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April 13, 2024 Best wishes for a happy 73rd birthday, and many, many more happy birthdays ahead, to one of the coolest drummers on the planet... Mighty Max Weinberg, of course. Just how cool is Max? Even "The Fonz," The King of Cool himself, dug The Mighty One after recently watching him in action in L.A.... Aaaaaaaay! Now THAT's cool! Happy Birthday, Max, and many more. Thanks for continuing to bring the power, AND the finesse, AND the expertise, AND the emotion, AND the dedication... night after night after night after night.

April 10, 2024 Fifty years ago tonight, Jon Landau first met Bruce Springsteen, on the same evening that Landau also saw Springsteen in concert for the first time, at the long-gone Charlie’s Place in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Just under a month later, Landau would see his second Springsteen concert on the night of May 9, 1974, when Bruce and his band opened for Bonnie Raitt at Cambridge's Harvard Square Theatre, also long gone. After the May 9 show, Landau went home and wrote “Growing Young With Rock and Roll,” his essay-as-concert-review for the long-defunct Boston-area alternative weekly newspaper The Real Paper that contained the now-famous sentence, “I saw rock and roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen.” Landau and Springsteen quickly connected, becoming fast friends, and eventually Landau also would become a longtime key production collaborator from the Born To Run album onward, as well as Springsteen’s manager, a position he retains to this day. Their friendship-combined-with-music-business-partnership is among the most unique and longest-lasting ones in popular music, and that’s counting not just artist-manager partnerships, but all music-based partnerships in general, such as the similarly long-standing one between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. It's also a partnership that has expanded and done much to fulfill the promise and potential of "rock and roll future" from five decades ago, not just resetting the bar for multiple generations of what could be achieved by a musician in the studios and on the stages, but also by redefining what successful management of a musical career looks like. Through the past five decades, the partnership between Springsteen and the Jon Landau Management team has produced one of the longest runs ever of great artistic achievements combined with immense commercial successes. And obviously "Team Springsteen" isn't quite finished just yet, either. Here's to all of the high points of the past, the present, and those that still lie ahead for this artist, his various collaborators, and his international, multi-generational audience, in our collective rock and roll futures.

April 4, 2024 Throughout what Larry David states will be the series' final season,The Hollywood Reporter's Jackie Strause has been checking in weekly with Jeff Schaffer, Curb Your Enthusiasm's executive producer and director/co-writer for all of this season's episodes. In this week's check-in, Schaffer gives Strause a behind-the-scenes account of getting to work with Bruce Springsteen as a guest-star in two of this season's ten episodes (so far, that is. Read on...) Schaffer describes the filming of one of Springsteen's lines, uttered during his appearance on Curb...'s latest episode, as "one of my favorite moments ever," not just in the show, but "like, in life...That was Bruce chiming in, which was amazing. We were like, ‘What! He’s so funny.'” Schaffer was even more surprised that Springsteen agreed to be on the show at all, since reaching out to Jon Landau Management about that possibility seemed to Schaffer to be such a long shot. It turned out, however, that Bruce is a Curb Your Enthusiasm fan and was happy to play a Curb-style version of himself on the show. Schaffer co-wrote the final season's story arc with Larry David back in 2022, and all of Springsteen's scenes were filmed in one day of December 2022, on the series' final shooting date for that year. Schaffer found Springsteen's comic improvisational skills especially impressive. “He’d seen the show, but a lot of people haven’t worked the way we do, where it’s not all scripted. Lots of things get said. And we kept telling him, ‘We’ll use the best stuff,’ so he could try everything. And he played around. He knew the basic beats, but he was in there adding and slugging around. We showed him the scenes because we were so happy with how they turned out.” Schaffer shares with Strause many more interesting behind-the-scenes details about filming Springsteen's scenes, and also hints that there just might be some more Springsteen to be seen in this Sunday's extra-long series finale. Click here to read Jackie Strause's Hollywood Reporter article in full. But please do yourself a favor and don't read it until you've first seen the most recent episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm (Season 12, Episode 9: ""Ken/Kendra.") Click here for more information on viewing options for Curb Your Enthusiasm. Trust us; you'll be very glad that you did, and avoided any/all spoilers. Enjoy!

April 2, 2024 Bruce Springsteen's second (and, given that it's the penultimate episode of what Larry David promises will be the series' final season, maybe final) appearance on the latest episode of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm is hilarious, and well worth the thirty-five minutes or so you'll spend watching it. The latest episode, which dropped on Easter Sunday and is entitled "Ken/Kendra," is the ninth episode of the series' twelfth season, and it links up to Springsteen's first appearance on the show in this season's second episode, "The Lawn Jockey" (about which we previously reported here.) In both episodes, Springsteen plays a version of himself, as do Larry David and most of the show's celebrity guest-stars, in a comically altered "reality" setting. In "The Lawn Jockey," Springsteen was seen just briefly as some of the show's characters watched him on television, praising a recent action by Larry David that was perceived widely as heroic. In "Ken/Kendra," however, Springsteen now wants to meet David in person, because he remains so impressed by David's supposed bravery and heroism. "Ken/Kendra" is very much centered around this meeting, with Springsteen's screen-time in the episode much longer than his screen-time in "The Lawn Jockey." And that's all we're telling you, and all you really need to know, even if you don't watch Curb Your Enthusiasm regularly, in order to enjoy Springsteen's dryly comic performance here. If you dug some of the similarly dry comic turns he's taken onstage in his concert performances of the past, especially in something like Springsteen On Broadway, then this is very much up your alley. Click here for more information on viewing options for Curb Your Enthusiasm.

artwork by Stephen Winchell April 1, 2024 Greetings from San Francisco, CA. It's Easter Monday, and jaws are still dropped 'round these parts, since last night actual jawbreakers, chocolate-peanut-butter eggs, Peeps, and jellybeans were thrown from the stage to audience-members at Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's second show of a two-gig stand in the city's Chase Center. But by far the biggest Easter Sunday treat for fans was the MUCH "wider song selection" that Springsteen's been hinting at recently, in a major holiday-themed setlist shakeup. TEN, count 'em TEN tour debuts, with six of them being songs that Bruce Springsteen had never performed previously onstage anywhere, with or without the E Street Band, in a tour-record-setting thirty-two-songs-total set. The Easter Sunday fun - and the first-time-ever performances - started right out of the Golden Gate, with Bruce and the Band arriving onstage in bunny-ears to deliver a rocking, rollicking performance of the Gene Autry classic "Here Comes Peter Cottontail," adapted using the arrangement from Bay-area children's-music band The Hipwaders, who also got to meet Springsteen and his band during yesterday's soundcheck. Immediately afterwards, Springsteen threw off the rabbit-ears and quickly counted off "One! Two! Three! Four!" to have Max Weinberg launch into the deep, heart-pounding Bo-Diddley-like beats that introduced the first-ever Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band performance of The Strangeloves' classic "I Want Candy." Quite an Easter-themed opening double-shot of super-sweet covers, for sure. What came next, of course, also was led by a Max Weinberg intro, though this time on cymbals: "Candy's Room," last played on this tour in Foxborough, Massachusetts' Gillette Stadium on August 26, 2023. Then came an ever-so-brief moment for the crowd, on its feet and loudly cheering but also still rather eggshell-shocked, to catch its collective breath. "Good evening, San Francisco!," Bruce exulted, "And Happy Easter to all who celebrate! It is indeed Easter Sunday 2024, and the mighty E Street Band and I have some extra-special things planned for tonight. Now it's no secret that I've always had a bit of a love-hate thing goin' on with my Catholic upbringing, so tonight's show still will reflect some of that, but most of all we're here to celebrate with everyone the arrival of spring, renewal, the ultimate value of love and life over death, and of course... CANDY! Are you ready, band?" The candy theme then continued with the premiere live performance of "Candy's Boy," the cowbell-heavy alternate version of "Candy's Room" that wasn't released officially until 2010's box-set The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story. After that came what some fans online already have started referring to as "the Jesus six-pack," starting off with two back-to-back world-premiere Easter-themed covers of material by artists who already have strong historical connections to key Springsteen songs and performances of the past: a cover of Tom Waits' "Chocolate Jesus" (providing the perfect segue from the topic of candy to the topic of Christ) followed by a cover of Patti Smith Group's "Easter." Then came a great expanded E Street Band version of the Civil-War-era spiritual "O Mary Don't You Weep," sticking closely to the hybrid-gospel arrangement of Springsteen's Seeger Sessions recording. The last time Bruce performed this song onstage with E Street Band was almost a decade ago, at the 2014 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Between Soozie Tyrell's klezmer-tinged fiddling parts, and the references to not just Jesus, but also Moses, Pharaoh, and Noah, you could feel that Springsteen was purposefully opening up this special night not just to those celebrating Easter, but also to everyone who'll be observing Passover later this month. The second half of "the Jesus six-pack" consisted of three of Springsteen's own songs that reference the Prince of Peace, starting with Letter To You's deep-cut "If I Was The Priest," which apparently some in the crowd thought was an especially big deal. (Meh; to each... The song was last performed on this tour in Tulsa, OK on February 21, 2023.) Then came "Jesus Was An Only Son," another tour premiere and a song never before performed with the E Street Band, and finally "It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City," with Bruce and Stevie Van Zandt again providing those Jesus-vs.-the-Devil-guitar-duel-through-the-steam-of-the-street fireworks, last performed almost a year ago in Brooklyn, NY on April 3, 2023. Things then reverted somewhat to "business as usual" as the setlist dialed back a bit to some of what have become the more standard songs and structures of this tour. "No Surrender" was followed by "Ghosts," Prove It All Night," and "Letter To You," but Springsteen still wasn't quite done with shaking up the setlist for this special evening. The next song up was "Worlds Apart," last performed more than two decades ago on August 28, 2003 at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, which has since met the wrecking ball, of course. "Worlds Apart" expanded the spiritual scope of this special show even further to include a non-Judeo-Christian perspective, and addressed powerfully that "ultimate value of love and life over death" of which he spoke earlier in the evening. "Let love give what it gives" indeed. "Worlds Apart" was followed appropriately by "The Promised Land," which was followed by "Nightshift." Then it was really candy time. "Sugar, Sugar," the bubblegum-pop classic that first was a hit for pseudo-group The Archies, is a song that Springsteen himself actually has performed onstage a few times over the years, though for extremely small audiences, at some of those Stone Pony benefit shows for his children's schools back in the early 2000s. But last night's performance, not surprisingly based on legendary soul singer Wilson Pickett's recording of the song, was Bruce's first-ever performance of the song with the E Street Band, enhanced greatly by the E Street Choir and E Street Horns. It was sweet soul music all the way...literally, as everyone onstage was provided with a basket full of chocolate rabbits, candy eggs, jellybeans, marshmallow Peeps, and the like. All of the singers onstage, and any other musician with a free hand at the moment, proceeded to toss various items from their baskets into the crowd while Bruce and Curtis King, Jr. topped off the performance by trading off back-and-forth "Pour a little sugar on me!" lines, Sam-and-Dave style. "Last Man Standing," "Backstreets," etc. followed, with Springsteen again sticking to the basic plan he recently stated on E Street Radio, about the second half of his show's setlist being "built so solid that a lot of it will stay." It turned out to be a very smooth blend, since the special Easter-themed song-choices for last night fit nicely within the show's regular overarching themes of finding healing, resilience, and renewal in the face of aging and mortality. Nevertheless, Bruce had one more setlist surprise up his sleeve during last night's upbeat encores sequence. It wasn't another overtly Easter-themed one, either, but something just as special - if not more so - for the city by the bay. "Hey, Steve!," Bruce shouted as "Dancing In The Dark" ended and the band held those closing notes, "We can't leave here tonight without tippin' our bunny ears to one of San Francisco's greatest bands of all time, right? One! Two! Three! Four!" And for the first time ever onstage, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band delivered their own version of Sly and the Family Stone's immortal "Dance To The Music." Quite simply, fellow Springsteen fans, you haven't lived until you've heard Garry Tallent bellow out in the deepest voice he can muster, "I'm gonna add some bottom, so that the dancers just won't hide," Charlie Giordano exclaim, "You might like to hear my organ; I said a-ride, Sally, ride!" and Ada Dyer soulfully command, "All of the squares go home!" And thanks to LiveBruceSpringsteen.net and Nugs.net, it won't be very long until you'll be able to do just that. We also soon will be honored to supplement this special Letters To You concert report with a great set of photos taken by Danny Clinch, Pam Springsteen, and Frank Stefanko, each of whom was in the house and shot last night's show exclusively for us. We're just waiting for all of their developed film to get back from Fotomat. Stand by... mashup of Frank Stefanko's and Kai Z. Feng's photography first posted at Patti Scialfa's Instagram page on Easter Sunday 2016 Setlist from San Francisco, CA 3-31-2024 (Easter Sunday 2024) (tour debuts highlighted in bold font) 1. Here Comes Peter Cottontail (Gene Autry cover, using Bay-area children's-music band The Hipwaders' arrangement) (never played before) 2. I Want Candy (The Strangeloves cover) (never played before) 3. Candy's Room 4. Candy's Boy (never played before) 5. Chocolate Jesus (Tom Waits cover) (never played before) 6. Easter (Patti Smith Group cover) (never played before) 7. O Mary Don't You Weep 8. If I Was The Priest 9. Jesus Was An Only Son (never played with the E Street Band before) 10. It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City 11. No Surrender 12. Ghosts 13. Prove It All Night 14. Letter to You 14. Worlds Apart 15. The Promised Land 16. Nightshift 17. Sugar, Sugar (candy-distribution moment; The Archies cover, based on Wilson Pickett's version) (never played with the E Street Band before) 18. Last Man Standing 19. Backstreets 20. Because The Night 21. She's The One 22. Wrecking Ball 23. The Rising 24. Badlands 25. Thunder Road 26. Born To Run 27. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) 28. Glory Days 29. Dancing in the Dark 30. Dance To The Music (Sly and the Family Stone cover) (never played before) 31. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out 32. I'll See You In My Dreams

March 28, 2024 Last night's Zach Bryan concert at Brooklyn's Barclays Center featured a surprise guest who probably was on very few folks' bingo cards: Bruce Springsteen, who's due onstage for his own concert with the E Street Band in San Francisco tonight, in less than 24 hours after he was still onstage in Brooklyn! Springsteen joined Bryan - who was wearing a vintage black Reunion Tour t-shirt - in performing Bryan's unreleased song "Sandpaper," and later returned for the show-closing performance of "Revival" with Bryan, his band, and other special guest Maggie Rogers. The "Zach Bryan Archive" fan-operated Facebook page has posted brief video clips from both performances. Click here and here to view them. The Archives' Instagram page also has another brief clip that can be viewed here. The backstage and setlist photos in this report are from the Archives' Facebook page, as well. Safe travels out West, Boss, and be sure to catch up on your sleep, ya crazy old codger!

March 27, 2024 It was announced officially yesterday that Bruce Springsteen is the latest songwriter to be named an Ivors Academy Fellow, the highest honor bestowed by the organization. The Ivors Academy is the UK’s professional association for songwriters and composers. Springsteen becomes the first-ever non-UK-native songwriter that the Academy has inducted into Fellowship since its founding eighty years ago. (U.S.-born contemporary-classical-music composer John Adams and the late French contemporary-classical-music composer/conductor Pierre Boulez also are non-UK-native Fellows.) He joins a prestigious group that includes Joan Armatrading CBE, John Barry OBE, Kate Bush CBE, Peter Gabriel, Sir Barry Gibb CBE, Maurice Gibb CBE, Robin Gibb CBE, Sir Elton John, Annie Lennox OBE, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Tim Rice, and Sting. The induction will be awarded officially to Springsteen at this year's annual Ivors with Amazon Music awards ceremony, which will take place at Grosvenor House in London on Thursday, May 23. The Ivors Academy and the Ivor Novello Awards are named after Welsh actor, dramatist, singer, and composer Ivor Novello, who became one of the most popular British entertainers in the first half of the 20th century. Among his many accomplishments, Novello wrote the World-War-I-period ballad "Keep the Home Fires Burning" and starred in Alfred Hitchcock's groundbreaking silent film The Lodger. As per yesterday's official announcement, Tom Gray, Chair of The Ivors Academy, said, “There is no one more fitting than Bruce Springsteen to be the first international songwriter inducted into our Fellowship. Songwriters are powerful storytellers, who capture our lives, loves and hardships. Bruce has always told the greatest stories. The Fellowship marks the esteem in which he is held by all those who share his craft.” Springsteen himself added, “I’m proud to be the first international songwriter to be recognized by The Ivors Academy. In addition to recognizing my songwriting, the award stands as a tribute to the fans and friends who have supported me and my work for the last fifty years. This entire country has made me feel welcome every step of the way, and for this, I will always remain deeply appreciative.” Click here to read more. Congratulations, Bruce!

March 27, 2024 As reported yesterday by Deadline and then confirmed by Variety, plans are afoot to adapt Warren Zanes' book Deliver Me From Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska into a dramatic-narrative film. Actor-turned-writer-director Scott Cooper will helm the project, with actor Jeremy Allen White identified as the top choice to play Bruce Springsteen (though White hasn't yet signed on officially.) The film will be the first music-oriented "biopic" centered around any aspect of Springsteen's life and career. According to Deadline's report, "Springsteen and his manager Jon Landau are actively involved in the project, and more details will be forthcoming." Hmm. On "paper," so to speak, this project seems to have very strong trainwreck potential. And Letters To You has posted some misgivings with Zanes' book itself. (See our editor's note here.) On the other hand, Scott Cooper is the kind of talented writer-director who just might be able to pull off what seems like such an offbeat idea. And despite what we see as the EXTREMELY-less-than-stellar track-record of musician-biopics in general, we still have all fingers and toes crossed that in the end, Deliver Me From Nowhere will turn out to be a great film. Let's watch what happens next...

March 23, 2024 There's a new official music-video for Mark Knopfler's Guitar Heroes' version of "Going Home (Theme From Local Hero)," the all-star charity recording to benefit Teen Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer America, on which we reported previously here and here. This new music-video identifies each of the supergroup's members' individual solos and parts, including Bruce Springsteen's contribution, which begins at the 4:08 mark and lasts about forty seconds. Check it out below: We definitely can hear some surf-guitar sound and style in Bruce's part, as well as the influence of Glen Campbell's work on some of his classic hits like "Galveston" and "Wichita Lineman." It's also so cool to hear Bruce trading off his licks (via mixing-board magic) with Ry Cooder, Sam Fender, Buddy Guy, Nile Rodgers, Zak Starkey, Pete Townshend, Joe Walsh, and Ronnie Wood. (Hey, Boss, speakin' of Buddy Guy, now that you're healthy and back on tour with "a much wider song-selection going on," maybe you could reconsider that Buddy Guy cover suggestion of ours from last September, especially since you're still "young" enough to pull it off. Just a thought...) Click here to purchase your copy of "Going Home (Theme from Local Hero)" recorded by Bruce Springsteen and all other members of Mark Knopfler's Guitar Heroes, in support of Teenage Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer America.

March 22, 2024 How appropriate it was, this past Tuesday night, to witness the onstage return of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band in a city named after the bird who rises from the ashes of the past. Of course, we already know that together onstage Bruce and the band become those heart-stoppin', pants-droppin', earth-shockin', hard-rockin', booty-shakin', earthquakin', love-makin', Viagra-takin', history-makin' legends we love, but even such legends have their limitations. And their resumed 2023-2024 tour certainly has tested those limitations like no previous tour of theirs has ever done. This tour, which remains centered around Letter To You, Springsteen's latest album with the E Street Band released back in the autumn of 2020, didn't even begin until early February of 2023, almost three years later than originally planned, due to the unforeseen COVID-19 pandemic. (The recording of Letter To You was completed quickly in November 2019, with an eye toward an album release and international tour that - if not for COVID-19 - probably would have launched no later than mid-year in 2020.) Then, just over a month after the long-delayed tour finally got rolling, a later phase of that same pandemic still dogged it, as various band members' illnesses forced several March 2023 dates to be rescheduled. By August of 2023, Bruce himself was privately struggling with peptic ulcer disease, which caused the one-year postponement of two August shows in Philadelphia, followed by the postponement of almost all scheduled September 2023 shows, and eventually the postponement of all of 2023's remaining scheduled concerts. So a tour that started off having been delayed for almost three years later then got delayed again for an extra half-year. More important, of course, was the concern over the health issues that caused those delays and postponements, especially with the ages of the band's leader and most of its key members. Fortunately, by this past Tuesday night, as proven onstage and later confirmed by Springsteen in yesterday's brief E Street Radio interview-by-phone, "I felt great and the whole band felt great... Knock on wood...everybody's been very healthy since then." Amen and hallelujah; they're back! It also was rather surprising to hear Springsteen reply in yesterday's E Street Radio interview, when asked by interviewer Jim Rotolo if he considered this a continuation of the 2023 tour or "a new tour," that he thinks "we're approaching it like it's a new tour." He quickly clarified, however, by adding, "There will be some things from last year that we'll hold over... some of my basic themes of mortality and life, and those things... I'm gonna keep set, but I think I'm gonna move around the other parts of the set a lot more, so there will be a much wider song-selection going on." One set-piece that he confirmed will remain intact, and indeed was a highlight of the show once again on Tuesday night, is the emotional one-two punch of the solo-acoustic-with-trumpet "Last Man Standing" (preceded by his introductory parable centered around the loss of former bandmate George Theiss) followed directly by the devastating full-band "I'm gonna carry it right here" performance of "Backstreets." Confirming yet again that nobody thinks more purposefully, instinctively, and deeply about his setlist and show than himself, Springsteen added, "Some of that second half of the set is built so solid that a lot of it will stay... The opening, I'm not sure what's gonna happen up top, but it'll shift around and I'm waiting to see myself just where the show's gonna take me." As a masterful live performer with such a large catalog of great material from which to choose, it's not surprising that Springsteen seems to be making the wisest moves he can make about his current concerts and their setlists. For the reasons stated above, Letter To You remains the newest album by Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, and it's a very good one at that, with a clear, powerful main theme of embracing life while facing old age and death. It's obviously the foundation for the main artistic statement that Bruce wants to make with his current shows. So, based on what was played on Tuesday night, apparently he'll continue to include at least four key songs from that album (the title track, "Ghosts," "Last Man Standing," and "I'll See You In My Dreams") along with his version of "Nightshift," the one track from Springsteen's most recent non-E-Street-Band album - the soul-covers collection Only The Strong Survive - Covers, Vol. 1 - that fits perfectly with the main themes of Letter To You. He also did begin to "shift around" a bit as promised, opening the evening with a heart-pounding performance of The Rising's "Lonesome Day," which continues a change he started implementing on only the last four concerts performed in 2023. It's yet another song that fits perfectly with the Letter To You material and themes. The River's "Two Hearts," which had its tour debut in the last 2023 show, returned with gusto on Tuesday, as did the fine full-band version of "Don't Play That Song," another Only The Strong Survive highlight based on the classic Aretha Franklin arrangement, after an absence from the setlist of more than a year. "Don't Play That Song" provides yet one more great spotlight moment for the expanded band of this tour, giving both the E Street Choir and the E Street Horns an extra, well-deserved chance to shine. Apparently on the printed setlist it was a down-to-the-wire toss-up between whether "The E Street Shuffle" or "Don't Play That Song" would be played in that slot on Tuesday night, and "Don't Play That Song" won out in the end. Two songs not setlisted at all got played on Tuesday night, as well: the fun, down-and-dirty singalong tale of woe that is "Darlington County," previously performed only occasionally on this tour, mostly in Europe during the summer of 2023, and the never-fails rave-up cover of "Twist and Shout," making its first U.S.-date appearance on this tour (having been played at only three European shows last summer.) "Twist and Shout" was even a bona-fide sign request, coming from an eighteen-year-old fan attending his first concert. Baby steps, setlist-watchers and sign-makers; baby steps... But seriously, folks, in some circles there truly has been waaay too much hyper-focusing on what's going on with the setlists. Perhaps it's important for at least some of us to remember that reading any given show's setlist never conveys the complete experience of witnessing the actual concert. That's like believing that reading a song's printed lyrics is the same experience as hearing the song performed by talented musicians, or that reading the script of a play is the same experience as seeing the play performed by a masterful group of actors. (It's also one of the reasons why it's so ridiculous that most U.S. students still have to spend so much more time reading many more of Shakespeare's plays than they get to see the plays actually performed professionally, as they were meant to be experienced.) But while we're on the subject of scripts, this is hands-down the most tightly-"scripted" E Street Band show that Springsteen has ever done. Clearly he's adapted the approach he developed with his solo Springsteen on Broadway show, as Stevie Van Zandt astutely observed early on. Consistently, there remains very little spontaneous "off-script" speaking to the crowd, as was the case (even more so, of course) with Springsteen on Broadway. Yet simultaneously, and this is one major way where this tour differs significantly from Springsteen on Broadway, overall there is very little speaking to the audience between songs. On this tour, the music itself does almost all of the talkin', and very well at that. Whenever Bruce does speak extensively from the stage on this tour, as happens during the introductory words about deceased former bandmate George Theiss before "Last Man Standing," it's actually more like another song performance in terms of how measured and prepared it is. But to me, that just means that Springsteen's now got a very firm grip on exactly what he wants to communicate to his audience on any given night, in terms of both his spoken and sung words. Despite his long-standing greatness as a live performer, that level of clarity and confidence hasn't always been the case for him, especially in younger years and earlier performances. I, for one, am totally fine with this shift, particularly since I have no problem experiencing a truly great work of art - be it a great song, album, book, film, play, etc. - repeatedly. It doesn't matter as much to me how prepared or repeated it is; all that really matters is if it somehow reaches me emotionally and/or intellectually as an actively attentive and participatory audience member in whatever's happening on that stage, in that moment, on that night. But if you're a huge fan of Bruce Springsteen appearing to be more spontaneous or off-the-cuff onstage, your mileage may vary here, of course. One result of a show that's more tightly structured is that those rare, off-the-cuff, can't-be-gleaned-from-a-setlist moments can become even more special and treasured. Such was the case on Tuesday night when Jake Clemons' sax solo during "Mary's Place" brought a huge smile to Springsteen's face. Bruce seemed especially pleased with Jake's handling of that solo, indeed turning to also-beaming Stevie Van Zandt and yelling audibly, "Sounds good!" They looked like two proud, excited parents watching one of their kids nail their first violin recital. Truth be told, while reading the setlist doesn't convey the total concert experience, neither does any report or review of the show, including this one. But I hope that at least I have managed to convey to my readers here just how great it is to see a fully recovered Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band back onstage again, delivering once more such a unique, powerful, fun, inspiring, healing, and renewing experience. In closing, I can't help but think of what music-writer and Springsteen-biographer Dave Marsh once wrote about the day that Elvis Presley died: "That night, on national television, speaking in a blur and fighting back tears, I said that the worst part for me was that Elvis was supposed to be around for much, much longer, as a sort of national treasure to be shared with my children and grandchildren." How fortunate we all are, even (or rather especially) in these often very dark and scary days, that a certain Elvis-fan-turned-rock-star from the great state of New Jersey, with help from some beloved companions along the way, has followed a very different path to a much better fate, and become an international treasure shared with multiple generations of fans. Viva Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band! -All March 19, 2024 Phoenix, AZ concert photos by Shawn Poole A brief note about our 2024 tour coverage moving forward... Just how extensively "there will be a much wider song-selection going on" will affect greatly how many individual Letters To You concert reports/reviews we will post. Unless one night Bruce and the band decide to play one or more extremely rare or new setlist addition(s) or radically alter the setlist in some other way(s,) if the current show overall remains relatively similar to Springsteen on Broadway in its stability, you probably won't see from us as many extensive accounts of or reactions to each individual show. (This was the approach taken at my old stomping grounds - the late, great Backstreets.com - during both runs of Springsteen on Broadway, in which there wasn't a report/review posted for every single show. Of course, Springsteen on Broadway was much more scripted and structured than the current tour is, so we'll see...) That noted, we are always up for considering anyone's writing about any Springsteen concert-event they attend, especially if you somehow have a unique perspective and/or experience to share. Therefore, if you'd like to share any such writing or ideas for our consideration, please feel free to email us at editor@letterstoyou.net. The same goes for any concert photos you'd like to share with us for consideration. Thanks, everyone, and best wishes to all for many more great shows ahead!

March 21, 2024 Not surprisingly, after Tuesday night's Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band concert in Phoenix, Stevie Van Zandt didn't just high-tail it back to his hotel-room and slip into his (presumably) paisley (or perhaps leopard-skin-print) pajamas. Instead he headed over to the special "Stevie's After-Party" edition of the ongoing Wicked Cool Records Revue touring showcase, held at downtown Phoenix's Crescent Ballroom. Jake Clemons stopped by, as well. Unlike many "A-lister" after-parties, mere mortals were granted admission, as well...and for only about twenty-five bucks per person, at that! Those in attendance got to see and hear four great mini-sets performed by some of the best acts signed to Van Zandt's own record label: (in order of appearance at Tuesday's Phoenix gig:) Soraia, The Cocktail Slippers, The Chesterfield Kings, and Slim Jim Phantom & The Wildcats. The Wicked Cool label is yet another part of Stevie's tireless efforts to support both veteran rockers and up-and-coming artists, helping to keep great rock-and-roll alive for current listeners and future generations. “The Wicked Cool Records Revue will give people a taste of the twenty fabulous acts on our record label,” he says. “People know Slim Jim Phantom from the Stray Cats, but they may not have had an opportunity to see Slim Jim Phantom & The Wildcats. We’ve also got Soraia, one of our most popular bands from Philadelphia, and the fabulous Cocktail Slippers are coming all the way from Norway. I’m particularly excited about the return of the legendary Chesterfield Kings, the garage band that set the standards for all others back in the eighties. It’s their first show in fifteen years and we couldn’t be more thrilled.” Before Tuesday night's gig in Phoenix, the bands also got to catch their record-label head in action onstage with Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band at the Footprint Center. The Cocktail Slippers posted on their Facebook page this photo of them hanging out backstage with Stevie and being "not worthy!" with Alice Cooper, who attended the Footprint Center show: There are only two more chances to catch the current Wicked Cool Records Revue: tonight's 21-and-over event in Las Vegas and Friday night's all-ages event in San Francisco. Click here for more information, including ticket-purchasing links, although it was just announced that there will be NO cover charge for tonight's Vegas event! Unlike Tuesday night's Phoenix gig, neither Stevie Van Zandt nor any other E Streeters have been confirmed to attend tonight's Las Vegas event, but ya never know. More important, if YOU attend, you're guaranteed to hear some wicked cool Wicked Cool music, baby! All photos from Phoenix's The Crescent Ballroom; March 19, 2024 by Shawn Poole

March 21, 2024 EDITOR'S NOTE: Thirty years ago tonight, Bruce Springsteen won his first (and, to date, only) Academy Award. The Oscar went to Springsteen for "Streets of Philadelphia," the song that he wrote for Jonathan Demme's film Philadelphia. To mark this anniversary, we have invited contributing writer and Springsteen as Soundtrack expert Caroline Madden to write about "Streets of Philadelphia," its role in Demme's film, its importance in Springsteen's career, and its thematic connections to the rest of his music and messages. We are honored to present Caroline's essay below: On March 21, 1994, Bruce Springsteen accepted the Academy Award for Best Original Song for his contribution to Jonathan Demme’s Philadelphia, “Streets of Philadelphia.” The powerful song is Springsteen at his very best, using a combination of sparse instrumentation and subjective lyrics to clearly convey the inner thoughts and struggles of someone living with AIDS. At the time, the epidemic had been largely swept under the rug by the Reagan administration, save for dismissive jokes about the “gay plague” during press conferences. In Springsteen’s song, ethereal synthesizers evoke the narrator's close brush with death and the drum loop his wandering of the lonely streets. You can feel the weight of his illness getting heavier with each plodding step of the steady, hip-hop beat. By writing the lyrics in the first-person, the listener is able to closely identify with how the narrator’s illness causes him to slowly waste away into someone he no longer recognizes—like so many of the friends he has already lost. There's a somber resignation in Springsteen’s plain vocals, giving the sense that he has already accepted his grim fate—even as he still asks his community if he will be left unacknowledged and uncared for. Jonathan Demme's film, which centers on a man with AIDS who sues his law firm for wrongful dismissal, was intentionally made for “the malls.”  The director sought to cast a wide net of viewers, especially conservative ones, in the hopes that they might begin to empathize with those with this disease—especially the LGBTQ+ community. While independent films such as Parting Glances and Longtime Companion addressed the AIDS crisis, they mainly appealed to art-house connoisseurs (who were likely also LGBTQ+ themselves). Demme appealed to broader audience members by using Bruce Springsteen on the soundtrack and Tom Hanks, the quintessential American everyman, as his star. Donning acid-washed jeans and muscle tees, belting anthems extolling the virtues of souped-up cars and dirt-under-the-fingernails labor, Springsteen’s rock-star persona exuded ruggedness and machismo—particularly during the height of his 1980s popularity. The participation of these beloved stars, known for their very heteronormative palatability, ensured that there was no “danger” in more traditionalist audience members embracing Demme’s queer-focused film. But Springsteen would buck this conservative interpretation of his star image, making it clear that he did not endorse some of the more intolerant ideologies of his right-leaning fans. While "Streets of Philadelphia” was a very public declaration of Springsteen's support for the queer community, he further cemented his allyship in a 1996 interview with The Advocate, a legendary LGBTQ+ publication. This was a very significant interview for a major rock star. Springsteen declared that everyone, regardless of their sexuality, is entitled to the beautiful rewards of marriage and children. He reflected on how his relationship with his father, who resented his son’s artistic and sensitive nature, taught him the importance of acceptance and allowing children to pursue their own paths in life. Springsteen also affirmed that he would fully embrace his children's LGBTQ+ identity if they were to come out. Springsteen would make similar observations on how his upbringing shaped his acceptance of diverse identities in his autobiography Born to Run. As a young rock-and-roll outsider, he defied the clean-cut norms of his insular Freehold community. His working-class enclave scorned the long-haired hippies of the growing counterculture, as well as their African-American neighbors. It would be unthinkable for anyone to be openly queer in such an environment. But Springsteen was forged on the streets of Asbury Park, which has long been an LGBTQ+ mecca, and often skipped school as a teenager to prowl New York City’s Greenwich Village. Both of these locales boast a vibrant, bohemian culture that undoubtedly exposed Springsteen to a melting pot of artistic expression, sexual and gender fluidity, and unconventional lifestyles starkly contrasting with his hometown. We can see these influences throughout his music, especially in his early work. Looking beneath the dirty hood of Springsteen's alpha-male persona that swept the mid-1980s by storm, we find someone who has consistently included LGBTQ+ characters and ideals within his music—either directly or indirectly. Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. includes several references to complex interplay of gender and sexuality. The soft ballad "Mary Queen of Arkansas'' revolves around a transgender woman, someone who is "not man enough for me to hate or woman enough for kissing." The narrator enamors her "soft hulk," a line that suggests a paradox between her sex and gender expression. The mealy-mouthed phrase "wolfman fairies dressed in drag for homicide" from "Lost in the Flood" infers the radical changes in society, as well as traditional masculinity, that the Vietnam veteran encounters upon his homecoming. The world is now just as unstable and unfamiliar as the jungle he fought in. The song "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" from The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle features lily-white boys wearing "high heels." While these were possibly the popular Beatle boots of the era, the boardwalk flâneurs could have easily been wearing more feminine footwear. On “Incident on 57th Street,” there are “golden-heeled fairies” and “romantic young boys” freely kissing one another goodbye. In live performances of "Wild Billy's Circus Story," Springsteen sings "the leather boy tightens his legs on the sword swallower's blade.” This line offers a clearer depiction of gender as opposed to the vague term “hired hand,” enhancing the line’s suggestive undertones. While some of these songs have outdated vernacular or are considered “problematic” by contemporary standards, they still illustrate the diverse canvas that Springsteen was toying with. He created a musical landscape filled with nonconforming individuals. Another issue is that Springsteen tends to frame the LGBTQ+ figures as peculiar oddities, especially when linking them to a circus environment. This implies that their identities are something to be gawked at rather than normalized. However, Springsteen was a young man when he wrote these songs, and his artistic evolution would lead to a more sophisticated portrayal of queer life. The gender of Terry in "Backstreets" from Born to Run is hotly debated. While there is ample evidence that Terry is female, such as the "Sad Eyes'' interlude during live shows, Springsteen also describes the close friends’ desire to emulate their movie heroes. This brings to mind the leather-jacketed male roadsters of the B-movies that inspired other tracks on the album. However, the narrator’s relationship with Terry is incredibly fraught and emotionally charged, one that requires them to run away and hide on the backstreets. They are left stranded in the park and find solace lying together in an abandoned beach house before they are forced to confess the true nature of their relationship. These lyrical motifs of clandestine intimacy and social marginalization deeply resonate with LGBTQ+ experiences. The title character of "Bobby Jean" from Born in the U.S.A. is also gender-neutral, calling into question the song’s relationship dynamic. The narrator refers to Bobby Jean as “baby,” which suggests femininity and a romantic attachment, but the line about liking the same music, bands, and clothes suggests that they are platonic friends of the same gender identity. The narrator harbors a deep affection for Bobby Jean, seeing them as a kindred spirit with the same view of the world. However, the lyrics teeter between platonic and romantic tones, obscuring the truth of their relationship Springsteen frequently explores these types of tight-knit bonds with amorous subtexts. Many of his same-sex characters are unafraid of physical closeness, such as the kiss between the “brothers'' of “This Hard Land.” Springsteen animated this type of brotherly love on stage with Clarence Clemons. The sight of two strapping men openly sharing a firm kiss—often at the triumphant end of "Thunder Road," as if Clemons were the equivalent of Mary finally climbing into Bruce’s car—conveyed an ethos of openness and acceptance. Of course, we know his relationship with Clemons is platonic and this is all theatrics, but through this gesture Springsteen asserts that there is no inherent taboo in the physical expression of same-sex affection, whether through love or friendship. Another notable visual moment occurs in the “Tougher Than the Rest" music video from Tunnel of Love, a tender declaration of commitment through adversity. Released in 1988, the video features an adorable montage of both heterosexual and queer couples posing as if they are in a boardwalk photo booth, attesting that everyone is welcome to ride the tunnel of love. Other songs have been adopted by the LGBTQ+ community. The line “closets are for hangers” from “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) has popped up on lots of queer Etsy merchandise. “Dancing in the Dark,” with lyrics about yearning to change “my clothes, my hair, my face” and spark a new beginning, embodies very queer themes of liberation, defiance, and self-discovery. People who are LGBTQ+ often seek to change their way of dress and appearance in ways that challenge societal expectations. After the success of "Streets of Philadelphia," Bruce has continued to show his support for the LGBTQ+ community, whether it be in live performances or acts of protest. During a concert in Portland, Oregon on March 28, 2008, he replaced "Germans" with "lesbians" in "American Land," tipping his hat to the audience members wearing Lesbians ♥ Bruce t-shirts. He canceled his April 10, 2016 concert in Greensboro, North Carolina in response to the controversial "bathroom bill," which mandated individuals use public restrooms corresponding to their birth sex. Springsteen’s decision amplified the visibility of the issue on a national scale, with many other artists and athletes following suit in canceling their events. In this day and age, it isn’t revolutionary to champion LGBTQ+ men and women, nor do we need to overly praise a straight white man for acknowledging their existence. However, we should commemorate Springsteen for embracing the queer community from the very beginning of his career. As someone who grew up as an “outcast weirdo misfit sissy boy,” Springsteen has so eloquently captured what it feels like to be an outsider and the difficulties of finding your place in an often hostile world. With these themes, it’s no surprise that so many LGBTQ+ fans have connected to his music. Bruce Springsteen’s body of work insists that everyone—regardless of race, country of origin, religious beliefs, gender expression, and sexual preference—can climb aboard the United States’ figurative train of acceptance and unity. It’s easy to say that this is a very romanticized vision of America, but Springsteen’s recurring efforts to include, support, and give voice to LGBTQ+ individuals shows that they are an invaluable part of our national and global community. Through the power of music, Springsteen shows that changing minds is possible and the differences in our identities is what makes our world a richer and more beautiful place. ---------- Caroline also has provided this small bibliographical listing of and links for books, essays, and articles that feature more in-depth writing on Bruce Springsteen's relationship with the LGBTQ+ community: "Things That Can Only Be Found in the Darkness on the Edge of Town: The queerness of Bruce Springsteen" by Naomi Gordon-Loebl from The Nation "Beyond blood brothers: queer Bruce Springsteen" by Rosalie Zdzienicka Fanshel from Popular Music Vol. 32, No. 3 (October 2013), pp. 359-383 "Is there anybody alive out there? Growing up queer with Bruce" by Holly Casio from Bruce Springsteen and Popular Music "My Butch Lesbian Mom, Bruce Springsteen" by Natalie Adler from Electric Lit ---------- Some further reading at Letters To You on Philadelphia/"StreetsOfPhiladelphia"@30: "30 years ago today... PHILADELPHIA, featuring Springsteen's 'Streets of Philadelphia,' first opens in theaters" (December 22, 2023) Bruce’s Best Original Song Oscar acceptance speech: “Thank you. This is the first song I ever wrote for a motion picture, so I guess it’s all downhill from here. But Neil, I gotta share this with you. [Neil Young wrote and performed “Philadelphia,” which played over the ending of Jonathan Demme’s film and also was nominated for the Best Original Song Oscar that evening.]  You do your best work, and you hope that it pulls out the best in your audience, that some piece of it spills over into the real world, into people’s everyday lives, and it takes the edge off the fear and allows us to recognize each other through our veil of differences. I always thought that was one of the things popular art was supposed to be about, along with the merchandising and all of the other stuff. But I just want to say thank you, Jonathan, for having me as a part of your picture. I’m glad my song has contributed to its ideas and its acceptance. Love, you, Pats, and thank you, all, for inviting me to your party.” Music writer, cultural/political critic, and broadcaster Dave Marsh on “Streets of Philadelphia” and its deep connection to his family: “My daughter, Kristen Ann Carr, the product of [former Springsteen co-manager] Barbara Carr’s first marriage but raised by me since she was three years old, had developed liposcarcoma, a very rare cancer. Kristen loved Bruce the way you love a person you’ve known from infancy and have watched grow into a virtually mythic figure while remaining someone sitting next to you on the couch...Bruce would play a benefit to help us endow a Kristen Ann Carr Fund for Sarcoma Research…It would be the final show of his 1992–1993 tour... Later in 1993, director Jonathan Demme asked Bruce to write a song for his upcoming movie about a Philadelphia lawyer fighting AIDS and the law firm that fired him because of antihomosexual bigotry. Bruce responded by writing a beautiful, somber song called ‘Streets of Philadelphia.’ Whether it’s a great song about AIDS, I don’t know; but having studied the subject more than a little (see my Born to Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story and The New Book of Rock Lists), I know it’s one of the greatest rock songs about death and dying. The first time I heard Bruce sing one of its most poignant lines—“...my clothes don’t fit me no more”—I knew that Kristen had left her mark on the song. When Bruce accepted his Grammy[s] for Song of the Year [and Best Male Rock Vocal performance, on March 1, 1995, Dave Marsh's 45th birthday,] he thanked Kristen, ‘whose spirit is in this song.’ I love my kids and my wife, and I do my best to love myself. All that comes with the territory. For two books—call them histories, biographies, hagiographies, whatever—I did my best to explain why I loved Bruce Springsteen’s music while avoiding talking about why I love him. At the time, that seemed to come with that territory. But now that Bruce has demonstrated his love for my family in such tangible and intangible fashion, I’m in a place beyond words. So I will not speak further but leave you as is only appropriate with lines from Bruce Springsteen: But the stars are burnin bright like some mystery uncovered I’ll keep movin through the dark with you in my heart My blood brother.” – from the introduction to the 1996 Thunder’s Mouth Press edition of Glory Days: The Bruce Springsteen Story Volume II