Bruce Springsteen, the "Boss," Thrills 19,000 Fans in Buffalo, New York, Ending His Two-Year Tour

On Sunday night, November 22nd, a sold-out HSBC Arena in Buffalo, New York hosted Bruce Springsteen, the "Boss," and the E Street Band who performed for 19,000 fans. As the two-year tour ended, speculation arose that the performance may be his last. Several factors contribute to this assumption.

(1) The death of the founding member of the E Street Band, Danny Federici, was a blow to Bruce and Danny's fans. Danny passed away on April 17, 2008 after suffering for three years with melanoma. Bruce Springsteen's newest album, "Working on a Dream," is dedicated to him. In the late 60's, Danny Federici and Vini Lopez started a band called Child and invited Bruce Springsteen to be the singer and guitarist. Federici is the keyboardist for the band, varying his input using the organ, the accordian or a keyboard-operated glockenspiel, one of a few in existence. Bruce Springsteen called him "one of the pillars of our sound". Charles Giordano replaced Danny Federici as the newest member of the E Street Band, playing the keyboard and the organ.

(2) Band members Clarence Clemons and Nils Lofgren are also facing health issues which leads to additional speculation that there will be no more performances. Fortunately, Clemons was able to perform with the band at the wind-up of the tour in Buffalo. He has been a prominent saxophonist with the E Street Band since 1972 while Nils Lofgren is a singer/guitarist with the band. Replacing these artists is not a simple matter since astute fans recognize and love the familiar blend that is generated when a band plays together over a long period of time.

(3) The band performed its debut album "Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J." in its entirety at Sunday's concert. This was further reason to suspect that Buffalo's concert was a farewell appearance.

Scalpers were making as much as $700 for a ticket as fans waited in line for more than six hours, entertaining themselves and the assembled crowd by dancing to "Born to Run" and other Springsteen favorites. The accompaniment came from a car stereo in a neighboring parking lot.

Drummer Max Weinberg's mother drove in from New Jersey to hear her son play. Weinberg is more familiar to Conan O'Brien's fans, as Max plays on the late night show when he is not traveling with the "Boss." There were also rumors that Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan attended Sunday's concert but this could not be confirmed.

Bruce Springsteen was able to compress over 35 years of E Street Band history into a three-and-a-half hour show which featured 34 of his songs. It was a huge celebration of a band that did not appear to be on the verge of retiring. Bruce's final words gave hope to his fans - "We appreciate you coming out to see the E Street Band. So we're gonna say goodbye, but just for a little while - a very little while."

We can only hope that the retirement reports are false.

Sources:

www.nytimes.com
The Buffalo News, 11-23-09
www.backstreets.com
Wikipedia