Bruce Springsteen will return to Barcelona in 2023, city that will be the only one in Spain that will welcome him on next year’s tour. Concert at the Estadi Olímpic, on April 28, which will open a European ‘tour’ of, for now, 19 concerts in 11 countries, to which a few more will be added (dates to be closed in Belgium and the United Kingdom), and which will represent , if no health setback prevents it, his return to the great live machinery after the years of the plague.
It will have been seven years of absence in Europe, since in this time the activity of the Boss has been limited to his residences on Broadway (2017-18, with an extension in 2021), and the covid-19 has done the rest. It is the longest absence on the continent in his entire career: until now, the longest period occurred between his first two visits, in 1975 and 1981, in times prior to the global phenomenon. A lot of hunger accumulated among the fans before a return that raises various questions.
Three years of deferrals
This tour comes from afar, since was initially scheduled for 2020 and it has been jumping from one year to another according to the evolution of the pandemic. Last November it was about to be announced when the omicron wave froze the plans and ended up forcing a third postponement. A start of the world tour was then planned in Barcelona, on April 29 and May 1 at the Estadi Olímpic, dates that, like the others committed in Europe, have been moved with few changes to 2023.
The Boss is known for announcing tours with little notice, very sure of filling stadiums and pavilions without much effort, and he had never published a European itinerary with such a margin of time, eleven months. The reason is that the device, derived from negotiations with the promoters of each country, has been ready since 2020.
The Catalan capital will not only be the starting point of the European tour, but also the tour base camp in the transit of the North American tour, centered on covered pavilions, and the dates in stadiums on this side of the Atlantic. For this reason, the Boss is expected to spend a few days in the city, four, five or even a week, before the date of the concert, adjusting the pieces of the show.
It is possible that it will offer a General rehearsal with the public at the Palau Sant Jordi (large room or at the Sant Jordi Club). and there is one second date reserved at the Estadi Olímpic, for April 29, in the (probable) case that the first one sells out quickly and that the logistics of the tour allow it, which involves a cumbersome transfer of trailers to Dublin, the next appointment.
Springsteen will feature the E Street Band, his quintessential band, which retains four headliners from the ’70s, Garry Tallent (bass), Max Weinberg (drums), Roy Bittan (keyboards), and Steve Van Zandt (guitar), as well as two ’80s signings, Nils Lofgren (guitar) and the boss’s wife, Patti Scialfa (vocals and acoustic guitar), plus the three modern additions, Soozie Tyrell (violin, guitar and vocals), Charlie Giordano (keyboards, occupying the square of Danny Federici, who died in 2008) and Jake Clemons (sax, nephew of the also ill-fated Clarence Clemons, who left us in 2011). Tallent, Bittan and Boss himself are the elders of the clan, and They will face the tour with 73 years of age.
Tickets without ‘vip’ prices
Tickets will go on sale on June 8 at prices ranging from 65 to 125 euros for seats with reserved seats in the stands, while there will be two categories on the track, rear area (82 euros) and front area (125 ). Each buyer may purchase a maximum of six tickets. These amounts are in line with this summer’s macro-concerts such as those of Red Hot Chili Peppers (49-125 euros) or Iron Maiden (65-100 euros), although these two bands offer ‘vip’ packages of up to 550 euros (Peppers) and 160 (Maiden) that will not exist at the Springsteen concert.
Springsteen’s last album, ‘Letter to you’, released in October 2020, It presented him reunited with the E Street Band with a rock sign material designed for the tour. For this reason, it is expected that the album will have a presence at the concerts, although we know of its gift for improvisation, and the seven years without touring, and the foreseeable presence of new audiences, may be incentives for him to decide to delve into classic material. If it repeats the pattern of other ‘tours’, ‘Letter to you’ can be noticed, above all, in the repertoires of the North American tour (scheduled for February-March 2023, with dates yet to be specified), while in Europe the script will lean more towards the ‘greatest hits’. As the Boss’s ‘connaisseurs’ know, he will be the one who decides at the last minute the agenda in the ‘setlist’ written in his own handwriting.