Bruce Springsteen’s Darkness on the Edge tour could be his best tour ever

There is big news every day on the excitement and accolades of Bruce’s current tour. So many cities, so many countries and fighting sickness and fatigue but still performing at a level that Bruce’s fans expect and delight in every night.

Bruce has been touring for over 50 years. He has had meteoric success with his connection to his fans and has bent the range and genre of his music to country, folk and other genres that were at first not so familiar to his hard-core rock and roll audience. They adapted; it was Bruce.

When he said what would eventually be a temporary goodbye to the E-Street Band and cut the Tunnel of Love album and its twin Lucky Town, his fans listened and enjoyed it.

This May will be the 46th anniversary of the start of the Darkness on the Edge of Town tour. Music critics say that tour may be his best of all the tours that he has performed.

Bruce started the Born to Run tour a little before the full impact that album had on his fans and those new to the Springsteen experience.

By the end of the Born to Run tour he let that tour and album settle into the music pattern of “what the future of rock and roll held in store.” A quote that Rolling Stone magazine used after his tour.

Bruce took a little time off and then cut the Darkness on the Edge of Town album which when released did not have the oh wow factor that Born in the Run did.

Afterall, how do you follow that classic top fifty album in rock 'n' roll history, according to Rolling Stone magazine.

Based on a mediocre response, Bruce put together a 118-city tour, all of them here in the U.S. The tour kicked off in Buffalo at Shea’s Performing Arts Center on May 24, 1978.

Bruce slowly and methodically added song after song to the set list creating a 25 or more-song set list. With each concert lasting over two hours and each performance with energy, passion and song not seen in modern day rock 'n' roll, I am including the Rolling Stones into that mix.

I saw the show on November 29, 1978, at the St. Paul Civic Center in St. Paul Minnesota. I was attending the University of Minnesota at the time. It was an amazing show, and I remember it very well. I had great tickets and backstage passes through Jersey connections.

Bruce did an extended version of Rosalita, his powerful Born to Run and hearing his “new” Prove it All Night, Badlands and the Promised Land was impressive. Bruce was young, strong in a powerful voice and an energy found only in very few.

I was exhausted after leaving that show.

He had fun on stage and made sure that his audience got the best performance that their money could buy. They certainly did.

I’ve been to shows on most every major tour including the Born in The USA tour, which was great, The River Tour, The Reunion Tour, the Wrecking Ball Tour, just to name a few, the Darkness on the Edge of Town will always be a very special experience.

Bruce Springsteen knows how to throw a party!

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 weekend host Big Joe Henry. Any opinions expressed are Big Joe’s own.

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