The Springsteen and E Street Band 2023 Tour is an ongoing concert tour by American singer Bruce Springsteen and his backing band the E Street Band. The tour began on February 1, 2023, in Tampa, Florida; it marks the first time since 2017 that Springsteen and the E Street Band have toured together. The tour is scheduled to conclude on November 22, 2024, in Vancouver.
Background
In 2019, following two years of performing solo shows on Broadway, Springsteen announced that he would go on tour with the E Street Band in 2020. The tour would have been in support of his 2020 album, Letter to You. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, touring was put on hold until 2021.[2] In January 2021, Springsteen again announced that, due to the ongoing pandemic, he would not tour with the E Street Band in 2021, although later that year he returned to Broadway for more solo shows.[3]
On May 23, 2022, an upcoming tour was initially hinted with a short teaser displayed through Springsteen's social media accounts; the full announcement came the next day on his webpage.[4][5]
The tour commenced with dates in the U.S., starting in February 2023, and then visited Europe. The tour returned to North America in August 2023.[6][7][8] The tour was scheduled to end in December 2023 until two August 2023 shows in Philadelphia were rescheduled for August 2024. All of the remaining shows on the tour from September to December were subsequently postponed until 2024.[9]
Absences and illness-related postponements
Early in the tour, the band was impacted by positive COVID-19 tests. Soozie Tyrell missed the shows in Hollywood and Dallas, marking the first time she missed a concert since joining the band in 2002. Guitarist Steven Van Zandt was also absent from the Dallas concert.[10] On February 13, 2023, it was announced that guitarist Nils Lofgren had tested positive,[11] and he was absent from the February 14th show in Houston. It was the first show Lofgren had missed since joining the E Street Band in 1984. Van Zandt and Tyrell returned to the tour in Houston. Lofgren returned to the tour on February 16 in Austin, but Jake Clemons missed the show, along with the February 18 show in Kansas City, due to testing positive.[12] The shows on August 16 and 18 in Philadelphia were postponed due to Springsteen becoming ill at the last minute.[citation needed]
In September 2023, Springsteen announced the postponement of eight shows scheduled for dates between September 7 and 29, inclusive, because he was undergoing treatment for symptoms of peptic ulcer disease and that doctors recommended he not perform live. Springsteen's wife Patti Scialfa also urged Springsteen to postpone these dates to prevent "something worse" happening to him considering he already had battled COVID-19 a few times in 2023.[13][14] A few weeks later, Springsteen announced the postponement of all remaining 2023 dates until 2024; he subsequently announced new dates between March and April 2024 and August to November 2024.[15]
Ticket price backlash
Springsteen decided to use Ticketmaster's Verified Fan service for a majority of his North America tour dates to try and eliminate scalpers and bots on the secondary market from buying up tickets and selling them at much higher prices, a problem many of his previous tours have faced. Fans would need to be verified and sent a code, which they would receive in a text message the night before the on-sale date, for the show or shows they planned to attend. Not all fans were guaranteed to receive a code, however; some were placed on a waitlist. Tickets would go on sale at 10 am and once the Verified Fan window for ticket sales ended, which was normally at 3 pm, the remaining tickets would be released to the general public. The first tickets for the U.S. dates went on sale on July 20, 2022, and fans were instantly met with very high ticket prices, such as $4,000–5,000 for mid-range floor seats, and into the four figures for other, less desirable tickets. This was called Ticketmaster's "dynamic pricing" program, in which "platinum tickets", which may be placed anywhere in the arena, from the front section to the back rows, fluctuate in price, in what is said to be ongoing reaction to demand. Some fans were able to buy tickets at face value as they went on sale; however, within minutes of tickets going on sale, the dynamic pricing kicked in and the tickets changed to the platinum tickets or were only available through the secondary market via Ticketmaster's resale program at much higher prices. Complaints from outraged fans flooded social media and Springsteen-related message boards demanding that Springsteen and his management release a statement in response to this. Guitarist Steven Van Zandt has been the only member of the E Street Band to respond to the situation when he was asked about it on Twitter. He said, "I have nothing whatsoever to do with the price of tickets. Nothing. Nada. Niente. Bubkis. Dick."[16]New JerseycongressmanBill Pascrell Jr., who has been a staunch ticket-industry critic, called out Ticketmaster for instituting a "market-based" pricing system that allows ticket costs to rise and fall based on demand. "When Yogi Berra said it's 'déjà vu all over again', he could have easily been talking about Ticketmaster and another unwelcome surprise for Springsteen fans. After the long hiatus, we are all excited that Bruce is going back in tour. But Americans have the right to enjoy some live entertainment without getting ripped off. Ticketmaster sees popular events as an opportunity to soak regular Americans," the lawmaker said in a statement.[17]
Tickets for Springsteen's shows in the UK sold out in under 8 hours, but many UK fans took to social media complaining about the same issues fans in the U.S. faced.[18][19]
On July 24, 2022, Ticketmaster issued a response defending their controversial "dynamic pricing" plan, saying that 88.2% of tickets were sold at fixed prices that ranged from $59.50 to $399 before added service fees and that the average price of all tickets sold so far is $262, with 56% being sold for under $200 face value. Ticketmaster did not dispute reports of tickets being priced through the platinum program for as high as $4–5,000. Ticketmaster is claiming that only 1.3% of total tickets so far have gone for more than $1,000. Ticketmaster further broke down the percentages on the 56% of tickets it says were sold for under $200. It said that 18% were sold under $99, 27% went for between $100–$150, and 11% sold for between $150–$200. "Prices and formats are consistent with industry standards for top performers," the company said in their statement.[20]
On July 26, 2022, six days after tickets went on sale in North America, Springsteen's manager Jon Landau issued a statement to The New York Times defending the price of tickets, saying, "In pricing tickets for this tour, we looked carefully at what our peers have been doing. We chose prices that are lower than some and on par with others. Regardless of the commentary about a modest number of tickets costing $1,000 or more, our true average ticket price has been in the mid-$200 range. I believe that in today's environment, that is a fair price to see someone universally regarded as among the very greatest artists of his generation."[21]
Ferrara concert controversy
On May 18, 2023, Springsteen and the E Street Band were set to perform at the Giorgio Bassani Urban Park [it] in Ferrara, Italy, as part of the tour's European leg.[22][23] However, in the immediate aftermath of the floods that hit several areas of the Emilia-Romagna region, fans and ticketholders used social media to urge the organizers to reschedule the concert, in order to pay respect to the victims and avoid misplacement of emergency resources.[24][25][26] After further examinations, both the Prefettura and the local council of Ferrara authorized Springsteen to go ahead with the concert.[23][24]
The decision sparked heavy criticism towards Springsteen and his team,[25][26][27] while both lead promoter Claudio Trotta and mayor of Ferrara, Alan Fabbri, defended the decision to permit the show.[23][24][25] Deputy vice-president of Protezione Civile for Emilia-Romagna, Irene Priolo, also questioned the decision, while clarifying that Ferrara's local authorities were the only institutions that had the right to either confirm or postpone the concert.[24][28]
During the concert, which reportedly involved 900 security members between police officers, volunteers, and first aid services,[24] Springsteen did not make any direct comments about the floods and their impact.[29][30][31] Fans also complained about the muddy conditions of the park's terrain, as well as logistical difficulties.[30][31]
On May 26, Springsteen's guitarist Steven Van Zandt took to Twitter to answer a message from an Italian fan, who had asked him if the band really was not informed of the emergency, writing: "We didn't know a thing about it. All we heard was the crew had to work overtime because the venue was one big mud hole from the rain. That was all."[32][33][34]
Recordings
On December 15, 2022, it was announced that all shows of the tour would be recorded and mixed and available within days.
[35]
Set list
This set list is representative of the tour's first two legs.[36] This tour has seen the live debut of songs from Springsteen's 2020 album, Letter to You, and the first live performances with the E Street Band of songs from his 2022 album, Only the Strong Survive.
"No Surrender" has served as the opening song for a majority of the tour. Starting in May 2023, however, Springsteen started to alternate the opening song, with "My Love Will Not Let You Down", "The Ties That Bind", "Local Hero", "Lonesome Day", and "Night" serving as the show openers at various shows. "I'll See You in My Dreams" has served as the closing song for every show with the exception of the September 3, 2023, show at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, where the song was dropped for the first time from the setlist and replaced with "Jersey Girl", which closed the show.
Setlist complaints
Some fans have criticized Springsteen about the setlist being very similar each night, something that Springsteen has not been known for throughout his career, and have complained about the number of songs being performed. In an interview, Steven Van Zandt responded to fan criticism by saying, "I had to let that guy have it the other day. He's like, '(whining) Jeez, you started out playing 28 songs and now you're playing 26. I want my money back.' Get the beep outta here! Anybody measuring the show by the amount of songs or the amount of time spent onstage ain't listening! This ain't about numbers — it's about an emotional experience. And this one happens to be ... I think, a special one. And the audiences are reacting in a way I've never seen in America. It's like a Broadway show. Why? Because you're telling a story and every song has a purpose."[37][38] In July 2023, Garry Tallent also responded to fan complaints about the setlist. "These rinse and repeat shows are such the opposite of greatness," a fan on social media said. Tallent replied, "You are fucking kidding, right??" Former E Street Band drummer Vini Lopez added, "As time goes on, they'll start doing other stuff and that just goes on through a tour. The thing that bugs me the most about the tour are the people who go to 20 shows and then they complain about hearing the same songs."[39]
Shows
List of concerts, showing date, city, country, and venue
