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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
Tour by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Associated albumThe Ties That Bind: The River Collection
Start dateJanuary 16, 2016
End dateFebruary 25, 2017
Legs4
No. of shows47 in North America
28 in Europe
14 in Oceania (Summer '17 tour)
89 in Total
Box office$306.5 million[1][2]
Bruce Springsteen concert chronology

The River Tour[3] was a 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 and in celebration of the 35th anniversary of Springsteen's 1980 album, The River.[4] The River Tour ended in September 2016. Subsequently, the Summer '17 tour in Australia and New Zealand continued the tour using the same promotional image from the original legs.[5]

The River Tour was the top grossing worldwide tour of 2016, pulling in $268.3 million globally, and was the highest-grossing tour since 2014 for any artist.[6] Springsteen and the E Street Band also hold the biggest boxscore for 2016, 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.[7]

The tour marked 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 featured a full-length sequential performance of The River album. Other shows featured a large part of the album, albeit not always in album order.[8] Many of the shows lasted over three and a half hours with around 33 songs performed. Springsteen's show on September 7, 2016, at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia clocked in at 4 hours and 4 minutes, his longest show in the United States and the second-longest ever in his career, at two minutes shy of his 2012 show in Helsinki.[9]

The tour was attended by many notable celebrities including; Snoop Dogg (LA show) Aimee Soller (KFC Yum! Centre) Matt Damon (Albany Show)

Background

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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.

Springsteen released The Ties That Bind: The River Collection on December 4, 2015. The box set features the original 1980 The River album along with many outtakes from the album's sessions.

The tour was announced on December 4, 2015, with tickets going on sale seven days later. It came unexpectedly, as Springsteen was working on a new solo album and planned to tour in support of that. However, with it already having been two years since his last tour with the E Street Band, Springsteen chose not to delay the next band tour even further. In November 2015, Springsteen's manager, Jon 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.[10][11][12]

This was the first Springsteen tour in which all dates featured the same album performed in its entirety. Unlike the previous few tours, the touring lineup was downsized and did not feature a full horn section or backing vocalists.[13] "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 was not present at every show due to her responsibilities as a mother supporting her daughter in her equestrian career. Due to Scialfa's not being present at every show, along with no choir, Garry Tallent, standing in her spot on stage, sang backup vocals on a consistent basis on the front line.

Itinerary

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Springsteen performing during the final date of Summer '17, on February 25, 2017, at Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland

North American leg 1

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The tour got underway in Pittsburgh on January 16, 2016. Each show kicked off with "Meet Me in the City", followed by the full album performance of The River, and concluding with a twelve-song set featuring songs from the rest of Springsteen's catalog. The show usually finished with a cover of the Isley Brothers' "Shout". The show scheduled for January 24, 2016, at Madison Square Garden was postponed due to a record-setting snowstorm that hit the East Coast. The show was rescheduled for March 28. 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".[14] That night he opened with "Purple Rain" in tribute to Prince, who had just died.

European leg

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On July 13, 2016, for the first time since the end of the first North American leg of the tour, The River was performed in its entirety.

North American leg 2

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Springsteen and the E Street Band kicked off the second North American leg of the tour on August 23, 2016, in East Rutherford, New Jersey, at MetLife Stadium. The show opened with a performance of "New York City Serenade"; that song became the opener for all shows on this leg of the tour. The final MetLife Stadium performance on August 30 clocked in at over 4 hours and opened with a run of nine original songs written in 1973 or earlier, plus early live favorites Summertime Blues and Pretty Flamingo. The practice of playing a string of tracks from Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., and The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle continued throughout the rest of this leg.

The show on September 3, 2016, in Virginia Beach was postponed until September 5, 2016, due to inclement weather. On September 7, 2016, at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Springsteen played for 4 hours and 4 minutes, his longest show in the United States and second-longest ever. Springsteen performed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 11, 2016, the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The show featured six songs from Springsteen's 9/11 inspired album, The Rising. Springsteen wrapped up The River Tour 2016 on September 14, 2016, in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

Oceania leg / Summer '17 Tour

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On September 12, 2016, a fourth leg of the tour was announced that included nine shows in Australia and New Zealand in early 2017, named Summer '17 but using the same promotional artwork as the 2016 tour.[8]

Springsteen's concert in Christchurch on February 21, 2017, fell on the eve of the anniversary of the earthquake which devastated the city's center. In the weeks that followed the quake, Springsteen's song "My City of Ruins" was adopted by Christchurch as an unofficial anthem. Springsteen played the song during the concert, dedicating it to the people of the city.[15]

Record-breaking shows

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Springsteen has been known for lengthy shows, and this tour continued that trend. The show on September 7, 2016, at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, ran 4 hours and 4 minutes, which stands as Springsteen's longest show in the United States and second-longest ever after a 2012 show in Helsinki that ran two minutes longer.

Ticket scalping

[edit]

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 New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to launch an investigation into how this happened and to write a letter demanding that both companies immediately remove any listings for ticket sales.[16] When tickets finally went on sale on December 11, many fans again were shut out from buying tickets as most venues sold out quickly; within minutes, tickets were appearing for hundreds to thousands of dollars more on resale sites.[17] 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.[18]

Recordings

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All shows were professionally recorded and released on live.brucespringsteen.net. Many were also featured on E Street Radio.

Set list

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This set list is representative of the average setlist of the tour's first North American 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 it was resurrected for a few shows on the second leg of the tour.[19]

  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

[edit]
List of concerts, showing date, city, country, venue, tickets sold, number of available tickets and amount of gross revenue
Date City Country Venue Opening Act Attendance Revenue
North America[20]
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 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 15,754 / 15,754 $1,949,443
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[21]
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 City of Manchester 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 — —
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 26, 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 36,463 / 36,463 $4,627,705
September 5, 2016[E] Virginia Beach Veterans United
Home Loans Amphitheater 		11,629 / 15,000 $1,082,764
September 7, 2016 Philadelphia Citizens Bank Park 77,670 / 80,000 $10,048,796
September 9, 2016
September 11, 2016 Pittsburgh Consol Energy Center 16,674 / 18,353 $2,117,125
September 14, 2016 Foxborough Gillette Stadium 48,324 / 51,664 $5,439,521
Oceania[8]
January 22, 2017 Perth Australia Perth Arena — 39,957 / 39,957 $5,914,782
January 25, 2017
January 27, 2017
January 30, 2017 Adelaide Adelaide Entertainment Centre 10,920 / 10,920 $1,612,374
February 2, 2017 Melbourne Melbourne Rectangular Stadium Jet 51,192 / 54,000 $7,384,735
February 4, 2017 Jet
Diesel
February 7, 2017 Sydney Sydney SuperDome — 31,323 / 32,000 $4,546,210
February 9, 2017
February 11, 2017 Mount Macedon Hanging Rock Jet
Diesel 		19,644 / 19,644 $2,895,699
February 14, 2017 Brisbane Brisbane Entertainment Centre — 25,220 / 25,220 $3,896,163
February 16, 2017
February 18, 2017 Hunter Valley Hope Estate Winery Jet
Diesel 		19,722 / 19,722 $2,848,983
February 21, 2017 Christchurch New Zealand Rugby League Park Jet
Marlon Williams 		29,254 / 29,254 $4,106,197
February 25, 2017 Auckland Mount Smart Stadium 33,952 / 40,000 $4,767,320
TOTAL 2,486,058 / 2,520,141 (98.6%) $293,703,964
  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 3 which was postponed due to inclement weather caused by Tropical Storm Hermine.

Cancelled/postponed shows

[edit]

On April 8, 2016, Springsteen announced on his website that he was cancelling his concert, two days later, at the Greensboro Coliseum in North Carolina, in protest of the state legislature's new law, the HB2 (nicknamed the "Bathroom Bill"), which banned transgender people from using public restrooms of the gender with which they identify and overturned local laws that ban employers from discriminating against certain workers. "Some things are more important than a rock show", he remarked.[22] Springsteen was forced to postpone his concert on September 3, 2016, in Virginia Beach due to inclement weather from Hurricane Hermine. The show was rescheduled for two days later.

List of cancelled and postponed concerts, showing date, city, country, venue and reason for cancellation or postponement
Date City Country Venue Reason/Additional Info
April 10, 2016 Greensboro United States Greensboro Coliseum HB2 law in North Carolina[23]
September 3, 2016 Virginia Beach United States Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater Postponed to September 5, 2016, due to inclement weather from Hurricane Hermine

Songs performed

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Originals/studio tracks/cover songs

Personnel

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The E Street Band

[edit]

with

and

Guest appearances

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Opening acts

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "2016 Year End Top 100 Worldwide Tours" (PDF). pollstar.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 13, 2017. Retrieved July 15, 2017.
  2. ^ "2017 Mid Year Top 100 Worldwide Tours" (PDF). pollstar.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 19, 2017. Retrieved July 15, 2017.
  3. ^ Kreps, Daniel (December 4, 2015). "Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band Set The River Tour For 2016". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on November 25, 2020. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  4. ^ Coffey, Sarah (December 4, 2015). "Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band Announce 2016 The River Tour". Bruce Springsteen. www.brucespringsteen.net. Archived from the original on December 21, 2015. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  5. ^ Company, The Frontier Touring. "Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band 2017 Australia & New Zealand Official Tickets, Concert Dates, Pre-sale & Tour Information - Frontier Touring Australia & New Zealand". Frontier Touring Australia & New Zealand. Archived from the original on March 21, 2015. Retrieved May 10, 2017. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  6. ^ "Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé post top-grossing tours of 2016". Los Angeles Times. December 30, 2016. Archived from the original on April 4, 2023. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
  7. ^ "Bruce Springsteen Manager Jon Landau Talks 'The River' Tour, Forthcoming 'Expansive' Solo Album". billboard.com. July 21, 2016. Archived from the original on July 22, 2016. Retrieved July 21, 2016.
  8. ^ a b c Springsteen, Bruce (September 12, 2016). "ANNOUNCING TOUR DATES IN AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND". brucespringsteen.net. Archived from the original on March 10, 2017. Retrieved September 12, 2016.
  9. ^ "Springsteen breaks concert length record yet again in Philly; see the setlist". September 8, 2016. Archived from the original on September 8, 2016. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
  10. ^ "Bruce Springsteen Reveals In-Progress Solo Album, River Tour Plans". rollingstone.com. December 9, 2015. Archived from the original on December 11, 2015. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
  11. ^ "The River Tour 2016 Update". brucespringsteen.net. December 7, 2015. Archived from the original on February 5, 2016. Retrieved May 10, 2017.
  12. ^ "How Bruce Springsteen Got Back to 'The River'". rollingstone.com. February 1, 2016. Archived from the original on January 3, 2017. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  13. ^ "Backstreets.com: Springsteen News". backstreets.com. Archived from the original on April 14, 2012. Retrieved May 10, 2017.
  14. ^ Pont, Jonathan (April 23, 2016). "April 23 / Barclays Center / Brooklyn, NY". Backstreets Magazine. Archived from the original on November 22, 2013. Retrieved April 24, 2016.
  15. ^ Nicol-Williamson, Kate (February 21, 2017). "Watch: Bruce Springsteen dedicates City of Ruins to people of Christchurch during quake anniversary eve concert". One News. Archived from the original on August 23, 2020. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  16. ^ "New York probes sale of 'speculative' Bruce Springsteen tickets on StubHub". www.yahoo.com. Archived from the original on December 19, 2015. Retrieved December 8, 2015.
  17. ^ Kanno-Youngs, Zolan. "Springsteen Ticket Buyers Left Dancing in the Dark". WSJ. www.wsj.com. Archived from the original on December 12, 2015. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
  18. ^ "Bruce Springsteen tickets sold out in moments". www.nydailynews.com. December 11, 2015. Archived from the original on December 13, 2015. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
  19. ^ "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.
  20. ^ North America box score:
  21. ^ Europe box score:
  22. ^ "Springsteen Cancels North Carolina Concert over anti-LGBT laws". www.whatsworthseeing.com. Archived from the original on April 9, 2016. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  23. ^ "Bruce Springsteen Cancels North Carolina Concert Over Law That 'Attacks LGBT Rights'". billboard.com. Archived from the original on April 20, 2016. Retrieved April 21, 2016.
  24. ^ "Tribeca Talks: Storytellers with Bruce Springsteen and Tom Hanks". www.brucespringsteen.net. Archived from the original on May 23, 2012. Retrieved May 10, 2017.
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