SPRINGSTEEN WRAPS NORTH AMERICAN LEG IN NEW JERSEY
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band closed out the first leg of their 2023 tour on Friday night (April 14th) at Newark, New Jersey's Prudential Center. The home-state show opened with Springsteen saluting the crowd by playing a rearranged version of his 1992 Lucky Town favorite, "Local Hero."
Other highlights featured "The Boss" and the band performing their classic cover of Tom Waits' "Jersey Girl" and a take on his 2002 The Rising party anthem, "Mary's Place."
Sadly, Springsteen dedicated the final song of his set — "I'll See You In My Dreams" from 2020's Letter To You — to his late-nephew, Michael Shave Jr. who had died earlier that day. No cause of death has been announced for Shave, who was 53 and the son of Springsteen's younger sister Ginny. She and her husband, Mickey's early relationship was immortalized in the title track to Springsteen 1980 album, The River.
Springsteen & The E Street Band will kick off their European tour on April 28th in Barcelona, Spain at Estadi Olimpic Lluis Company.
The band will be back on the road Stateside this summer and kicks off their stadium tour on August 9th and 11th at Chicago's Wrigley Field.
Bruce Springsteen still takes pride in the fact that since the E Street Band's reformation in 1999, they've consistently played to the top of their — or any other band's — game: ["It's the long, long ride that it's all about. It's that I've had these guys and these ladies at my side and we've made it this far, and that we're here to do it. It's the consistency. . . Professionalism is alive and well, we hope. We just want to carry on and give some people some smiles and some inspiration."] SOUNDCUE (:24 OC: . . . and some inspiration)
NEW JERSEY FINALLY GETS A 'BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN DAY'
New Jersey has officially named September 23rd "Bruce Springsteen Day." APP.com reported that on April 15th, Gov. Phil Murphy issued the official proclamation honoring Springsteen's birthday at the inaugural American Music Honors event, presented by the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music on the campus of Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey.
Murphy was quoted as saying, "There's been 14 administrations in New Jersey since Springsteen started performing. I can't believe it's taken this long." (APP.com)