Bruce Springsteen 1992–1993 World Tour

Bruce Springsteen World Tour 1992–1993
Tour by Bruce Springsteen
Associated album Human Touch, Lucky Town
Start date June 15, 1992
End date June 1, 1993
Legs 3
No. of shows 107
Bruce Springsteen concert chronology

The Bruce Springsteen 1992–1993 World Tour was a concert tour featuring Bruce Springsteen and a new backing band, that took place from mid-1992 to mid-1993. It followed the simultaneous release of his albums Human Touch and Lucky Town earlier in 1992. It was his first of four non-E Street Band tours. Later, Springsteen had more non-E Street Band tours, the Ghost of Tom Joad Tour, the Seeger Sessions Tour, and the Devils & Dust Tour. The tour was not as commercially or critically successful as past tours, due to poor reception of Human Touch and Lucky Town as well as changes from previous tours. According to Springsteen biographer Dave Marsh, die-hard fans have informally referred to the backing band as "the Other Band" (and the tour as "The Other Band Tour").[1]

Itinerary

The tour was preceded by a June 5, 1992 U.S. "dress rehearsal" radio broadcast of the new band. Springsteen said, "I missed playing. I missed getting out. I missed the fans. I've been home a while. I've worked hard on the records."[2] The tour's first leg was conducted in arenas in Western Europe, opening on June 15, 1992 at the Globen in Stockholm. Springsteen said, "It's nice to start the tour here. It's nice to be back among people who have always been hospitable."[2] After 15 dates there, including five at London's Wembley Arena, the tour came home to the United States.

There, the second leg began in late July with a then-record 11 consecutive dates in New Jersey's Meadowlands Arena. It continued in arenas through the U.S. and Canada, for a total of 61 shows through mid-December.

Springsteen then took a three-month winter break, before starting up again in late March for the third leg, a longer stint in Western Europe that played 31 dates there, some in outdoor stadiums. The tour proper ended on June 1, 1993 in Oslo's Valle Hovin.

The 1992–1993 Tour backing band

Springsteen had dissolved his long-time backing E Street Band in 1989, and had not used them on Human Touch and Lucky Town. This tour was his first time out with another group. Looking for a somewhat different sound, he assembled an outfit that gave him both more guitar-based arrangements and a more R&B-based feel with more backup singers; gone were the organ and saxophone key elements of the traditional E Street sound.

Keyboardist Roy Bittan was the only E Street Band member retained. Most of the rest of the touring band were experienced session musicians who were not well-known to the general music audience. Better-known ace session drummer Jeff Porcaro, who had played on Human Touch, was supposedly offered $1 million to join the tour, but instead stayed with his band Toto.[3]

Springsteen's new wife and previous E Street backup singer Patti Scialfa was not a regular member of this band, but made guest appearances at many shows to duet with Springsteen on some combination of "Brilliant Disguise", "Tougher Than The Rest", and "Human Touch".

The show

Shows typically began with several selections from the new albums—typically the self-described happy songs "Better Days", "Local Hero", and "Lucky Town"—and not surprisingly emphasized the new material throughout. Slots for older songs were mostly given to numbers from his massively-selling mid-1980s Born in the U.S.A. album.

Highlights from the new material included Springsteen crowd surfing during "Leap of Faith"; nature imagery motifs running through the show and culminating with frequent show closer "My Beautiful Reward"; a distortion-fest on "57 Channels (And Nothing On)", one of several numbers where the band's sound verged on heavy metal; and the emotional peak of "Living Proof" with its U2-styled synthesizer settings.

The main set closer continued to be "Light of Day", a role that it had assumed in the Tunnel of Love Express and here was elongated with an "I'm just a prisoner ... of Rock and Roll!" rap, while the band introductions song was "Glory Days" in the encores.

Springsteen 1970s classics that were heavily identified with the E Street Band sound were finessed either by rearranging them ("Thunder Road" was recast on acoustic guitar), avoiding them (gone were the epics "Backstreets", "Jungleland", and "Racing in the Street"), or just doing it (multi-instrumentalist Crystal Taliefero won praise for the thankless job of performing the one saxophone part all night, that of Clarence Clemons' break in "Born to Run"). Springsteen's biggest hit single, 1984's "Dancing in the Dark", was stripped down to near-solo electric guitar and given a tired, weary reading, before being dropped from the set lists altogether.

Commercial and critical reaction

Meadowlands Arena officials placed a large sign on their structure for the opening of the North American leg of the tour. July–August 1992.

The tour played a large number of dates and sold many tickets. The eleven-show stint in the Meadowlands surpassed his 10-show run there in the first leg of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour, but ticket demand was much higher then; here, the shows were not actually sold out at start time.[4] Ticket sales were strong along the Eastern Seaboard, but weaker in areas such as Cleveland and Detroit, a reflection of the two albums' lackluster sales performance and failure to generate much in the way of hit singles.[5]

Critical reception of the tour was varied. Lars Lindstrom reviewed the opening Stockholm show for Back Beat and said, "the musicians have not yet become a band – and they lack the moments of total togetherness both musically and physically. Only singer and percussionist Crystal Taliefero [...] and singer Bobby King have the undisputed charisma." USA Today nationally visible music writer Edna Gundersen thought very highly of the opening New Jersey show, saying that "For those doubting that such [domestic bliss and] inner contentment can co-exist with rebellious rock passion, Springsteen offers living proof: an emotionally resonating, downright rowdy 27-song rock 'n' roll shindig." She also said that the new band was "a cohesive force worthy of succeeding the crack E Street Band", and also called out Taliefero for praise. The New York Times's Jon Pareles, reviewing the same show, also commented about the show's themes of "the healing power and everyday complications of love", and said that "Mr. King brings a falsetto gospel to songs with a touch of 1960's soul music, while Ms. Taliefero is a sassy female foil." Matty Karas of the Asbury Park Press wrote that "The whole show seemed something of a monologue on what he's been up to: getting divorced, getting remarried, having children, changing bands, sorting out a rocky life, falling off the pop charts, realizing there are more important things in life than rock 'n' roll and realizing you need to rock 'n' roll anyway. Mirroring his real life, it was as directly autobiographical a show as he's ever performed."

Fan response fell roughly into three categories:

  1. Those who welcomed the new sound and thought highly of the shows
  2. Those who were open to a new sound but did not think that this particular band hit the mark
  3. Those who were aghast at the very notion of departing from the E Street sound.

It is impossible to measure the relative proportion of these; among the Springsteen faithful, the most common verdict over time has been that they enjoyed the shows while they were there, but have not felt cause to revisit them (via bootleg or official recordings) since. However, Springsteen biographer Dave Marsh later wrote that the Springsteen hard-core fan base had rejected the tour because "its sound was somewhat blacker." Whatever the cause, certain new numbers such as "Big Muddy" and "If I Should Fall Behind" were completely ineffective in the United States, eliciting an exodus to the beer and bathroom lines and minimal applause afterward.

Several specific developments did annoy fans. One was the general discovery that Springsteen was using a Teleprompter to remember his words by. It soon became clear that he was dependent upon the device, as for on long lyrics such as "Thunder Road" he would check the screen a good eight or nine times. A similar discovery was made by those seated behind the stage, that drummer Zak Alford was using a red-LED metronome to keep proper time. Finally was the unexpected outcome of the band's MTV Unplugged appearance, where Springsteen lost the confidence in the band and after one acoustic song, did the rest of the concert in normal electric mode, thus violating the show's fundamental premise. This did result in the In Concert/MTV Plugged album release, which documents what the 1992–1993 Tour band sounded like.

In the end, the fact that this was still a rock band, with a still conventional instrumental line-up, meant that it would be directly compared with the E Street Band and thus find it hard to establish a significant identity of its own. Over a decade later, Springsteen would solve this problem in his next non-E Street Band, non-solo tour, the Sessions Band Tour, where the makeup of the band and of their sound was utterly different from anything before and thus impossible to compare.

Broadcasts and recordings

As previously mentioned, a national radio rehearsal show and the abortive MTV Plugged show, the latter of which as In Concert/MTV Plugged was released in audio on CD and in video on VHS and later DVD formats.

Tour dates

Date City Country Venue Attendance Revenue
Europe
June 15, 1992 Stockholm Sweden Globe Arena 15,500 / 15,500
June 17, 1992 16,337 / 16,337
June 20, 1992 Milan Italy Forum di Assago
June 21, 1992
June 25, 1992 Frankfurt Germany Festhalle Frankfurt
June 26, 1992
June 29, 1992 Paris France Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy
June 30, 1992
July 3, 1992 Barcelona Spain Plaza Monumental de Barcelona
July 4, 1992
July 6, 1992 London England Wembley Arena
July 9, 1992
July 10, 1992
July 12, 1992
July 13, 1992
North America
July 23, 1992 East Rutherford United States Brendan Byrne Arena 220,902 / 220,902 $6,295,707
July 25, 1992
July 26, 1992
July 28, 1992
July 30, 1992
July 31, 1992
August 2, 1992
August 4, 1992
August 6, 1992
August 7, 1992
August 10, 1992
August 13, 1992 Worcester The Centrum 28,531 / 28,531 $813,134
August 14, 1992
August 17, 1992 Auburn Hills The Palace of Auburn Hills
August 18, 1992
August 21, 1992 Richfield Richfield Coliseum
August 22, 1992
August 25, 1992 Landover Capital Centre 36,563 / 36,563 $1,042,046
August 26, 1992
August 28, 1992 Philadelphia The Spectrum 37,402 / 37,402 $1,065,958
August 29, 1992
September 2, 1992 Tinley Park World Music Theatre
September 3, 1992
September 24, 1992 Los Angeles Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena 48,547 / 48,547 $1,383,590
September 25, 1992
September 28, 1992
September 29, 1992 San Diego San Diego Sports Arena 11,138 / 14,336 $328,571
October 2, 1992 Phoenix America West Arena 29,555 / 33,050 $711,813
October 3, 1992
October 6, 1992 Sacramento ARCO Arena
October 13, 1992 Tacoma Tacoma Dome
October 15, 1992 Vancouver Canada Pacific Coliseum
October 17, 1992 Calgary Olympic Saddledome 15,976 / 16,972 $408,439
October 18, 1992 Edmonton Northlands Coliseum
October 21, 1992 Mountain View United States Shoreline Amphitheatre 40,000 / 40,000 $1,008,000
October 22, 1992
October 26, 1992 Denver McNichols Sports Arena
October 30, 1992 Ames Hilton Coliseum
October 31, 1992 Minneapolis Target Center 17,903 / 17,903 $447,575
November 3, 1992 Milwaukee Bradley Center 17,720 / 17,720 $443,000
November 5, 1992 Toronto Canada SkyDome 48,781 / 48,781 $1,300,361
November 6, 1992
November 9, 1992 Uniondale United States Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum 33,940 / 36,000 $967,290
November 10, 1992
November 13, 1992 Syracuse Carrier Dome 29,411 / 32,000 $735,275
November 15, 1992 Hartford Hartford Civic Center 15,673 / 15,673 $446,681
November 17, 1992 Chapel Hill Dean E. Smith Student Activities Center
November 18, 1992 Charlotte Charlotte Coliseum
November 23, 1992 Orlando Orlando Arena 14,822 / 14,822 $370,550
November 24, 1992 Miami Miami Arena 15,739 / 15,739 $393,475
November 30, 1992 Atlanta The Omni
December 2, 1992 Dallas Reunion Arena 15,756 / 17,000 $385,329
December 3, 1992 St. Louis St. Louis Arena 12,415 / 19,184 $282,325
December 5, 1992 Indianapolis Market Square Arena
December 7, 1992 Philadelphia The Spectrum 36,119 / 36,119 $1,029,392
December 8, 1992
December 13, 1992 Boston Boston Garden 28,841 / 28,841 $821,969
December 14, 1992
December 16, 1992 Pittsburgh Civic Arena 15,710 / 15,710 $392,750
December 17, 1992 Lexington Rupp Arena 13,000 / 23,000
Europe
March 31, 1993 Glasgow Scotland Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre
April 3, 1993 Dortmund Germany Westfalenhallen
April 4, 1993
April 7, 1993 Zürich Switzerland Hallenstadion
April 8, 1993
April 11, 1993 Verona Italy Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi
April 13, 1993 Lyon France Halle Tony Garnier
April 15, 1993 Sheffield England Sheffield Arena 23,650 / 23,650 $734,108
April 16, 1993
April 19, 1993 Rotterdam Netherlands Sportpaleis Ahoy
April 20, 1993
April 23, 1993 Ghent Belgium Flanders Expo
April 24, 1993
May 1, 1993 Lisbon Portugal Estádio José Alvalade
May 5, 1993 Madrid Spain Vicente Calderón Stadium
May 7, 1993 Gijón Estadio Municipal El Molinón
May 9, 1993 Santiago de Compostela Auditorio Monte do Gozo
May 11, 1993 Barcelona Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc
May 14, 1993 Berlin Germany Waldbühne
May 16, 1993 Munich Alter Flughafen Riem
May 17, 1993 Mannheim Maimarkthalle
May 20, 1993 Dublin Ireland RDS Arena
May 22, 1993 Milton Keynes England National Bowl
May 25, 1993 Rome Italy Stadio Flaminio
May 28, 1993 Stockholm Sweden Stockholm Olympic Stadium
May 30, 1993 Gentofte Denmark Gentofte Sportspark
June 1, 1993 Oslo Norway Valle Hovin

Cancellations and rescheduled shows

July 2, 1992 Barcelona Plaza Monumental de Barcelona Rescheduled to July 4, 1992 due to transport strikes in France
October 8, 1992 Mountain View Shoreline Amphitheatre Rescheduled to October 21, 1992 due to illness
October 9, 1992 Mountain View Shoreline Amphitheatre Rescheduled to October 22, 1992 due to illness
October 28, 1992 St. Louis St. Louis Arena Rescheduled to December 3, 1992 due to sore throat
November 21, 1992 Lexington Rupp Arena Rescheduled to December 17, 1992 due to illness
December 11, 1992 Pittsburgh Civic Arena Rescheduled to December 16, 1992 due to bad weather

Songs performed

Source:[6][7] [8][9][10]

Band members

Notes

  1. ↑ See Marsh, Dave (2006). Bruce Springsteen on Tour, 1968-2005. Bloomsbury USA. ISBN 1596912820. On page 194, Marsh writes that the 'Other Band' term first came from "Bruce's cult", which "expressed itself in Internet discussion groups, fanzines, and parking lots before shows." Marsh then adopts the term himself in writing about the tour. For example, on page 198, he states of fans' impressions of the tour, "The idea seemed to be that anything Bruce did with the Other Band that he hadn't done with the E Street Band indicated error." On page 204 he writes, "Human Touch and Lucky Town, the Other Band and the tour, even Bruce's split with Juli ... combined to crack the illusion of a solid bond between the artist and his audience." On page 208, he begins a chapter with, "The Other Band Tour lasted almost exactly a year, from June 15, 1992, in Stockholm to June 26, 1993, at Madison Square Garden in New York."
  2. 1 2 AP story June 1992
  3. ↑ William Ruhlmann, Jeff Porcaro biography, Allmusic. Accessed April 19, 2007.
  4. ↑ Asbury Park Press, July 25, 1992.
  5. ↑ Asbury Park Press, July 19, 1992.
  6. ↑ http://www.springsteenliveinconcert.com/
  7. ↑ http://brucebase.wikispaces.com/
  8. ↑ http://backstreets.com/setlists.html
  9. ↑ http://www.greasylake.org/setlists_lists.php
  10. ↑ http://www.brucespringsteen.net

Sources

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