In an unannounced surprise move, the official billing of the tour has changed from Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band to simply Bruce Springsteen & Band. All posters in- and outside the arena in San Jose where the tour kicks off tonight have had the words "The E Street" crossed out, leaving only the word "Band". According to fans waiting outside the arena, staff from inside informed them that they were busy making the same changes to all official merchandise, from t-shirts to cups. Even though by all accounts the musicians on stage will still be the same, Bruce has allegedly had second thoughts about whether a band without Danny Federici and, sometimes, Max Weinberg and Patti Scialfa can really be referred to as The E Street Band. It's also rumored that the threat of lawsuits from disappointed fans, who come to see the real E Street Band, have played a role in the decision. Until we get an official announcement all of this is however pure speculation.

The HP Pavilion in San Jose as it looked this morning when fans started to line up. Note how "The E Street" has been crossed out.

The Boston Phoenix has just declared war on all female Springsteen fans, and a lot of male ones too. In their 100 Unsexiest Men of 2009 list they put Bruce Springsteen in as no. 52, only slightly more sexy than Holocaust denier Bishop Richard Williamson who made it to no. 51. The reasoning behind this absurd decision includes ridiculing his tight black jeans and calling him immobile, all based on his Super Bowl performance. One can only wonder if they saw the same thing we did. Only comfort for Bruce is that Joe the Plumber and Rush Limbaugh are way more unsexy than he is. See the list.

Bruce and the E Street Band were back last night for their first full-length show since the Magic Tour ended. Billed as a rehearsal show it wasn't really an offical show, but as rehearsal shows goes this had a more finished feel to it than previous rehearsal shows. At least, according to some of those who were there, when it came to the band's energy and tightness and the length of the show. The setlist, however, on first glance looks like it had room for adjustments. Built on the same skeleton as the Magic Tour shows with new songs thrown in, it seems like Bruce didn't spend much time thinking up a new concept for the show. And no matter how you may feel about a song like "Surprise, Surprise" sandwiching it between two heavy-weight songs like "Long Walk Home" and "Badlands" just seems wrong. Of course, these observations are based exclusively on looking at the setlist. It may have worked if you were there in person. The second rehearsal show tonight will tell us how set Bruce's mind is on the show structure presented yesterday.

Also of note, Jay Weinberg played on several songs and did a great job by all accounts. It's very possible that Jay will play on a few songs even at the shows where Max is present in order to prepare him as much as possible for when he'll be taking over.

See the complete setlist and read an extensive review.

Just as everyone was focusing on the rehearsal shows in Asbury Park and the upcoming tour, Bruce took everyone by surprise and showed up a few miles further up the shore at the Ocean Place Resort in Long Branch. There he joined a band called The Panther Club at a benefit for the Ranney School, a private school in Tinton Falls, NJ. He helped out on three songs: "634-5789", "Mustang Sally" and "Twist and Shout" before calling it a night. After all, he had to preserve some energy for tonight's performance at the Convention Hall.

Greasy Lake is moving even further into the Web 2.0 age. Now we have our very own Twitter feed. So for those of you who have a Twitter account, go to twitter.com/greasylake and start following us. You will get little news updates and random Bruce observations served directly to your cell phone or news reader or wherever else you check your Twitter. All of it is brought to you by new Greasy Lake associate Steve Milton. While you're at it, did you know that Bruce himself has a Twitter account? It's called ThrillHillBruce and can be found here. And for those of you who have no idea what the heck I'm talking about, just go to Twitter.com and be introduced to the whole Twitter thing.

Another service you may want to try out is Greasy Lake's RSS feed. RSS is a way to follow the updates of your favorite sites without having to access the sites themselves. You can use a news reader like Google Reader (recommended) or a newer version MS Outlook. News readers are also built into Internet Explorer 7 and 8 as well as Firefox. Get yourself a collection of RSS feeds to follow but start with Greasy Lake.

An official statement regarding the drummer situation in the E Street Band has been published on the official website. The statement confirms that Jay Weinberg will replace his father Max Weinberg at "the few shows Max Weinberg won't be able to appear at". So now that this is settled speculation can begin as to what "few" means. Will it be more or less the entire European tour as has been rumored, or will it just be a show here and there? It sure is hard to imagine Max flying back and forth across the pond in order to be part of the European tour, so my guess is still that it will be, if not the whole European tour, then at least a significant stretch.

A usually reliable source says that rehearsal shows will take place on March 23 and 24 at the Convention Hall in Asbury Park. Tickets will go on sale this Saturday from Ticketmaster by phone only. An official announcement may come later today. The rehearsal shows will no doubt give us a good idea of how the new setlist will be structured. Don't be surprised to see a show that picks up where the Magic Tour left off, but of course with a heavy doze of Working on a Dream songs thrown in. The last week's closed rehearsals have indicated a show that may open with "Good Eye" followed by "My Lucky Day". Pretty powerfull stuff if true.

Update! The two rehearsal shows are now official, and tickets go on sale tomorrow, Friday, at noon.

It is almost as good as official. Reliable sources now say that Jay Weinberg is definitely going to replace his father Max Weinberg on drums for most likely the entire European tour. Jay Weinberg has been present during all the tour rehearsals that are currently taking place in Asbury Park. The reason for the replacement is of course Max Weinberg's commitment to his new job as the drummer for the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien in Los Angeles, which will launch around the same time as the European tour gets underway.

As mentioned in another post, Jay Weinberg has already played with the E Street Band in 2008 when he sat in for his father on "Born to Run" at Giants Stadium and did a fine job. Other than that, not a whole lot is known about his career as a drummer, but he does have a profile on MySpace that you can check out. No matter what, he will probably be the most untested member that the E Street Band has ever included, and while that doesn't at all mean that he's not up to the task, it does raise some concern among fans that the shows won't be up to the usual standard, especially in regard to spontaneity and setlist flexibility. No doubt a huge pressure to put on the young drummer's shoulders, but one that Bruce and Max hopefully wouldn't have put on him if they weren't sure he could stand for it.

Still no week goes by without the addition of a show or two. This week we got the news that Bruce will perform at Pete Seeger's 90th birthday concert at Madison Square Garden on May 3.  Bruce will share the bill with Dave Matthews, John Mellencamp, Eddie Vedder and many others. Tickets will be sold on March 30 from Ticketmaster. Read more about the event on www.seeger90.com.

What may be more surprising than Bruce paying tribute to Pete Seeger is that a show in Lisbon, Portugal, on August 14 or 16 looks like it's about to be officially announced. At least, Portugese newspapers are reporting it like it's a done deal, except for the uncertainty about the exact date. But whether it will be on the 14th or 16th of August, one of the most interesting things about it is that it will leave a two-week gap between the two last European shows. Surely the band will not go back to the States after the show in Santiago only to return two weeks later for one show in Lisbon. So look out for more dates to be added to fill up the hole. Maybe, just maybe it will be the "real" UK shows (as in non-festival shows) that British fans are clamoring for.

It's official! On March 19 Bruce will appear on that commie bastard trying-to-ruin-America Jon Stewart's Daily Show. For those of you who don't know, the Daily Show is a talk/news show that puts a humorous spin on politics and attemps to expose the hypocricy of particularly conservative politicians and news media. Bruce Springsteen and Jon Stewart are said to be each other's fans, so it's only natural that this meeting has been arranged. Check out the Daily Show's website.