J Schil's Blog

The 5 night stand got a little more interesting late last night:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 29, 2009
Printable Version

Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band To Perform Full Album Sequences During Giants Stadium Run

‘Born To Run,’ ‘Darkness On The Edge Of Town,’ ‘Born In The USA’ Each To Be Performed In Their Entirety

In response to the overwhelming fan enthusiasm at Chicago’s Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band live performance of the album ‘Born to Run,’ Springsteen has decided to perform one classic album each night at Giants Stadium:

Sep 30 E. Rutherford, NJ Giants Stadium ‘Born To Run’
Oct 2 E. Rutherford, NJ Giants Stadium ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’
Oct 3 E. Rutherford, NJ Giants Stadium ‘Born In The USA’
Oct 8 E. Rutherford, NJ Giants Stadium ‘Born To Run’
Oct 9 E. Rutherford, NJ Giants Stadium ‘Born In The USA’

In Chicago, Bruce began with a varied set list, performed the album portion of the show in the middle of the concert, and continued the show through its grand finale. Said long time manager Jon Landau, “Chicago convinced us that this was really worth doing. The audience was so supportive of the concept that it convinced us to go ahead with this at Giants Stadium.”

Chicago Tribune’s Greg Kot called that city’s performance “epic,” continuing, “they delivered and then some.”

What do I think? I’ll let everyone know after I check one of the shows out.

Glastonbury was a big deal for Bruce — 135,000 people watched him and the Band do a fantastic show. They also enjoyed one of the greatest confluences of mother nature and cinematography many people have ever seen.

Enjoy this rendition of “The River,” with steaming rising from Bruce.

Bruce’s longtime manager Jon Landau released a statement on the continuing controversy involving themselves and Ticketmaster. While I’ll hold most of my opinion out of this, I do think this kind of a response may not have been warranted. But they gave it, so I’ll post it:

Somehow, a new flurry of interest has been created around Thrill Hill’s ticket holds for the recent Izod Center shows. These are the same shows that became such a subject of controversy when they went on sale on February 2nd. The new theory is that Bruce’s holds were the problem on February 2nd, and not Ticketmaster’s already acknowledged failures on that day. But the truth is that Bruce’s holds had nothing to do at all with the breakdown of Ticketmaster’s system.

These are the undisputed facts about February 2nd. On that morning, when our fans went to buy their Bruce and Band tickets for the face value of $95, they were in many cases immediately linked to Ticketmaster’s wholly owned ticket reselling company TicketsNow, where prices were many times higher than $95. We call this “bait and switch.” As a result, an undetermined but large amount of money flowed into TicketsNow (and eventually Ticketmaster) even though there were still tickets at normal prices yet to be made available on Ticketmaster. We perceived this to have been a major abuse of our fans, complained about it mightily, and added that because of behavior like this, the pending merger of the number one ticketing company and number one management company (both owned by Ticketmaster) with the number one venue owner and operator (Live Nation) might not be such a hot idea.

How do we know that all this is true?

1. On February 2nd, when the ticket fiasco occurred, Ticketmaster’s CEO wrote to Bruce, myself, and our fans to generously apologize, which apology we promptly and graciously posted on our site. The letter stated that the problem was the product of an inexplicable “glitch.”

2. The volume of complaints received by New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram exceeded anything ever experienced before and she ultimately secured a consent degree from Ticketmaster, in which they promised that some of their practices (“glitches”) with regard to its sister company TicketsNow will never be repeated.

3. The CEO of Ticketmaster openly testified as to their responsibility for these “glitches” in front of Committees of Congress.

Based on all of the above, we can safely conclude that on February 2nd, Ticketmaster transferred legitimate requests for tickets at face value over to their TicketsNow site, where they could charge people hundreds and hundreds more dollars for the same ticket. The amount of additional profit generated by scalper type prices through this now famous “glitch” remains unknown. Whether this was merely an extremely profitable “glitch” for Ticketmaster/TicketsNow or something else, we have no way of knowing.

Last Sunday, June 14, the Newark Star Ledger ran an article entitled “Springsteen withheld best tickets from the public at NJ concert, records show.” This is the same article that the Star Ledger runs whenever we do a few indoor shows in New Jersey. It suggested that we were in someway responsible for the Ticketmaster/TicketsNow problem. On Thursday, June 18, Hits Magazine ran a summary of this article, On Friday, June 19, Ticketmaster’s Chairman attacked Bruce personally in the New York Post, in an article called “Ticket Blitzkrieg.” In this article, Ticketmaster’s Chairman deploys by implication Ticketmaster’s new line: despite their apology, despite the consent decree with Attorney General Milgram, and despite their testimony in Congress, the ticket catastrophe was actually Bruce’s fault.

Of course, the only thing wrong with the Chairman’s spin is that it’s flatly untrue. He is merely using the time honored tradition of blowing smoke to distract attention away from Ticketmaster’s already acknowledged responsibility for their “glitches” on February 2nd, the on-sale date of the two Izod Center shows.

Now lets talk a little about Thrill Hill’s ticket practices. Perhaps the first thing to be said is that when we play New Jersey, our fans know that we are usually going to do more than two indoor shows in order to ensure, among other things, that during the course of a tour, Springsteen tickets will be plentiful so as many fans as possible will have a chance to get great seats (hence the five upcoming shows at Giants Stadium.) As our fans also know, we have kept all of our tickets under $100 and do all that we can to ensure that as many as possible are sold at face value.

Yes, we do hold significant numbers of tickets when we play New Jersey, New York and Los Angeles, as does every arena headliner. These holds are used by Bruce, his band members, and longtime members of his extended organization, their families and close relations; by the record label for their staff, for reviewers, and for radio stations; by charities who are provided with tickets for fund raising purposes, such as special auctions; for service people who help us on a year-round basis; and for other similar purposes. Unlike some Ticketmaster managed artists, no tickets are held for high dollar resale on TicketsNow, or through any other means.

Where are the Bruce holds? The 2,000 to 3,500 tickets closest to the stage are on the floor and more than 95% of them go to the public, making the basic premise of the Star Ledger headline inaccurate. Secondly, with regard to seats held in the best sections on either side, we always blend guest seats with fan seats so that there are never any sections consisting entirely of guest seats.

In addition, it is well known that we sometimes release a significant number of excellent tickets on the day of the show at the box office, which can only be bought with direct entrance to the venue. It’s known as the “drop.” Many think that is done on purpose to help combat the scalpers who prey on fans at the last minute. That is a good thought.

(Also, in connection with the Izod Center shows in particular, we released some of our holds to Attorney General Milgram to go into the lottery she created to help deal with people who were penalized by the Ticketmaster/TicketsNow “glitch” on February 2nd.)

Those are our ticket practices, as they have evolved over more than 30 years of experience. Does anyone seriously imagine that any element of these practices caused Ticketmaster to redirect ticket requests to TicketsNow for the Izod Center shows? What would our incentive have been? It’s not we who earned vastly larger sums when fans paid way over the face value of the tickets. It was Ticketmaster/TicketsNow.

Final thoughts: We have no interest in having an ongoing conflict with Ticketmaster/TicketsNow or anyone else. That has not been part of our history. And it is generally not our purpose to spend time on this site on matters of this kind. But we do get upset when we see fans being taken advantage of, as they were on February 2nd. So, when that stuff stops happening (and the Ticketmaster/TicketsNow problems surrounding our recent show in Washington D.C. shows that these issues are far from resolved) we will stop complaining. And when the facts cease to be misrepresented, we will stop explaining.

Yeah, Bruce made sure Bonnaroo surely ended on an upswing. From Backstreets.com:

The Saturday night show not “jammy” enough for ya? Well, Springsteen stuck around Bonnaroo for another day, and really got into the spirit of things with Phish for the festival finale. Springsteen joined the band for three songs at the end of their first set late Sunday night, after guitarist Trey Anastasio gave a lengthy introduction about Bruce and the E Street Band being the first concert he’d ever seen. The Boss traded solos with Trey on a ten-minute “Mustang Sally,” and led Phish through his own “Bobby Jean” and “Glory Days.”…

One thing we [Backstreets] like about Phish: they offer high quality, unedited soundboard recordings for many shows online. Preview and download individual tracks—21 minutes of Bruce and Phish, all told—at livephish.com.

Seriously, go download it. It’s great stuff.

This is my show review, as posted on Backstreets.com for Bruce and the E Street Band:

“Well hello everyone. That show rocked.

1) Adam was awesome…jeez does Bruce do work on that.

2) Outlaw Pete had new lights you’ll see them in the videos…couple rows of them behind the stage and on the floor…don’t know if I like them or don’t.

3) Johnny 99 was a riot. Bruce, Stevie or Jay messed up. I have no idea which. But they didn’t give Jay has drum solo, so when they got to the dramatic pause, Bruce said to Stevie I gotta give Jay his drum solo, so, hysterically laughing they went back, did that, and off they went.

4) No guitar camera on GOTJ.

5) The signs were fun…Big Man nailed both I’m Goin Down solos.

6) The Wrestler and Kingdom of Days emptied the arena…but KOD was gorgeous. Patti looked very happy tonight.

7) The Rising is a hit…a flat out hit for Bruce, it cannot be deleted.

This is the video of the GS announcement.

9) Hard Times was gorgeous.

10) Clarence nailed the Jungleland solo — he changed something up in there…he also made the Growin’ Up solo a little easier for himself. Speaking of Jungleland, Patti left the stage for that one and reappeared for LOHAD and the rest of the encore.

11) Nice shoutout for Jay before LOHAD….Bruce is still searching for the right band intro for him…he came off as speechless tonight. Speaking of Jay…I don’t wanna say he was bad tonight…he’s absolutely awesome…but I’m not sure we’ll look back on it and say Izod 1 was his BEST night.

12) We had a major messup during the bridge of Rosie. Either Clarence messed up or his mic cutout but that grinded to a screeching halt, and the entire rest of the bridge was messed up.

Great show, crowd was real real good, and Bruce rocked the house!

Oh, major P.S. The traffic situation because of the construction is HORRIBLE, absolutely HORRIBLE. LEAVE EARLY TOMORROW!!!! Please, even if you hate sitting around in an arena, DO IT!”

On Thursday and Friday nights Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band made history: someone else besides Max Weinberg drummed a show for the first time in 35 years. Bruce clearly felt the magnitude of the moment, as referenced here:

“”This is a big, big night,” said Bruce toward the end of the Albany show. “For the first time in 35 years, someone else has sat at the drums: Max’s son. We got a new blood brother there.” After working up to it over the past couple months, Jay got his first complete show under his belt, start to finish. Lots of power on display, particularly strong on “No Surrender.” Described in the band intros as “the unbelievable, the prodigy…,” Jay proved it all night.”

Jay has done well so far. Proving to everyone why they hired him, and now he gets to be on one of rock’s biggest stages, front and center, rockin’ in the free world. Enjoy the ride, Jay.

As posted on Backstreets.com:

“Well, where do I start. My 15th show, in section 215 (an absolutely dead section). But an awesome show and crowd. Loudest crowd I’ve ever heard once the lights went down.

Thoughts:

1) As you can see by looking at the handwritten, Jackson and Pete got flipped…Bruce waived off Kev and caused commotion throughout the band. They did nail Jackson.

2) There were NO LCD screens or smoke. There was also no Patti.

3) At some point in the first 3 songs it appeared that Max broke a drum head…causing 2 roadies to be frantically fixing things, running out new heads left and right…this was all during the intro to She’s the One….Max looked extremely unhappy but didn’t miss a beat and was right on.

4) Jay came on for Radio (I like the setlist movement) and the Recession Pack…and drummed great. He did make a little boo boo in Johnny 99…the same mistake Max actually made in the first rehearsal show…like father like son..he’s got great power. Really great power.

5) Speaking of Johnny 99…as you’ll hear on the boot…Bruce literally stopped that end part for a good 2 minutes…got the crowd to go nuts..then brought them back and Stevie went off again on his solo. The recession pack really works…GOTJ was awesome.

6) I love the signs. They NAILED Wild Thing..I mean absolutely nailed the thing…Clarence was on piccolo..it was the only thing he may have messed up all night…and I’m still not sure he messed up…hard to hear. But they absolutely nailed it.

7) Then we get to Waitin’ on a Sunny Day…During Clarence’s solo Bruce went onto the center pit stage where he basically got physically taken in by the people there. They were grabbing onto him, holding onto him…they just would not let go to the point where (and I’m pretty sure this wasn’t shtick) Nils came over and draggggedddd him out of that situation. Very, very funny. Bruce then proceeded, before Promised Land to roll up his sleeves and show off his guns (“for the people”)…then for The Wrestler he rolled the other one up…so a lot of these videos are going to look like they’re from 1984-1988 because he did look like that.

The Wrestler and Kingdom of Days are both gorgeous.

9) Caddy was a complete, houselights still up, “Gimme some guitar Monty” audible…worked great with the crowd. Especially the mess-ups. We got to Clarence’s solo which he proceeded to play an octave down. Not a wrong note, just in the wrong octave. Bruce then said something to him about that, and then he took it to the right octave, and Bruce and him started laughing. Now I’m not sure if this led to it but Soozie never came in and as a result Clarence just kept playing the band kept dancing.

10) Hard Times is beautiful.

11) Rosie worked…I’d like a song after that…but it is what it is.

It’s gonna be hard for me to ever top 7/21/2003…but that show was very very solid…and very strong. Europe, you’re in good shape with Jay.

P.S. Nils was Nils…in great shape. Soozie messed up the AL solo at least twice. I’ll remember more of these things tomorrow obviously. Oh, and Clarence is moving much better than he was from the videos earlier in the tour. And was as loud in the mix as I’ve heard him in a very very very long time.”

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band begun the Working on a Dream tour last night in San Jose. You can read all about it here, and watch a video of part of WOAD at BS.net. Then there’s this video of “The Wrestler”: