Unknown setlist If you know or remember something about this show, please write me at contrib@brucespringsteen.it . Your help is important!!
Notes: Cancelled and never rescheduled. This gig was to have featured Bruce and the boys opening for headliner PAUL BUTTERFIELD'S BETTER DAYS. Believed to have been cancelled due to weak advanced ticket sales.
Notes: ONE show, 8PM, double bill, with Springsteen opening for headliners BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS. Ironically Bill Graham, who'd nearly signed Bruce/Steel Mill 3 years earlier, orchestrated this concert. The above-mentioned setlist derives from an excellent quality soundboard recording that began circulating in the mid-1990's. Given Bruce's restricted performing time as the opening act, the circulating audio is likely to represent the complete performance. The circulating audio is missing the opening seconds of "Lost In The Flood".
03-Mar-1973 Santa Monica,CA Santa Monica Civic Auditorium,USA
Unknown setlist If you know or remember something about this show, please write me at contrib@brucespringsteen.it . Your help is important!!
Notes: ONE show, double bill, with Springsteen opening for headliner BLOOD, SWEAT and TEARS. Bruce and the boys were allowed to play nearly a headliner-length set at this show.
04-Mar-1973 Portland,OR Paramount Theatre,USA
- This show was NOT PLAYED
Unknown setlist If you know or remember something about this show, please write me at contrib@brucespringsteen.it . Your help is important!!
Notes: CANCELLED show, never rescheduled. This gig was to have featured Springsteen opening for headliner PAUL BUTTERFIELD'S BETTER DAYS. Although promotional material has surfaced for this show, it was definitely cancelled due to weak advanced ticket sales.
05-Mar-1973 Seattle,WA Paramount Theatre,USA
- This show was NOT PLAYED
Unknown setlist If you know or remember something about this show, please write me at contrib@brucespringsteen.it . Your help is important!!
Notes: CANCELLED show, never rescheduled. This gig was to have featured Springsteen opening for headliner PAUL BUTTERFIELD'S BETTER DAYS. Cancelled due to weak advanced ticket sales.
12-Mar-1973 Boston,MA Oliver's,USA
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Notes: ONE show, with Springsteen the sole act on the bill. This was the opening night of a weeklong, 7-show residency at the small, 400-seat Boston club. Although there is (frustratingly) no known audio from this week, the performances during this residency at Oliver’s were very significant, as not only was this Bruce’s first headlining club residency since Kenny’s Castaways in late 1972 but, unlike Castaways, these were one-show-per-night gigs that enabled Springsteen to stretch out the performances to 2hrs+ each night. In addition there was a fanatical pre-1973 fan base of New Jersey shore region kids living in Boston and attending the city’s many universities – so the Oliver’s shows were sold-out and overflowing with many of the same people every night. Springsteen responded by dramatically altering the setlist each evening and performing new or infrequently played material (both covers and originals). Greetings Tour Sound Manager Albee Tellone, who rates the March gigs at Oliver’s as among the finest of all the 1973 shows has commented: “after the disappointments we encountered on the west coast leg, it was incredible to arrive back and get this amazing reception in Boston. It was a fantastic homecoming, so-to-speak”.
Notes: ONE show, with Springsteen the sole act on the bill. The show was about 2hrs in length, with a short intermission half way through. Two cover songs were introduced into the live repertoire during the Oliver’s residency, the surf instrumental “Apache” and Johnny Cash’s “Ring Of Fire”. Both were only performed sporadically throughout the remainder of 1973. Greetings Tour Sound Manager Albee Tellone comments: “When we got back from the ill-fated California trip Bruce bought himself an Echoplex that he used for guitar effects. I had to set it up for him each night. The reason he started performing “Apache” was because he could reproduce the exact sound of the original record”.
14-Mar-1973 Boston,MA Oliver's,USA
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Notes: Springsteen the sole act on the bill. The show was about 2hrs in length, with a short intermission half way through.
Notes: The show was about 2hrs in length, with a short intermission half way through. Greetings Tour sound manager Albee Tellone has confirmed to BRUCEBASE that it was during one of the middle nights of this Oliver’s residency that “The Fever” made its live tour debut (it was performed in a full band arrangement). Albee has noted that this was not a one-off performance of “The Fever” - it was played at several other gigs during the late March - May, 1973 period, but eventually dropped in favour of new compositions emerging from the Wild & Innocent sessions
16-Mar-1973 Boston,MA Oliver's,USA
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Notes: The show was about 2hrs in length, with a short intermission half way through
17-Mar-1973 Boston,MA Oliver's,USA
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Notes: No opening act. The show was about 2hrs in length, with a short intermission half way through. An interview is conducted backstage with Springsteen following the show in which Bruce mentions incorporating new material into the shows and specifically mentons “Ring Of Fire”, “Apache” and “Rosalita” by name.
18-Mar-1973 Boston,MA Oliver's,USA
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Notes: One show, held as a Sunday early afternoon matinee performance. Following this show Bruce and the boys hurriedly pack up and drive 2hrs south for an evening gig at the University Of Rhode Island.
18-Mar-1973 Kingston,RI University Of Rhode Island,USA
Notes: One show, double bill, with Springsteen opening for headlining 50's nostalgia band SHA-NA-NA. Held in the sold out Keaney Gymnasium. Springsteen's performance lasted 70 minutes. The two above-mentioned tracks (with Bruce on piano on both) are mentioned in a brief newspaper review of the show. This show was scheduled to begin at 8:30PM but was delayed about an hour by the late arrival and set up of the Springsteen camp following an early afternoon show at Oliver's in Boston.
23-Mar-1973 Providence,RI Palace Theatre,USA
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Notes: Some sources report this show as played at the Roger Williams College ("Providence College")
One show, double bill, with Bruce and the boys opening for headliner LOU REED (and his backing band THE TOTS). Interestingly both artists had gigs the following night in upstate New York (Reed in Buffalo, Springsteen in Niagara). Thanks to journalist Ty Davis for this information, via Brucebase.
Notes: One show, double bill, with Bruce and the boys headlining and local country-rock group OLD SALT opening. Held indoors in the 350-seat Student Center. The show was not a sellout, with a reported 300 tickets sold. Given Springsteen was a virtual unknown at the time, this gig at Niagara received an unprecedented amount of pre and post concert press coverage in the school's modest campus newspaper - all articles written by students. The student who orchestrated this event (Kerry McNamara) was obviously a serious Bruce fan. A student reporter even seems to have traveled south to get a brief but fascinating interview with Bruce a couple of weeks before this show. In this interview Bruce mentions he is now playing "Rosalita - Fun, Fun, Fun" as a special encore (a tape exists of it from 14-Feb-73 at VCU). In addition Bruce mentions "Ring Of Fire" and the instrumental "Apache" as two cover songs he's been incorporating into his recent shows. Interestingly it is also revealed that this gig had originally been planned for 2-Mar-73 but had been rescheduled to 24/3/73 because of the West Coast tour with PAUL BUTTERFIELD.
This seems to have been an intimate, inspired crowd that elicited an equally inspired performance. Bruce even donned his legendary ELVIS t-shirt at this show (see photo below) - a guarantee of a special evening. After Old Salt opened with
a 60-minute set, Springsteen performed a 120-minute show with no intermission, including a triple encore. As reported in the reviews of the show that followed, Bruce opened with two (unnamed in print) acoustic numbers (accompanied by
Clarence on the first and Danny on the second) and them brought out the entire band. The final song in the main set was "Thundercrack". The 1st encore was "Rosalita-Fun Fun Fun" and the 2nd encore was "Twist and Shout". The title of
the third encore is not mentioned. This is the longest verified E Street Band performance up to this point and one of the very few 2hr shows Bruce did in 1973. Unfortunately NO AUDIO IS CIRCULATING FROM THIS SHOW. (Brucebase, as always)
29-Mar-1973 Kutztown,PA Kutztown University,USA
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Notes: One show, triple billing held in the sold out 2,500- seat Keystone Hall as part of the school's "Black Cultures Weekend". Bruce and the boys (performing a 60-minute set) opened for headliner STEVIE WONDER, who performed a 2hr show. Although not mentioned in pre-concert advertisements, a local group called SURVIVING HEARTS began the evening's festivities with a 45-minute set.
