DANNY CLINCH
Bruce Springsteen with Nils Lofgren, left, and Jake Clemons, center.
Bruce Springsteen’s concert with the E Street Band at the Prudential Center in Newark, April 14, will be their first in New Jersey since Aug. 30, 2016. Except for their approximately decade-long hiatus from the late ’80s to the late ’90s, this is, by far, the longest gap between home-state performances since the band’s formation in the early ’70s.
The 8/30/16 show was at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford. I reviewed it for the Bergen Record/NorthJersey.com (you can read that review and see the setlist here), but just to sum up some remarkable things about it:
• At an even four hours, it was their longest U.S. concert to date, though they broke that record about a week later in Philadelphia. Their longest concert ever, ever, incidentally, took place in 2012 in Finland, clocking in at four hours and six minutes.
• Springsteen opened with 11 songs from 1973 or earlier, including tracks from his first two albums (Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. and The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle) and covers of “Summertime Blues” and “Pretty Flamingo.” And show-opener “New York City Serenade” featured a string section.
• “Secret Garden,” which Springsteen has rarely played live, opened the encores.
• Rickie Lee Jones sang backing vocals on “Spirit in the Night,” “Summertime Blues” and “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy).”
• Springsteen had also played at MetLife Stadium on Aug. 23 and 25, but 17 of the 34 songs in this show had not been played at either of those concerts.
• Though the tour was officially known as The River Tour — Springsteen had released a deluxe boxed set edition of his album The River in late 2015 — this show included only two songs from that album, “Hungry Heart” and “Out in the Street.”
Here are a few videos from 8/30/16. Click here for a complete list of all New Jersey E Street Band shows.
Springsteen and the E Street Band will return to MetLife Stadium later this year, for shows on Aug. 30 and Sept. 1 and 3.
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