As expected, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will return to the road in early 2023, launching a series of to-be-announced U.S. arena dates in February, followed by European stadium shows kicking off on April 28 in Barcelona, with a second North American tour leg starting in August.
Said Springsteen: “After six years, I’m looking forward to seeing our great and loyal fans next year. And I’m looking forward to once again sharing the stage with the legendary E Street Band. See you out there, next year — and beyond.”
Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band Announce 2023 International Tour! More info on tickets at https://t.co/YahXTJXE7l pic.twitter/wUax9aiZ8V
— Bruce Springsteen (@springsteen) May 24, 2022
The planned European stops are Barcelona, Dublin, Paris, Ferrara, Rome, Amsterdam, Landgraaf, Zurich, Düsseldorf, Gothenburg, Oslo, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Vienna, Munich and Monza. Additional cities and shows in the U.K. and Belgium will be announced at a later date.
The 2023 dates will mark the first live shows for Springsteen and the E Street Band since the conclusion of their 14-month, worldwide “The River” tour in Australia in February of 2017. The group last played publicly on “Saturday Night Live” in December of 2020, where they performed two songs from their most recent studio album, “Letter to You.”
Hours after the announcement, Springsteen phoned in to SiriusXM’s E Street Radio to talk about what fans can expect.
“It doesn’t feel that long” since the band last tour, he told host Jim Rotolo. “We’ve stayed busy over that time but still I have got the jones to play live very badly at this point, so I am deeply looking forward to getting out there in front of our fans.”
Rehearsals will start in January, and that full fledged tour will stretch out to Australia and New Zealand following the August U.S. stadium dates and come “back around again,” he teased.
“It’s been a while and I am just aching to play — not just play but to travel and see our fans in all our different cities and feel that life again, see their faces again,” he said. “We’ve got an old-school tour planned where we will be out there for quite a while and give everybody a chance to see us if they would like to. We are going to rehearse in January — I already wrote out set lists, just to have something to do,” he added, noting that the setlist “will have a significant amount of recent material, and then we will play a lot of the music that the fans have become familiar with and love to hear. Should be a balance — feel contemporary and at home at the same time.”
Asked if he is planning to include material from his solo work, “Western Stars,” Springsteen was hesitant.
“I like to keep it a rock show, basically,” he said. “I always feel like once you are out in an arena or a stadium, people have come to see a rock and roll show,” he said. “The interesting thing to do with ‘Western Stars’ would be to take a theater and play it from start to bottom,” as he and the group did for a film last year.In 2021, Springsteen, who will be 73 when the tour launches, released the group’s “The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts” film, collaborated with President Barack Obama on the book “Renegades: Born in the USA” and reprised his “Springsteen on Broadway” show to help reopen New York City’s theaters last summer.
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.
