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August 5, 2023 EDITOR'S NOTE: Our friend Donna Gray at Bruce Funds has launched several campaigns for upcoming U.S. shows, with more to come, as always. The most imminent campaign, of course, is next week's two-night Chicago run, which is officially and unsurprisingly sold out. Donna has been working with Andrew Harris and Brian Reed, who manage two Chicago YMCA Housing sites for low-income residents. Andrew and Brian reached out to Bruce Funds to try to get Springsteen@Wrigley tickets for as many of their interested residents as possible. (And as you'll read below, there are MANY interested residents.) We asked Andrew, who's also a Springsteen fan himself, to share his story personally with our readers. Please read it, and if you or anyone you know happens to have any Springsteen@Wrigley tickets you can spare to donate (for ANY location inside the ballpark,) please click here to donate your ticket(s) to Bruce Funds ASAP. Hi everyone. I am Andrew Harris, the housing manager at the Irving Park YMCA here in Chicago. We are a men’s-only residency, as we rent only individual furnished rooms to our tenants. We rent to men of all ages. Our youngest resident is 21 and our oldest is 92. We are one of the last affordable single-room occupancy centers left in Chicago. Our tenants work at jobs you will see at a typical Bruce Springsteen concert, from operating the concession stands to serving as one of the Uber drivers who drop you off at the venue. It'd be safe to say that all of us have come in contact with one of these typical low-wage workers every day that our tenants fulfill. Each of the Y housing centers in Chicago has a case manager like myself on staff who can help these men try to move upward on the social ladder, but as we all know, this is a very long and difficult process. Recently one of our residents was playing Bruce's album Nebraska (great album) a bit too loudly, and I went up to speak with him about the noise level. We got to talking about "The Boss" and how much of a fan he was. The resident mentioned that Springsteen was coming to Chicago and how he never has seen Bruce in concert, and how much of a dream come true it would be to see him play at Wrigley. That is when I started my search to see if I could find anyone who would donate tickets to our low-income adult residents. I was lucky enough to find Bruce Funds, and I reached out to Donna to see if she could help us secure some tickets to the show. She was immediately on board and was able to secure us a pair of tickets from an amazing fan (Field seats, no less!) We then held a tickets raffle for all interested tenants in both our location and the Lakeview Y (managed by my colleague Brian Reed.) Participation in this raffle was astronomical! I was surprised to learn that most of the residents have never been to Wrigley Field, let alone seen a concert there. Springsteen songs take a rough and unflattering look at America. It makes perfect sense that Bruce’s songs would strike a chord with our residents, as they can relate more than most about how rough times can get. The resident who won the tickets has been walking around with the biggest smile on his face and is PUMPED for the show. Hopefully, as more tickets come in, we can hold more raffles for the interested tenants and send many more of our interested residents to see Bruce at Wrigley Field, as his fans graciously donate. All of our residents would either have a very hard time affording or would never be able to afford typical housing in Chicago. These donated tickets go a long way to help give our guys a sense of normalcy. The lucky residents who attend the show will get to "escape" for a bit into the songs of the Boss, performed in person. Thanks again to Donna and Bruce Funds, without which none of this would be possible. Again, dear readers, if you have any Chicago tix to spare for this campaign, please click here to donate your ticket(s) to Bruce Funds ASAP. Thanks!

August 9, 2023 "'Backstreets'... owes more to the stately, fuguelike music of the electric Dylan. It is led along by organ and piano interplay, the guitar understated and used to punctuate the phrases mathematically (as Dylan described Robbie Robertson's playing.)" - Dave Marsh's review of Born To Run in his biography Born To Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story

August 10, 2023 Chicago 2023 - Night 1 is now history, with Night 2 of this summer double-header still scheduled for tomorrow. We'll be presenting two unique perspectives and reports from the two-show Windy City 2023 run, with much more to come soon. Stay tuned...

August 12, 2023

August 14, 2023 If you already are or soon will be in the Philadelphia area for one or both of this week's concerts by Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, try not to miss the "50 Years of Bruce Springsteen Music Celebration." It's a free exhibition of photographs, concert posters, gold/platinum-record awards, and other items of memorabilia, some of them signed, as well. Framed photos and other items also will be available for purchase. The exhibition is taking place at Coll's Custom Framing, located at 324 Fayette Street in the Philly-area suburb of Conshohocken, PA. It's open now through September 2, available to visit every day of the week except Sunday, beginning at 9:30 each morning and continuing through the day until 5:30 pm, except on Thursdays (when the exhibition won't close until 6:30 pm) and on Saturdays (when the exhibition will close at 4:30 pm.) Many of the photos being exhibited were taken by the late, great local rock-photography legend, Phil Ceccola. Ceccola first began to photograph and befriend Bruce Springsteen in the early 1970s, as Springsteen was just beginning to develop and nurture his large, rabid, and longstanding fanbase in the Philadelphia area. Ceccola and Springsteen remained friends until Ceccola's tragic early death from brain cancer in 2003. One of Ceccola's photos of Springsteen, caught in a thoughtful moment backstage at the Philly area's legendary Main Point nightclub in Bryn Mawr, PA, became the cover-photo (in slightly altered form to remove all nearby tobacco-associated paraphernalia from the shot) for Bruce's 1998 career-spanning box-set of outtakes and B-sides entitled simply TRACKS. On Saturday, August 19, the "50 Years of Bruce Springsteen Music Celebration" also will feature a special appearance by former E Street Band drummer Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez. Click here for details. And hey, if you're busy zippin' around the Philly area catching Springsteen in concert and in vintage photos, you're gonna need to start off each day with a good, healthy breakfast. The locally-owned (and women-owned) Goodness Bowls mini-franchise has you covered, with their regular menu-item the "Bruce Springreen" bowl: a chilled/frozen base of banana, mango, green spirulina, kale, spinach, and coconut milk, topped with granola, some more banana and mango, blueberries, hemp seeds, and honey. The "Bruce Springreen" bowl is available exclusively at Goodness Bowls' two Philly-area locations: Villanova, PA (site of a pair of locally legendary 1973 Springsteen performances at Villanova University,) and down the (South Jersey) shore, where everything's alright, in Avalon, NJ.

August 16, 2023 As per this afternoon's official announcement... "Due to Bruce Springsteen having been taken ill, his concerts with The E Street Band at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on August 16 and 18 have been postponed. We are working on rescheduling the dates, so please hold on to your tickets as they will be valid for the rescheduled shows. For more information, please visit Phillies.com/springsteen." Here's hoping you're feeling better ASAP, Bruce!

August 23, 2023 Only a few tickets remain available for the 5th annual Spring-Nuts Seaside Serenade, a huge annual social gathering of Springsteen fans, and time is quickly running out to buy yours if you haven't done so already. This year's event will take place right near East Rutherford, NJ's MetLife Stadium. Inside the stadium itself, of course, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band are scheduled to jump-start Labor Day Weekend 2023 a bit earlier than usual. Spring-Nuts' 2023 Serenade will take place on Thursday August 31, the day after the first of Bruce and the E Streeters' three scheduled New Jersey concerts. The Serenade event will take place at Redd's Bar and Restaurant in Carlstadt, NJ, celebrating not only five years of annual Serenades and the return of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band to New Jersey, but also the eighth anniversary of the Spring-Nuts social-media group. As always, all proceeds from the Spring-Nuts Seaside Serenades go to support worthy charitable efforts. Our friend Howie Chaz, the founder of Spring-Nuts, informs us that so far ticket-sales for this year's event have raised $30,000 for WhyHunger. Click here for more information on the 5th annual Spring-Nuts Seaside Serenade, and to purchase your ticket(s) before it's too late.

August 24, 2023 Today Nils Lofgren has released the official music-video for “Ain’t The Truth Enough,” which features Ringo Starr on drums, Kevin McCormick on bass, and "E Street Choir" vocalist Cindy Mizelle. You can watch it directly above. The track is the opener on Nils' newest album Mountains, which also features guests Neil Young, the Howard (University) Gospel Choir, Ron Carter, and the late, great David Crosby. Written in the wake of the January 6th insurrection, the track reckons with the ways that misinformation and demagoguery can tear families apart and silo us in our own realities. “It’s about a fierce mother dealing with her husband who's just home from the Jan. 6 insurrection,” states Lofgren. “No bull, just the brutal truth.” Click here to read "Rocky Ground: Lisa Iannucci on Nils Lofgren's latest solo effort, Mountains."

August 24, 2023 Best wishes to everyone for a great show tonight. (IG screenshot by Scott Cieri @ SPRING-NUTS)

August 26, 2023 To help raise funds for the important, ongoing work of TeachRock, Stevie Van Zandt is offering up for raffle a wicked-cool chance for one lucky winner to nab a pair of GA/pit tickets for all three of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's shows at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium on August 30, September 1, and September 3. Each raffle ticket costs only $25, with the per-ticket-price discounted if you purchase in blocks of five, ten, or twenty. All tickets for this special raffle can be purchased by clicking here. The winner's pot also has been sweetened with three official Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band 2023 Tour hoodies and a pair of E Street Lounge passes for each show. Other important information: The prize-package does not include meet-and-greets or photo-lines with any members of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band. The GA-tickets prizes do not offer any early access into the venue; you will enter when doors open to the general public. All chances to purchase raffle tickets will end on Monday, August 28, 2023 at 5:59pm ET, and the charity prize-package recipient will be randomly selected after that time. The winner will be notified sometime on Monday evening, August 28, 2023 via an email message with ticket- and will-call information. (Tickets will not be mailed.) The prize-package does not include coverage of any costs related to travel or parking. Tickets are non-transferable and can’t be exchanged for other shows. All raffle-ticket purchases are tax-deductible donations in support of Stevie Van Zandt’s education foundation, The Rock and Soul Forever Foundation / TeachRock.org. Click here for all details and to purchase your raffle tickets, and good luck to everyone, baby!

August 30, 2023 How DOES he do it?! Tomorrow night, just one day after providing The Big Beat for almost three consecutive hours on the drum riser for Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band at tonight's MetLife Stadium concert, and just one night before the band's next New Jersey performance this Friday, Mighty Max Weinberg will high-tail it to Huntington, Long Island, NY for a gig with his other band, Max Weinberg's Jukebox, at The Paramount. Click here for more information and to purchase tickets. The Jukebox shows are fully interactive, all-request gigs. Max and his great four-piece band let the audience write each show's setlist, giving them complete control by voting for their favorites from a video-menu of more than 200 songs, "everything from the Beatles to the Stones to Bruce and The E Street Band’s biggest hits," promises Max's website, "and hear the group play ‘em the way they want to hear them played!" It's great fun, and it shines a unique spotlight on The Mighty One's consistently superb drumming, as well as his band-leading and ingratiating "host-for-the-evening" talents. There's also another Max Weinberg's Jukebox gig scheduled for September 5 at Cleveland's Cain Park, for which tickets can be purchased by clicking here. More Max Weinberg's Jukebox concerts are scheduled and being added for the upcoming autumn months, as well. Visit MaxWeinberg.com for the most up-to-date information on Max Weinberg's Jukebox and all of Max's other solo projects.

September 7, 2023 After being forced by illness to postpone two scheduled Philly shows in mid-August, but then delivering a set of strong and extremely well-received concerts with the E Street Band for his Boston- and Jersey-area fans, it seemed that Bruce Springsteen was fully recovered and back to rockin' on all cylinders. Unfortunately, his doctors - who've been treating him for symptoms of peptic ulcer disease - have decided otherwise, and have recommended that he postpone the remainder of his scheduled September gigs with the E Street Band. Disappointing news, for sure, but of course we're also very glad to know that Bruce is listening to the docs and doing what is best for his health at this time. Here's hoping that he'll be fully recovered as quickly as possible, and that he and the E Street Band will be back onstage together delivering more great performances beginning in early November, when their tour is scheduled to resume, starting with a series of shows in Canada.