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The River Tour (2016)

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This article is about the tour in support of The Ties That Bind: The River Collection. For Springsteen's 1980–1981 tour, see The River Tour.
The River Tour 2016
Tour by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Associated albumThe Ties That Bind: The River Collection
Start dateJanuary 16, 2016 (2016-01-16)
End dateSeptember 14, 2016 (2016-09-14)
Legs3
No. of shows47 in North America
28 in Europe
75 in Total
Box office$183.1 million
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concert chronology

The River Tour 2016 is a current concert tour by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in support of Springsteen's 2015 The Ties That Bind: The River Collection box set.[1] This marks the first tour in two years for Springsteen and the E Street Band. All shows on the first North American leg of tour and some shows from the second leg - Paris 2, Gothenburg 3, and Oslo 2 - featured a full-length sequential performance of Springsteen's 1980 album, The River in celebration of its 35th anniversary. The other shows have featured a large part of the album performed, albeit not always in album order. Many of the shows have been lasting over three and a half hours with over 30 songs being performed. The August 23, 2016 show at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey lasted 3 hrs and 52 mins, at the time his longest show ever in the United States and the third longest show of his career.[2] Two nights later, the second show at MetLife Stadium lasted 3hrs and 59 minutes surpassing the previous show and now his second longest ever [3]however Springsteen would again top his own record on August 30, 2016 at the third and final MetLife Stadium show when he performed for 4 hrs and 1 minute which now stands as his longest show in the United States and second longest ever. Bruce would again top his own record on September 7, 2016 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania clocking in at 4hrs and 4 minutes.

As of July 2016, The River 2016 Tour has been the highest grossing world-wide tour of the year with 1.1 million tickets sold and over $135 million in box office revenue, according to Billboard Boxscore's mid-year report. Springsteen and the E Street Band also hold the biggest Boxscore so far this year, with the May 27 and 29 shows at Dublin’s Croke Park taking in $19,228,100 from 160,188 attendance for two sellout shows.[4]

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.

Background

Springsteen released The Ties That Bind: The River Collection on December 4, 2015. The extensive box set features the original 1980 The River album along with many outtakes from those sessions. Along with the full album performance (for part of the tour), songs from Springsteen's other albums will be performed and it is possible that select outtakes from the box set will be performed live, some likely for the first time.

Rumors of shows or a full tour in support of the box set spread amongst fans and the media in the months prior to the release of the box set. In November 2015 it was announced that Springsteen and the E Street Band would perform on the December 19, 2015 episode of Saturday Night Live which further fueled the rumors of a tour possibly starting in December or early 2016. The tour was announced on December 4, 2015 with tickets going on sale seven days later. The River Tour 2016 was extended with more added dates on January 24, 2016; with a rumored Las Vegas date that would be aired on HBO being cancelled.[5] On January 27, Springsteen announced 15 new dates to added to the tour.[6][7] On May 9, 2016, Springsteen announced he was extending the tour with eight late summer in the United States at mostly outdoor stadiums.[8]

The tour in support of the box set came unexpectedly as Springsteen was working on a new solo album and planned to tour in support of it however with it already being two years since his last tour with the E Street Band he didn't want to delay things even further with them. In November 2015, Springsteen and manager Jon Landau discussed how they wanted to promote the box set. Landau suggested performing The River at a few small shows in New York City and Los Angeles; however, Springsteen said it would take too long to rehearse and suggested doing twenty shows. Drummer Max Weinberg said he got the call from Springsteen on Thanksgiving, a week before the tour was announced to the public. "In all of my professional engagements, I have what I call the Springsteen Clause. It's inviolate. It's my own version of force majeure. It's an act of God or Bruce Springsteen. And it works all the time." Weinberg said. Nils Lofgren had to change dates on his solo tour, while Gary Tallent had to postpone his.[9][10][11]

This will be the first tour in which all dates will feature the same album performed in its entirety. Unlike the previous few tours, the touring lineup will be downsized and will not feature a full horn section or backing vocalists.[12]"I knew the basis of the show was going to be The River, and that was a small rock group. The tighter lineup feels much more like the old days", Springsteen said. Like previous tours, Patti Scialfa hasn't been present at every show due to her responsibilities as a mother supporting her daughter in her equestrian career. Due to Patti not being present at every show, along with no choir, Garry Tallent is singing backup vocals down on the front line this tour.

The original River Tour began in October 1980 and continued through September 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.

Itinerary

North American leg 1

The tour got underway in Pittsburgh on January 16, 2016. Each show so far has kicked off with "Meet Me in the City" followed by the full album performance of The River and concluded with a twelve song set featuring songs from the rest of Springsteen's catalog usually finishing the night with a cover of The Isley Brothers' classic, "Shout". At the first show in Pittsburgh, Springsteen and the E Street Band performed "Rebel Rebel" in tribute to David Bowie who had died earlier that week. Two nights later at the tour's second show, Springsteen gave an acoustic solo performance of "Take It Easy" in tribute to Glenn Frey who had died the previous day.[13] The show scheduled for January 24, 2016 at Madison Square Garden was postponed due to Winter Storm Jonas, a record setting snowstorm that hit the East Coast. The show was rescheduled for March 28. As a gift to fans due to the postponed concert, Springsteen made the MP3 download of his Chicago performance free for two days.[14] At Springsteen's Washington, D.C. stop he dedicated "No Surrender" to Ryan Chalmers, a man who used the song as his anthem as he pushed his wheelchair across the United States for 71 days and over 3,000 miles. He also dedicated it as he had done at past concerts to the various military veterans attending which included Bobby Muller, president and co-founder of the Vietnam Veterans of America.[15] Peter Wolf joined the band providing vocals on "Shout" during the February 4, 2016 show while Joe Grushecky and Johnny Grushecky made a surprise appearance during "Born to Run" at the February 23, 2016 show. At the Rochester, New York show, Springsteen performed "I Wanna Be With You" for only the third time since 1999. Eddie Vedder made a surprise appearance on March 24, 2016 in Seattle when he joined the band for "Bobby Jean". On April 14, 2016 Bob Seger surprised the Auburn Hills crowd by joining on stage to sing on "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" and "Shout". On April 23, 2016, at the first of two Brooklyn shows to end the first leg of the tour, Springsteen said that Brooklyn would mark "the last two nights we're officially playing The River from start to finish".[16] That night he opened with "Purple Rain" in tribute to Prince, who had just died. He made the song available as a free download on his website two days later. Chris Christie was among the crowd in Brooklyn on April 25 at the Barclays Center when Springsteen and the E Street band broke the venue's all-time attendance record. It marked the final night of the first leg of The River 2016 Tour and last show the band would be performing the entire album.[17]

European leg

Springsteen and the E Street Band kicked off their European leg of the tour on May 14, 2016 in Barcelona with a 36 song performance lasting over three and a half hours. This was the first performance of the tour where the full album of The River was dropped however twelve of the songs remained in the set and were still performed in sequence however with other songs from Springsteen's catalog of music being performed in between them. "Meet Me in the City", the show opener on the entire North American tour, was dropped for the first time and a cover of Prince's "Purple Rain" was again performed.[18] Two nights later in San Sebastián, "Fire", "Murder Incorporated", "Waitin' on a Sunny Day" and "This Hard Land" made their tour debuts. On May 25, 2016 at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester, Springsteen performed "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" after he spotted a fan in the crowd wearing a Santa Claus suit holding aloft a sign reading "Santa Claus is coming to Manchester", and inviting him on stage to sing with him. At the second show in Dublin on May 29, 2016, Springsteen opened the show with a rare solo piano performance of "Incident on 57th Street", which also made its tour debut, and Bono made a surprise appearance joining Springsteen on "Because the Night". The performance in The Hague on June 14, 2016, marked the second appearance of "Jersey Girl" in Europe. On July 13, 2016 and for the first time since April at the final day of the first North American leg of the tour, The River was performed in its entirety. At the same show, Springsteen opened with a solo performance of "Iceman" marking only the third time ever the song has been performed and the first time it was performed outside of the United States. Three nights later in Italy on July 16, 2016, Springsteen and the E Street Band opened the show with a very rare and surprising "New York City Serenade" complete with a string section. Springsteen has only performed the song three times outside of New York since 2000, twice in Italy in the past three years. Springsteen also dedicated "Land of Hope and Dreams" to the victims of the 2016 Nice attack a few days earlier. On July 20, 2016, Springsteen opened the show with "Dream Baby Dream" in tribute to Suicide's Alan Vega who died a few days earlier.

North American leg 2

Springsteen and the E Street Band kicked off the second North American leg of the tour on August 23, 2016 in East Rutherford, NJ at MetLife Stadium. The show opened with a rare performance of "New York City Serenade" complete with string section and the tour debut of "Jack of All Trades" also with a string section. The show lasted 3 hrs and 52 mins making it Springsteen's longest show ever in the United States. Springsteen managed to break his own record two nights later when his second show at MetLife Stadium lasted 3 hrs and 59 minutes making now his longest show ever and second longest show ever passing the 3:58 show in Gothenburg (2016) and just shy of the 4:05 show in Helsinki (2012). Springsteen again opened the second night of his three night stand at MetLife Stadium on August 25, 2016 with "New York City Serenade" (again with string section). Tom Morello joined the band on "Death to My Hometown", "American Skin (41 Shots)", "The Ghost of Tom Joad" and "Badlands". Springstee would again break his own record on August 30, 2016 for his third and final show at MetLife Stadium when he performed for 4hrs and 1 minute, which was now his longest show in the United States. Bruce made his return to Washington DC on September 1, 2016 where he performed his longest show ever in the nation's capital clocking in at 3hrs and 46 minutes. "New York City Serenade" again opened the show making it the first time since 1975 that the song was performed in DC. "Better Days" made it's tour debut while "Secret Garden" opened the encore. It was only the sixth time ever the song had been performed and the first time it was ever performed outside of the New York/New Jersey area or the UK.

Ticket scalping

As with previous Springsteen tours, ticket scalpers were a major problem when it came to buying tickets. Tickets for Springsteen's New York City shows began popping up on resale sites such as StubHub and eBay on December 7, 2015, four days before they went on sale to the public. Scalpers were re-selling tickets not yet available for as much as $5,000. This prompted the New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to launch an investigation into how this happened and wrote a letter forcing both companies to immediately remove any listings for ticket sales.[19] When tickets finally went on sale on December 11, many fans again were shut out from buying tickets as most venues sold out quickly and within minutes, tickets were appearing for hundreds to thousands of dollars more on resale sites.[20] According to reports, Springsteen's shows sold out in record time. Springsteen's show in Newark, New Jersey at the Prudential Center sold out in a few minutes. His previous 2012 show at the same venue took two hours to sell out.[21]

Set list

This set list is representative of the average setlist of the tour's first North America leg as conducted by Setlist.fm, which represents all concerts for the duration of the tour's first leg. The full album performance was dropped following the first leg although was performed at a few shows on the second leg of the tour.[22]

  1. "Meet Me in the City"
The River
  2. "The Ties That Bind"
  3. "Sherry Darling"
  4. "Jackson Cage"
  5. "Two Hearts"
  6. "Independence Day"
  7. "Hungry Heart"
  8. "Out in the Street"
  9. "Crush on You"
  10. "You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)"
  11. "I Wanna Marry You"
  12. "The River"
  13. "Point Blank"
  14. "Cadillac Ranch"
  15. "I'm a Rocker"
  16. "Fade Away"
  17. "Stolen Car"
  18. "Ramrod"
  19. "The Price You Pay"
  20. "Drive All Night"
  21. "Wreck on the Highway"
Post-River
  2. "Badlands"
  3. "Lonesome Day"
  4. "No Surrender"
  5. "She's the One"
  6. "Because the Night"
  7. "The Rising"
  8. "Thunder Road"
Encore
  2. "Born to Run"
  3. "Dancing in the Dark"
  4. "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)"
  5. "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out"
  6. "Bobby Jean"
  7. "Shout" (The Isley Brothers cover)

Tour dates

List of concerts, showing date, city, country, venue, tickets sold, amount of available tickets and gross revenue
Date City Country Venue Attendance Revenue
North America[23]
January 16, 2016 Pittsburgh United States Consol Energy Center 18,353 / 18,353 $2,412,020
January 19, 2016 Chicago United Center 19,120 / 19,120 $2,756,475
January 27, 2016 New York City Madison Square Garden 18,474 / 18,474 $2,508,528
January 29, 2016 Washington, D.C. Verizon Center 18,093 / 18,093 $2,383,850
January 31, 2016 Newark Prudential Center 16,539 / 16,539 $2,227,836
February 2, 2016 Toronto Canada Air Canada Centre 18,134 / 18,134 $1,793,936
February 4, 2016 Boston United States TD Garden 17,039 / 17,039 $2,062,417
February 8, 2016 Albany Times Union Center 15,162 / 15,162 $1,966,730
February 10, 2016 Hartford XL Center 14,672 / 14,672 $2,080,294
February 12, 2016 Philadelphia Wells Fargo Center 19,411 / 19,411 $2,503,356
February 16, 2016 Sunrise BB&T Center 18,658 / 18,658 $2,174,905
February 18, 2016 Atlanta Philips Arena 16,713 / 17,450 $1,888,030
February 21, 2016 Louisville KFC Yum! Center 15,730 / 16,900 $1,847,730
February 23, 2016 Cleveland Quicken Loans Arena 19,071 / 19,071 $2,520,055
February 25, 2016 Buffalo First Niagara Center 18,351 / 18,351 $2,186,795
February 27, 2016 Rochester Blue Cross Arena 12,581 / 12,581 $1,712,080
February 29, 2016 Saint Paul Xcel Energy Center 18,628 / 18,628 $2,576,190
March 3, 2016 Milwaukee BMO Harris Bradley Center 17,653 / 17,653 $1,969,655
March 6, 2016 St. Louis Chaifetz Arena 9,965 / 9,965 $1,334,370
March 10, 2016 Phoenix Talking Stick Resort Arena 16,480 / 16,480 $2,050,630
March 13, 2016 Oakland Oracle Arena 17,117 / 17,117 $2,245,715
March 15, 2016 Los Angeles Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena 49,302 / 49,302 $7,050,775
March 17, 2016
March 19, 2016
March 22, 2016 Portland Moda Center 12,074 / 13,700 $1,639,915
March 24, 2016 Seattle KeyArena 14,767 / 14,767 $1,929,695
March 28, 2016[A] New York City Madison Square Garden 18,484 / 18,484 $2,508,003
March 31, 2016 Denver Pepsi Center 16,770 / 18,540 $2,211,320
April 3, 2016 Oklahoma City Chesapeake Energy Arena 12,603 / 14,332 $1,557,353
April 5, 2016 Dallas American Airlines Center 15,563 / 16,961 $1,991,405
April 7, 2016 Kansas City Sprint Center 12,286 / 13,813 $1,557,745
April 12, 2016 Columbus Schottenstein Center 12,008 / 13,941 $1,568,810
April 14, 2016 Auburn Hills The Palace of Auburn Hills 14,000 / 20,000 —
April 18, 2016 University Park Bryce Jordan Center 14,447 / 15,000 $2,038,548
April 20, 2016 Baltimore Royal Farms Arena 14,124 / 14,124 $2,054,260
April 23, 2016 Brooklyn Barclays Center 33,248 / 33,248 $4,641,260
April 25, 2016
Europe[24]
May 14, 2016 Barcelona Spain Camp Nou 64,865 / 64,865 $6,014,054
May 17, 2016 San Sebastián Anoeta Stadium 41,100 / 41,100 $3,839,494
May 19, 2016[B] Lisbon Portugal Parque da Bela Vista — —
May 21, 2016 Madrid Spain Santiago Bernabéu Stadium 55,695 / 55,695 $5,359,310
May 25, 2016 Manchester England Etihad Stadium 48,614 / 50,000 $5,785,157
May 27, 2016 Dublin Ireland Croke Park 160,188 / 160,188 $19,228,100
May 29, 2016
June 1, 2016 Glasgow Scotland Hampden Park 45,330 / 45,330 $5,314,504
June 3, 2016 Coventry England Ricoh Arena 36,588 / 36,588 $4,523,864
June 5, 2016 London Wembley Stadium 68,696 / 68,696 $9,251,527
June 14, 2016 The Hague Netherlands Malieveld 67,715 / 67,715 $5,980,218
June 17, 2016 Munich Germany Olympiastadion Munich 54,119 / 54,119 $4,797,890
June 19, 2016 Berlin Olympiastadion Berlin 66,464 / 66,464 $5,932,416
June 22, 2016 Copenhagen Denmark Telia Parken 50,178 / 50,178 $4,931,456
June 25, 2016 Gothenburg Sweden Ullevi 124,734 / 124,734 $10,016,748
June 27, 2016
June 29, 2016 Oslo Norway Ullevaal Stadion 30,283 / 30,283 $3,111,732
July 3, 2016 Milan Italy San Siro 104,646 / 104,646 $8,998,967
July 5, 2016
July 9, 2016[C] Werchter Belgium Werchter Festival Grounds 65,000 / 65,000 —
July 11, 2016 Paris France AccorHotels Arena 35,344 / 35,344 $4,103,898
July 13, 2016
July 16, 2016[D] Rome Italy Circus Maximus 56,369 / 56,369 $5,258,043
July 20, 2016 Horsens Denmark CASA Arena Horsens 29,423 / 29,423 $2,927,130
July 23, 2016 Gothenburg Sweden Ullevi 64,622 / 64,622 $5,052,563
July 25, 2016 Trondheim Norway Granåsen 36,994 / 36,994 $3,897,365
July 28, 2016 Oslo Frogner Park 37,126 / 37,126 $3,858,353
July 31, 2016 Zürich Switzerland Letzigrund 36,728 / 36,728 $5,178,033
North America
August 23, 2016 East Rutherford United States MetLife Stadium 153,930 / 153,930 $18,239,039
August 25, 2016
August 28, 2016 Chicago United Center 19,313 / 19,313 $2,459,600
August 30, 2016 East Rutherford MetLife Stadium –[a] –[b]
September 1, 2016 Washington, D.C. Nationals Park — —
September 5, 2016[E] Virginia Beach Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater — —
September 7, 2016 Philadelphia Citizens Bank Park — —
September 9, 2016 — —
September 11, 2016 Pittsburgh CONSOL Energy Center — —
September 14, 2016 Foxborough Gillette Stadium — —
TOTAL 2,033,956 / 2,084,513 (97.5%) $230,010,117
  1. ^ Boxscore combined with the boxscore from August 23-25, 2016.
  2. ^ Boxscore combined with the boxscore from August 23-25, 2016.

N/A Festivals and other miscellaneous performances

A This concert was rescheduled from the show originally scheduled on January 24 which was postponed due to snow.
B This concert was part of the "Rock in Rio Lisbon"
C This concert was part of "TW Classic"
D This concert was part of the "Rock in Roma"
E This concert was rescheduled from the show originally scheduled on September 03 which was postponed due to inclement weather caused by Tropcial Storm Hermine.

Cancelled shows

On April 8, 2016, Springsteen announced on his official website that he was cancelling his concert, two days later, at the Greensboro Coliseum in North Carolina, in protest at the state legislature's new law, the HB2 (nicknamed the "Bathroom Bill"), which bans transgender people from using public restrooms of the gender with which they identify and overturns local laws that ban employers from discriminating against certain workers. "Some things are more important than a rock show", remarked the singer.[25]

List of cancelled concerts, showing date, city, country, venue and reason for cancellation
Date City Country Venue Reason/Additional Info
April 10, 2016 Greensboro United States Greensboro Coliseum HB2 law in North Carolina[26]

Songs performed

Originals/studio tracks/cover songs

Personnel

The E Street Band

with

Guest appearances

References

  1. ^ "Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band Announce 2016 The River Tour". www.brucespringsteen.net. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  2. ^ "Report: Springsteen Performs Longest U.S. Show At MetLife Stadium". newyork.cbslocal.com. August 25, 2016. Retrieved August 25, 2016.
  3. ^ http://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/springsteen-breaks-his-record-for-longest-us-show/ar-BBw5zQu?OCID=ansmsnnews11
  4. ^ "Bruce Springsteen Manager Jon Landau Talks 'The River' Tour, Forthcoming 'Expansive' Solo Album". billboard.com. July 21, 2016. Retrieved July 21, 2016.
  5. ^ http://songmango.com/bruce-vegas-scrapped-river-tour-2016-extended/
  6. ^ http://brucespringsteen.net/#post-9973
  7. ^ http://brucespringsteen.net/category/live-dates
  8. ^ http://brucespringsteen.net/news/2016/new-u-s-tour-dates
  9. ^ "Bruce Springsteen Reveals In-Progress Solo Album, River Tour Plans". rollingstone.com. 2015-12-09. Retrieved 2015-12-09.
  10. ^ http://brucespringsteen.net/news/2015/the-river-tour-2016-update
  11. ^ "How Bruce Springsteen Got Back to 'The River'". rollingstone.com. 2016-02-01. Retrieved 2016-02-01.
  12. ^ http://backstreets.com/news.html
  13. ^ Kreps, Daniel (January 20, 2016). "Watch Bruce Springsteen Pay Tribute to Glenn Frey With 'Take It Easy' Cover". Rolling Stone. Retrieved January 20, 2016.
  14. ^ Kreps, Daniel (January 25, 2016). "Bruce Springsteen Offers Free Download of Chicago 'River' Gig". Rolling Stone. Retrieved January 25, 2016.
  15. ^ https://www.facebook.com/brucespringsteen/photos/a.96223415249.118123.7401700249/10153760730285250/?type=3&theater
  16. ^ Pont, Jonathan (April 23, 2016). "April 23 / Barclays Center / Brooklyn, NY". Backstreets Magazine. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  17. ^ http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7341917/bruce-springsteen-attendance-record-barclays-center
  18. ^ http://springsteen.wickedlocal.com/2016/05/14/springsteenbarcelona/#axzz48kiwzRxP
  19. ^ "New York probes sale of 'speculative' Bruce Springsteen tickets on StubHub". www.yahoo.com. Retrieved December 8, 2015.
  20. ^ "Springsteen Ticket Buyers Left Dancing in the Dark". www.wsj.com. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
  21. ^ "Bruce Springsteen tickets sold out in moments". www.nydailynews.com. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
  22. ^ "Average setlist for tour: The River Tour 2016". Setlist.fm. April 25, 2016. Archived from the original on May 4, 2016. Retrieved May 4, 2016. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  23. ^ North America box score:
  24. ^ Europe box score:
  25. ^ "Springsteen Cancels North Carolina Concert over anti-LGBT laws". www.whatsworthseeing.com. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  26. ^ "Bruce Springsteen Cancels North Carolina Concert Over Law That 'Attacks LGBT Rights'". billboard.com. Retrieved April 21, 2016.
  27. ^ http://www.brucespringsteen.net
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