
Once the first leg of the tour proper began at San Jose, California
on April 1, the consistent show opener was "Badlands
" – whose ending, or false ending, was framed with a recurrence of the Magic Tour's question of "Is there anybody alive out there?" – several things became apparent. Typical shows contained only three songs from Working on a Dream: "Outlaw Pete" (initially accompanied by a fog machine
), "Working on a Dream
", and "Kingdom of Days". This was in stark departure from all previous Springsteen tours, when material from newly-released albums was heavily featured. One other recently-released Springsteen song, "The Wrestler
", was also included in about half the set lists, although it did not share the new album's romantic pop style. Of the other Working on a Dream songs, a couple were never attempted in private rehearsal; some others were rehearsed privately but not publicly; "This Life" and "Surprise Surprise" did not survive past the first Asbury Park rehearsal show; "Good Eye" did not survive past the first proper show; and "My Lucky Day
" was played in the first three shows before being dropped. The disappearance of "This Life" and "My Lucky Day" were especially notable, given the former had an elaborate, extended multi-part Beach Boys-style "Ba ba ba" outro section featuring King and Mizelle in its one rehearsal performance, and that the latter was the album's second single. Nor was the prior album, Magic
, given any due, with only "Radio Nowhere
" included. Set lists relied mostly upon Springsteen material up through 1984's Born in the U.S.A.
, 2002's The Rising
, and a few scattered selections from other periods.
Commenting on the paucity of new material, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
suggested that the whole production would more accurately be named the Havin’ a Blast Tour. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
said that "The strange thing ... is that the 'Working on a Dream' tour no longer seems to be about 'Working on a Dream'" and suggested that the album was unpopular among many fans and as a result, "Springsteen, always the savvy showman, has chosen not to shove it down anyone's throat." Springsteen fans instantly discussed and analyzed setlists as shows happened on the Backstreets.com BTX website, associated with which Twitter
and other sources were used to post, or in some cases crudely broadcast, shows as they happened. E Street bassist Garry Tallent
and guitarist Nils Lofgren
found themselves amused that fans had complained on the previous Magic Tour of too much new material being played, and were now complaining of too little. Guitarist Steve Van Zandt said that the Working on a Dream songs that were played were "big" songs, so that made up for their lack of number.
One theme that was apparent in the show was the ongoing late-2000s recession. The early part of shows contained a "recession pack" consisting of "Seeds" (brought back from the 1980s), "Johnny 99
" (elongated with incongruous train "woo-whoo's"), and either "Youngstown" or "The Ghost of Tom Joad" (both featuring fiery guitar solos from Nils Lofgren
). Encores began with a rendition of Stephen Foster
's 1850s classic "Hard Times Come Again No More
" – which provided one of the few featured spots for King and Mizelle, who otherwise played a lot of tambourine
– and later included both of Springsteen's reunion-era encore epics of American struggle, survival and hope, "Land of Hope and Dreams" and "American Land". Van Zandt said that the emergence of the recession theme was in part why the concerts did not showcase the Working on a Dream album. One regular moment of optimism, however, was the playing of "Waitin' on a Sunny Day
" from The Rising, with Springsteen holding a microphone down to one or more young children in the front of the pit area to sing along to the chorus on.
One holdover from the latter stages of the Magic Tour was the "Build Me a House" stage rap, now located in "Working on a Dream". Springsteen would say: "We're not just here to rock the house tonight. We're going to build a house.... We're going to use the good news and we're going to use the bad news. We've got all the news we need - on this stage and in those seats."
An even more visible holdover was the 'signs' segment. This would begin when Springsteen collected request signs from the pit audience as an extended introduction to "Raise Your Hand
" was played. Once that song completed, Springsteen selected two or three numbers to play from the requests. The first was often a garage rock
classic such as "Wild Thing", "96 Tears
", or "Mony Mony
" or a punk rock
staple such as "I Wanna Be Sedated
" or "London Calling
". This activity was billed as "Stump the Band", and led to impromptu arrangements being worked out onstage. Springsteen would sometimes taunt the audience afterwards with declarations that the E Street Band could not be stumped, such as saying in Atlanta's Philips Arena
, "...this is the greatest bar band in the land, and if they don't think we know 96 fuckin' Tears!" The immediate introduction of the signs segment surprised even E Street guitarist Nils Lofgren
, who thought Springsteen would hold it off until later in the tour. The precise degree of challenge in this segment was unclear, as lyrics were often loaded into the teleprompter
that Springsteen uses and in some cases the songs had been soundcheck
ed earlier. In any case, most of the challenges were to the band's shared knowledge of British Invasion
, Motown, Stax-Volt
, and other 1960s material. Springsteen subsequently said, "we started to take unusual requests and do songs that we'd never played before, just depending on the common memory that the band would have from everyone's individual playing experience as teenagers. We ended up with a system where we can jump on a lot pretty quick." Other honored sign requests were usually for Springsteen songs not normally in the set list.
Show lengths were generally between 2 hours 30 minutes to 2 hours 45 minutes. Springsteen scheduled his two Philadelphia shows at the soon-to-be-demolished Spectrum
, commenting that "They don't make arenas like this anymore" and stating that the smaller size and lack of luxury boxes made the old venue "ideal for rock shows." The Spectrum had seen Springsteen's first headlining arena show in 1976 during the Born to Run tours
, and now he said they would "fulfill our solemn vow to rock the Spectrum one more time." Accordingly the band played local act The Dovells
' 1963 hit "You Can't Sit Down
" among other Philadelphia-related selections. Springsteen voiced similar sentiments about the old-but-still-going Nassau Coliseum, and selected The Soul Survivors
' 1967 hit "Expressway to Your Heart" as a tribute to the nearby Long Island Expressway.
Jay Weinberg appeared at a number of shows on the first, North American leg, drumming on anywhere from four songs to half the show. He had been a fan of heavy metal music
for much of his life, and in playing with Springsteen he integrated a polyrhythmic approach influenced by metal bands such as Lamb of God
, Mastodon
, and Slipknot
with the E Street drumming style derived from big band
s and early rock and roll
. He received a very positive reaction from both audiences and reviewers as a spark plug for the band, with his vigorous, long-hair-flying style inviting comparisons to Dave Grohl
and his potential for replacing his father drawing allusions to Wally Pipp
. Chicago Tribune
critic Greg Kot
wrote, "All hail Jay Weinberg. ... With [him drumming] the band’s chemistry was slightly unsettled for the better. ... His fills during 'Radio Nowhere' kicked the song, and the concert, into a higher gear, and galvanized a band that was starting to pace itself." Jay Weinberg said "it's a summer job that anybody would want," while Max Weinberg said Jay's segments allowed him a "total out-of-body experience. For the first time in – I've been with Bruce for 35 years – I've been able to go out in the audience and enjoy a Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concert." Jay Weinberg played his first full show on May 14 at the Times Union Center in Albany, New York
, as Max Weinberg was in California to prepare test runs for The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
start. Springsteen said of the occasion, “This is the first night in 35 years that somebody else sat at the drums.” Overall, Modern Drummer
magazine's editor said that a college freshman playing on one of the year's biggest rock tours was "certainly a unique story". For the final Meadowlands Arena shows of the first leg, Jay Weinberg did the first but his father took a red-eye flight
back from Los Angeles to do the second.
" becoming a regular for a while and "Queen of the Supermarket" getting its first airing anywhere. For Scandinavian shows, as band members walked on stage, Lofgren opened with solo accordion performances of local summer-themed specialties, "Idas Sommarvisa" in Sweden and "Du skal ikkje sova bort sumarnatta" in Norway. Jay Weinberg did the first seven shows, as his father was now beginning The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.
Springsteen and the band returned to the U.S. to make their first-ever appearance at the Bonnaroo Music Festival
, as the headlining act on June 13, 2009
. Playing before festival audiences who were not guaranteed to be fans of his music was largely new to Springsteen, but after a slow start the show captured over most of the Bonnaroo audience. The following night, Springsteen joined the recently reunited and headlining Phish
for three songs, "Mustang Sally
", "Bobby Jean
", and "Glory Days
". Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio said later, "I got to play with Bruce. That's my hero." The Bonnaroo performance of "Outlaw Pete" was included on a Fuse TV
show of festival highlights, and the performance of "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
" included a bit with Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog
singing along that was included on a Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien segment. Springsteen subsequently reflected, "We played festivals for the very first time on this tour, and that was one of the greatest experiences of all of them. That was an eye-opener. When we played Glastonbury [...] you come out and there's like 100,000 kids in their 20s and under. It was fun playing on bills with other bands, and it's something I'd do again in the future."
On June 25, Max Weinberg departed The Tonight Show temporarily for four weeks to join the band for the resumption of its European leg, via a comedy bit that had his drum riser turn into a float
that took him outside and studio and purportedly to the airport. During this stretch, Jay Weinberg did not appear during any of the shows until reappearing during the Spanish shows at the end of the leg. While Springsteen's wife Scialfa was nowhere to be seen in Europe, their son Evan appeared and played guitar during encores of a number of shows, while Clarence Clemons' nephew also made playing appearances and Springsteen's mother and aunt also took the stage.
He also was the headliner of the Festival des Vieilles Charrues
in Brittany, France in July, his only tour stop in France. His son Evan participated in the concert, playing guitar.
Lofgren continued to open shows, playing national songs on accordion. Set lists further loosened, with many tour premieres showing up in request slots or elsewhere and shows sometimes running to 30 songs in length. After a while, the encore break was disposed with and the show ran continuously to the end without the band ever leaving the stage. Springsteen ran past local curfews at both Dublin shows and at Glastonbury. The Dublin violations resulted in a potential €50,000 fine, but Springsteen mocked the prospect by on-staging a bit: “We have to go, we have a curfew!” with Van Zandt replying, “We don't care about the curfew, this is the curfew breaking Boss and E Street Band!" "American Skin (41 Shots)
" made unexpected appearances in Dublin and at several stops in Italy, while "My City of Ruins
" was played at Stadio Olimpico
in Rome
in honor of the victims of the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake
. The European leg ended with five shows in Spain, at more out-of-the-way locations than in the past. The last of these shows, at the Auditorio Monte do Gozo
in Santiago de Compostela
, was marred by disorganized security and overbooking by the promoter, leaving some of the approximately 40,000 ticket holders unable to get in. (Dozens of complaints against the promoter were filed to police, city, and consumer authorities the following day.) In any event, the band played "Rockin' All Over the World
" and concluded its encore with "Born in the U.S.A.
" after 1 a.m. local time (the Spanish shows did not begin until 10 p.m.). Max Weinberg immediately flew back to Los Angeles and resumed his role on The Tonight Show later that same day.
s. Shows were often scheduled for weekends, to allow Max Weinberg to play without missing any Tonight Show time; Jay Weinberg played those shows held during the week. Then on September 25, Max Weinberg took a two month absence from the television show, to join Springsteen for the final portion of the leg. Ticket sales were slower than normal on this leg, partly due to Ticketmaster
's new "paperless ticketing" system that may have come into effect due to the earlier problems with Springsteen sales. In arenas that did not sell well, management relocated the people who bought tickets behind the stage to other sections and put up the screen used for stadium and amphitheater shows behind the stage. In a hint to fans to buy up, Van Zandt said, “You never know. This could be the last tour. We do every show like it’s our last show anyway.” In any case, by September 2009 the tour had sold over two million tickets overall. Even some shows in Philadelphia, long a Springsteen bastion, were not sold out.
During the U.S. third leg, it was reported that Born to Run
would be featured in its entirety during several shows, possibly in a scheme to boost ticket sales. The full-album idea took fruition with the late September-early October set of five shows at Giants Stadium
, which would be the final concerts ever in that venue in Springsteen's home state. Born to Run was played at two shows, Darkness on the Edge of Town
at one show, and Born in the U.S.A.
at two shows. Springsteen later said of the full album idea, "We had done so many shows and were going to come back around one more time, so we were like, 'OK, what can we do that we haven't done? Let's try to play some of the albums.' There were some people who were starting to do it, it sounded like a good idea, and my audience fundamentally experienced all my music in album form. People took Born to Run home and played it start to finish 100 times; they didn't slip on a cut in the middle. And we made albums – we took a long time, and we built them to last. ... Those records are packed with songs that have lasted 30–35 years. It simply was a way to revitalize the show and do something appealing and fun for the fans, but it ended up being a much bigger emotional experience than I thought it would be."
The Giants Stadium shows were opened with a new Springsteen song written for the occasion, "Wrecking Ball", written from the point of view of the stadium itself: “I was raised out of steel here in the swamps of Jersey, some misty years ago ...” The stand featured several other new touches as well, including Springsteen crowd surfing
during "Hungry Heart
", evocative behind-the-stage upper-level lighting during "The Rising", and fireworks at the "E! Street! Band!" conclusion of "American Land". The final show, which drew nearly 60,000 people, concluded with the second playing on the stand of "Jersey Girl
", dedicated to “all the crew and staff that’s worked all these years at Giants Stadium.”
The full album versions continued, as well as a localized rendition of "Wrecking Ball", at Springsteen's four shows to close out the Philadelphia Spectrum as well; some 43 different songs were playing during the stand. Apart from the album playings, Springsteen kept setlists flexible during the third leg; sign requests continued, as in Springsteen's words they allowed "the fans to have input into the show in a way that just pumps the blood into everything and enlivens the evening." Born to Run remained the standard full album choice for the rest of the tour, but the two shows at New York's Madison Square Garden
saw The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle and The River, with the latter's 20-song length dominating the setlist. Springsteen felt The River show succeeded, saying "I sequenced [the album] to feel like a live show, so you have four fast songs and a couple of ballads. It played real well when we went to play it."
Springsteen's show on November 13, 2009 at The Palace of Auburn Hills
outside Detroit, Michigan
became well known for Springsteen's multiple statements to the crowd about being in Ohio
, the first as he came on, the second during the lyric to "Wrecking Ball", and the third in the "Build me a house" rap during "Working on a Dream". (The band had played in Cleveland, Ohio
, three nights earlier.) By now getting some boos from the crowd, guitarist Van Zandt, who had hoped Springsteen would stop making the mistake on his own, finally went over to Springsteen and corrected him: "‘You don’t realize it, but you’re saying Ohio and we’re in Michigan.’ He was like ‘What!?’" Springsteen then told the crowd that he had committed "every front man's nightmare," and made a show of saying "Michigan" from then on. The Spinal Tap
-esque blunder attracted worldwide television and print publicity. (The show subsequently featured a rare performance of Bob Seger
's "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man", appealing to Seger's fan base in Detroit.) Springsteen made joking references to being in Ohio, or made exaggerated statements as to being in the correct state, in subsequent shows.
During the final stretch of the tour, the final encores of many shows presented a long, rousing, ebullient rendition of Jackie Wilson
's classic "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher
". Showcasing featured vocals from Cindy Mizelle or Curtis King
and trumpet solos from Curt Ramm, the song stretched to eight minutes with key changes, reprises, and walks through the pit area by Springsteen and the singers, and became recognized as one of the highpoints of the entire tour. Springsteen dispelled any notion of this being the final E Street Band show or the last for a long time; in an interview near the end of the tour he said, "We're playing to an audience now that will outlive us. But at the same time the band is very, very powerful right now. And part of the reason it's powerful is that it's carrying a lot of very strong cumulative history. You come and you see 35 years of a speeding train going down the track, and you're gonna get to be on the front end of it. We look forward to many, many more years of touring and playing and enjoying it."
The tour concluded with the November 22, 2009, show at HSBC Arena in Buffalo, New York
. Fans came from far away and the show dominated the feel of the city that day. The full album played was Springsteen's first, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.
, which he wryly said "was the miracle. This was the record that took everything from way below zero to ... one." The performance of it was dedicated to his first manager and producer, Mike Appel
, who was present in the audience, and featured quite rare renditions of "Mary Queen of Arkansas
" and (the first ever with the E Street Band) "The Angel
". Other rarities peppered the 34-song, nearly 3½-hour night, including Chuck Willis
's "(I Don't Want to) Hang Up My Rock and Roll Shoes" and, to mark Steven Van Zandt's birthday, totally obscure outtake "Restless Nights" (supposedly Van Zandt's favorite Springsteen song) and a now-unusual second song from the current album, "Surprise Surprise". Near the end he said, "So we're gonna say goodbye, but just for a little while ... a very little while ..." The tour finished not with the emotional statement in song that some other Springsteen tours have in the 2000s, but instead with John Fogerty
's "Rockin' All Over the World
".
and the Chicago Tribune
favorably compared Springsteen to the rest of the band in this regard, saying "Some of the guys in the band look their age" and "they lack the physicality, the sustained urgency of their prime."
The Philadelphia Inquirer
and the San Jose Mercury News
both commented on the fundamental problem that Springsteen seemed to be facing on the tour. The former said "Bruce Springsteen may well have miscalculated earlier this year when he released Working on a Dream, one of the most hopeful and downright happy sounding albums of his career just as a cratering economy was rendering the songs of struggle and strife that are his stock in trade more resonant than they have sounded in years." The latter said, "As Don Rumsfeld might say, you don't go on tour with the album you wish you had, you go on tour with the album you've got. So Springsteen faces the tough task of hyping a new romantic pop record while simultaneously offering hope and support to a wounded nation – not an easy task." Rolling Stone
voiced a similar theory. Chicago Tribune
critic Greg Kot
wrote that "If there was a disappointment, it was that Springsteen didn’t make a stronger case for his latest album, Working on a Dream. I’m not a fan of the album, but I always look forward to how the singer reinvents his studio work on the stage. In this case, however, he barely touched the new material ..." Views on one, the early-in-show, eight-minute "Outlaw Pete"—one of the few new material centerpieces—varied considerably.
The San Jose Mercury News
and the Connecticut Post
both gave the show a mixed review, with the former saying it was "decidedly subpar" and latter saying "the concert itself wasn't as captivating as past visits to the state." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
and The Philadelphia Inquirer
were unreserved in their praise, with the former saying Springsteen "deliver[ed] a show that proves boomer-oriented rock 'n' roll can still tear it up" and the latter saying Springsteen adapted to circumstances "with an altered game plan that wisely plays to his strengths". The Greensboro, North Carolina
News & Record said that "Springsteen and the E Street Band were received like conquering heroes during an exhilarating three-hour show that repeatedly drove the adoring, near-sellout crowd into fist-thrusting, sing-along frenzies." The Globe and Mail
said of the tour's sole Canadian show, "an evening with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band still ranks as the epitome of the rock concert experience." Rolling Stone
said of the first leg's concluding New Jersey shows, "Springsteen tours don’t usually hit highs like this until the end, but the band has essentially been on the road since September of 2007."
Of the European shows, critical reaction was generally quite favorable. The Irish Times
said Springsteen showing no signs of age as he neared his 60th birthday, despite taking a spill during his stage antics in rainy Dublin, and remarked upon how "a set that features so many songs about the toughness of life ... can be delivered with such extraordinary verve that by the time you leave, you’re very glad to be alive." The Independent
echoed the sentiment in reviewing the Hyde Park show, writing that he showed "the vigour of a frontman a third of his age" and that "Springsteen's intensity was staggering from first powerful vocal to final thrashed-out chord." The Bath Chronicle saluted Springsteen's performance at Glastonbury, saying "As all the tickets were sold before Springsteen was even confirmed on the bill, he must have known he was facing something very rare for him – the musical equivalent of a sporting 'away match' where not everyone was necessarily a worshipper at the altar of Bruce." They concluded that Springsteen gave "a performance of passion, exuberance, exhilaration and musical majesty" while sticking with his standard tour set list and not resorting to playing many of his better-known hits.
Of the final Giants Stadium stand, the New York Daily News
said that "Wrecking Ball" was "a rousing declaration of defiance in the face of destruction," and overall said that "Once again, this proved [Springsteen] to be one of the few performers charismatic enough, and anthemic enough, to use the stadium scale to his advantage." Entertainment Weekly
called "Wrecking Ball" "an inspiring start to another of the marathon three-hour shows Springsteen still manages to put on night after night." The New York Times
said of the full performance of Born in the U.S.A. that "Springsteen sang with deeper nuance ... the songs have not faded." Greg Kot
of the Chicago Tribune
said that while during the first leg of the tour the band had "appeared to be running on fumes", the Born to Run album performance was "easily the best Springsteen show with the E Streeters I'd seen since the '80s."
Looking back on the tour as a whole, and in combination with the preceding Magic Tour, Billboard
magazine cover story stated that "Even for an artist who has largely built his career on epic shows, Springsteen and the E Streeters have managed to find yet another gear at this stage in their legendary career." Springsteen himself said, "With the end of these shows, we're coming to the end of a decade-long project that really was a tremendous renewal of the power, the strength and the service that our band hopefully provides." Springsteen also touted the quality of the shows: "I believe if you come and see us now you're seeing the best E Street Band that's ever played." Specific shows from the tour were named as among the best concerts of 2009 by Spin
magazine, The Philadelphia Inquirer
, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
, and the Chicago Tribune
.
Springsteen himself remained quite interested in his and the band's commercial fortunes. He said before the tour's start that remaining popular had been one of his motivations for the Super Bowl appearance: "I've said no for about 10 years or however long they've been asking, but, I tell you, we played on the last tour and there were some empty seats here and there and, well, there shouldn't be any empty seats at an E Street Band show. I hold pride that we remain one of the great wonders of the world ... so sometimes you got to remind people a little bit."
Through September 2009, the Working on a Dream Tour was in the top five in grosses of 2009 tours worldwide, alongside the U2 360° Tour
, Coldplay
's Viva la Vida Tour
, and AC/DC
's Black Ice Tour
. For all of 2009, the Working on a Dream Tour was the third-highest grossing tour, trailing only U2 360° and Madonna
's Sticky & Sweet Tour
. It grossed over $156 million, was seen by over 1.7 million ticket holders, and sold out 42 of 72 non-festival shows. Unlike the past Magic
and Devils & Dust Tour
s, the Working on a Dream Tour failed to win any Billboard Touring Awards
. The tour completed a busy ten years on the road for Springsteen, who ranked fourth among pop artists for the decade in terms of total touring grosses.
Scialfa missed some shows on the first leg due to injuries received from falling off her horse, then due to family responsibilities, and was absent from all the shows on the European leg. She continued to miss all but a handful of shows during the U.S. third leg, including only making it to two of the five final Giants Stadium performances. As on the Magic Tour, Tyrell has assumed a more prominent role when Scialfa was absent. Clemons continued to have a diminished physical role on stage due to his multiple physical problems, and was scheduled for spine surgery once the tour concluded with a 12-month recovery period. Jay Weinberg substituted for Max Weinberg on a number of dates, and the two alternated for portions of the show on a number of other dates. Ramm, a veteran of the Sessions Band Tour, played on several songs per show during much of the U.S. third leg.
One song's worth of the June 13 Bonnaroo Music Festival
appearance, "Outlaw Pete", made it into a U.S. packaged broadcast of festival highlights for television, "The Best of Bonnaroo 2009", that appeared on Fuse TV
on June 20. The performance of that song subsequently appeared on a Live From Bonnaroo 2009 DVD.
Portions of the June 27 Glastonbury Festival
performance were aired live on BBC Two
television and BBC 6 Music
radio. A number of fans complained that the full set had not been shown by the BBC, which in turn said the set had been too long to broadcast in its entirety. Televised highlights were later shown on BBC Four
and BBC HD
.
In conjunction with the Fourth of July holiday in the U.S., E Street Radio
featured 45 minutes from the July 3 Frankfurt
Commerzbank Arena show.
In the U.S., the Hard Rock Calling
Hyde Park
appearance was included in an August 21 broadcast on the VH1
, VH1 Classic
, and Palladia cable channels; seven Springsteen and E Street Band performances, including "London Calling
" to open the program, were included in amongst other artists' performances.
Several shows were filmed, but at the tour's conclusion no decisions had been made about whether to release them on DVD or other media. Then in June 2010, London Calling: Live in Hyde Park
was released: a 163-minute, near-complete Blu-ray/DVD accounting of the named show.
Source:
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
and the E Street Band
E Street Band
The E Street Band has been rock musician Bruce Springsteen's primary backing band since 1972.The band has also recorded with a wide range of other artists including Bob Dylan, Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply, Dire Straits, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Stevie Nicks, Tom Morello, Sting, Ian...
, which began in April 2009 and ended in November 2009. It followed the late January 2009 release of the album Working on a Dream
Working on a Dream
Working on a Dream is the 16th studio album by Bruce Springsteen, released on January 27, 2009 through Columbia Records. It has sold more than 3 million copies worldwide, with over 585,000 in the United States as of September 2010.-History:...
.
The tour was shorter than a typical Springsteen outing, but for the first time in his career, it placed an emphasis on performing at music festivals, especially in Europe. Even more unlike all his previous tours, the Working on a Dream Tour featured little of his new album. Instead, several trends from the latter stages of the previous year's Magic Tour
Magic Tour (Bruce Springsteen)
The Magic Tour was Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's 2007–2008 concert tour of North America and Western Europe.The tour began October 2, 2007, in Hartford, Connecticut, and concluded August 30, 2008 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin...
were carried forward: a focus on topical content, this time the late-2000s recession; a repetition of some of the stage raps and antics; and most visibly, continuation of a 'signs' segment, in which audience members would hold up signs requesting rare Springsteen songs or decades-past oldies and the band would stage (sometimes impromptu) performances of them. The final leg of the tour often featured another first as Springsteen played one of his classic 1970s or 1980s albums all the way through. Critical reaction to the tour's shows was generally positive, although the absence of the new material was noted. The tour was a commercial success, grossing over $156 million, being seen by over 1.7 million ticket holders, and finishing as the third-highest grossing tour in the world for 2009.
The tour had some logistical issues. Ticket sales were botched by Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc. is an independent American ticket sales and distribution company based in West Hollywood, California, USA, with operations in many countries around the world. In 2010 it merged with Live Nation to become Live Nation Entertainment...
, a situation further exacerbated by revelations of their holding seats back for their secondary market TicketsNow
TicketsNow
TicketsNow, established in 1999 and based in Rolling Meadows, Illinois, is a marketplace for event tickets.TicketsNow was named in 2004 and 2006 to the Inc. 500 Index of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the U.S...
. Before long, legislatures and attorneys general of several states, as well as members of the U.S. Congress and federal regulatory agencies, were weighing in on the matter, with various lawsuits, settlements, and proposed laws as the result. E Street drummer Max Weinberg
Max Weinberg
Max Weinberg is an American drummer and television personality, most widely known as the longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and as the bandleader for Conan O'Brien on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.Weinberg grew up in suburban New Jersey...
was not available for parts of the tour due to his bandleader obligations to The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show that featured Conan O'Brien as host from June 1, 2009 to January 22, 2010 as part of NBC's long-running Tonight Show franchise...
, which was just commencing. His 18-year-old son, Jay Weinberg
Jay Weinberg
Jay Weinberg is an American drummer and the son of drummer Max Weinberg. He has played with the punk band The Reveling and toured in 2009 as a drummer with Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, substituting for his father. During 2010, he was briefly the drummer for Madball...
, became his replacement for parts or all of a number of shows, to a positive reaction from the rest of the band, the audience, and critics. The tour also gave Springsteen a chance to bid farewell to two famous venues he had played many shows at—the Philadelphia Spectrum and New Jersey's Giants Stadium
Giants Stadium
Giants Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium, located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA, in the Meadowlands Sports Complex. Maximum seating capacity was 80,242. The building itself was 230.5 m long, 180.5 m wide and 44 m high from service level to the top of the seating bowl and 54 m high to...
.
Itinerary
The tour was envisioned by the Springsteen camp as not being "a total marathon", and was thus considerably shorter than usual for Springsteen, especially in North AmericaNorth America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, where only 26 stops were planned. It did include a date in Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
, where Springsteen had not played in three decades and where officials at Tulsa's BOK Center
BOK Center
The BOK Center, or Bank of Oklahoma Center, is a 19,100-seat multi-purpose arena and a primary indoor sports and event venue in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States. Designed to accommodate arena football, hockey, basketball, concerts, and similar events, the facility was built at a cost of $178 million...
had been trying to lure Springsteen for years.
On February 23, 2009, it was confirmed that Springsteen would be headlining the Saturday night at Glastonbury festival
Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...
in June of the same year.
Springsteen also signed up for the Pinkpop Festival in the Netherlands and the Bonnaroo Music Festival
Bonnaroo Music Festival
The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is an annual four day music festival created and produced by Superfly Productions and AC Entertainment, held at Great Stage Park on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee. It hosted its tenth annual event June 9–12, 2011...
in the U.S.; playing such festivals was a departure from his normal routing, and challenged him with audiences that were not pre-selected with his fans.
One continuing subplot with the tour's scheduling was E Street drummer Max Weinberg
Max Weinberg
Max Weinberg is an American drummer and television personality, most widely known as the longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and as the bandleader for Conan O'Brien on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.Weinberg grew up in suburban New Jersey...
's availability vis à vis his job as The Max Weinberg 7 bandleader for Conan O'Brien
Conan O'Brien
Conan Christopher O'Brien is an American television host, comedian, writer, producer and performer. Since November 2010 he has hosted Conan, a late-night talk show that airs on the American cable television station TBS....
, given that during the first half of 2009 Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien that aired 2,725 episodes on NBC between 1993 and 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 am...
in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
was ending and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show that featured Conan O'Brien as host from June 1, 2009 to January 22, 2010 as part of NBC's long-running Tonight Show franchise...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
was beginning. The mid-January announcement that Late Night would continue until February 20 precluded any notion of starting the tour immediately following Springsteen's appearance at Super Bowl XLIII
Super Bowl XLIII
Super Bowl XLIII was an American football game pitting the American Football Conference champion Pittsburgh Steelers against the National Football Conference champion Arizona Cardinals to decide the National Football League champion for the 2008 season. The game was played on February 1, 2009,...
, in addition to the band feeling that they had just gotten off the Magic Tour and "Wait, let’s stop a minute." Meanwhile, the June 1 start date of The Tonight Show posed problems for Weinberg's continued presence on the tour. O'Brien told a Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
reporter at the time of the announcement that he hoped that Weinberg would follow him to Los Angeles and that he also hoped an arrangement could be worked out to let Weinberg go on the road with Springsteen as had been done for past tours. At NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, the coexistence between the drummer's two bosses was known as the Weinberg-Springsteen Rule, and was not typically extended to other talent at the network. In a high-profile Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
cover story interview, Springsteen was vague about the matter: "All I know is this – it's all gonna work out, one way or another. If people wanna come out and see the E Street Band, they'll be able to come out and see the E Street Band." And whether Weinberg would stay with O'Brien and move or not was a subject of conflicting news reports until O'Brien confirmed on February 18 that Weinberg and the band were indeed coming with him. A few days later, E Streeter Steven Van Zandt
Steven Van Zandt
Steven Van Zandt is an Italian-American musician, songwriter, arranger, record producer, actor, and radio disc jockey, who frequently goes by the stage names Little Steven or Miami Steve...
said of Weinberg's availability for the post-June 1, European leg: “We’re still figuring that out. We’ll see. I think Max will be there for most of it. ... I know he was very much trying to figure it out.” Weinberg had not missed an E Street Band show since joining the outfit in 1974, and Van Zandt said that no amount of rehearsal by another drummer could replace Weinberg's intuitive understanding of Springsteen's performance gambits.
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Reunion Tour
The Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Reunion Tour was a lengthy, top-grossing concert tour featuring Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band that took place over 1999 and 2000....
in 1999, Springsteen and the band began rehearsals at Asbury Park Convention Hall
Asbury Park Convention Hall
Asbury Park Convention Hall is a 3,600-seat indoor exhibition center located on the boardwalk and on the beach in Asbury Park, New Jersey. It was built between 1928 and 1930 and is used for sports, concerts and other special events. Adjacent to the Convention Hall is the Paramount Theatre; both are...
. Beginning on March 11, some of the Springsteen faithful listened outside closed doors for what songs and arrangements the tour might bring. The presence of Max Weinberg's 18-year-old son Jay
Jay Weinberg
Jay Weinberg is an American drummer and the son of drummer Max Weinberg. He has played with the punk band The Reveling and toured in 2009 as a drummer with Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, substituting for his father. During 2010, he was briefly the drummer for Madball...
, a freshman at Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology is a technological university located on a campus in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA – founded in 1870 with an 1868 bequest from Edwin A. Stevens. It is known for its engineering, science, and technological management curricula.The institute has produced leading...
and also a drummer, at rehearsals indicated that he might be the one to replace his father for European leg shows where Tonight Show duties came into play. On one occasion on the Magic Tour
Magic Tour (Bruce Springsteen)
The Magic Tour was Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's 2007–2008 concert tour of North America and Western Europe.The tour began October 2, 2007, in Hartford, Connecticut, and concluded August 30, 2008 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin...
, Jay Weinberg had sat in on drums for "Born to Run
Born to Run (song)
"Born to Run" is a song by American singer songwriter Bruce Springsteen, and the title song of his album Born to Run.- Songwriting :Written at in Long Branch, New Jersey in early 1974, the song was Bruce Springsteen's last-ditch effort to make it big. The prior year, Springsteen had released two...
". This was confirmed by Springsteen on March 20, who said that Jay Weinberg would be drumming at a small number of shows during the tour. Springsteen added, "Once again, I want to express my appreciation to Conan O'Brien, and everyone on his team, for making it possible for Max to continue to do double duty for both us and for him. We promise to return him in one piece." Van Zandt said, "I’ve been avoiding this question for weeks! Thank God they finally announced it. We already did three days of rehearsals. Jay's a fantastic drummer. It’s in the Weinberg DNA."
By the time the American first leg was well underway, there was speculation of more American dates to come in the late summer and fall, but E Street guitarist Nils Lofgren
Nils Lofgren
Nils Hilmer Lofgren is an American rock music recording artist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist...
said that Springsteen and wife Patti Scialfa
Patti Scialfa
Vivienne Patricia "Patti" Scialfa is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She is married to Bruce Springsteen and they have three children.- Early life :...
would make a decision later on.
Giants Stadium
Giants Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium, located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA, in the Meadowlands Sports Complex. Maximum seating capacity was 80,242. The building itself was 230.5 m long, 180.5 m wide and 44 m high from service level to the top of the seating bowl and 54 m high to...
in late September and early October, saying the band would "say goodbye to old Giants Stadium ... Before they bring the wrecking ball, the wrecking crew is coming back!" The video screens on stage showed a huge banner being hung on the stadium, which was the forerunner of heavy advertising for the shows on local television. They sold out quickly, and two more dates were added, finishing on October 9. These were scheduled to be the last concerts ever at the stadium. The final show sold out quickly but not the one before it. Subsequent U.S. tour dates in the late summer began to be announced as well, focusing on outdoor amphitheaters in the Northeast. In mid-July, a further extension to the U.S. tour was announced, adding shows in indoor arenas through November.
The November 22, 2009 performance in Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
was slated as the tour's last. After that the E Street Band was expected to take a one to two year hiatus, while Springsteen worked on another project.
The October 26, 2009 show in Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
was canceled an hour before its scheduled start time due to the death of Lenny Sullivan, Springsteen's cousin and assistant road manager for ten years. It was not rescheduled.
Ticket sales
Even before any official tour announcement, tickets went on sale in NorwayNorway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. The heavy demand caused a crash in the Scandinavian ticketing system. A similar situation due to heavy demand occurred in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
with the Lippupiste ticketing system.
On January 27, 2009, the day of the Working on a Dream
Working on a Dream
Working on a Dream is the 16th studio album by Bruce Springsteen, released on January 27, 2009 through Columbia Records. It has sold more than 3 million copies worldwide, with over 585,000 in the United States as of September 2010.-History:...
release in the United States, the official announcement of the tour came.
On February 1, 2009, Springsteen & the E Street Band performed at halftime of Super Bowl XLIII
Super Bowl XLIII
Super Bowl XLIII was an American football game pitting the American Football Conference champion Pittsburgh Steelers against the National Football Conference champion Arizona Cardinals to decide the National Football League champion for the 2008 season. The game was played on February 1, 2009,...
. The following day, February 2, 2009, tickets for many of the U.S. shows went on sale. Despite the ongoing global financial crisis of 2008–2009, demand was heavy in a number of areas, both due to Springsteen's continued popularity and the high visibility from the Super Bowl appearance. Other areas failed to show the ticket fervor of past outings. The pair of shows in both New Jersey and Philadelphia sold out in about an hour. East Coast online sales through Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc. is an independent American ticket sales and distribution company based in West Hollywood, California, USA, with operations in many countries around the world. In 2010 it merged with Live Nation to become Live Nation Entertainment...
, including the New Jersey ones, were especially troublesome, as many customers endured long waits or were in the middle of a purchasing transaction, only to be hit with screens saying the site was down "due to routine maintenance". Ticketmaster acknowledged that the technical problem with the sales "wasn't our finest hour." Tickets for the New Jersey shows were in limited supply to begin with, as some 27 percent of them were held back from sale by the venue, the record company, Springsteen's organization, and others. Indeed, for one of the shows Springsteen's management held back all but 108 of the 1,126 seats in the four sections nearest the stage.
Frustration became a public outcry when many of Ticketmaster online customers, upon being informed shows were sold out, were directed to TicketsNow
TicketsNow
TicketsNow, established in 1999 and based in Rolling Meadows, Illinois, is a marketplace for event tickets.TicketsNow was named in 2004 and 2006 to the Inc. 500 Index of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the U.S...
, a Ticketmaster-owned site, where tickets were sold on the secondary market at extremely inflated prices. Ticketmaster even pushed fans to TicketsNow even when there were still tickets available for a given show. Bill Pascrell, the member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Jersey's 8th congressional district
New Jersey's 8th congressional district
New Jersey's Eighth Congressional District is currently represented by Democrat Bill Pascrell.-Counties and municipalities in the district:For the 108th and successive Congresses , the district contains all, or portions of 2 counties and 21 municipalities.Essex County:Passaic County:2010...
, asked the Federal Trade Commission
Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act...
and the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the relationship between Ticketmaster and TicketsNow, saying, "I am concerned that the business affiliation between Ticketmaster and TicketsNow may represent a conflict of interest that is detrimental to the average fan. There is a significant potential for abuse when one company is able to monopolize the primary market for a product and also directly manipulate, and profit from, the secondary market."
Springsteen issued a statement on his website where he chastised Ticketmaster and made it clear that he has no affiliation with them (the venues have the affiliation). Springsteen's organization, as well as record companies and promoters, held back substantial numbers of tickets from public sales and made their supply even tighter, especially for New Jersey shows. On the same day that New Jersey State Assemblymen Gary Schaer
Gary Schaer
Gary Schaer is an American Democratic Party politician who serves in the New Jersey General Assembly where he represents the 36th legislative district, having taken office on January 10, 2006, and on the Passaic, New Jersey City Council where he is the council president...
and Wayne DeAngelo
Wayne DeAngelo
Wayne P. DeAngelo is an American Democratic Party politician, who has served in the New Jersey General Assembly since January 8, 2008, where he represents the 14th legislative district....
called for an inquiry, New Jersey Attorney General
New Jersey Attorney General
The Attorney General of New Jersey is a member of the executive cabinet of the state. The office is appointed by the Governor of New Jersey and term limited...
Anne Milgram
Anne Milgram
Anne Milgram was the Attorney General of New Jersey from June 2007 to January 2010.Milgram had served as First Assistant Attorney General, the second-highest position in the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety, having taken office on February 14, 2006...
also said that her office and the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs
New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs
The New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs is a governmental agency in the U.S. state of New Jersey that is responsible for protecting the public "from fraud, deceit and misrepresentation in the sale of goods and services." The DCA operates within the New Jersey Department of Law and Public...
would investigate the sale of Springsteen concert tickets amidst a number of complaints. As the matter gained national attention, it became what The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
described as a "public relations nightmare" for Ticketmaster. On February 5, Ticketmaster issued an "open letter of apology" to Springsteen and his fans, saying that it would no longer link to TicketsNow from Ticketmaster during high-demand sales and promising it would refund customers who inadvertently bought secondary market tickets. Pascrell, whose office received over 1,000 complaints on the matter, and Connecticut Attorney General
Connecticut Attorney General
The Connecticut Attorney General is the state attorney general of Connecticut.The Attorney General is elected to a four-year term. The current Attorney General is George Jepsen, a Democrat serving since January 5, 2011.-List of Attorneys General:...
Richard Blumenthal
Richard Blumenthal
Richard Blumenthal is the junior United States Senator from Connecticut and a member of the Democratic Party. Previously, he served as Attorney General of Connecticut....
also used the sales tales to indicate concern with the possible merger of Ticketmaster with Live Nation
Live Nation
Live Nation is a live-events company based in Beverly Hills, California, focused on concert promotions. Live Nation formed in 2005 as a spin-off from Clear Channel Communications, which then merged with Ticketmaster in 2010 to become Live Nation Entertainment....
. Springsteen also voiced his objection to the merger, and his comments also gained national attention.
On February 23, 2009, Ticketmaster agreed to an out-of-court settlement with the New Jersey Attorney General. Ticketmaster agreed to refund payments made to TicketsNow and reduce its visibility, and made some 2,000 tickets to the New Jersey shows available to complaints via random lottery, with promises of additional reparations if Springsteen scheduled a third leg to return to the U.S. in the summer. The company was not fined, but did reimburse the Attorney General's office $350,000 for investigatory expenses. Over 1,800 people qualified for the March 31 lottery, and those that got them eventually picked up their tickets at an amusingly-named "Attorney General Will Call Line" before the shows. In March 2009, Springsteen manager Jon Landau
Jon Landau
Jon Landau is an American music critic, manager and record producer, most known for his association in all three capacities with Bruce Springsteen.He is currently the head of the nominating committee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame....
emphasized that Springsteen never directly releases tickets into the secondary market, in the wake of revelations about other artists doing so. In May 2009 – and on the same day that Springsteen would perform at the local Xcel Energy Center
Xcel Energy Center
The Xcel Energy Center is a multi-purpose arena located in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It is named for its locally-based corporate sponsor Xcel Energy. With an official capacity of 18,064, the arena has four spectator levels: one suite level and three general seating levels. The arena is owned by the...
– Governor of Minnesota
Governor of Minnesota
The Governor of Minnesota is the chief executive of the U.S. state of Minnesota, leading the state's executive branch. Forty different people have been governors of the state, though historically there were also three governors of Minnesota Territory. Alexander Ramsey, the first territorial...
Tim Pawlenty
Tim Pawlenty
Timothy James "Tim" Pawlenty , also known affectionately among supporters as T-Paw, is an American politician who served as the 39th Governor of Minnesota . He was a Republican candidate for President of the United States in the 2012 election from May to August 2011...
signed into law "the Bruce Springsteen bill", which forbade online ticket sellers from sending frustrated customers to resale sites that offer inflated-price secondary market tickets.
Different but similar Ticketmaster drama occurred on March 20 when tickets went on sale for Springsteen's two Asbury Park Convention Hall
Asbury Park Convention Hall
Asbury Park Convention Hall is a 3,600-seat indoor exhibition center located on the boardwalk and on the beach in Asbury Park, New Jersey. It was built between 1928 and 1930 and is used for sports, concerts and other special events. Adjacent to the Convention Hall is the Paramount Theatre; both are...
rehearsal shows a few days hence. Dozens of fans said that the Ticketmaster automated lines gave messages that no shows were on sale, while those using the human operator lines were able to make purchases. Ticketmaster denied that anything had gone wrong.
The secondary markets ticket saga re-emerged in mid-May during the first leg of the tour when TicketsNow announced they had oversold by some 300 persons the date at Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
's Verizon Center
Verizon Center
Verizon Center is a sports and entertainment arena in Washington, D.C., USA, named after telecommunications sponsor Verizon Communications, and has been nicknamed the "Phone Booth" because of its association with telecommunications companies...
. TicketsNow offered double refunds and inferiorally-located tickets to other Springsteen shows, but Springsteen manager Landau was quite unhappy: "We would like our audience to know that this is a problem caused entirely by Ticketmaster and its wholly owned subsidiary TicketsNow. Neither Bruce nor his management have any control whatsoever over these two troubled entities but we deeply resent the abuse of our fans."
When Springsteen's autumn Giants Stadium
Giants Stadium
Giants Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium, located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA, in the Meadowlands Sports Complex. Maximum seating capacity was 80,242. The building itself was 230.5 m long, 180.5 m wide and 44 m high from service level to the top of the seating bowl and 54 m high to...
shows were announced in late May 2009, secondary market sellers began advertising steeply-marked up tickets before they went on sale. This caused Attorney General Milgram to file suit against three such sellers for fraudulent behavior, especially given that some of the advertised seat locations did not even exist. On June 1, Congressman Pascrell announced proposed federal legislation, titled the "BOSS ACT" (Better Oversight of Secondary Sales and Accountability in Concert Ticketing), which would require primary ticket sellers to disclose how many tickets were being held back from sale, prohibit ticket brokers from buying tickets during the first 48 hours on sale, and prohibit primary ticket sellers, promoters, and artists from entering the secondary market.
In February 2010, Ticketmaster reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission
Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act...
, which denounced the company's "deceptive bait-and-switch tactics" regarding phantom tickets, and made reference to an example in which the same 38 tickets to a tour show in Washington were sold and resold 1,600 times. Ticketmaster conceded no wrongdoing but agreed to stop the practice; they also agreed to $1 million in refunds for overcharges for secondary market sales via TicketsNow.
Planning and rehearsals
Per past practice, Springsteen performed a couple of public rehearsal shows at Asbury Park Convention Hall
Asbury Park Convention Hall
Asbury Park Convention Hall is a 3,600-seat indoor exhibition center located on the boardwalk and on the beach in Asbury Park, New Jersey. It was built between 1928 and 1930 and is used for sports, concerts and other special events. Adjacent to the Convention Hall is the Paramount Theatre; both are...
before beginning the tour proper. The eight-minute "Outlaw Pete" from Working on a Dream opened and various other selections from the album were played, but the show generally included patterns and staples of the early Magic Tour
Magic Tour (Bruce Springsteen)
The Magic Tour was Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's 2007–2008 concert tour of North America and Western Europe.The tour began October 2, 2007, in Hartford, Connecticut, and concluded August 30, 2008 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin...
and other previous outings. Jay Weinberg did some of the drumming, and the band was augmented by Curtis King
Curtis King
Curtis Albert King is a former pitcher in Major League Baseball. He played for the St. Louis Cardinals.-External links:...
and Cindy Mizelle (both veterans of the Sessions Band Tour) as additional backing vocalists.
North American first leg
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
on April 1, the consistent show opener was "Badlands
Badlands (Bruce Springsteen song)
"Badlands" was the leadoff track on Bruce Springsteen's fourth studio album Darkness on the Edge of Town, and its second single.- Themes :The song tells the story of a man down on his luck and angry at the world, who wants a better lot in life....
" – whose ending, or false ending, was framed with a recurrence of the Magic Tour's question of "Is there anybody alive out there?" – several things became apparent. Typical shows contained only three songs from Working on a Dream: "Outlaw Pete" (initially accompanied by a fog machine
Fog machine
A fog machine or smoke machine is a device which emits a dense vapour that appears similar to fog or smoke. This artificial fog is most commonly used in professional entertainment applications, but smaller, more affordable fog machines are becoming common for personal use. Fog machines can also be...
), "Working on a Dream
Working on a Dream (song)
"Working on a Dream" is the title song to, and first single from, Bruce Springsteen's 2009 album Working on a Dream. At the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards it won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo.-History:...
", and "Kingdom of Days". This was in stark departure from all previous Springsteen tours, when material from newly-released albums was heavily featured. One other recently-released Springsteen song, "The Wrestler
The Wrestler (song)
"The Wrestler" is the title song from the 2008 film, The Wrestler. The track was written and performed by Bruce Springsteen.The origins of the song are based in a lost and resumed friendship between Springsteen and Wrestler lead actor Mickey Rourke; Rourke told Springsteen about his upcoming film...
", was also included in about half the set lists, although it did not share the new album's romantic pop style. Of the other Working on a Dream songs, a couple were never attempted in private rehearsal; some others were rehearsed privately but not publicly; "This Life" and "Surprise Surprise" did not survive past the first Asbury Park rehearsal show; "Good Eye" did not survive past the first proper show; and "My Lucky Day
My Lucky Day (song)
My Lucky Day is a song written and recorded by Bruce Springsteen. It was released as the second single on his 2009 album Working on a Dream.-History:...
" was played in the first three shows before being dropped. The disappearance of "This Life" and "My Lucky Day" were especially notable, given the former had an elaborate, extended multi-part Beach Boys-style "Ba ba ba" outro section featuring King and Mizelle in its one rehearsal performance, and that the latter was the album's second single. Nor was the prior album, Magic
Magic (Bruce Springsteen album)
Magic is the 15th studio album by Bruce Springsteen, released in 2007 on Columbia Records. It is his first with the E Street Band since The Rising in 2002...
, given any due, with only "Radio Nowhere
Radio Nowhere
"Radio Nowhere" is the first single released from Bruce Springsteen's 2007 studio album Magic."Radio Nowhere" was awarded Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance and Best Rock Song at the Grammy Awards of 2008.-History:...
" included. Set lists relied mostly upon Springsteen material up through 1984's Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A. is the seventh studio album by American rock singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, released on June 4, 1984. A critical and commercial triumph, it found Springsteen marking a departure in his sound...
, 2002's The Rising
The Rising (album)
The Rising is the 12th studio album by American recording artist Bruce Springsteen, released in 2002 on Columbia Records. In addition to being Springsteen's first studio album in seven years, it was also his first with the E Street Band in 18 years...
, and a few scattered selections from other periods.
Commenting on the paucity of new material, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the only major daily newspaper in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, and its suburbs. The AJC, as it is called, is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the result of the merger between The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta...
suggested that the whole production would more accurately be named the Havin’ a Blast Tour. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also known simply as the "PG," is the largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.-Early history:...
said that "The strange thing ... is that the 'Working on a Dream' tour no longer seems to be about 'Working on a Dream'" and suggested that the album was unpopular among many fans and as a result, "Springsteen, always the savvy showman, has chosen not to shove it down anyone's throat." Springsteen fans instantly discussed and analyzed setlists as shows happened on the Backstreets.com BTX website, associated with which Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
and other sources were used to post, or in some cases crudely broadcast, shows as they happened. E Street bassist Garry Tallent
Garry Tallent
Garry Wayne Tallent , sometimes billed as Garry W. Tallent, is an American musician and record producer, best known for being the longtime bass player in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band....
and guitarist Nils Lofgren
Nils Lofgren
Nils Hilmer Lofgren is an American rock music recording artist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist...
found themselves amused that fans had complained on the previous Magic Tour of too much new material being played, and were now complaining of too little. Guitarist Steve Van Zandt said that the Working on a Dream songs that were played were "big" songs, so that made up for their lack of number.
Johnny 99 (song)
"Johnny 99" is a song written and recorded by rock musician Bruce Springsteen, which first appeared on Springsteen's 1982 solo album Nebraska.-Performance and themes:...
" (elongated with incongruous train "woo-whoo's"), and either "Youngstown" or "The Ghost of Tom Joad" (both featuring fiery guitar solos from Nils Lofgren
Nils Lofgren
Nils Hilmer Lofgren is an American rock music recording artist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist...
). Encores began with a rendition of Stephen Foster
Stephen Foster
Stephen Collins Foster , known as the "father of American music", was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century...
's 1850s classic "Hard Times Come Again No More
Hard Times Come Again No More
"Hard Times Come Again No More," is a parlor song by Stephen Foster. It was published in New York by Firth, Pond & Co. in 1854 as Foster's Melodies No. 28...
" – which provided one of the few featured spots for King and Mizelle, who otherwise played a lot of tambourine
Tambourine
The tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
– and later included both of Springsteen's reunion-era encore epics of American struggle, survival and hope, "Land of Hope and Dreams" and "American Land". Van Zandt said that the emergence of the recession theme was in part why the concerts did not showcase the Working on a Dream album. One regular moment of optimism, however, was the playing of "Waitin' on a Sunny Day
Waitin' on a Sunny Day
"Waitin' on a Sunny Day" is a song by Bruce Springsteen that was first released in a recording with the E Street Band on his 2002 album The Rising. Although the song was not released as a single in the United States, it was released as a single in Europe, and was a hit in Sweden...
" from The Rising, with Springsteen holding a microphone down to one or more young children in the front of the pit area to sing along to the chorus on.
One holdover from the latter stages of the Magic Tour was the "Build Me a House" stage rap, now located in "Working on a Dream". Springsteen would say: "We're not just here to rock the house tonight. We're going to build a house.... We're going to use the good news and we're going to use the bad news. We've got all the news we need - on this stage and in those seats."
An even more visible holdover was the 'signs' segment. This would begin when Springsteen collected request signs from the pit audience as an extended introduction to "Raise Your Hand
Raise Your Hand
"Raise Your Hand" is a song written by Steve Cropper, Eddie Floyd, and Alvertis Isbell . It was recorded by Floyd and appeared on his 1967 debut album Knock on Wood...
" was played. Once that song completed, Springsteen selected two or three numbers to play from the requests. The first was often a garage rock
Garage rock
Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967. During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name...
classic such as "Wild Thing", "96 Tears
96 Tears
"96 Tears" is a popular song recorded by ? in 1966. It hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. and on the RPM 100 in Canada and is ranked #210 on the Rolling Stone list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.-History:...
", or "Mony Mony
Mony Mony
"Mony Mony" is a 1968 single by Tommy James & the Shondells, that reached #1 in the UK charts.-History:"Mony Mony" was credited to Tommy James, Bo Gentry, Ritchie Cordell, and Bobby Bloom. The hook in the song is said to have been inspired by James' view of a MONY sign atop the Mutual of New York...
" or a punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
staple such as "I Wanna Be Sedated
I Wanna Be Sedated
"I Wanna Be Sedated" is a song by the American punk rock band the Ramones. It is one of the band's best known songs. It was originally released on their fourth album, Road to Ruin, in September 1978 and was the b-side of the UK single "She's the One" released on January 10, 1979. The song was later...
" or "London Calling
London Calling (song)
"London Calling" is a song by the British punk rock band The Clash. It was released as a single from the band's 1979 double album London Calling...
". This activity was billed as "Stump the Band", and led to impromptu arrangements being worked out onstage. Springsteen would sometimes taunt the audience afterwards with declarations that the E Street Band could not be stumped, such as saying in Atlanta's Philips Arena
Philips Arena
Philips Arena is an indoor arena in Atlanta, Georgia.Completed in 1999 to replace The Omni, at a cost of $213.5 million, it is home to the Atlanta Hawks, of the National Basketball Association, and the Atlanta Dream, of the Women's National Basketball Association...
, "...this is the greatest bar band in the land, and if they don't think we know 96 fuckin' Tears!" The immediate introduction of the signs segment surprised even E Street guitarist Nils Lofgren
Nils Lofgren
Nils Hilmer Lofgren is an American rock music recording artist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist...
, who thought Springsteen would hold it off until later in the tour. The precise degree of challenge in this segment was unclear, as lyrics were often loaded into the teleprompter
Teleprompter
An autocue is a display device that prompts the person speaking with an electronic visual text of a speech or script. Using a teleprompter is similar to the practice of using cue cards...
that Springsteen uses and in some cases the songs had been soundcheck
Soundcheck
A soundcheck is the preparation that takes place before a concert, speech, or similar performance, when the performer and the sound crew run through a small portion of the upcoming show on the venue's sound system to make sure that the sound in the venue's "Front Of House" and stage monitor sound...
ed earlier. In any case, most of the challenges were to the band's shared knowledge of British Invasion
British Invasion
The British Invasion is a term used to describe the large number of rock and roll, beat, rock, and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States during the time period from 1964 through 1966.- Background :...
, Motown, Stax-Volt
Stax Records
Stax Records is an American record label, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee.Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the name Stax Records was adopted in 1961. The label was a major factor in the creation of the Southern soul and Memphis soul music styles, also releasing gospel, funk, jazz, and...
, and other 1960s material. Springsteen subsequently said, "we started to take unusual requests and do songs that we'd never played before, just depending on the common memory that the band would have from everyone's individual playing experience as teenagers. We ended up with a system where we can jump on a lot pretty quick." Other honored sign requests were usually for Springsteen songs not normally in the set list.
Show lengths were generally between 2 hours 30 minutes to 2 hours 45 minutes. Springsteen scheduled his two Philadelphia shows at the soon-to-be-demolished Spectrum
Wachovia Spectrum
The Spectrum, formerly known as the CoreStates Spectrum , First Union Spectrum , and Wachovia Spectrum was an indoor arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...
, commenting that "They don't make arenas like this anymore" and stating that the smaller size and lack of luxury boxes made the old venue "ideal for rock shows." The Spectrum had seen Springsteen's first headlining arena show in 1976 during the Born to Run tours
Born to Run tours
Born to Run was Bruce Springsteen's last, best hope for fortune and fame. As such it became a torturous recording process, and to make ends meet Springsteen and the E Street Band toured constantly during the first set of recording sessions for it, performing his new songs as he developed them...
, and now he said they would "fulfill our solemn vow to rock the Spectrum one more time." Accordingly the band played local act The Dovells
The Dovells
The Dovells were an American music group, formed at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1957, under the name 'The Brooktones'. The members were Arnie Silver, Mark Gordesky, Len Borisoff , Jerry Gross, Mike Freda and Jim Mealey...
' 1963 hit "You Can't Sit Down
You Can't Sit Down
"You Can't Sit Down" is the name of a song performed by The Dovells and released as a single in 1963. The song reached number three on the Billboard Pop Singles chart. It is a vocal cover version of the 1961 Phil Upchurch Combo original instrumental....
" among other Philadelphia-related selections. Springsteen voiced similar sentiments about the old-but-still-going Nassau Coliseum, and selected The Soul Survivors
The Soul Survivors
The Soul Survivors were a Philadelphia R&B group founded by brothers Richie and Charlie Ingui and New York Native, Kenny Jeremiah, known for their 1967 hit single, "Expressway to Your Heart"; which was the first hit by Philadelphia soul record producers and songwriters, Kenny Gamble and Leon...
' 1967 hit "Expressway to Your Heart" as a tribute to the nearby Long Island Expressway.
Jay Weinberg appeared at a number of shows on the first, North American leg, drumming on anywhere from four songs to half the show. He had been a fan of heavy metal music
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
for much of his life, and in playing with Springsteen he integrated a polyrhythmic approach influenced by metal bands such as Lamb of God
Lamb of God (band)
Lamb of God is an American heavy metal band from Richmond, Virginia. Formed in 1994, the group consists of vocalist Randy Blythe, guitarists Mark Morton and Willie Adler, bassist John Campbell, and drummer Chris Adler...
, Mastodon
Mastodon (band)
Mastodon is an American heavy metal band from Atlanta, Georgia, formed in 1999. The band is composed of bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders, guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds, guitarist Bill Kelliher and drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor...
, and Slipknot
Slipknot (band)
Slipknot is an American heavy metal band from Des Moines, Iowa. Formed in 1995, the group was founded by percussionist Shawn Crahan and bassist Paul Gray...
with the E Street drumming style derived from big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
s and early rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
. He received a very positive reaction from both audiences and reviewers as a spark plug for the band, with his vigorous, long-hair-flying style inviting comparisons to Dave Grohl
Dave Grohl
David Eric "Dave" Grohl is an American rock musician, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter who is the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter for Foo Fighters; the former drummer for Nirvana and Scream; and the current drummer for Them Crooked Vultures...
and his potential for replacing his father drawing allusions to Wally Pipp
Wally Pipp
Walter Clement Pipp was an American first baseman in Major League Baseball, now best remembered as the man who lost his starting role to Lou Gehrig at the beginning of Gehrig's streak of 2,130 consecutive games....
. Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
critic Greg Kot
Greg Kot
Greg Kot is an American writer and journalist. Since 1990, Kot has been the music critic at the Chicago Tribune, where he has covered popular music and reported on music-related social, political and business issues...
wrote, "All hail Jay Weinberg. ... With [him drumming] the band’s chemistry was slightly unsettled for the better. ... His fills during 'Radio Nowhere' kicked the song, and the concert, into a higher gear, and galvanized a band that was starting to pace itself." Jay Weinberg said "it's a summer job that anybody would want," while Max Weinberg said Jay's segments allowed him a "total out-of-body experience. For the first time in – I've been with Bruce for 35 years – I've been able to go out in the audience and enjoy a Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concert." Jay Weinberg played his first full show on May 14 at the Times Union Center in Albany, New York
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
, as Max Weinberg was in California to prepare test runs for The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show that featured Conan O'Brien as host from June 1, 2009 to January 22, 2010 as part of NBC's long-running Tonight Show franchise...
start. Springsteen said of the occasion, “This is the first night in 35 years that somebody else sat at the drums.” Overall, Modern Drummer
Modern Drummer
Modern Drummer is a monthly publication targeting the interests of on drummers and percussionists. The magazine features interviews, equipment reviews, and columns offering advice on technique, as well as information for the general public...
magazine's editor said that a college freshman playing on one of the year's biggest rock tours was "certainly a unique story". For the final Meadowlands Arena shows of the first leg, Jay Weinberg did the first but his father took a red-eye flight
Red-eye flight
A red-eye flight is any flight departing late at night and arriving early the next morning. The term red-eye derives from the fatigue symptom of having red eyes, which can be caused or aggravated by late-night travel....
back from Los Angeles to do the second.
European second leg
Once the show moved into its European second leg, more Working on a Dream songs began to sporadically appear, with "My Lucky DayMy Lucky Day (song)
My Lucky Day is a song written and recorded by Bruce Springsteen. It was released as the second single on his 2009 album Working on a Dream.-History:...
" becoming a regular for a while and "Queen of the Supermarket" getting its first airing anywhere. For Scandinavian shows, as band members walked on stage, Lofgren opened with solo accordion performances of local summer-themed specialties, "Idas Sommarvisa" in Sweden and "Du skal ikkje sova bort sumarnatta" in Norway. Jay Weinberg did the first seven shows, as his father was now beginning The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.
Springsteen and the band returned to the U.S. to make their first-ever appearance at the Bonnaroo Music Festival
Bonnaroo Music Festival
The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is an annual four day music festival created and produced by Superfly Productions and AC Entertainment, held at Great Stage Park on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee. It hosted its tenth annual event June 9–12, 2011...
, as the headlining act on June 13, 2009
2009 Bonnaroo Music Festival
The 2009 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival was held June 11–14, 2009 at a farm in Manchester, Tennessee, . There were roughly 75,000 people in attendance....
. Playing before festival audiences who were not guaranteed to be fans of his music was largely new to Springsteen, but after a slow start the show captured over most of the Bonnaroo audience. The following night, Springsteen joined the recently reunited and headlining Phish
Phish
Phish is an American rock band noted for its musical improvisation, extended jams, and exploration of music across genres. Formed at the University of Vermont in 1983 , the band's four members – Trey Anastasio , Mike Gordon , Jon Fishman , and Page McConnell Phish is an American rock band...
for three songs, "Mustang Sally
Mustang Sally (song)
"Mustang Sally" is an R&B/straightforward blues first recorded by Mack Rice in 1965. It gained greater popularity when it was covered by Wilson Pickett on a single the following year. Pickett's version was also included on his 1967 album The Wicked Pickett....
", "Bobby Jean
Bobby Jean
"Bobby Jean" is a song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen, from his 1984 album Born in the U.S.A..-History:"Bobby Jean" was one of the last songs from the album to be recorded, and was considered a musical breakthrough for Springsteen during the recording, with its more accented rhythm and...
", and "Glory Days
Glory Days (song)
"Glory Days" is a 1984 song, written and performed by American rock singer Bruce Springsteen. In 1985, it became the fifth single released from his massively successful album Born in the U.S.A.-History:...
". Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio said later, "I got to play with Bruce. That's my hero." The Bonnaroo performance of "Outlaw Pete" was included on a Fuse TV
Fuse TV
Fuse is an American national television network dedicated exclusively to music. It features original series and specials, exclusive interviews, live concerts and video blocks....
show of festival highlights, and the performance of "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
"Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" is the second song on Bruce Springsteen's breakthrough album Born to Run.-Content:The song loosely tells the story of the formation of the E Street Band. However, when asked, most Springsteen fans cannot answer the question, "What is a Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out?" The...
" included a bit with Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog
Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog
Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog is a character puppet best known for mocking celebrities. Triumph was identified in the early appearances as a Yugoslavian Mountain Hound, hence his distinct Eastern European accent . As his name indicates, Triumph's comedic style is almost exclusively insult comedy...
singing along that was included on a Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien segment. Springsteen subsequently reflected, "We played festivals for the very first time on this tour, and that was one of the greatest experiences of all of them. That was an eye-opener. When we played Glastonbury [...] you come out and there's like 100,000 kids in their 20s and under. It was fun playing on bills with other bands, and it's something I'd do again in the future."
On June 25, Max Weinberg departed The Tonight Show temporarily for four weeks to join the band for the resumption of its European leg, via a comedy bit that had his drum riser turn into a float
Float (parade)
A float is a decorated platform, either built on a vehicle or towed behind one, which is a component of many festive parades, such as those of Mardi Gras in New Orleans, the Carnival of Viareggio, the Maltese Carnival, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Key West Fantasy Fest parade, the...
that took him outside and studio and purportedly to the airport. During this stretch, Jay Weinberg did not appear during any of the shows until reappearing during the Spanish shows at the end of the leg. While Springsteen's wife Scialfa was nowhere to be seen in Europe, their son Evan appeared and played guitar during encores of a number of shows, while Clarence Clemons' nephew also made playing appearances and Springsteen's mother and aunt also took the stage.
He also was the headliner of the Festival des Vieilles Charrues
Vieilles Charrues Festival
The Vieilles Charrues Festival is held every year in mid-July in the city of Carhaix located in the west of Brittany.This festival is the largest music festival in France, attracting more than 200,000 festival-goers every year . This festival was created in 1992 in Landeleau, a small village in...
in Brittany, France in July, his only tour stop in France. His son Evan participated in the concert, playing guitar.
Lofgren continued to open shows, playing national songs on accordion. Set lists further loosened, with many tour premieres showing up in request slots or elsewhere and shows sometimes running to 30 songs in length. After a while, the encore break was disposed with and the show ran continuously to the end without the band ever leaving the stage. Springsteen ran past local curfews at both Dublin shows and at Glastonbury. The Dublin violations resulted in a potential €50,000 fine, but Springsteen mocked the prospect by on-staging a bit: “We have to go, we have a curfew!” with Van Zandt replying, “We don't care about the curfew, this is the curfew breaking Boss and E Street Band!" "American Skin (41 Shots)
American Skin (41 Shots)
"American Skin " is a song written by Bruce Springsteen, inspired by the police shooting death of Amadou Diallo. Springsteen first performed it in concert in Atlanta on June 4, 2000, the final concert before the tour's final 10-show run at New York City's Madison Square Garden, where it was also...
" made unexpected appearances in Dublin and at several stops in Italy, while "My City of Ruins
My City of Ruins
"My City of Ruins" is a 2000 song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen, and included on his 2002 album The Rising.-History:The song was written in November 2000, for an Asbury Park, New Jersey Christmas show benefit to help promote the revitalization of the city...
" was played at Stadio Olimpico
Stadio Olimpico
The Stadio Olimpico is the main and largest sports facility of Rome, Italy. It is located within the Foro Italico sports complex on the north of the city. An asset of the Italian National Olympic Committee, the structure is intended primarily for football...
in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in honor of the victims of the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake
2009 L'Aquila earthquake
The 2009 L'Aquila earthquake occurred in the region of Abruzzo, in central Italy. The main shock occurred at 3:32 local time on 6 April 2009, and was rated 5.8 on the Richter scale and 6.3 on the moment magnitude scale; its epicentre was near L'Aquila, the capital of Abruzzo, which together...
. The European leg ended with five shows in Spain, at more out-of-the-way locations than in the past. The last of these shows, at the Auditorio Monte do Gozo
Auditorio Monte do Gozo
Auditorio Monte do Gozo is an outdoor concert venue in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain. It is an amphitheatre-like setting, with a stage, an open area, and then rows of concrete bench seating arranged in a semicircle...
in Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain.The city's Cathedral is the destination today, as it has been throughout history, of the important 9th century medieval pilgrimage route, the Way of St. James...
, was marred by disorganized security and overbooking by the promoter, leaving some of the approximately 40,000 ticket holders unable to get in. (Dozens of complaints against the promoter were filed to police, city, and consumer authorities the following day.) In any event, the band played "Rockin' All Over the World
Rockin' All Over The World
Rockin' All Over the World is the tenth studio album by the British band Status Quo, released 1977. It is the first of their records to be produced by Pip Williams. It was released in November 1977, and reached #5....
" and concluded its encore with "Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A. (song)
"Born in the U.S.A." is a 1984 song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen. Taken from the album of the same name, it is one of his best-known singles. Rolling Stone ranked the song 275th on their list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". In 2001, the RIAA's Songs of the Century placed...
" after 1 a.m. local time (the Spanish shows did not begin until 10 p.m.). Max Weinberg immediately flew back to Los Angeles and resumed his role on The Tonight Show later that same day.
U.S. third leg
The American third leg began in mid-August with shows at outdoor amphitheaters as well as indoor arenaArena
An arena is an enclosed area, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theater, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators. The key feature of an arena is that the event space is the...
s. Shows were often scheduled for weekends, to allow Max Weinberg to play without missing any Tonight Show time; Jay Weinberg played those shows held during the week. Then on September 25, Max Weinberg took a two month absence from the television show, to join Springsteen for the final portion of the leg. Ticket sales were slower than normal on this leg, partly due to Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc. is an independent American ticket sales and distribution company based in West Hollywood, California, USA, with operations in many countries around the world. In 2010 it merged with Live Nation to become Live Nation Entertainment...
's new "paperless ticketing" system that may have come into effect due to the earlier problems with Springsteen sales. In arenas that did not sell well, management relocated the people who bought tickets behind the stage to other sections and put up the screen used for stadium and amphitheater shows behind the stage. In a hint to fans to buy up, Van Zandt said, “You never know. This could be the last tour. We do every show like it’s our last show anyway.” In any case, by September 2009 the tour had sold over two million tickets overall. Even some shows in Philadelphia, long a Springsteen bastion, were not sold out.
Born to Run
The album's release was accompanied by a $250,000 promotional campaign by Columbia directed at both consumers and the music industry, making good use of Landau's "I saw rock 'n' roll's future—and its name is Bruce Springsteen" quote. With much publicity, Born to Run vaulted into the top 10 in its...
would be featured in its entirety during several shows, possibly in a scheme to boost ticket sales. The full-album idea took fruition with the late September-early October set of five shows at Giants Stadium
Giants Stadium
Giants Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium, located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA, in the Meadowlands Sports Complex. Maximum seating capacity was 80,242. The building itself was 230.5 m long, 180.5 m wide and 44 m high from service level to the top of the seating bowl and 54 m high to...
, which would be the final concerts ever in that venue in Springsteen's home state. Born to Run was played at two shows, Darkness on the Edge of Town
Darkness on the Edge of Town
Darkness on the Edge of Town is the fourth album by Bruce Springsteen, released in the late spring of 1978. The album marked the end of a three year period of forced hiatus from recording brought on by contractual obligations and legal battling with former manager Mike Appel...
at one show, and Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A. is the seventh studio album by American rock singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, released on June 4, 1984. A critical and commercial triumph, it found Springsteen marking a departure in his sound...
at two shows. Springsteen later said of the full album idea, "We had done so many shows and were going to come back around one more time, so we were like, 'OK, what can we do that we haven't done? Let's try to play some of the albums.' There were some people who were starting to do it, it sounded like a good idea, and my audience fundamentally experienced all my music in album form. People took Born to Run home and played it start to finish 100 times; they didn't slip on a cut in the middle. And we made albums – we took a long time, and we built them to last. ... Those records are packed with songs that have lasted 30–35 years. It simply was a way to revitalize the show and do something appealing and fun for the fans, but it ended up being a much bigger emotional experience than I thought it would be."
The Giants Stadium shows were opened with a new Springsteen song written for the occasion, "Wrecking Ball", written from the point of view of the stadium itself: “I was raised out of steel here in the swamps of Jersey, some misty years ago ...” The stand featured several other new touches as well, including Springsteen crowd surfing
Crowd surfing
Crowd surfing is the process in which a person is passed overhead from person to person during a concert, transferring the person from one part of the venue to another...
during "Hungry Heart
Hungry Heart
"Hungry Heart" is a song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen on his fifth album, The River. It was released as the album's first single in 1980 and became Springsteen's first big hit of his own on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.-History:...
", evocative behind-the-stage upper-level lighting during "The Rising", and fireworks at the "E! Street! Band!" conclusion of "American Land". The final show, which drew nearly 60,000 people, concluded with the second playing on the stand of "Jersey Girl
Jersey Girl (song)
"Jersey Girl" is a song composed and originally sung by American singer-songwriter Tom Waits from his 1980 album Heartattack and Vine.-Waits original:Waits wrote the song with his future wife Kathleen Brennan, who had been living in New Jersey...
", dedicated to “all the crew and staff that’s worked all these years at Giants Stadium.”
The full album versions continued, as well as a localized rendition of "Wrecking Ball", at Springsteen's four shows to close out the Philadelphia Spectrum as well; some 43 different songs were playing during the stand. Apart from the album playings, Springsteen kept setlists flexible during the third leg; sign requests continued, as in Springsteen's words they allowed "the fans to have input into the show in a way that just pumps the blood into everything and enlivens the evening." Born to Run remained the standard full album choice for the rest of the tour, but the two shows at New York's Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
saw The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle and The River, with the latter's 20-song length dominating the setlist. Springsteen felt The River show succeeded, saying "I sequenced [the album] to feel like a live show, so you have four fast songs and a couple of ballads. It played real well when we went to play it."
Springsteen's show on November 13, 2009 at The Palace of Auburn Hills
The Palace of Auburn Hills
The Palace of Auburn Hills, often referred to simply as The Palace, is a sports and entertainment venue in Auburn Hills, Michigan, a suburb on the northern outskirts of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Opened in 1988, it is the home of the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association...
outside Detroit, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
became well known for Springsteen's multiple statements to the crowd about being in Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, the first as he came on, the second during the lyric to "Wrecking Ball", and the third in the "Build me a house" rap during "Working on a Dream". (The band had played in Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
, three nights earlier.) By now getting some boos from the crowd, guitarist Van Zandt, who had hoped Springsteen would stop making the mistake on his own, finally went over to Springsteen and corrected him: "‘You don’t realize it, but you’re saying Ohio and we’re in Michigan.’ He was like ‘What!?’" Springsteen then told the crowd that he had committed "every front man's nightmare," and made a show of saying "Michigan" from then on. The Spinal Tap
Spinal Tap (band)
Spinal Tap is a parody heavy metal band that first appeared on a failed 1979 ABC TV sketch comedy pilot called "The T.V. Show", starring Rob Reiner...
-esque blunder attracted worldwide television and print publicity. (The show subsequently featured a rare performance of Bob Seger
Bob Seger
Robert Clark "Bob" Seger is an American rock and roll singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist.As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s...
's "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man", appealing to Seger's fan base in Detroit.) Springsteen made joking references to being in Ohio, or made exaggerated statements as to being in the correct state, in subsequent shows.
During the final stretch of the tour, the final encores of many shows presented a long, rousing, ebullient rendition of Jackie Wilson
Jackie Wilson
Jack Leroy "Jackie" Wilson, Jr. was an American singer and performer. Known as "Mr. Excitement", Wilson was important in the transition of rhythm and blues into soul. He was known as a master showman, and as one of the most dynamic singers and performers in R&B and rock history...
's classic "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher
(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher
" Higher and Higher" is a hit R&B song originally performed by Jackie Wilson in 1967. The song was notably recorded by Rita Coolidge in 1977.-Overview:...
". Showcasing featured vocals from Cindy Mizelle or Curtis King
Curtis King
Curtis Albert King is a former pitcher in Major League Baseball. He played for the St. Louis Cardinals.-External links:...
and trumpet solos from Curt Ramm, the song stretched to eight minutes with key changes, reprises, and walks through the pit area by Springsteen and the singers, and became recognized as one of the highpoints of the entire tour. Springsteen dispelled any notion of this being the final E Street Band show or the last for a long time; in an interview near the end of the tour he said, "We're playing to an audience now that will outlive us. But at the same time the band is very, very powerful right now. And part of the reason it's powerful is that it's carrying a lot of very strong cumulative history. You come and you see 35 years of a speeding train going down the track, and you're gonna get to be on the front end of it. We look forward to many, many more years of touring and playing and enjoying it."
The tour concluded with the November 22, 2009, show at HSBC Arena in Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
. Fans came from far away and the show dominated the feel of the city that day. The full album played was Springsteen's first, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.
Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.
Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. is the first studio album by Bruce Springsteen, released in 1973. It only sold about 25,000 copies in the first year of its release, but had significant critical impact...
, which he wryly said "was the miracle. This was the record that took everything from way below zero to ... one." The performance of it was dedicated to his first manager and producer, Mike Appel
Mike Appel
Mike Appel is an American music industry manager and record producer, most known for his role in both capacities early in the career of Bruce Springsteen....
, who was present in the audience, and featured quite rare renditions of "Mary Queen of Arkansas
Mary Queen of Arkansas
"Mary Queen of Arkansas" is a song by Bruce Springsteen from the album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., released in 1973. Springsteen played "Mary Queen of Arkansas" at his audition for John H...
" and (the first ever with the E Street Band) "The Angel
The Angel (Bruce Springsteen song)
"The Angel" is a song by Bruce Springsteen from the album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. in 1973. It was also released as the B-side to Springsteen's "Blinded by the Light" single. The song was part of the demo that Springsteen recorded for John Hammond of CBS Records in advance of getting his...
". Other rarities peppered the 34-song, nearly 3½-hour night, including Chuck Willis
Chuck Willis
Harold "Chuck" Willis was an American blues, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll singer and songwriter. His biggest hits, "C. C. Rider" and "What Am I Living For" , both reached no. 1 in the Billboard R&B chart...
's "(I Don't Want to) Hang Up My Rock and Roll Shoes" and, to mark Steven Van Zandt's birthday, totally obscure outtake "Restless Nights" (supposedly Van Zandt's favorite Springsteen song) and a now-unusual second song from the current album, "Surprise Surprise". Near the end he said, "So we're gonna say goodbye, but just for a little while ... a very little while ..." The tour finished not with the emotional statement in song that some other Springsteen tours have in the 2000s, but instead with John Fogerty
John Fogerty
John Cameron Fogerty is an American rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known for his time with the swamp rock/roots rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival and as a #1 solo recording artist. Fogerty has a rare distinction of being named on Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 Greatest...
's "Rockin' All Over the World
Rockin' All Over the World (song)
"Rockin' All Over the World" is a rock song by John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival. It made its debut on Fogerty's second solo album in 1975. Status Quo recorded their own, heavier arrangement of Fogerty's song for their 1977 album Rockin' All Over the World...
".
Critical and commercial reception
Newspaper reviews of the show often commented on the high level of energy and stamina the nearly 60-year-old Springsteen brought to the concerts. The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the only major daily newspaper in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, and its suburbs. The AJC, as it is called, is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the result of the merger between The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta...
and the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
favorably compared Springsteen to the rest of the band in this regard, saying "Some of the guys in the band look their age" and "they lack the physicality, the sustained urgency of their prime."
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...
and the San Jose Mercury News
San Jose Mercury News
The San Jose Mercury News is a daily newspaper in San Jose, California. On its web site, however, it calls itself Silicon Valley Mercury News. The paper is owned by MediaNews Group...
both commented on the fundamental problem that Springsteen seemed to be facing on the tour. The former said "Bruce Springsteen may well have miscalculated earlier this year when he released Working on a Dream, one of the most hopeful and downright happy sounding albums of his career just as a cratering economy was rendering the songs of struggle and strife that are his stock in trade more resonant than they have sounded in years." The latter said, "As Don Rumsfeld might say, you don't go on tour with the album you wish you had, you go on tour with the album you've got. So Springsteen faces the tough task of hyping a new romantic pop record while simultaneously offering hope and support to a wounded nation – not an easy task." Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
voiced a similar theory. Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
critic Greg Kot
Greg Kot
Greg Kot is an American writer and journalist. Since 1990, Kot has been the music critic at the Chicago Tribune, where he has covered popular music and reported on music-related social, political and business issues...
wrote that "If there was a disappointment, it was that Springsteen didn’t make a stronger case for his latest album, Working on a Dream. I’m not a fan of the album, but I always look forward to how the singer reinvents his studio work on the stage. In this case, however, he barely touched the new material ..." Views on one, the early-in-show, eight-minute "Outlaw Pete"—one of the few new material centerpieces—varied considerably.
The San Jose Mercury News
San Jose Mercury News
The San Jose Mercury News is a daily newspaper in San Jose, California. On its web site, however, it calls itself Silicon Valley Mercury News. The paper is owned by MediaNews Group...
and the Connecticut Post
Connecticut Post
The Connecticut Post is a daily newspaper located in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It serves the greater Bridgeport area, Fairfield County, and the Lower Naugatuck Valley. Municipalities in the Post's circulation area include Bridgeport, Ansonia,...
both gave the show a mixed review, with the former saying it was "decidedly subpar" and latter saying "the concert itself wasn't as captivating as past visits to the state." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the only major daily newspaper in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, and its suburbs. The AJC, as it is called, is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the result of the merger between The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta...
and The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...
were unreserved in their praise, with the former saying Springsteen "deliver[ed] a show that proves boomer-oriented rock 'n' roll can still tear it up" and the latter saying Springsteen adapted to circumstances "with an altered game plan that wisely plays to his strengths". The Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the third-largest city by population in North Carolina and the largest city in Guilford County and the surrounding Piedmont Triad metropolitan region. According to the 2010 U.S...
News & Record said that "Springsteen and the E Street Band were received like conquering heroes during an exhilarating three-hour show that repeatedly drove the adoring, near-sellout crowd into fist-thrusting, sing-along frenzies." The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
said of the tour's sole Canadian show, "an evening with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band still ranks as the epitome of the rock concert experience." Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
said of the first leg's concluding New Jersey shows, "Springsteen tours don’t usually hit highs like this until the end, but the band has essentially been on the road since September of 2007."
Of the European shows, critical reaction was generally quite favorable. The Irish Times
The Irish Times
The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Kevin O'Sullivan who succeeded Geraldine Kennedy in 2011; the deputy editor is Paul O'Neill. The Irish Times is considered to be Ireland's newspaper of record, and is published every day except Sundays...
said Springsteen showing no signs of age as he neared his 60th birthday, despite taking a spill during his stage antics in rainy Dublin, and remarked upon how "a set that features so many songs about the toughness of life ... can be delivered with such extraordinary verve that by the time you leave, you’re very glad to be alive." The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
echoed the sentiment in reviewing the Hyde Park show, writing that he showed "the vigour of a frontman a third of his age" and that "Springsteen's intensity was staggering from first powerful vocal to final thrashed-out chord." The Bath Chronicle saluted Springsteen's performance at Glastonbury, saying "As all the tickets were sold before Springsteen was even confirmed on the bill, he must have known he was facing something very rare for him – the musical equivalent of a sporting 'away match' where not everyone was necessarily a worshipper at the altar of Bruce." They concluded that Springsteen gave "a performance of passion, exuberance, exhilaration and musical majesty" while sticking with his standard tour set list and not resorting to playing many of his better-known hits.
Of the final Giants Stadium stand, the New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
said that "Wrecking Ball" was "a rousing declaration of defiance in the face of destruction," and overall said that "Once again, this proved [Springsteen] to be one of the few performers charismatic enough, and anthemic enough, to use the stadium scale to his advantage." Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
called "Wrecking Ball" "an inspiring start to another of the marathon three-hour shows Springsteen still manages to put on night after night." The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
said of the full performance of Born in the U.S.A. that "Springsteen sang with deeper nuance ... the songs have not faded." Greg Kot
Greg Kot
Greg Kot is an American writer and journalist. Since 1990, Kot has been the music critic at the Chicago Tribune, where he has covered popular music and reported on music-related social, political and business issues...
of the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
said that while during the first leg of the tour the band had "appeared to be running on fumes", the Born to Run album performance was "easily the best Springsteen show with the E Streeters I'd seen since the '80s."
Looking back on the tour as a whole, and in combination with the preceding Magic Tour, Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
magazine cover story stated that "Even for an artist who has largely built his career on epic shows, Springsteen and the E Streeters have managed to find yet another gear at this stage in their legendary career." Springsteen himself said, "With the end of these shows, we're coming to the end of a decade-long project that really was a tremendous renewal of the power, the strength and the service that our band hopefully provides." Springsteen also touted the quality of the shows: "I believe if you come and see us now you're seeing the best E Street Band that's ever played." Specific shows from the tour were named as among the best concerts of 2009 by Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
magazine, The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...
, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also known simply as the "PG," is the largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.-Early history:...
, and the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
.
Springsteen himself remained quite interested in his and the band's commercial fortunes. He said before the tour's start that remaining popular had been one of his motivations for the Super Bowl appearance: "I've said no for about 10 years or however long they've been asking, but, I tell you, we played on the last tour and there were some empty seats here and there and, well, there shouldn't be any empty seats at an E Street Band show. I hold pride that we remain one of the great wonders of the world ... so sometimes you got to remind people a little bit."
Through September 2009, the Working on a Dream Tour was in the top five in grosses of 2009 tours worldwide, alongside the U2 360° Tour
U2 360° Tour
The U2 360° Tour was a worldwide concert tour by rock band U2. Launched in support of the group's 2009 album No Line on the Horizon, the tour visited stadiums from 2009 through 2011. It was named for a stage configuration that allowed the audience to almost completely surround the stage...
, Coldplay
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a...
's Viva la Vida Tour
Viva la Vida Tour
Viva la Vida Tour was the fourth concert tour by English band Coldplay. The tour was in support their fourth studio album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends. The tour was a massive commercial and critical success visiting Europe, Asia, the Americas and Australasia...
, and AC/DC
AC/DC
AC/DC are an Australian rock band, formed in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Commonly classified as hard rock, they are considered pioneers of heavy metal, though they themselves have always classified their music as simply "rock and roll"...
's Black Ice Tour
Black Ice World Tour
Black Ice World Tour was a 2008/2009/2010 concert tour by Australian rock band AC/DC in support of the group's 15th studio album, Black Ice, which was released in October 2008. The tour was the band's first since the Stiff Upper Lip World Tour in 2000/2001.The jaunt began in Wilkes-Barre,...
. For all of 2009, the Working on a Dream Tour was the third-highest grossing tour, trailing only U2 360° and Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
's Sticky & Sweet Tour
Sticky & Sweet Tour
The Sticky & Sweet Tour was the eighth worldwide concert tour by American singer Madonna to promote her eleventh studio album, Hard Candy. It began in August 2008 and was Madonna's first tour from her new recording and business deal with Live Nation. The tour was announced in February 2008, with...
. It grossed over $156 million, was seen by over 1.7 million ticket holders, and sold out 42 of 72 non-festival shows. Unlike the past Magic
Magic Tour (Bruce Springsteen)
The Magic Tour was Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's 2007–2008 concert tour of North America and Western Europe.The tour began October 2, 2007, in Hartford, Connecticut, and concluded August 30, 2008 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin...
and Devils & Dust Tour
Devils & Dust Tour
The Devils & Dust Tour was a 2005 concert tour featuring Bruce Springsteen performing alone on stage on a variety of instruments. It followed the release of his 2005 album Devils & Dust.-Approach:...
s, the Working on a Dream Tour failed to win any Billboard Touring Awards
Billboard Touring Awards
Established in 2004, the Billboard Touring Conference and Awards is an annual meeting sponsored by Billboard Magazine which also honors the top international live entertainment industry artists and professionals...
. The tour completed a busy ten years on the road for Springsteen, who ranked fourth among pop artists for the decade in terms of total touring grosses.
Band members
- Bruce SpringsteenBruce SpringsteenBruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
– lead vocals, lead guitarLead guitarLead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
, rhythm guitarRhythm guitarRhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
, acoustic guitarAcoustic guitarAn acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
, harmonicaHarmonicaThe harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes... - Roy BittanRoy BittanRoy Bittan is an American keyboardist, best known as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, which he joined on August 23, 1974...
– pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, synthesizerSynthesizerA synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
, accordionAccordionThe accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist.... - Clarence ClemonsClarence ClemonsClarence Anicholas Clemons, Jr. , also known as The Big Man, was an American musician and actor. From 1972 until his death, he was a prominent member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, playing the tenor saxophone. He released several solo albums and in 1985, had a hit single with "You're a...
– tenor saxophoneTenor saxophoneThe tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
, baritone saxophoneBaritone saxophoneThe baritone saxophone, often called "bari sax" , is one of the largest and lowest pitched members of the saxophone family. It was invented by Adolphe Sax. The baritone is distinguished from smaller sizes of saxophone by the extra loop near its mouthpiece...
, percussion, pennywhistle, piccoloPiccoloThe piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written...
, harmonicaHarmonicaThe harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
, whistlingWhistlingHuman whistling is the production of sound by means of carefully controlling a stream of air flowing through a small hole. Whistling can be achieved by creating a small opening with one's lips and then blowing or sucking air through the hole...
, background vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists... - Charles GiordanoCharles GiordanoCharles Giordano is an American keyboardist and accordionist. Giordano is known primarily as the newest member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, playing keyboards and organ following the serious illness and subsequent death of longtime E Street organist Danny Federici in 2008...
– organOrgan (music)The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
, accordionAccordionThe accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
, electronic glockenspiel, rare pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, occasional background vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists... - Nils LofgrenNils LofgrenNils Hilmer Lofgren is an American rock music recording artist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist...
– rhythm guitarRhythm guitarRhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
, lead guitarLead guitarLead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
, pedal steel guitarPedal steel guitarThe pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal bar to "fret" or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal"...
, acoustic guitarAcoustic guitarAn acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
, accordionAccordionThe accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
, background vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists... - Patti ScialfaPatti ScialfaVivienne Patricia "Patti" Scialfa is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She is married to Bruce Springsteen and they have three children.- Early life :...
– background vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
, some duet vocalsDuet (music)A duet is a musical composition for two performers. In classical music, the term is most often used for a composition for two singers or pianists; with other instruments, the word duo is also often used. A piece performed by two pianists performing together on the same piano is referred to as...
, acoustic guitarSilenceSilence is the relative or total lack of audible sound. By analogy, the word silence may also refer to any absence of communication, even in media other than speech....
, occasional tambourineTambourineThe tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all.... - Garry TallentGarry TallentGarry Wayne Tallent , sometimes billed as Garry W. Tallent, is an American musician and record producer, best known for being the longtime bass player in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band....
– bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, rare background vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
, rare tubaTubaThe tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the... - Soozie TyrellSoozie TyrellSoozie Tyrell, , formerly known as Soozie Kirschner, is an American violinist and vocalist, most known for her work with Bruce Springsteen in the E Street Band.-Biography:...
– violinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
, acoustic guitarAcoustic guitarAn acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
, percussion, background vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists... - Steven Van ZandtSteven Van ZandtSteven Van Zandt is an Italian-American musician, songwriter, arranger, record producer, actor, and radio disc jockey, who frequently goes by the stage names Little Steven or Miami Steve...
– rhythm guitarRhythm guitarRhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
, lead guitarLead guitarLead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
, mandolinMandolinA mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
, acoustic guitarAcoustic guitarAn acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
, background vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
, occasional featured lead vocal - Max WeinbergMax WeinbergMax Weinberg is an American drummer and television personality, most widely known as the longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and as the bandleader for Conan O'Brien on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.Weinberg grew up in suburban New Jersey...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, rare tambourineTambourineThe tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all.... - Jay WeinbergJay WeinbergJay Weinberg is an American drummer and the son of drummer Max Weinberg. He has played with the punk band The Reveling and toured in 2009 as a drummer with Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, substituting for his father. During 2010, he was briefly the drummer for Madball...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person .... - Curtis KingCurtis KingCurtis Albert King is a former pitcher in Major League Baseball. He played for the St. Louis Cardinals.-External links:...
– background vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
and tambourineTambourineThe tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all.... - Cindy Mizelle – background vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
and tambourineTambourineThe tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all.... - Curt Ramm – trumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
Scialfa missed some shows on the first leg due to injuries received from falling off her horse, then due to family responsibilities, and was absent from all the shows on the European leg. She continued to miss all but a handful of shows during the U.S. third leg, including only making it to two of the five final Giants Stadium performances. As on the Magic Tour, Tyrell has assumed a more prominent role when Scialfa was absent. Clemons continued to have a diminished physical role on stage due to his multiple physical problems, and was scheduled for spine surgery once the tour concluded with a 12-month recovery period. Jay Weinberg substituted for Max Weinberg on a number of dates, and the two alternated for portions of the show on a number of other dates. Ramm, a veteran of the Sessions Band Tour, played on several songs per show during much of the U.S. third leg.
Broadcasts and recordings
Several of the tour's festival appearances aired on television or radio during 2009.One song's worth of the June 13 Bonnaroo Music Festival
Bonnaroo Music Festival
The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is an annual four day music festival created and produced by Superfly Productions and AC Entertainment, held at Great Stage Park on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee. It hosted its tenth annual event June 9–12, 2011...
appearance, "Outlaw Pete", made it into a U.S. packaged broadcast of festival highlights for television, "The Best of Bonnaroo 2009", that appeared on Fuse TV
Fuse TV
Fuse is an American national television network dedicated exclusively to music. It features original series and specials, exclusive interviews, live concerts and video blocks....
on June 20. The performance of that song subsequently appeared on a Live From Bonnaroo 2009 DVD.
Portions of the June 27 Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...
performance were aired live on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
television and BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music
BBC 6 Music is one of the BBC's digital radio stations, was launched on 11 March 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years....
radio. A number of fans complained that the full set had not been shown by the BBC, which in turn said the set had been too long to broadcast in its entirety. Televised highlights were later shown on BBC Four
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
and BBC HD
BBC HD
BBC HD is a high-definition television network provided by the BBC. The service was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007...
.
In conjunction with the Fourth of July holiday in the U.S., E Street Radio
E Street Radio
E Street Radio is a Sirius XM Radio channel, broadcasting on Sirius 20 and XM 20 since November 12, 2008, as well as on Dish Network channel 6010...
featured 45 minutes from the July 3 Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
Commerzbank Arena show.
In the U.S., the Hard Rock Calling
Hard Rock Calling
Hard Rock Calling is an annual music festival held in Hyde Park, London, which first took place on Saturday July 1 and Sunday July 2, 2006. The music played is primarily rock music, and various performers, including Bon Jovi, The Who, Aerosmith, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen have played at the...
Hyde Park
Hyde Park, London
Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, United Kingdom, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine...
appearance was included in an August 21 broadcast on the VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
, VH1 Classic
VH1 Classic
VH1 Classic is a television network, launched on May 8, 2000. It is operated as part of MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom and primarily features music videos and concert footage from the 1970s through the mid-1990s, though it formerly included a wider range of genres and time periods...
, and Palladia cable channels; seven Springsteen and E Street Band performances, including "London Calling
London Calling (song)
"London Calling" is a song by the British punk rock band The Clash. It was released as a single from the band's 1979 double album London Calling...
" to open the program, were included in amongst other artists' performances.
Several shows were filmed, but at the tour's conclusion no decisions had been made about whether to release them on DVD or other media. Then in June 2010, London Calling: Live in Hyde Park
London Calling: Live in Hyde Park
London Calling: Live in Hyde Park is a full concert video of Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band in their Working on a Dream Tour performance of June 28, 2009, at the Hard Rock Calling music festival in Hyde Park, London. It was released a year later, on Blu-ray and DVD.The work takes it name...
was released: a 163-minute, near-complete Blu-ray/DVD accounting of the named show.
Tour dates
| Date | City | Country | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| North America | |||
| April 1, 2009 | San Jose, California San Jose, California San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay... |
United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
HP Pavilion |
| April 3, 2009 | Glendale, Arizona Glendale, Arizona Glendale is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, USA, located about nine miles northwest from Downtown Phoenix. According to 2010 Census Bureau, the population of the city is 226,721.... |
Jobing.com Arena | |
| April 5, 2009 | Austin, Texas Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in... |
Frank Erwin Center Frank Erwin Center Frank C. Erwin, Jr. Special Events Center, commonly known as Frank Erwin Center or UT Erwin Center, is a multi-purpose arena on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin... |
|
| April 7, 2009 | Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's... |
BOK Center BOK Center The BOK Center, or Bank of Oklahoma Center, is a 19,100-seat multi-purpose arena and a primary indoor sports and event venue in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States. Designed to accommodate arena football, hockey, basketball, concerts, and similar events, the facility was built at a cost of $178 million... |
|
| April 8, 2009 | Houston, Texas Houston, Texas Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ... |
Toyota Center Toyota Center (Houston) The Toyota Center is an indoor arena located in downtown Houston, Texas. It is named after the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota. The arena is home to the Rockets of the National Basketball Association, the principal owners of the building, and the Aeros of the American Hockey League.Rockets... |
|
| April 10, 2009 | Denver, Colorado Denver, Colorado The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains... |
Pepsi Center Pepsi Center Pepsi Center is a multi-purpose arena in Denver, Colorado, United States. The building is home to the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association, the Colorado Avalanche of the National Hockey League, and the Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League... |
|
| April 15 | Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, California Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California... |
L.A. Memorial Arena Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena The Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena is a multi-purpose arena, in the University Park neighborhood, of Los Angeles, California, at Exposition Park. It is located next to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, just south of the campus of the University of Southern California.-History:The Los Angeles... |
|
| April 16, 2009 | |||
| April 21, 2009 | Boston, Massachusetts | TD Banknorth Garden TD Banknorth Garden TD Garden is a multi-purpose arena in Boston, Massachusetts. It is named after its sponsor, TD Bank, N.A. and is often simply referred to by local Bostonians as, The Garden, The Fleet Center, or the traditional Boston Garden... |
|
| April 22, 2009 | |||
| April 24, 2009 | Hartford, Connecticut Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making... |
XL Center | |
| April 26, 2009 | Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in... |
Philips Arena Philips Arena Philips Arena is an indoor arena in Atlanta, Georgia.Completed in 1999 to replace The Omni, at a cost of $213.5 million, it is home to the Atlanta Hawks, of the National Basketball Association, and the Atlanta Dream, of the Women's National Basketball Association... |
|
| April 28, 2009 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,... |
The Spectrum Wachovia Spectrum The Spectrum, formerly known as the CoreStates Spectrum , First Union Spectrum , and Wachovia Spectrum was an indoor arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania... |
|
| April 29, 2009 | |||
| May 2, 2009 | Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the third-largest city by population in North Carolina and the largest city in Guilford County and the surrounding Piedmont Triad metropolitan region. According to the 2010 U.S... |
Greensboro Coliseum Greensboro Coliseum The Greensboro Coliseum Complex is an entertainment complex located in College Hill neighborhood of Greensboro, North Carolina. Opening in 1959, the arena was one of the largest venues in the South, with a seating capacity of over 7,000... |
|
| May 4, 2009 | Uniondale, New York Uniondale, New York Uniondale is a hamlet as well as a suburb of New York City in Nassau County, New York, United States, on Long Island, in the Town of Hempstead. The population was 24,759 at the 2010 United States Census.-Geography:... |
Nassau Coliseum | |
| May 5, 2009 | Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville is an independent city geographically surrounded by but separate from Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.The official population estimate for... |
John Paul Jones Arena John Paul Jones Arena John Paul Jones Arena, or JPJ, opened for the 2006–2007 NCAA Division I basketball season and is located at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia... |
|
| May 7, 2009 | Toronto, Ontario | Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean... |
Air Canada Centre Air Canada Centre The Air Canada Centre is a multi-purpose indoor sporting arena located on Bay Street in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada.The arena is popularly known as the ACC or the Hangar .... |
| May 8, 2009 | University Park, Pennsylvania University Park, Pennsylvania University Park, Pennsylvania is an unincorporated community in Centre County, Pennsylvania, United States, and is the location of the flagship campus of the Pennsylvania State University.... |
United States | Bryce Jordan Center Bryce Jordan Center Bryce Jordan Center is a 15,261-seat multi-purpose arena in University Park, Pennsylvania. The arena opened in 1995 and is the largest such venue between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. It replaced Rec Hall as the home to the Penn State University Nittany Lions men's and women's basketball team, the... |
| May 11, 2009 | St. Paul, Minnesota | Xcel Energy Center Xcel Energy Center The Xcel Energy Center is a multi-purpose arena located in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It is named for its locally-based corporate sponsor Xcel Energy. With an official capacity of 18,064, the arena has four spectator levels: one suite level and three general seating levels. The arena is owned by the... |
|
| May 12, 2009 | Chicago, Illinois | United Center United Center The United Center is an indoor sports arena located in Chicago. It is named after its corporate sponsor, United Airlines. The United Center is home to both the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association and the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League... |
|
| May 14, 2009 | Albany, New York Albany, New York Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River... |
Times Union Center | |
| May 15, 2009 | Hershey, Pennsylvania Hershey, Pennsylvania Hershey is a census-designated place in Derry Township, Dauphin County in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The community is located 14 miles east of Harrisburg and is part of the Harrisburg–Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area. Hershey has no legal status as an incorporated municipality... |
Hersheypark Stadium Hersheypark Stadium Hersheypark Stadium is a stadium, located in Hershey, Pennsylvania, on the grounds of Hersheypark. The General Manager is Frank O'Connell.It is used as a sporting facility, concert venue and location for various other large functions . In addition, it hosted the 2004 Presidential Race Campaign stop... |
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| May 18, 2009 | Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution.... |
Verizon Center Verizon Center Verizon Center is a sports and entertainment arena in Washington, D.C., USA, named after telecommunications sponsor Verizon Communications, and has been nicknamed the "Phone Booth" because of its association with telecommunications companies... |
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| May 19, 2009 | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States... |
Mellon Arena Mellon Arena Civic Arena is an indoor arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that is currently undergoing demolition. It was the first retractable roof major sports venue in the world, covering 170,000 sq. feet and constructed with just shy of 3,000 tons of Pittsburgh steel... |
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| May 21, 2009 | East Rutherford, New Jersey East Rutherford, New Jersey East Rutherford is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 8,913. It is an inner-ring suburb of New York City, located west of Midtown Manhattan.... |
Izod Center | |
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| Europe | |||
| May 30, 2009 | Landgraaf Landgraaf Landgraaf is a municipality in southeastern Limburg.- Special information :A pop music festival called Pinkpop is held annually on the Pentecost weekend in the vicinity of Landgraaf.... |
Netherlands Netherlands The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders... |
Pinkpop Festival |
| June 2, 2009 | Tampere Tampere Tampere is a city in southern Finland. It is the most populous inland city in any of the Nordic countries. The city has a population of , growing to approximately 300,000 people in the conurbation and over 340,000 in the metropolitan area. Tampere is the third most-populous municipality in... |
Finland Finland Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside... |
Ratinan Stadion |
| June 4, 2009 | Stockholm Stockholm Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area... |
Sweden Sweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund.... |
Stockholms Stadium |
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| June 9, 2009 | Bergen Bergen Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , .... |
Norway Norway Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million... |
Koengen Koengen Koengen is an outdoor concert venue in the city centre of Bergen, Norway. The concert venue has a capacity of approximately 23,500 people.Formerly an army depot, it is located next to the medieval Bergenhus Fortress... |
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| June 13, 2009 | Manchester, Tennessee Manchester, Tennessee Manchester is a city in Coffee County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 10,102 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Coffee County... |
United States | Bonnaroo Festival Bonnaroo Music Festival The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is an annual four day music festival created and produced by Superfly Productions and AC Entertainment, held at Great Stage Park on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee. It hosted its tenth annual event June 9–12, 2011... |
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| June 27, 2009 | Glastonbury Glastonbury Glastonbury is a small town in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town, which is in the Mendip district, had a population of 8,784 in the 2001 census... |
United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... |
Glastonbury Festival Glastonbury Festival The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The... |
| June 28, 2009 | London London London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its... |
Hard Rock Calling | |
| June 30, 2009 | Bern | Switzerland Switzerland Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition.... |
Stade de Suisse |
| July 2, 2009 | Munich Munich Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat... |
Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... |
Olympiastadion Olympic Stadium (Munich) Olympiastadion is a stadium located in Munich, Germany. Situated at the heart of the Olympiapark München in northern Munich, the stadium was built as the main venue for the 1972 Summer Olympics.... |
| July 3, 2009 | Frankfurt Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010... |
Commerzbank Arena | |
| July 5, 2009 | Vienna Vienna Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre... |
Austria Austria Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the... |
Ernst Happel Stadion Ernst Happel Stadion The Ernst Happel Stadium in Leopoldstadt, the 2nd district of Austria's capital Vienna, is the largest stadium in Austria. It was built between 1929 and 1931 for the second Workers' Olympiad to the design of German architect Otto Ernst Schweizer... |
| July 8, 2009 | Herning Herning Herning Municipality is a municipality in Region Midtjylland on the Jutland peninsula in western Denmark. The municipality covers an area of 1,336 km² and a total population of 84,208... |
Denmark Denmark Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark... |
MCH Outdoor Arena |
| July 11, 2009 | Dublin | Ireland Republic of Ireland Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,... |
RDS Arena RDS Arena RDS Arena is a multi-purpose sports stadium, owned by the Royal Dublin Society and located in the Dublin suburb of Ballsbridge, Ireland.The arena was originally developed to host equestrian events, including the annual Dublin Horse Show, which was first held there in 1868. The site was acquired in... |
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| July 14, 2009 | Glasgow Glasgow Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands... |
United Kingdom | Hampden Park Hampden Park Hampden Park is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The 52,063 capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland... |
| July 16, 2009 | Carhaix | France France The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France... |
Festival des Vieilles Charrues Vieilles Charrues Festival The Vieilles Charrues Festival is held every year in mid-July in the city of Carhaix located in the west of Brittany.This festival is the largest music festival in France, attracting more than 200,000 festival-goers every year . This festival was created in 1992 in Landeleau, a small village in... |
| July 19, 2009 | Rome Rome Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half... |
Italy Italy Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and... |
Stadio Olimpico Stadio Olimpico The Stadio Olimpico is the main and largest sports facility of Rome, Italy. It is located within the Foro Italico sports complex on the north of the city. An asset of the Italian National Olympic Committee, the structure is intended primarily for football... |
| July 21, 2009 | Torino | Stadio Olimpico di Torino | |
| July 23, 2009 | Udine Udine Udine is a city and comune in northeastern Italy, in the middle of Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic sea and the Alps , less than 40 km from the Slovenian border. Its population was 99,439 in 2009, and that of its urban area was 175,000.- History :Udine is the historical... |
Stadio Friuli Stadio Friuli Stadio Friuli is a multi-purpose stadium in Udine, Italy. The stadium was built in 1976 and holds 41,652 people. It is currently used mostly for football matches and the home of Udinese Calcio.-Structure:... |
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| July 26, 2009 | Bilbao Bilbao Bilbao ) is a Spanish municipality, capital of the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. With a population of 353,187 , it is the largest city of its autonomous community and the tenth largest in Spain... |
Spain Spain Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula... |
San Mames Stadium San Mamés Stadium Estadio San Mamés, AKA La Catedral , is a football stadium in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain. The stadium is the home of Athletic Bilbao, known as "Los leones de San Mamés-Bilboko lehoiak" . They are known as Los leones because their stadium was built near a church called San Mamés... |
| July 28, 2009 | Sevilla | La Cartuja Olimpic Stadium | |
| July 30, 2009 | Benidorm Benidorm Benidorm is a coastal town and municipality located in the comarca of Marina Baixa, in the province of Alicante, Valencian community, Spain, by the Western Mediterranean.... |
Estadio Municipal de Foietes Estadio Municipal de Foietes Estadio Municipal de Guillermo Amor is a stadium in Benidorm, Alicante, Valencian Community, Spain. Its former name was Estadio Municipal de Foietes or simply Foietes, but its name was changed in 2010 because of Guillermo Amor, one of the most famous sportsman who had born in the town... |
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| August 1, 2009 | Valladolid Valladolid Valladolid is a historic city and municipality in north-central Spain, situated at the confluence of the Pisuerga and Esgueva rivers, and located within three wine-making regions: Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Cigales... |
Estadio Jose Zorrilla Estadio José Zorrilla Estadio José Zorrilla is a football stadium in Valladolid, Spain. The stadium holds 26,512 people.The stadium was built in 1982 and is named after poet José Zorrilla y Moral... |
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| August 2, 2009 | Compostela Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain.The city's Cathedral is the destination today, as it has been throughout history, of the important 9th century medieval pilgrimage route, the Way of St. James... |
Auditorio Monte do Gozo Auditorio Monte do Gozo Auditorio Monte do Gozo is an outdoor concert venue in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain. It is an amphitheatre-like setting, with a stage, an open area, and then rows of concrete bench seating arranged in a semicircle... |
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| August 19, 2009 | Hartford, Connecticut Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making... |
United States | Comcast Theatre |
| August 22, 2009 | Mansfield, Massachusetts Mansfield, Massachusetts Mansfield is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the United States 2010 Census, the town population is 23,184. Mansfield is in the south-southwest suburbs of Boston and is also close to Providence, Rhode Island.... |
Comcast Center | |
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| August 25, 2009 | Saratoga Springs, New York Saratoga Springs, New York Saratoga Springs, also known as simply Saratoga, is a city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 26,586 at the 2010 census. The name reflects the presence of mineral springs in the area. While the word "Saratoga" is known to be a corruption of a Native American name, ... |
Saratoga Performing Arts Center Saratoga Performing Arts Center The Saratoga Performing Arts Center is an amphitheater in Saratoga Springs, New York, which presents summer festivals of all kinds of music , dance, and opera, as well as a Wine & Food Festival... |
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| September 12, 2009 | Tampa, Florida Tampa, Florida Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709.... |
Ford Amphitheatre Ford Amphitheatre (Tampa) 1-800-ASK-GARY Amphitheatre is an outdoor concert facility, in Tampa, Florida, located on the Florida State Fairgrounds, adjacent to Interstate 4, in the eastern side of town... |
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| September 13, 2009 | Ft. Lauderdale, Florida | BankAtlantic Center BankAtlantic Center The BankAtlantic Center is an indoor arena located in Sunrise, Florida, a suburb of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and adjacent to the popular Sawgrass Mills Mall.The arena features 70 suites & 2,623 club seats.The arena is directly accessible from the Sawgrass Expressway... |
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| September 16, 2009 | Greenville, South Carolina Greenville, South Carolina -Law and government:The city of Greenville adopted the Council-Manager form of municipal government in 1976.-History:The area was part of the Cherokee Nation's protected grounds after the Treaty of 1763, which ended the French and Indian War. No White man was allowed to enter, though some families... |
Bi-Lo Center Bi-Lo Center The BI-LO Center is an arena located in downtown Greenville, South Carolina, that is used for concerts, football, and hockey. The arena is currently used by the Greenville Force of the Southern Indoor Football League and the Greenville Road Warriors of the ECHL.- History :The BI-LO Center was... |
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| September 20, 2009 | Chicago, Illinois | United Center United Center The United Center is an indoor sports arena located in Chicago. It is named after its corporate sponsor, United Airlines. The United Center is home to both the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association and the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League... |
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| September 21, 2009 | Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines is the capital and the most populous city in the US state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small portion of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines which was shortened to "Des Moines" in 1857... |
Wells Fargo Arena Wells Fargo Arena (Des Moines) Wells Fargo Arena is a 16,980-seat multi-purpose arena in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. Part of the Iowa Events Center, the arena opened in 2005, at a cost of $99 million.... |
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| September 30, 2009 | East Rutherford, New Jersey East Rutherford, New Jersey East Rutherford is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 8,913. It is an inner-ring suburb of New York City, located west of Midtown Manhattan.... |
Giants Stadium Giants Stadium Giants Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium, located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA, in the Meadowlands Sports Complex. Maximum seating capacity was 80,242. The building itself was 230.5 m long, 180.5 m wide and 44 m high from service level to the top of the seating bowl and 54 m high to... |
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| October 13, 2009 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,... |
Wachovia Spectrum Wachovia Spectrum The Spectrum, formerly known as the CoreStates Spectrum , First Union Spectrum , and Wachovia Spectrum was an indoor arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania... |
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| October 25, 2009 | St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St... |
Scottrade Center Scottrade Center Scottrade Center is a 19,150 seat arena located in downtown St. Louis, Missouri, opened in 1994. It is the home of the St... |
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| October 26, 2009 | Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties... |
Sprint Center Sprint Center is a large, multi-use indoor arena in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. The building is located at 14th Street and Grand Boulevard, on the east side of the Power & Light District... |
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| November 2, 2009 | Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution.... |
Verizon Center Verizon Center Verizon Center is a sports and entertainment arena in Washington, D.C., USA, named after telecommunications sponsor Verizon Communications, and has been nicknamed the "Phone Booth" because of its association with telecommunications companies... |
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| November 3, 2009 | Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the seat of Mecklenburg County. In 2010, Charlotte's population according to the US Census Bureau was 731,424, making it the 17th largest city in the United States based on population. The Charlotte metropolitan area had a 2009... |
Time Warner Cable Arena | |
| November 7, 2009 | New York City, New York | Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the... |
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| November 10, 2009 | Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border... |
Quicken Loans Arena Quicken Loans Arena Quicken Loans Arena , is a multi-purpose arena, in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States.... |
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| November 13, 2009 | Auburn Hills, Michigan Auburn Hills, Michigan Auburn Hills is a city in Metro Detroit, Oakland County, in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 21,412 at the 2010 census. The city was formed in 1983 when Pontiac Township became the City of Auburn Hills.-Economy:... |
The Palace of Auburn Hills The Palace of Auburn Hills The Palace of Auburn Hills, often referred to simply as The Palace, is a sports and entertainment venue in Auburn Hills, Michigan, a suburb on the northern outskirts of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Opened in 1988, it is the home of the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association... |
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| November 15, 2009 | Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the... |
Bradley Center Bradley Center The Bradley Center is an indoor arena, located on the northwest corner of North 4th and West State Streets, in Downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin.... |
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| November 18, 2009 | Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home... |
Sommet Center | |
| November 20, 2009 | Baltimore, Maryland | 1st Mariner Arena 1st Mariner Arena 1st Mariner Arena is an arena located in Baltimore, Maryland. In 2003, it was renamed by 1st Mariner Bank, which purchased naming rights to the arena for 10 years. It was reported that 1st Mariner Bank will need to pay the city $75,000 for the next ten years to keep the naming rights to the complex... |
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| November 22, 2009 | Buffalo, New York Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the... |
HSBC Arena | |
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