Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band return to Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on Feb. 12
From a press release:
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will launch “The River Tour,” a nine-week U.S. trek, on Saturday, Jan. 16 in Pittsburgh. The announcement of the tour coincides with today’s release of “The Ties That Bind: The River Collection,” a comprehensive look at the era of “The River” album from 1980 that Rolling Stone calls “Springsteen’s best archival release yet.”
Presented by Larry Magid Entertainment, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band will be performing one show only at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on Friday, Feb. 12. Tickets will go on sale on next Friday, Dec. 11th at 10 a.m. exclusively through ComcastTIX online at comcasttix.com, by phone at 1-800-298-4200, or in person at Wells Fargo Center box office (3601 S. Broad St., Philadelphia).
Springsteen precedes the tour with a Dec. 19 performance on “Saturday Night Live,” his third appearance on the NBC show.
The River Tour, which will also stop at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Jan. 24 and 27; the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on Jan. 31; the Times Union Center in Albany, New York on Feb. 8; the First Niagara Center in Buffalo, New York on Feb. 25; and the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, New York on Feb. 27, is the first for Springsteen and the E Street Band since the 2014 “High Hopes Tour.”
Each night of the tour will be mixed for release on live.brucespringsteen.net as high-quality downloads and CDs. Recordings will be available within days of each performance.
The original “The River Tour” began on Oct. 3, 1980, two weeks before the release of Springsteen’s fifth album, and continued through Sept. 4, 1981. With sets that regularly approached the four-hour range, the 140-date international tour firmly established a reputation for Springsteen and the E Street Band as marathon performers.
“The Ties That Bind: The River Collection” includes 52 tracks on four CDs with a wealth of unreleased material and four hours of never-before-seen video on three DVDs. It contains the original “The River” double album, the first official release of “The River: Single Album,” a CD of 1979-1980 studio outtakes, a brand new documentary about “The River,” and a coffee table book of 200 rare or previously unseen photos and memorabilia, with a new essay by Mikal Gilmore. The set also includes a two-DVD film of never-released, newly edited multi-camera footage from a Nov. 1980 show in Tempe, Arizona described by NPR as a “holy grail.”
“The Ties That Bind: The River Collection” is available on Amazon and iTunes.
Springsteen is the only artist to perform in every live music venue in Philadelphia. Springsteen and the E Street Band “completed the cycle” by performing at the home of the Philadelphia Phillies during Labor Day Weekend 2012. They have performed at the Spectrum 36 times, including the very first time on June 6, 1973. They have also performed at the Wells Fargo Center 11 times, including the first time on Sept. 13, 1999. Springsteen and the E Street Band have also performed three times at Lincoln Financial Field, the home of the Philadelphia Eagles, including the first time on Aug. 8, 2003. They also performed twice at the former home of the Eagles and Phillies, Veterans Stadium, on Aug. 14-15, 1985. Finally, in completing the cycle, Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at JFK Stadium on Sept. 19, 1988.
Springsteen himself made two cameos at two of these venues – at JFK Stadium with U2 on Sept. 25, 1987, and at Wells Fargo Center, also with U2, on Oct. 17, 2005. He also appeared at the Electric Factory with Joe Grushecky and at Tower Theatre for the “Ghost of Tom Joad Tour” on Dec. 8 and 9, 1995.
Springsteen has already accomplished an unprecedented feat in Philadelphia music history when his tour traveled a distance of 758 feet, nine-and-a-half inches in less than one day from the Spectrum to the Wachovia Center to perform on back-to-back nights in September of 1999. The feat was submitted to the Guinness of Book of World Records.
The E Street Band’s members are Roy Bittan (piano, synthesizer), Nils Lofgren (guitar, vocals), Patti Scialfa (guitar, vocals), Garry Tallent (bass guitar), Stevie Van Zandt (guitar, vocals), and Max Weinberg (drums) with Soozie Tyrell (violin, guitar, vocals), Jake Clemons (saxophone), and Charlie Giordano (keyboards).
