Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band Bring ‘The River Tour’ to Wells Fargo Center on February 12
Dec 4, 2015
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band launch The River Tour, a nine-week US trek, on Jan. 16 in Pittsburgh. The announcement of the tour coincides with today’s release of “The Ties That Bind: The River Collection,” a comprehensive look at the era of the 1980 “The River” album that “Rolling Stone” calls “Springsteen’s best archival release yet.”
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band will be performing one show only at Wells Fargo Center on Friday, February 12th. Tickets will go on sale on Friday, December 11th at 10am exclusively through ComcastTIX, online at ComcastTIX.com, by phone at 1-800-298-4200, or in person at Wells Fargo Center box office. Bruce Springsteen’s Philadelphia performance is presented by Larry Magid Entertainment.
Springsteen precedes the tour with a Dec. 19 performance on “Saturday Night Live,” his third appearance on the NBC show.
The River Tour (#TheRiverTour) is the first for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band since the 2014 High Hopes Tour.
Each night of the tour will be mixed for release on Live.BruceSpringsteen.net as high-quality downloads and CDs. Recordings will be available within days of each performance.
The original The River Tour began Oct. 3, 1980, two weeks before the release of Springsteen’s fifth album, and continued through Sept. 4, 1981. With sets that regularly approached the four-hour range, the 140-date international tour firmly established a reputation for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band as marathon performers.
“The Ties That Bind: The River Collection” includes 52 tracks on four CDs with a wealth of unreleased material and four hours of never-before-seen video on three DVDs. It contains the original “The River” double album; the first official release of “The River: Single Album”; a CD of 1979/80 studio outtakes; a brand-new documentary about “The River”; and a coffee-table book of 200 rare or previously unseen photos and memorabilia, with a new essay by Mikal Gilmore. The set also includes a two-DVD film of never-released, newly edited multi-camera footage from a Nov. 1980 show in Tempe, AZ, described by NPR as a “holy grail.”
Bruce Springsteen is the only artist to perform in every live music venue in Philadelphia. Springsteen and the E Street Band “completed the cycle” by performing at the home of the Philadelphia Phillies during Labor Day Weekend 2012. They have performed at the Spectrum 36 times, including the very first time on June 6, 1973. They have also performed at the Wells Fargo Center 11 times, including the first time on September 13, 1999. Springsteen and the E Street Band have also performed three times at Lincoln Financial Field, the home of the Philadelphia Eagles, including the first time on August 8, 2003. They also performed twice at the former home of the Eagles and Phillies, Veterans Stadium, on August 14-15, 1985. Finally, in completing the cycle, Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at JFK Stadium on September 19, 1988.
Springsteen himself made two cameos at two of these venues – at JFK Stadium with U2 on September 25, 1987; and at Wells Fargo Center, also with U2, on October 17,2005. Bruce also appeared at the Electric Factory with Joe Grushecky and at Tower Theatre for the Ghost of Tom Joad tour on December 8 and 9, 1995.
Springsteen has already accomplished an unprecedented feat in Philadelphia music history when his tour traveled a distance of 758-feet, nine-and-a-half inches in less than one day from the Spectrum to the Wachovia Center to perform on back-to-back nights in September of 1999. The feat was submitted to the Guinness of Book of World Records.
The E Street Band’s members are: Roy Bittan – piano, synthesizer; Nils Lofgren – guitar, vocals; Patti Scialfa – guitar, vocals; Garry Tallent – bass guitar; Stevie Van Zandt – guitar, vocals; and Max Weinberg – drums; with Soozie Tyrell – violin, guitar, vocals; Jake Clemons – saxophone; and Charlie Giordano – keyboards.