Without wanting to fuel rumours or raise false (high) hopes, this is essentially the one question that everyone I spend a certain amount of time with on February’s tour of Australia was left pondering before the final shows across the ditch in New Zealand.
One 10-date tour last year wasn’t enough. Especially when
the results of that Tom Morello-fused trip down under included a new album.
So was a second tour, including stops in Perth and Adelaide
and four full-album shows – less than a year later enough?
Not if you believe the rumours that circulated the many
groups of fans I had the pleasure of sharing shows, drinks and hours upon hours
in line with.
In fact by the time the E Street Band reached Mt Smart
Stadium in Auckland, Springsteen’s end of show sign off to the crowd that ‘the
E Street Band loves ya!’ and ‘we’ll be seein’ ya!’ did in fact mean that once
again we could all be forced to book time off work, cancel holiday plans and raid
our credit cards for the third tour in as many years.
Normally I would be the first to put this down to just wishful
thinking.
Two prolific tours within 12 months isn’t unheard of in the
band’s recent history, but three in two years would be extremely unlikely for a
tour operation that size.
Also, both visits to Australia came on the back of two
different album releases so it would be fair to assume that another trip would
coincide with another timely release.
But there are several reasons why it might not be that
inconceivable.
They were right last time
Before the final Hanging Rock
show in 2013, rumours in the GA pit were wildly circulating that plans were
already underway to bring the band back the next year.
The Wrecking Ball tour
had been such a success with people travelling across the country to get to the
shows, there was every reason to believe they would want to return as soon as
possible.
This time as well as rumours of a full The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle night in Brisbane, fans who had gotten close to the band were already predicting that Springsteen, the band and the crew were planning on coming back as soon as next year.
These rumour spreaders, amongst several different groups of
fans, were right about the full E Street Shuffle show and just as confident
about the 2015 return.
The band seem to love Australia
You only have to check
out Springsteen’s website, or any number of the Facebook fan groups, to see how
much he and the band enjoy their time here. It’s not just the chance of a
summer holiday in winter but also the ease of being able to travel across the
continent without too much hassle.
In Europe hundreds of fans are known to wait
outside hotels for a glimpse of the band, in Australia they can mostly sit in
the band’s hotel bar and wait for them. Not to mention trips to the beach, the
zoo or the dry cleaners.
E Street is more accessible than ever
Whether it’s the
multitude of books, the Springsteen &
I documentary, or the pulling up of dozens on stage every night, Springsteen
himself is more open with his fans than ever. He obviously won’t come right out
and say it, there probably isn’t even any firm plans in place. But if he says
it’s something he genuinely wants to do, it would be a safe bet that it’s
somebody’s job somewhere to make sure he gets what he wants.
Meanwhile, in many interviews in the past few years
Springsteen has said that he’s no intention of slowing down while the band are
at their best and the light at the end of the tunnel is ‘getting closer’.
Everyone’s making a killing
It’s not cheap to go to a
Springsteen show, but people will still pay through the nose to get tickets to
every concert and the promoters know it. This alone is all the incentive
promoters like Michael Gudinski and Frontier Touring need to do whatever they
can to bring them back again and again. I don’t think anyone’s in any doubt
that these guys had to do a lot to bring Springsteen and the band here for the
first time in 10 years, and it has clearly worked.
The 2013 Wrecking Ball tour
was already a dream come true for many fans in Australia. And this year’s
shows, complete with headline-making cover songs and full-album performances
took that to a whole new level.
There’s always rumours of another new album
Not everyone
was happy with the format of High Hopes – the release Springsteen himself
called his ‘anomaly’ album. Instead many fans are waiting for a full album of
original material with some underlying theme driving the style and tone of his
work that has been demonstrated in recent decades. So even with the release of
High Hopes, fan discussion following intense analysis of published interviews
with Springsteen and the band easily lead to the assumption there was more to
come. And that it would come sooner than we think. (And if you are to consider
the four-track American Beauty release for Record Store Day, these assumptions
weren’t too far wrong.)
TOO SOON?
But aside from all the excitement, expectation and Springsteen’s
apparent love of surprising his fans at any given moment, speculation of a 2015
return does come with the question many debt-ridden tour followers ask: Do we
want Springsteen to return so quickly?
At the end of February whenever discussion about 2015
rumours came up they were always met with the regrettable realisation that a
longer break between tours would be welcome, and the hope that if he is back
then, it’s at the end of the year, not the same time as the previous summer
time shows.
This response was no doubt partly in response to tour/roll
call-fatigue - which after 10 shows in three weeks can easily set while you’re
waiting for that final wristband.
In fact, after a few weeks of hotels, flights and racing for
the low numbers, you would be surprised how quickly real life comes calling.
Especially near the end of the road.
A road which goes from being wide open and full of hope to
being dominated by big, bright signs warning about out how much mileage is left
in the financial tank, and how long you’ll be working before you can get back
out on the tour highway again.
FROM POST-BRUCE BLUES TO TOUR DATE LIMBO
But as The E Street Band revisit cities across America and
dates in Europe crumble through the rumour mill, fans in Australia who take
notice of the rumours remain in a strange limbo between wild speculation and
verified confirmation of any future tour.
The result is any holiday, home renovation or expensive car
upgrade plans have to answer to the voice in the back of their mind telling
them that maybe they shouldn’t spend their money or sacrifice their annual
leave just yet in case Bruce does come back.
And when he does it following him across the country for
weeks at a time really will be the final time they indulge in the once-in-a-lifetime,
may-never-happen-again event.
Until of course the penultimate show of that tour… when
rumours of another return creep from backstage.
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Until then, head to
in the public vote category.
Cheers!
