Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at MetLife Stadium: Boss' wildest party for 50,000
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The moment is here.
In the middle of the COVID-19 lockdown, Bruce Springsteen promised a very big party for 50,000 in New Jersey. The Boss and the E Street Band are now set to play three shows, Wednesday, Aug. 30; Friday, Sept. 1; and Sunday, Sept. 3 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford.
“All I can tell you is when this experience is over, I am going to throw the wildest party you have ever seen and you my friends are all invited,” said Springsteen on the May 6, 2020 episode of his “From His Home, To Yours” show on Sirius XM’s E Street Radio. “Fifty thousand people will once again scream their heads off somewhere in New Jersey.”
It took a long time to get to this point. The current tour, which played at the Prudential Center in Newark on April 14, began in February of this year, months after comparable other major acts hit the road post-lockdown. Initially, high ticket prices due to Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing drew criticism from some quarters, and some fans are griping about the largely static setlist of the tour’s shows.
All that should recede about 7:45 p.m. or so on Wednesday, at MetLife, famously built at the Meadowlands on a former swamp in Jersey. Are fans ready?
“Yes!” said Margery Miller from Beach Haven, who’s going to the Sept. 3 show with her daughter Jesse. They’ll be in the general admission pit. Miller is especially looking forward to the MetLife show as she was planning to see the Boss and E Street in Philly but the shows there on Aug. 16 and 18 were postponed due to the Boss “having been taken ill,” according to Springsteen’s social media handles.
The nature of the illness has not been revealed, but E Street Band members, including Steven Van Zandt, Nils Lofgren, Jake Clemons and Soozie Tyrell, have missed shows on the current tour’s earlier U.S. area leg due to COVID. The COVID that ran through the band has so far not resulted in any long-term issues.
More: What happened to Bruce Springsteen? Fans wish him well after Philadelphia shows postponed
Springsteen himself did have COVID-19 in April. Prior to that, the band postponed three shows due to another undisclosed illness in the band.
“To say that COVID-19 is gone is to ignore reality,” said Shawn Poole, former Backstreets contributor and now editor of the new Letters to You Springsteen site. “It’s still there but the hope is we’re a lot better equipped to deal with it and when somebody gets it it’s not going to be some kind of horrible death sentence or change their life in any kind of horrible way as long as they’re vaccinated and all those good things.”
In New Jersey, COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are rising, mirroring a national trend as a new variant has been detected. Yet the number of those getting severely ill or dying from the virus in the state remains very low compared to the post-holiday surge in January. There were 286 COVID hospital admissions in the week ending Aug. 12, according to the CDC COVID data tracker.
“COVID-19 is still looming out there and can still become an issue as we’ve seen at certain points on this tour and it very well may continue to be an issue, but for the most part they've been able to continue touring,” Poole said. “They’re doing the best they can under the circumstances and I just hope that everyone remains as healthy as possible.”
The theme, like other shows on the tour, is mortality and its motivational properties. The concept originated on the Springsteen and E Street Band 2020 album, “Letter to You,” which explores the 2018 passing of George Theiss, Springsteen’s teenage bandmate in the Castiles of Freehold. Theiss’ passing left Springsteen the lone surviving member of the band.
The album was released in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has taken the lives of more than 1.1 million Americans.
“It’s been very sad and I suppose it is something that gets addressed in our record and maybe some folks will find it comforting,” said Springsteen of the connection between “Letter to You” and the pandemic in a previous interview with The Asbury Park Press.
More: Bruce Springsteen talks 'Letter to You', E Street Band and more: The transcript
The current tour’s shows have been about three hours long, with a spoken interlude from Springsteen on Theiss’ passing.
“For this fan, who is in the latter part of his 50s, the messages in this current show are very relevant, very meaningful and very inspirational,” said Poole of Philadelphia. “I’ve lost a lot of people along the way and that is embedded in this show. Trying to live the best life that you can for as long as you can, and dealing with the fact that you’re not going to be around forever. I think you want to build a life that has some meaning and will have an impact beyond your physical presence on the planet, all that is embedded in the show in my view. At the same time he’s rocking out and having good time — it’s not all dour and sad but it’s that typical mix of all aspects of life that Bruce has embedded in his show for decades now.”
The songs are basically a dream Springsteen and E Street Band setlist, yet a number of fans have griped about the lack of song rotation from show to show.
“When people are actually at the show, physically at the show and experiencing it, I’ve heard overwhelmingly positive reactions to it,” Poole said. “I know there are people who are quibbling about ‘Hey, he doesn’t play this, why doesn’t he change this, do that,' that’s always been a part of his fan base, that’s not a new development. I think it’s a great show. I’m looking forward to seeing it again and I know there are lot of people who feel the same way and they tend to fill these ballparks and stadiums on a regular basis.”
The Jersey audience usually gets some home cooking at the Springsteen shows.
“I’m expecting him to add a song or two and that’s it,” Miller said. “I’m not expecting that he’s going to do this whole new set for us. I’m hoping he does throw a couple in. I went to the Madison Square Garden show (On April 1) and he did ‘Jungleland’ and that was a gift.”
Tickets range from $100 to $500 for the shows via Ticketmaster.
"He’s jamming a lot of music into the show and he’s letting the music do the talking,” Poole said.
Go: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 30; Friday, Sept. 1; and Sunday, Sept. 3; MetLife Stadium, One MetLife Stadium Dr., East Rutherford. $100 to $500. metlifestadium.com
Springsteen and the E Street Band North American Tour
Aug. 9: Chicago, Wrigley Field
Aug. 11: Chicago, Wrigley Field
Aug. 16, Philadelphia, Citizens Bank Park (postponed)
Aug. 18: Philadelphia, Citizens Bank Park (postponed)
Aug. 24: Foxborough, Massachusetts, Gillette Stadium
Aug. 26: Foxborough, Massachusetts, Gillette Stadium
Aug. 30: East Rutherford, MetLife Stadium
Sept. 1: East Rutherford, MetLife Stadium
Sept. 3: East Rutherford, MetLife Stadium
Sept. 7: Syracuse, New York, MA Wireless Dome
Sept. 9: Baltimore, Oriole Park at Camden Yards
Sept. 12: Pittsburgh, PPG Paints Arena
Sept. 14: Pittsburgh, PPG Paints Arena
Sept. 16: Uncasville, Connecticut, Mohegan Sun Arena
Sept. 19: Albany, New York, MVP Arena
Sept. 21: Columbus, Ohio, Nationwide Arena
Sept. 29: Washington, D.C., Nationals Park
Nov. 3: Vancouver, British Columbia, Rogers Arena
Nov. 6: Edmonton, Alberta, Rogers Place
Nov. 8: Calgary, Alberta, Scotiabank Saddledome
Nov. 10: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Life Centre
Nov 14: Toronto, Scotiabank Arena
Nov. 16: Toronto, Scotiabank Arena
Nov. 18: Ottawa, Ontario, Canadian Tire Centre
Nov. 20: Montreal, Centre Bell
Nov. 30: Phoenix, Footprint Center
Dec. 2: San Diego, Pechanga Arena
Dec. 4: Los Angeles, Kia Forum
Dec. 6: Los Angeles, Kia Forum
Dec. 10: San Francisco, Chase Center
Dec. 12: San Francisco, Chase Center
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Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. Contact him at @chrisfhjordan; cjordan@app.com
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Bruce Springsteen and E Street at MetLife: Party for 50,000 in Jersey
