An extra long 30-song set ended the succesful Holiday stand on a very high note. No new song entries were made, but almost everything that had been done over the course of the five nights was performed in this show. As an extra treat Elvis Costello was the featured guest star of the night and did a medley of "Alison", "Tracks of My Tears" and Smokey's "Tears of a Clown". Bruce Hornsby was back in the lineup again as was Garland Jeffreys. In Bobby Bandiera's abscence Nils Lofgren took care of the George Harrison's "Here Comes the Sun". The show ended on a high note with Bruce's children and other family members coming on stage helping with throwing candy canes to the audience. Altogether, everything we've been hearing about these shows indicate that the lucky attendees witnessed a very loose, youthful Bruce in very high spirits and doing some great interaction with the guest performers. See the final night's setlist. Read more

   

Two songs not played since the early Seventies and a few never-before played covers. That was the score after the first of five Holiday shows in Asbury Park last night. Bruce opened the night paying tribute to George Harrison by singing two of the late Beatle's most famous compositions, "Something" and "My Sweet Lord". After a little Max Weinberg 7 jamming, he then pulled out "Thundercrack" (not performed live since 1974) and then the world premiere of "Seaside Bar Song", which was written around 1972 and which until last night only appeared on one known setlist from Chicago in 1973. Other standout songs included "Kitty's Back" and "Rosalita". The show also featured guest performances by the entire E Street Band minus Roy Bittan and Steve Van Zandt, Soozie Tyrell, Southside Johnny, Bobby Bandiera and Garland Jeffreys. See the complete setlist here (copied from Backstreets). Read more

   

After a third night with no significant changes in the setlist, Bruce opened the fourth night with the first solo piano version of "Incident on 57th Street" since 1975. Something that probably gave many of the fans in attendance associations to the legendary Main Point show immortalized on the The Saint, the Incident & the Main Point Shuffle bootleg from Great Dane Records. Last night's show also featured a three-song guest appearance by Bruce Hornsby (replacing Garland Jeffreys as the real guest star), including a duet between the two Bruces on "End of the Innocence" (a song Hornsby co-wrote with Don Henley). Nils Lofgren shook things up a bit by performing "Star Spangled Banner" and dueting with Springsteen on "If I should Fall Behind". All in all reactions to this show indicate that it may have been the best show of the holiday stand so far, although these things are of course very hard to determine. See the complete setlists of night three and night four. Read more

   

As it was more or less expected the second show at the Convention Hall in Asbury Park didn't vary much from the first night. Only notable changes included "Wild Billy's Circus Story" as the show opener (featuring Garry Tallent on tuba) and "The E Street Shuffle". The former replaced the George Harrison songs and was last performed in December 1996 during the solo acoustic tour whereas "E Street Shuffle" was a repeat from last year's Holiday shows. While most reactions to the shows have been very positive, we've also heard a few complaints that there's "not enough Bruce" and that the security people looking for cameras in the crowd during the shows are coming off as being unnecessarily rough shoving innocent people aside in their attempt to grab the culprits. While we don't know if we're talking about isolated incidents or a general tendency, it is quite disturbing and not something we're used to hearing reports about in connection with Springsteen shows. Complete setlist. Read more

   

If you've got a few hundred or thousand Dollars to spend, check out the current Bruce Springsteen auction at leland.com. An original signed Castiles single, a Castiles concert poster, a handwritten letterm Steel Mill tickets are among the sensational old items that are being auctioned off. Unfortunately, this is not for anybody. Nothing will go for less than $100, and several of the items are already well above $1000. Read more

   

Finally it looks like Europe will see the release of the Live in New York City DVD. The DVD has been distributed to many European stores and will be on the shelf this next Monday, December 3. And yes, many of the DVD sets will include the bonus single with "This Hard Land" and "My Hometown". Read more

   

E Street keyboardist Danny Federici will meet the fans and sign his self-titled second album on three different locations in New Jersey in the first week of December: BORDER?S STORES 300 Rte 18, East Brunswick, NJ Signing on Dec 3rd from 12-2 BORDER?S STORES 230 Garden State Plaza, Paramus, NJ Signing on Dec 5th from 12-2 JACKS RECORDS 30 Broadway, Red Bank, NJ Signing on Dec 7th from 12-2 Around the same time he will be doing a couple of radio interviews, so if you're in New Jersey, check your local radio schedule. You may also find more info on Danny's official website Read more

   

As expected the five Holiday shows in Asbury Park on December 3,4,6,7, and 8 sold out in just about an hour yesterday. If you were among those who were shut out, don't despair. Tickets may show up in Ticketmaster's computers over the next days, plus if you don't mind outdoors activities, there will most likely be drop-lines on the days of the shows where you can get tickets. Read more

   

If you're in Asbury Park on December 8 for the last of the Holiday shows, you may want to visit the town's public library at noon that same day. At this time the library and Backstreets will host a reception for the new Bruce Springsteen collection that was donated by Backstreets to the library as mentioned a couple of months ago on this site. The collection consists of magazines and books collected by Backstreets throughout the years. Read more on Backstreets online. Read more

   

The recently announced benefit shows at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank this next weekend have been cancelled. The shows which would have featured various Sun artists and maybe Bruce Springsteen, were allegedly cancelled due to poor ticket sale. Read more