New for 2023: Audio for 2002
1971: The Bruce Springsteen Band is in residence at the Student Prince in Asbury Park.
1975: Bruce and the E Street Band bring the Born to Run Tour to the Auditorium Theater in Chicago. Check out video from the show below, but note that the footage was shot on Super-8 film and is silent.
1978: Bruce brings the Darkness Tour to Boston for a single show at Boston Garden.
1982: Bruce joins Cats on a Smooth Surface on stage at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park. At the end of their set, the band sings “Happy Birthday” to the newly 33-year-old Bruce.
1984: Bruce and the E Street Band play “Spirit in the Night” for the last time for eight years at their second of two Born in the U.S.A. shows at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.
1987: Bruce makes a surprise guest appearance with U2 at their JFK Stadium show in Philadelphia. Their performance of “Stand By Me” is professionally filmed for the band’s Rattle and Hum documentary but does not make the final cut. Both local papers cover Bruce’s surprise guest appearance but I suspect only one of them actually witnessed it. (Guess which one.)
1992: Bruce and his new touring band play their second of three World Tour 1992 shows at the L.A. Sports Arena.
1996: Bruce surprises the audience at his solo acoustic show in Akron by giving the usual opener “The Ghost of Tom Joad” a rest and instead playing a cover of Woody Guthrie’s “Tom Joad.” Mid-set, Bruce plays “Shut Out the Light” for the first time in over a decade.
1999: Bruce and the reunited E Street Band close out their six-night stand in Philadelphia with a killer set list, opening with their first performance of “Incident on 57th Street” in 19 years and featuring a rare “New York City Serenade” and a show-closing “Raise Your Hand.” This show is available as part of Bruce’s official archive series–get it here.
2002: Eddie Vedder makes his first-ever appearance with Bruce when the Rising Tour stops at Chicago’s United Center. Bruce and Eddie sing the tour premiere of “My Hometown” together; Bruce also tour premieres “Jackson Cage” and “For You.”
2003: The Rising Tour makes a final western stop at Denver’s Invesco Field, where Bruce opens the show with Bob Seger’s “Get Out of Denver.”
2004: Patti’s solo mini-tour continues at the Roxy Theater in West Hollywood, where Bruce joins her on guitar and backing vocals for “As Long As I (Can Be With You)” and “Love (Stand Up)” in his first appearance at the venue since his legendary radio broadcast.
2007: Bruce releases his latest studio album, Magic. That evening, Bruce and the E Street Band hold a second public rehearsal for the Magic Tour, where they play “Magic” and Patti’s “Town Called Heartbreak” from her new Play It As It Lays album for the first time. Sessions Band members Jeremy Chatzky and Curt Ramm join the band for the show-closing “American Land.”
Earlier in the day, Patti is interviewed about her own new album by Jimmy Baron on Atlanta & Co.
2009: Bruce takes a break from the Working on a Dream Tour to join Elvis Costello (along with Nils and Roy) at the legendary Apollo Theater for a two-part episode of Spectacle: Elvis Costello with…
Nils, not Nills (in the final paragraph)