After the chaotic ticket sale two days ago for the North American leg of the tour, fans have been raging about Ticketmaster's practice of forwarding customers to their so-called ticket marketplace TicketsNow where sold-out tickets can be bought for multiple times as much as face value, practically seconds afterthey went on sale in the first place. And now it appears that the mess hasn't gone unnoticed with Bruce and his management. This afternoon a message was posted on the official website where they strongly condemn the actions of Ticketmaster and assure fans that they have no part in it.
In 12 minutes and 39 seconds Bruce blew away billions of viewers as he and the band raced through their Super Bowl halftime set. The set consisted of "Tenth Avenue", "Born to Run", "Working on a Dream" and "Glory Days", some of which were slightly abbreviated. Still, Bruce managed to fit in a good number of his stage tricks, everything from the knee slide (which almost knocked down a camera man) to a funny banter with Steve during "Glory Days". Despite the very staged nature of a show like this, Bruce gave a fine impression of what fans have come to expect from a Bruce Springsteen live performance. We'll see what kind of impact this will have on today's ticket sale for the US leg of the tour.
As a lot of you probably already read, there's been a lot of talk about Bruce "stealing" the melody of "Outlaw Pete" from the Kiss song "I Was Made For Lovin' You". There's no doubt the two tunes are somewhat similar in their chord progressions, but whether it would hold up in a court, is very hard to tell. As far as I know (and I could be wrong), it's not only a matter of chord progression, but also tempo, rhythm, and overall "feel". If that's the case, Bruce can probably sleep soundly at night. But even if he did "steal" or "borrow" or whatever you want to call it, maybe he's only joining a century-long tradition folk music tradition. At least, that's what one blogger is advocating in a new post on Reuters Blogs. Read it and arm yourself with another argument if someone brings up the subject at the next family party.
In an interview in the New York Times Bruce for the first time comments on the Wal-Mart exclusive Greatest Hits release that has fans left fans wondering what was up with his principles regarding unions and workers' rigths. Bruce doesn't make excuses, but downright admits it was a mistake: "Given its labor history, it was something that if we’d thought about it a little longer, we’d have done something different,” he said. “It was a mistake. Our batting average is usually very good, but we missed that one. Fans will call you on that stuff, as it should be." Read the complete artickle here. Oh, and while you're at it, go watch the entire pre-Super Bowl press conference that Bruce and the band did yesterday and in which Bruce revealed that a second leg of shows in the US will happen after the European tour.
A big day in Bruce world: the tour was officially announced with loads of North American and a few more European shows added to the list we already knew. The tour will start on April 1 in San Jose and end, for now, in Santiago, Spain, on August 2. It covers the usual areas: the North East of the United States is well covered whereas the South and West will have to do with a few selected shows. The North West has been completely overlooked this time with no shows in Seattle, Portland or Vancouver.Tickets for most of the North American shows will be sold on February 2.
As for Europe, we are again talking Western Europe exclusively. What will it take for Bruce to bring the E Street Band to Warsaw, Prague or other splendid European cities? Not to mention Athens in Greece? However, most noticable on the European tour schedule is the absence of shows in England. None have been officially announced so far. That will no doubt change as it's still expected that Bruce will perform at the Glastonbury Festival and possibly at the Hyde Park Festival in London. Question is if there will be any "real" concerts.
While this big announcement came, fans all over the world were flocking to the music stores to pick up their copy of the Working on a Dream album. Or were they? Press reviews and fan opinion have been mixed to say the least. Rolling Stone has given the album a five-star review (maximum) and Bruce a place on the front page. Other reviews call it the worst since Human Touch. Overall, the acceptance is mostly positive. On Metacritic, which calculates an average of music review opinion, the album currently scores 73 out o 100, which is not bad at all. The users rate it at 7 out of 10.
Two shows in Boston on April 21 and 22 have been announced by Boston radio station WZLX. According to this information they will take place at TD Banknorth Garden. No word on ticket sale, so the question is how official this is. Also rumor has it that Dallas will see a show on April 14.
In a rare interview with Billboard, Jon Landau just made what must be the closest thing to an official confirmation of the much talked about Darkness anniversary set. The set has been rumored for a couple of years, but has disappeared from the radar screens in the last six months. Until today that is. Jon Landau specifically confirmed that the set is "near completion" and that it will be finished and released when they have "six weeks to finish it", This is indeed great news, but with Bruce's work schedule, those six weeks may still be a little into the future.
Jon Landau also commented on the Wal-Mart Greatest Hits. He refutes the criticism it has received by saying that Bruce albums have already been sold in Wal-Mart for years and adds that Bruce has not endorsed the release, but rather left it to Sony and Wal-Mart to market it.
The European summer tour is rapidly expanding. 14 shows have been officially announced and more are just about to. We have updated the tour section to include the Working on a Dream Tour. There you can follow the development. Among other things, Bruce's first Europan festival date is now a fact. And no, it's not Glastonbury. The band will be performing at the Pinkpop Festival in the Netherlands. Glastonbury is still expected to be announced at any moment. It will be very interesting to see how the show will adapt to a festival setting, which often has a much younger audience and where artists are usually limited to about 90 minutes. Has Bruce demanded to play his full 2½-3-hour show? If not, will he care about the time limit or just keep rocking all night with the next band impatiently waiting behind the backdrop? Neil Young has been known to do that, so who knows?
At 10 a.m. today dates for shows in four Scandinavian countries were announced. Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark each get one or two shows starting on June 2. The dates are as follows:
June 2: Tampere, Finland
June 4: Stockhom, Sweden
June 5: Stockhom, Sweden
June 9: Bergen, Norway
June 10: Bergen, Norway
July 8th: Herning, Denmark
Except for Sweden Bruce has chosen to play outside of the capital cities where he usually does his shows. All the shows will be at outdoor venues, with capacity of 20-50,000 people. Tickets for all shows will go on sale on Monday.
Apart from these shows, the following list is considered all but confirmed:
June 12: Munich, Germany
June 14: Franfurt, Germany
June 22: Berlin, Germany
June 26 or 27 Glastonbury Festival, UK
July 19: Rome, Italy
July 21: Udine, Italy
July 23: Modena, Italy
Take the last dates for what it's worth. They are still unofficial.
If you are wondering about an American tour, nothing seems to be settled yet. It's still expected that the tour will start in the US in the spring, but it is apparently being pushed further and further back for one reason or another.
Don't miss today's interview with Bruce in the UK newspaper, The Observer. Long-time Bruce-follower Mark Hagan talks to him about politics, the new album, life and death, and a bunch of other things. But perhaps the biggest revelation is what on earth Bruce was thinking when he wrote "Queen of the Supermarket". Apparently a rare trip to the supermarket made him think about sex and doing it right there on the floor. Bruce, sometimes you're just plain weird, you know. Go read the interview.
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