Relive Bruce Springsteen’s Incredible Performance In Newark

The 2016 “The River Tour” by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band is a little like a double exposure. It’s a concert series honoring a rock album from 1976 that deals with growing up; a time warp, that’s for sure. Nevertheless, there is a lot of talking on the tour, as Springsteen introduces the songs and concepts of The River with explanations during live performances.

Springsteen has been more comfortable delving into the background and significance of his music in recent years. Now, with The River Tour, he’s going even further into introspection.  At his gig at Newark’s Prudential Center on January 31, 2016, Springsteen explained that The River was the album he made while “trying to figure out where I fit in.”

He said of the album: “The River was the first record where I was trying to figure out how to get inside. I had taken notice of things that binded people to their lives, their work, their commitments, and their families. I wanted to imagine and write about those things and figured if I could write about them, maybe I’d get a little closer to realizing them in my own life. So that’s what I did.”

This was Springsteen and the E Street Band’s first tour in two years. Furthermore, the whole album The River was performed in its entirety at each gig on the first North American leg of the tour, and even at certain events on the second leg. It made The River 2016 Tour the highest-grossing tour of 2016 and the highest-grossing tour of any artist since 2014.

You can watch the boss’ performance of “Thunder Road/Badlands” with the E Street Band here.