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 9:30PM to 1AM, with the Bruce Springsteen Band the sole act on the bill. A typical BSB gig at this club consisted of four 40-minute sets separated by healthy intermissions (2½ hrs total playing time).
02-Oct-1971 Asbury Park,NJ Student Prince,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 9:30PM to 1AM, with the Bruce Springsteen Band the sole act on the bill. A typical BSB gig at this club consisted of four 40-minute sets separated by healthy intermissions (2½ hrs total playing time).
03-Oct-1971 Asbury Park,NJ Student Prince,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 9:30PM to 1AM, with the Bruce Springsteen Band the sole act on the bill. A typical BSB gig at this club consisted of four 40-minute sets separated by healthy intermissions (2½ hrs total playing time).
08-Oct-1971 New Brunswick,NJ Rutgers University,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 THE BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN BAND headlining and Joe Cadora’s rock band ICE NINE opening. Held in the Student Union’s Ledge Club.
15-Oct-1971 Asbury Park,NJ Student Prince,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 9:30PM to 1AM, with the Bruce Springsteen Band the sole act on the bill. A typical BSB gig at this club consisted of four 40-minute sets separated by healthy intermissions (2½ hrs total playing time).
16-Oct-1971 Asbury Park,NJ Student Prince,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 with The Bruce Springsteen Band the lone act on the bill. A typical performance at The Student Prince consisted of three or four 40-minute sets with healthy breaks in between.
17-Oct-1971 Asbury Park,NJ Student Prince,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 9:30PM to 1AM, with the Bruce Springsteen Band the sole act on the bill. A typical BSB gig at this club consisted of four 40-minute sets separated by healthy intermissions (2½ hrs total playing time).
23-Oct-1971 Richmond,VA University Of Richmond,USA
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Notes: ONE show, triple bill, with The Bruce Springsteen Band headlining. Undercards were New Jersey-based outfits TUMBLEWEED and BLACK FORREST RHODES, both of who had recently become involved with Tinker West’s Blah Productions. The 3-member, acoustic-orientated TUMBLEWEED deserve special mention. They had recently returned from studio sessions in Nashville (booked under the name MONTANA FLINTLOCK) – events orchestrated by Mike Appel. TUMBLEWEED would turn out to be the original connection between Tinker West and Appel, one that would soon see Tinker drive Springsteen to New York to meet Mike.
Although pre-concert promotional material for this Oct 23rd performance specifies a 5-member BSB lineup (see below), this show probably included three of the part-time members of the group – Harvey Cherlin (trumpet) plus Delores Holmes & Barbara Dinkins on background vocals. In interview Cherlin has mentioned this specific 8-member lineup as performing an au-gratis date in Richmond in October 1971 that Cherlin further states was his final-ever gig with Springsteen. NOTE: An audience recording (see the 30/10/71 listing for details) is often linked to this show but it does not feature either Cherlin or Barbara Dinkins.
25-Oct-1971 Richmond,VA Richmond Arena,USA
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Notes: PROBABLY NEVER PLAYED: A very special evening, promoted as "Steel Mill's Farewell to Richmond". Although Steel Mill had disbanded 9 months earlier, it had done so in New Jersey - and quite unexpectedly, without ever playing any farewell gigs in Richmond. This performance was a "thank you" from Bruce for the great support and loyalty Steel Mill had always received from the Richmond fans. The line-up for this show was Springsteen, VanZandt, Lopez, Tallent, Sancious and female singers Holmes & Daniels. A long show (2½ hrs), that featured a considerable amount of older Steel Mill-era material that Bruce and the band had not played in over a year - although they did rehearse the material in advance. During the encores Bruce invited the audience up on stage. By all accounts a very emotional show by Bruce.
This is believed to have been the last show to feature the female backup singers, as BSB Manager Tinker West told Bruce on the way back to New Jersey that he needed to cut the size of the band down for financial reasons.
29-Oct-1971 Long Branch,NJ St. Jerome school,USA
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Notes: ONE show, with The Bruce Springsteen Band headlining, New Jersey band HIGHWAY billed second and unspecified “others” also listed as performing.
29-Oct-1971 Asbury Park,NJ The Upstage,USA
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Notes: ONE (informal) show, with Springsteen and members of his band taking part in a 2AM-5AM jam session with numerous other Asbury Park musical identities. This was the second to last night The Upstage was open. There was a similar jam session show on the final night, however Bruce and his band did not attend because they were performing a gig in Richmond.
Notes: ONE show, double bill, with The Bruce Springsteen Band opening for headliner CACTUS. As the undercard, Springsteen’s show would have been limited to around 60 minutes. The above-mentioned setlist is taken from an audience recording of fair quality that started circulating in 1984 and then widely propagated after it was booted onto vinyl in 1986, courtesy of the LP “BRUCE 1971” (Good Taste Records). Both the early circulating tape specimens and the 1986 LP identified the source venue for the audio as the Virginia Commonwealth University Gym.
Seemingly as a consequence of no 1971 VCU gig being identified by any 1980’s or 1990’s concert history sources, some people began linking this audio to Springsteen’s headlining performance at University Of Richmond on 23/10/71. Although the manner in which the MC introduces the band (i.e., “from New Jersey”) clearly points to this as being a Richmond performance, the very subdued audience reaction to the MC’s introduction is not consistent with the BSB being the headliner. For these reasons BRUCEBASE has placed this audio under this recently unearthed gig date at VCU, although there is still a slight chance that another contending Richmond gig during this time period will surface. This 40 minutes of audio circulates these days via homemade CDR titles, sometimes with material from other shows added. The circulating audio is likely to represent most of Bruce’s show, with perhaps one or two songs (encores?) missing. Both “Livin’ Rock And Roll” and “Talking About My Baby” are not currently available via any other audio source. Bruce would later utilized the melody from “Talkin’ About My Baby” for his vastly superior 1972 composition “Janey Needs A Shooter”.
The BSB lineup heard on the audio is the core 5-piece band, plus the vocal duo of Delores Holmes & Francine Daniels (the ladies are heard on the three Springsteen compositions but not the two cover songs). This is currently the only positively identified appearance of Francine Daniels with the BSB, as all previous 1971 gigs seem to involve Barbara Dinkins partnering with Delores Holmes.
31-Oct-1971 Long Branch,NJ National Guard Armory,USA
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Notes: Both supporting bands, TUMBLEWEED and BLACK FORREST RHODES are NJ-based and had opened down there for Bruce the previous weekend. It appears Bruce invited them back up to Richmond for the 23/10 and 25/10 concerts and they traveled back for this gig. This is a 5-hour show with 3 bands, so it's likely Bruce played at least 2 hours.
