The Boss is Coming Back

The bad news is that Bruce Springsteen has shaved his current concert tour to a comparatively brief running time of two hours versus the three-plus hour marathons that were the standard for the last (gawd, should I say it?) 35 years. And he seems to have retired “Thundercrack,” a wonderful song he brought out of semi-retirement for the first leg of that tour. The sad news is keyboardist Danny Federici, one of the three original E-Street Band members left (the others being Clarence Clemons and Garry Tallent), has taken an extended leave of absence from the band for treatment of melanoma.

The good news offsets that bad and sad, however. The Boss has unveiled his 2008 U.S. tour schedule and it includes a Dallas show Sunday April 13 followed by Houston the next night. And nothing else even remotely close to the Southwest U.S. (unless you put Anaheim in this geographical region).

The announcement of the Dallas date did not say where Bruce would be playing, probably because the American Airlines Center might be on hold in the unlikely event the Dallas Stars are still chasing Lord Stanley’s Cup nine days after the end of the regular season (the Mavericks will be playing in Seattle that night). But I’m betting on either the AAC or Reunion.

The 27th greatest live performance I’ve ever seen was one by Elvis Presley in 1956. The 26 best concerts above Presley’s on my list are all Bruce Springsteen concerts. No one in pop music can compare to Springsteen live.