As we enter a new year that for the first time in a while looks pretty blank when it comes to Bruce activity, let us look at some of the times Bruce has really surprised us and appeared at the most unlikely places or with the most unlikely release, or even with a brand new version of himself. Just to remind ourselves that with Bruce anything could happen at any time.

Street performance, Strøget, Copenhagen, Denmark, July 25, 1988
Thanks to a resolute guy with a camera (legend has it he bought the camera on the spot), this performance has been immortalized to Bruce fans everywhere. This is what happened: Bruce was in Copenhagen for another stop of his Tunnel of Love Express Tour. Two nights before the show, street musician John Magnusson and his partner were playing on Copenhagen's main pedestrian street when he saw Springsteen walk by. He called out to him and asked if he would join. Bruce obliged, borrowed a guitar from Magnusson's partner and did three songs: "I'm on Fire", "The River", and "Dancing in the Dark". The whole thing of course attracted a major crowd. Perhaps realizing it would end up in chaos, Bruce slipped through the crowd after about 15 minutes and disappeared into the Copenhagen summer night.



Café Eckstein, Berlin, German, July 9, 1995
I still remember the rush of panic through my body. A friend of mine had just called me on the phone and told me that the night before Bruce had performed at an obscure café in Berlin. And rumor had it, it was the beginning of short tour of surprise appearances in European cities. It didn't come to that, but still: in the middle of an otherwise peaceful, Bruce-free summer, he was suddenly in Berlin! It turned out the purpose had been to shoot a video of "Hungry Heart" in connection with the Greatest Hits album that had been released earlier that year. And later on, it turned out that had merely been an excuse for Bruce to go to Germany and visit, and play with, his new German friend Wolfgang Niedecken. Whatever the case, the concept of Bruce appearing on stage in Berlin completely out of the blue was just about the most cool and mindblowing thing this fan had ever heard of. Today, however, recording a video for a 15-year-old song, going to Berlin to shoot a video of it, with no chance of either making a dent on any significant chart, seems more like the act of a very insecure Bruce, who really had no idea in what direction to head at the time, than that of a cool superstar.



Nebraska, the album
It's been a long time ago now and I wasn't a fan back then and therefore didn't experience it myself. But imagine this: your favorite rock 'n' roll artist, the most dynamic and life-affirming performer in the world, who on stage could hardly contain his own energy, releasing an album of, mostly, slow and very quiet songs about murder, despair, and traumatic childhood memories. With no band! At the time, as far as anyone knew (and back then, before the Internet, fans didn't know a whole lot about what was going on), Bruce was working on another blockbuster rock 'n' roll album to follow up The River, and then this!? Needless to say for many fans the disappointment was huge. Today, of course, Nebraska is a classic and easily won the "best non-E Street Band album" poll on Greasy Lake a couple of months ago, but back then, it was a curve ball that not even related songs like "Stolen Car" and "Wreck on the Highway" on The River helped predict in a world where Bruce, to most people, was simply a rock 'n' roll artist and nothing else.



Seeger Sessions, the album
Early 2006. Bruce had just finished a solo tour in support of Devils & Dust. Following his usual pattern, it was now time for him to either 1) take a break or 2) rock out with a new E Street Band album. Sure, there were silly rumors that he was working on a project that had something to do with Pete Seeger, but really, that was a little hard to believe. First of all, two subdued "folk" projects in a row would be career suicide, or at least a strong hint that rock 'n' roll was a thing of the past. Secondly, Bruce didn't release albums of other people's songs. A song or two on a tribute album now and then, fine, but a whole album? No way. Of course, as we now know, the rumors were true. What wasn't true was that it would be a subdued album or that Bruce was done rocking out. And while it did make a lot of fans hold their noses while grabbing it from the shelf (if they bought it at all), most of them were all back in the ranks when tickets for the next E Street Band tour went on sale a year later.



Campaigning with John Kerry during 2004 presidential election
It didn't surprise me personally when, in 2004, rumors of Bruce being involved in some kind of election concert started to appear. He had been involved in plenty of political causes over the years, starting with 1979's No Nukes shows. It also was no surprise that he probably wouldn't exactly be supporting George W. Bush's reelection. What he would do, of course, was to perform a few songs at some kind of rally to encourage people to go out and vote. And no, surely he wouldn't be telling people directly who to vote for. That was beneath Bruce. Wrong! Before anyone could say "swing state", Bruce was out there giving his full support to Democratic candidate John Kerry. Not only during the seven-show Vote For Change tour, but in the days up to the election he was actually on the road with John Kerry, standing next to him on the podium at rallies, making political speeches, and performing "The Promised Land" to huge crowds of Democratic supporters. If Bruce had always been cautious about thrusting his opinions down people's throats, instead letting his songs speak for themselves, the 2004 presidential election was the final blow to the illusion that Bruce was above party politics. Some fans hated it, many  accepted it. Probably not too many loved it.



Christic concerts, November 1990
The concerts for the Christic Institute on November 16 and 17, 1990, were in a sense also political. The Christic Institute was a public law firm that specialized in bringing big power to justice. But that wasn't what was surprising about Bruce's performance at the two shows (in fact, he didn't mention the cause at all). The big surprise was the transformation Bruce had gone through during his two-year absence from the public eye. He had shelved The E Street Band, become a father for the first time, moved to Los Angeles and, it turned out, been seeing a psychiatrist. Gone was the larger-than-life, confident, take-no-prisoners rock 'n' roll force of nature. Instead someone had replaced him with a vulnerable, insecure family man who couldn't even remember the lyrics to "Thunder Road". Even his voice sounded different. And he was telling people not to clap along. And one of the usual "We love you, Bruce" shouts from the audience was returned with a bittersweet "But you don't really know me". It was the first glimpse of the "new" Bruce. He has since found his rock 'n' roll persona again, but it has never been without a hint of that vulnerable, somewhat wary guy who stood alone on that stage at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles 20 years ago.