springsteen 1984 tour dates

Born In The U.S.A. Tour

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The  Born in the U.S.A. Tour  was the supporting concert tour of  Bruce Springsteen 's  Born in the U.S.A.  album. It was his longest and most successful tour to date. It featured a physically transformed Springsteen; after two years of bodybuilding, the singer had bulked up considerably. The tour was the first since the 1974 portions of the  Born to Run tours without guitarist  Steven Van Zandt , who decided to go solo after recording the album with the grop. Van Zandt, who was replaced by  Nils Lofgren , would appear a few times throughout the tour and in some of the music videos to promote the album. It was also the first tour to feature Springsteen's future wife,  Patti Scialfa .

The tour started in June 1984 and went through the United States and to Canada. In March 1985 the tour went to Australia, Japan and Europe. It then headed back for a second leg of the U.S. tour in which Springsteen and the  E Street Band  played to sold-out professional football stadiums. The tour finished in October 1985 in Los Angeles.

The tour grossed $80–90 million overall. Of that, $34 million came from Springsteen's summer 1985 stadium dates in North America. [1]  The  Born in the U.S.A.  album was inside the top 10 of the  Billboard  200 during the entire tour. Springsteen also was enjoying a hit single from the album (there were seven in total) during any moment of the tour. The album along with Springsteen's previous album,  Nebraska , which he did not tour to promote, were performed in their entirety throughout the tour. Total attendance was 3.9 million.

• 1.1 Special guests
• 2 Broadcasts and Recordings
• 3 Postponed dates

Personnel [ ]

• Bruce Springsteen  – lead vocals, guitars, harmonica
• Clarence Clemons  – saxophone, congas, percussion, background vocals
• Garry Tallent  – bass guitar
• Danny Federici  – organ, glockenspiel, piano, synthesizer
• Roy Bittan  – piano, synthesizer, background vocals
• Max Weinberg  – drums
• Nils Lofgren  – guitars, background vocals
• Patti Scialfa  – background vocals, synthesizer, tambourine

Special guests [ ]

• Courteney Cox (6/29/84 – danced with Springsteen on " Dancing in the Dark " which was captured in the music video)
• J.T. Bowan (8/9/84)
• John Entwistle (8/11/84)
• Southside Johnny (8/12/84)
• Steven Van Zandt  (8/20/84, 12/14/84, 12/16/84, 12/17/84, 7/3/85, 7/4/85, 7/6/85, 7/7/85, 8/22/85)
• The Miami Horns  (8/19/84, 8/20/84, 9/14/84)
• Pamela Springsteen (10/22/84 – danced with Bruce on "Dancing in the Dark")
• Gary U.S. Bonds (1/18/85)
• Robbin Thompson (1/18/85)
• Eric Clapton (6/1/85)
• Pete Townshend (6/1/85)
• Jon Landau  (9/29/85, 10/2/85)
• Julianne Philips (10/2/85 – danced with Bruce on "Dancing in the Dark")

Broadcasts and Recordings [ ]

Nearly half of  Live/1975-85  consists of songs from the Born in the U.S.A. Tour, incorporating songs from the August 6, August 19, and August 20 shows in 1984, and the August 19, August 21, and September 30 shows in 1985.

Several shows have been released as part of the Bruce Springsteen Archives:

• Brendan Byrne Arena, New Jersey 1984 , released May 13, 2015
• Brendan Byrne Arena, August 20, 1984 , released March 2, 2018
• Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Sept 27, 1985 , released April 5, 2019
• Brendan Byrne Arena, August 6, 1984 , released September 18, 2020
• Giants Stadium, August 22, 1985 released July 23, 2021

Postponed dates [ ]

• 1 Steven Van Zandt
• 2 Born In The U.S.A. Tour
• 3 E Street Band

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FLASHBACK: BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN KICKS OFF ‘BORN IN THE U.S.A.’ TOUR

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It was 38 years ago tonight (June 29th, 1984) that Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band launched their largest tour to date, kicking things off in June 29th, St. Paul, Minnesota's St. Paul Civic Center. The trek — which was the first to bring Springsteen to the largest stadiums around the road — featured the official tour debuts of new recruits, backing vocalist Patti Scialfa and Steve Van Zandt 's replacement, guitarist Nils Lofgren . It was during opening night show that the iconic video for Born In The U.S.A.'s lead single — and biggest hit — "Dancing In The Dark" was filmed with actress Courtney Cox and directed by Brian De Palma .

The massive Born In The U.S.A. tour spanned four legs, playing a total of 156 shows: 122 shows in North America, eight in Australia, eight in Asia, and 18 in Europe before wrapping on October 2nd, 1985 during the final night of a four-show-stand at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

On June 4th, 1984 Born In The U.S.A. was released and less than three weeks later on June 23rd, the album debuted at Number Nine on the Billboard 200 . It hit the Number One spot for the first of its seven-week run on July 7th.

The 12-track album spawned seven Top 10 hit singles — all with non-LP B-sides: "Dancing In The Dark" (#2); "Cover Me" (#7); "Born In The U.S.A." (#9); "I'm On Fire" (#6); "Glory Days" (#5); "I'm Goin' Down" (#9); and "My Hometown" (#6). In total, Born In The U.S.A. remained on the Billboard 200 for a whopping 143 weeks. To date, Born In The U.S.A. has been certified for sales of over 30 million copies worldwide.

Nils Lofgren, an old friend of Springsteen's by the time of the tour, told us that he was the first guitarist "The Boss" called for the position: ["I was just blown away, y'know, when Bruce needed a guitarist. I’d stayed in touch with him all through the years, and I, I managed to get the first call and after two days jamming with the band, um. . . it felt good to all of 'em, and he asked me to join. It was just a gift from heaven."] SOIUNDCUE (: 17 OC: . . . gift from heaven)

Patti Scialfa — now "Mrs. Bruce Springsteen "– joined the E Street Band only days before the tour's opening night. She recalled being white-knuckled at being thrown in the deep end on such short notice: ["It was overwhelming, because — I wanted to do it, I was excited about doing it; the overwhelming part was that I didn't have time to learn all the ( laughs ) material. So, I had to learn it in, y'know, a few days — and in front of people. I had to learn during the shows."] SOUNDCUE (:14 OC: . . . during the shows)

Drummer Max Weinberg reflected on the era-defining 1984-1985 Born In The U.S.A. tour, which spanned the globe over the course of 156 shows: ["The record was a big hit — the ('Dancing In The Dark') video had a lot to do with that. Suddenly, 75 percent of our audience at the concerts were guys — now, it was a preponderance of girls and women at our shows. And Bruce, certainly, turned into a video star; I'm not sure he altogether felt comfortable with that role, but we were on a tour and the tour took on a life of its own. We did about 170 shows all around the world. It was a fabulous experience because we had finally gotten to the place we always wanted to be — in terms of putting on a show, playing big places — it was quite a time."] SOUNDCUE (:31 OC: . . . quite a time)

In recent years Springsteen has performed the Born In The U.S.A. album in its entirety a handful of times within his E Street Band shows.

So far, in his ongoing archive collection, Bruce Springsteen has released a total of five shows from the Born In The U.S.A tour — including three from the 1984 North American leg all from East Rutherford's Brendan Byrne Area on August 5th, 6th, and 20th ; and two from '85 — August 22nd, 1985 at East Rutherford, New Jersey's Giants Stadium and September 27th at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum .

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ROCK:BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN IN CONCERT

By John Rockwell

• Aug. 7, 1984

WITH all the excitement swirling about the Jacksons, let us not forget Bruce Springsteen. He did have a No. 1 album this summer, after all, with ''Born in the U.S.A.'' And he is playing to more ticket- buyers in the New York area than the Jacksons or anyone else has ever done in a single engagement - 202,000 of them, to be exact, in 10 long- since-sold-out concerts in the Brendan Byrne Arena in the Meadowlands of his native New Jersey. The first of those concerts was Sunday night, and they continue in pairs, with rest days in between, through Aug. 20.

Mr. Springsteen and his E Street Band will need the rest. Without an opening act, they offer a prodigious four-hour performance, an almost unstinting (there is one intermission) outpouring of music, dancing energy and heartwarming communal feeling. Mr. Springsteen is, not to put too fine a point on it, the best rock-and- roll performer this writer has ever seen. At one point Sunday, Mr. Springsteen pulled a teen-age girl on stage with him. Through binoculars, one could read her lips: ''I love you so much,'' she said, and in that she spoke for the entire audience.

To say Mr. Springsteen is the best rock performer ever is not to say he is the best composer, the best singer, the best guitarist or the best top-10 singles artist. He has his limitations - of musical invention, of audience (there was hardly a black face to be seen Sunday), of social impact in a time that distrusts the redemptive power of popular art.

But for his very perseverance, his proud assertion of the values that have made rock music so beloved, Mr. Springsteen deserves our admiration. But if that were all there was to it, he would have to rest content as a wax dummy in a rock-and-roll museum. What makes him so appealing is how he carries on, alive and literally kicking, entertaining and instructing us in a way that we can't tell the difference between the two.

The entertainment part is obvious: not just in his ebullient uptempo songs, but in his set as a whole Mr. Springsteen gives his people what they want. And yet he's made them want more, and better, than they usually do today. Unlike so much of the best rock, which evoked a rebellious negativism, and so much latter-day rock, which panders to what the Soviets call ''hooliganism,'' Mr. Springsteen's projects an almost unfailing positive vision. It is a remarkable feat: passion without enduring pain; positivism without sacrifice of power.

The instruction also comes because Mr. Springsteen is such a deep and all-encompassing encyclopedia of rock idioms. His historicism can be heard most clearly in his encores, when he sings the songs of others - Sunday, Tom Waits's ''Jersey Girl,'' his Mitch Ryder medley and ''Twist and Shout,'' based on the Beatles' version. But such a love for the past suffuses his own composition, as well. Mr. Springsteen's detractors complain about his lack of musical invention, but the charge seems misplaced. He works within a set of idioms; together they constitute a tradition. But he uses those idioms as if it never once occurred to him that they might be stale, and in his hands they aren't.

Furthermore, he was in fine voice Sunday, and the E Street Band (despite a sound system that seemed a little overblown and muddy from this writer's seat) was in solid form, with Nils Lofgren filling in adeptly for the departed Steve Van Zandt. There is also a new backup singer, Patti Scialfa, but she had little to do.

For all his traditionalism, however, there is also a discernible evolution in Mr. Springtseen's work. He hardly does anything now from his period of the early 1970's, apart from ''Growin' Up'' and ''Rosalita.'' The self-conscious myth-making and inflated verbosity live on in some of his best-loved songs of the mid-70's, however. Those songs perhaps overdominated the set selection Sunday, bumping out some of his more sombre recent work. But the crowd - his crowd - loved it. To hear 20,000 people singing whole songs a cappella, loud and clear, was extraordinary.

Since the mid-70's, Mr. Springsteen has moved into an austere phase, telling grim heartfelt stories about people struggling to survive in a society indifferent to them. What was interesting about Sunday's show, in part, was how all this work sounded of a piece. The acoustic songs on his ''Nebraska'' album were fleshed out (sometimes too sweetly, as with the overuse of a noxious chime effect from one of the electronic keyboards); the synthesized dance-rock textures of ''Born in the U.S.A.'' were revealed as superficial overlays of his standard rock arrangements.

For sheer excitement, this writer still prizes Mr. Springsteen's club shows of the mid-70's: arenas inevitably rob music of some of its impact. But their large scale also becomes a fitting setting for an artist of such genuinely popular aspirations.

This is not ''pop''; not commercial calculation. What makes Mr. Springsteen such a satisfying harbinger of the ''rock-and-roll future'' is not his anticipation of today's trends - they have grown almost foreign to him - but his role as a musician working lovingly within the rock tradition to make serious adult art. That's worth cheering about, just as much as the spellbinding fervor of his actual performances.

Springsteen 'Born in the U.S.A.' global tour's humble start at the Stone Pony

ASBURY PARK - The "Born in the U.S.A." album, and the lengthy world tour that followed its June 4, 1984 release, would make Bruce Springsteen an international superstar.

The Boss' seventh studio album spawned seven top 10 singles — including "Dancing in the Dark," "Cover Me," "Glory Days"  and "I'm on Fire" — and spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 top album chart, and sold 15 million copies in the U.S. alone. 

The 156-date "Born in the U.S.A." tour was one of the top-grossing tours of the 1980s, taking Springsteen and the band all over the U.S. and Europe and into Australia and Asia. The 1985 stadium leg of the tour saw the band performing before supersized crowds.  

Now, official stats will tell you that the tour began on June 29, 1984, at the St. Paul Civic Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, where Springsteen famously pulled a very young Courteney Cox up for a rather awkward dance during "Dancing in the Dark" as part of a Brian DePalma video shoot (the song was actually played twice that night). 

But, in a way, the first gig of the "Born in the U.S.A." tour took place at a much, much smaller venue — the Stone Pony in Asbury Park.

Are you a Bruce Springsteen fan? Please consider subscribing and you'll find lots of coverage of our hometown musical hero and other great music at the Jersey Shore.

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It was June 8, 1984, a Friday night. The "Born in the U.S.A." album had been released four days before.

John Eddie & The Front Street Runners were the headliner, with The Cruisers opening. Rumors had been flying around the Shore that Springsteen was going to play that night.

Of course, back in those days, Bruce Springsteen playing at the Stone Pony was not unusual; a week before, he had jumped onstage to play four songs with John Eddie. In 1982, Springsteen played 14 times at the Stone Pony as part of his "tour" of Jersey Shore clubs, as you can see in the video below. 

On May 26, 1984, The Boss had played "Dancing in the Dark" for the first time at Club Xanadu — located where Porta is now at the corner of Second Avenue and Kingsley Street — performing the song with the band "Bystander."

If there were rumors of a Bruce appearance June 8, Stone Pony disc jockey Lee Mrowicki had not heard them.

"Definitely it was a best-kept secret because even I was clueless that Bruce was going to play," Mrowicki recalled. I would usually check in at the office after getting to the Pony and then head to my DJ booth to get ready to work. Nothing was mentioned."

Neptune native Billy Smith figured it out as soon as he saw that John Eddie was playing first, and that the Cruisers had been bumped from the bill.

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"When we saw that John was playing first and The Cruisers were getting bumped, we knew that it was going to be an E Street Band show," Smith said.

Mrowicki realized it when the crew began setting up the E Street Band's equipment on the Pony's stage. 

"Once I saw Danny’s organ and glockenspiel was set up onstage, you realized something special was about to happen," Mrowicki said, referring to E Street Band organ player Danny Federici. "But I had to keep playing music like usual, except for one thing; I wasn't going to be playing any Bruce songs in that set like I usually did."

Mrowicki's sets filled with Springsteen songs were a staple of the club at that time.

It was a hot night, and the crowd pressed close against the stage.

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Then the band was ready to go on. Mrowicki prepared to do something he did for every other band that graced the Pony stage.

"I got to introduce Bruce and the E Street Band like any other band that played the Pony," he said. "It might have been the last introduction the band ever got because they really didn't need one anymore."

Bruce and the band took the stage: Clarence Clemons, Garry Tallent, Max Weinberg, Danny Federici, Roy Bittan and a newcomer, Nils Lofgren. Lofgren joined the band for the "Born in the U.S.A." tour after Springsteen's long-time bandmate and blood brother Little Steven Van Zandt decided to leave.

Lofgren had been rehearsing with the E Streeters at the shuttered Big Man's West nightclub on Monmouth Street (owned by Clarence Clemons, it closed early in 1983), since early May.

Patti Scialfa had not yet joined the band; she would come on board only days before the band's St. Paul show.

The band's 12-song set on June 6 included four songs from "Born in the U.S.A.": "Glory Days," "My Hometown," "Darlington County," and the title track. 

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Photos from the night show on the indispensable Brucebase page show a sweaty, newly muscular Springsteen wearing a white T-shirt and a bandana, garb that would become standard Boss-wear during the Born in the U.S.A. tour.

Clemons, also drenched in sweat, wears dark sunglasses while blasting away on his saxophone near the front of the stage.

"Everyone jammed up near the stage and it was incredibly hot in there," Billy Smith said.  

In addition to the four new tracks, the band played favorites like "Thunder Road," "Out in the Street," "Born to Run." and "Promised Land."

Springsteen dedicated "The River" to The Cruisers, the band that was bumped that night by the E Street Band.

Mrowicki noticed that people were running to the phone booths on the boardwalk as soon as they knew Springsteen and the band were making a guest appearance.

"Then I noticed more people were coming in the front door," he said. "So I guess people were spreading the word."  

Two days after appearing with the band for the tour warmup, Springsteen and Nils Lofgren would be back at the Pony, performing five songs with Pony house band Cats on a Smooth Surface.

Bruce and band would play another impromptu rehearsal show before they headed out to conquer the world on the "Born in the U.S.A." tour, but this one would be at a small bar in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, The Village bar near Clair Brothers Audio, where Bruce and the E Streeters were trying out new sound and light systems for the tour.

The Boss returned to the Stone Pony on August 22 t to perform with La Bamba and the Hubcaps.

Springsteen was returning a favor, in a way, as The Miami Horns, including Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg, Eddie Manion, Mark Pender and Stan Harrison (all also members of the Hubcaps) had guested with Springsteen and the E Street Band on August 20, at the last show of a sold-out, 10-night stand at Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford. 

By that time, "Born in the U.S.A." had been at the top of Billboard's album chart for four weeks, before being displaced by another smash hit album, Prince's "Purple Rain." Born in the U.S.A. would again top the charts in January 1985.

"Born in the U.S.A. went nuclear," Springsteen would write in his 2016 autobiography, "Born to Run." "....At 34, I decided to ride it out and enjoy it."

The beginning of that ride was on the Stone Pony stage. 

June 8, 1984 setlist courtesy of Brucebase :

THUNDER ROAD / OUT IN THE STREET / PROVE IT ALL NIGHT / GLORY DAYS / THE RIVER / DARLINGTON COUNTY / DANCING IN THE DARK / THE PROMISED LAND / MY HOMETOWN / BORN IN THE U.S.A. / BADLANDS / BORN TO RUN.

Were you at the Stone Pony on June 8, 1984? If so I'd love to hear from you. And if you like reading stories about Asbury Park's storied music history, please consider a subscription to the Asbury Park Press.

Jean Mikle covers Toms River and several other Ocean County towns, and has been writing about local government and politics at the Jersey Shore for nearly 35 years. A finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in public service, she's also passionate about the Shore's storied music scene. Contact her: @jeanmikle, 732-643-4050, [email protected].

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How Bruce Springsteen Learned to Love Arenas for His 1984 Tour

June 30, 2024 by 0 Comments

For nearly the entirety of his career as a performing and touring musician, Bruce Springsteen had had an issue with taking his show to bigger venues. His reluctance was well known, and he had historically been slow to make such moves, even as the number of people who wanted to see him grew.

“When we were in clubs,” he told biographer Dave Marsh for Marsh’s 1987 book Glory Days . “… we’d play five or six nights in a club before we’d go into a theater. … [W]e played five or six nights in a theater before we’d go into an arena. In the arena, we’d play five or six nights in the arena.”

When plotting the tour in support of his 1984 album Born in the U.S.A. , Springsteen and his management took the same route they’d taken since 1978’s Darkness on the Edge of Town : with a long trek through North American arenas. Beginning June 29, 1984 in St. Paul, Minn., the Boss and the E Street Band played 94 indoor shows, ending in Syracuse, NY January 27, 1985.

New Faces on E Street

It was a time of change for all involved. Prior to the release of Born in the U.S.A. , longtime musical partner Steven Van Zant left the group; he was replaced by former Neil Young sideman, Grin front man and solo artist Nils Lofgren on guitar and background vocals. Singer (and future Mrs. Springsteen) Patti Scialfa was also brought on board to bolster the vocal presence onstage. Springsteen’s personal life, too, was heading in a new direction – in the fall of 1984, he would meet and begin dating actress Julianne Phillips; they married the following spring.

Professionally, Springsteen had never been bigger – Born in the U.S.A. would sell 30 million albums worldwide and yield seven U.S. Top 10 singles. As the tour moved through North America, it became apparent that demand for tickets far outstripped the supply, and that subsequent legs would need to be staged in much bigger venues.

The tour breezed through Australia and Japan, before hitting its European leg, which consisted of 18 shows in massive soccer stadiums. It all nearly unraveled immediately.

The Irish Debacle

An estimate 93,000 people attended the first concert, at Ireland’s Slane Castle, including a number of inebriated fans who shoved, fought, drank, passed out and came to, right in front of a shocked and anxious Springsteen.

“Fans were pouring, red faced, soaked in booze and heat exhaustion, over the front barriers to be taken to the medical tent or to flank the crowd, throw themselves back in and take another crack at it,” Springsteen recalled in his 2016 memoir Born to Run . Audience members would fall to the muddy ground, vanishing until their friends picked them back up. “Then, once standing,” Springsteen wrote, “they’d slosh back the other way and the whole interminable, nerve-grinding exercise would be repeated again, ad infinitum.”

It was Springsteen’s worst nightmare as a performer – an out-of-control audience over which he held little (if any) sway. He was afraid someone would get really hurt, or worse – “I thought somebody was going to get killed,” he wrote, “and it’d be my fault.”

During intermission, Springsteen had a “highly charged debate” with his manager, Jon Landau, over canceling the entire European tour, rather than having to deal with crowds of such numbers, in such an unruly, dangerous state. Landau convinced Springsteen to continue playing and see how the rest of the show and the next several dates transpired. The situation settled, and the tour moved on.

The crowds at the remainder of the European shows were still lively, but not as disorderly as the Irish audience. Springsteen and band responded with energetic, high-spirited performances, gaining confidence with each date, including a raucous show in front of 80,000 in Milan and three nights at London’s Wembley Stadium.

Back to the U.S.A.

Once the European stadium leg of the tour was complete, it was time to swing back to the U.S., where nearly 1.9 million eager fans had scooped up tickets for 28 stadium concerts in 14 cities. Springsteen was ready.

“Our anthems were built to fill and communicate in places of this size,” Springsteen wrote in his memoir, “so from Timbuktu to New Jersey, crowds dropped one by one to the powerhouse show we’d started developing overseas.”

The Born in the U.S.A. tour ended with four shows at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Sept. 27, 29, and 30, and October 2, 1985, to some 83,000 attendees per night. It was a rousing and fitting end to a truly historic rock ‘n’ roll tour.

“We were now one of the biggest, if not the biggest, rock attractions in the world and to get there we hadn’t lost sight of what we were about,” Springsteen noted in Born to Run . “There were some close shaves, and in the future I’d have to be doubly vigilant about the way my music was used and interpreted, but all in all, we’d come through intact, united and ready to press on.”

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The original Eras tour: how Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA conquered the world

At 11pm on October 2 1985, at the end of a four-night stand at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Bruce Springsteen called time on one of the most profitable rock tours of the decade. Spanning 15-months, 156 concerts and 14 countries, the 15-month Born in the USA. tour played to more than 5.3 million people in arenas and stadiums in which not a single ticket went unsold. With a combined gross of $80 million – or 250 million quid when adjusted for inflation – this most profitable of travelling circuses was the Eras tour of its time.

As distinct from Taylor Swift, though, the 36-year old son of New Jersey was not a natural pop star. Rather, he was a rocker. Even with his colour setting dialled up to the max, he seemed at odds with the shiny materialism of the Eighties. Backed by the all-conquering E Street Band, onstage in LA, Springsteen spoke on behalf of aid organisations working for the unemployed and of the perils of governmental monkey business in Central America. Some of his biggest hits were deeply weird. “At night, I wake up with the sheets soaking wet and a freight train running through the middle of my head,” he sang on I’m On Fire, one of the many singles harvested from the album Born in the USA.

Today sees the LP re-released as a special red-vinyl edition in a gatefold sleeve with a booklet featuring archive material and new sleeve notes.

Just as they do now, back in 1985, the patrons on Main Street regarded Bruce Springsteen as their representative in song. “The Boss means America,” a ticketholder at the Coliseum told the Los Angeles Times. “He represents not the rich or the beautiful, not [LA] or New York, but the other people, the common people, the people in-between. When he sings, he sings about love, America and working. When he’s onstage, he’s there for everybody, even the people in the back row. He doesn’t condescend. I’m a bartender, and he’s the kind of guy that you can sit down with and have a beer.”

On the face of it, Born in the USA represented a notable change from the album that preceded it. Unveiled in 1982, the acoustic sparseness of Nebraska (essentially a two-track demo recorded in a single day) featured a cast of characters diminished to the point where violence was only ever a heartbeat away.

They were defiant, too, for all it was worth. “At the end of every hard-earned day people find some reason to believe,” Springsteen sang of a man looking down at a dead dog “like if he stood there long enough that dog’d get up and run”. Believe all you want, he seemed to be saying, but you’re wasting your time.

Born in the USA, meanwhile, offered the possibility of hope. “I’ll shake the world off my shoulders,” promised the narrator of the blockbusting leadoff single Dancing In The Dark. Getting into the swing of the age, the track was accompanied by a music video aired on MTV with the kind of ubiquity normally reserved for Madonna. Directed by Brian De Palma, the concert clip ends, famously, with Springsteen cutting a rug onstage with a young Courtney Cox. As if confirming its mainstream credentials, Alfonso Ribeiro later revealed that Cox’s moves provided the inspiration for “The Carlton” dance beloved of his character in The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air.

The starting point for it all, though, was a long way removed from Hollywood film directors and canned-laughter sitcoms. In 1981, while Bruce Springsteen was pulling together the material for Nebraska, he penned a further seven songs that would form the spine of its high profile successor. Listeners who may have been duped by the pop-star music videos or the brightly coloured Annie Leibovitz photo on the album’s front cover might care to note that at least one of these compositions would confirm that the differences between the two LPs were presentational rather than substantive. What’s more, this meaningful distinction would cause no end of grief.

With his feet up on the coffee table at his home in Colts Neck, New Jersey, the process began with Springsteen pondering a work-in-progress inspired in part by a script sent to him by the writer Paul Schrader. Picking out chords on his sunburst Gibson J200 acoustic guitar, he then turned his head towards a few scribbled lines in a notebook about the plight of veterans returned from the war in Vietnam. The title was taken from the screenplay at his side. It was called Born in the USA.

As he would later write in his autobiography, Born To Run, from 2016, “Born in the USA remains one of my greatest and most misunderstood pieces of music. The combination of its ‘down’ blues verses and its ‘up’ declarative choruses, its demand for the right of a ‘critical’ patriotic voice along with pride of birth, was too seemingly conflicting (or just a bother!) for some of its more carefree, less discerning listeners… Records are often auditory Rorschach tests; we hear what we want to hear.”

It’s worth considering, I think, how this most iconic of tracks might have been received had it appeared in downtrodden form on Nebraska. In fact, I would say it seems all but obvious that its story of a beleaguered serviceman who can’t catch a break back home in the States, or the brother who lost his mind at the Battle of Khe Sahn, would have been right at home there.

Backed by the E Street Band in pummelling form, however, the song became a case study in just how easily songs with readily discernible lyrics can be misconstrued. The trade magazine Cash Box described it as being a “straight-ahead anthem that celebrates America’s traditional values”, for example, while Libertarian columnist George Will wrote “I have not got a clue about Springsteen’s politics” – wow, no kidding – but that Born In The USA’s chorus was “a grand, cheerful affirmation”. Will even suggested to Ronald Reagan’s handlers that The Boss might fancy endorsing their candidate in his campaign for re-election as president in the general election of 1984. The approach was duly rebuffed.

Nice try. But as Greil Marcus wrote in a review for the magazine Artforum, the song is about nothing less than “the refusal of the country to treat Vietnam veterans as something more than non-union workers in an enterprise conducted off the books. It is about the debt the country owes to those who suffered the violation of the principles on which [it] was founded, and by which it has justified itself ever since. In other words, the song links Vietnam veterans to the Vietnamese – or rather (because… Springsteen personalises everything he touches) one veteran tries to make that link.”

All of which is pretty heavy fare for a record that has since become the 20 th bestselling album of all time. After debuting on the American Billboard Hot 200 at a somewhat pallid number nine, Bruce Springsteen’s seventh LP rose to the top of the chart two weeks later. A residency in the top-10 lasting an astounding 84 weeks made it the highest selling album of 1985. Across the Atlantic, after arriving on the chart at number two, The Boss at last reached the summit of the British listings eight months later.

In a marketing strategy pioneered by Michael Jackson’s Thriller , the album’s momentum was sustained by a steady drip-feed of singles and attendant music videos. In releasing a whopping seven stand-alone tracks – along with Dancing In The Dark and I’m On Fire, there came the title track, My Hometown, Glory Days, I’m Goin’ Down and Cover Me – Columbia Records evidently disagreed with the assessment of their signatory and his manager, Jon Landau, that the LP should spawn no more than two singles. The suits called it right. Each of the seven songs found their way into the US top 10.

“Bruce Springsteen has enlarged his onetime cult following to immense proportions,” wrote Philip Elwood in a piece for the San Francisco Examiner published in the autumn of 1984. “[Concert promoter] Bill Graham… told [me] this week that he ‘offered Springsteen’s people six sold-out nights’ in the Bay Area, something he had never done before.” Instead, 150,000 people applied for the 27,000 tickets available for a pair of dates at the Oakland Coliseum Arena. When the Born In The U.S.A Tour wended its way back to Northern California, in September the following year, The Boss performed for more than 100,000 ticketholders over two nights at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum stadium right next door.

It really didn’t get much bigger than this. Certainly, when the representatives from the Garden State visited Europe in the summer of 1985, it was to play, and to fill, the continent’s largest venues. Around this time, many were the people who regarded a three-night stand at Wembley Stadium – not to mention dates at Roundhay Park, in Leeds, and Newcastle’s St James’s Park – as evidence of overnight success. Not so. Four years earlier, at Wembley Arena, Bruce Springsteen and his group had wowed 84,000 people over seven nights on the tour in support of The River LP. The only difference being, that crowd had been drummed out of the woodwork by an album rather than its singles.

In other words, this was no fleeting dalliance. Four years later, in his review of the tour, the critic Richard Williams noted how “on Wednesday evening, in the vastness of Wembley Stadium, [Springsteen] chose a rare moment of calm towards the end of his three-hour concert to remind his 72,000 listeners of the importance he attaches to that historic relationship [with London]. It was one of several signs that, despite his new status as the tabloid newspapers’ favourite pop sensation, he continues to respond primarily to the whisper of his conscience.”

In time – in fact, rather quickly – these whispers would lead Bruce Springsteen away from the blinding light of pop stardom. He’d remain a megastar, of course, but he’d had his fun. On the US leg of tour in support of the Tunnel Of Love album, from 1988, he played in arenas on dates that were sometimes announced at only a few days’ notice. After breaking up the E Street Band – the old gang reunited in 1999 – he even went so far as to ponder his status as “a rich man in a poor man’s shirt”. Thing was, though, the authenticity of it all couldn’t be denied, not even by him. At no point in the last 40 years has he ever issued a song that sounds as if it was written by a millionaire.

It’s quite the trick, really, considering the extent of his fortune. At the end of his Born in the U.S.A. tour, for the first time in his life, Springsteen met with his accountant. “I would shake the hand of a Mr Gerald Breslauer,” he writes in his memoir, “who would tell me that I had earned a figure that at the time seemed so outrageous that I had to ban it from thought… I couldn’t contextualise it in any meaningful way. So I didn’t. My first luxury as a successful rock icon would be the luxury not to think about, to downright ignore, my luxuries. [It] worked for me.”

The 40 th anniversary edition of Born In The U.S.A. is available now

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30 Rockers Who Toured in 1984 and Are Touring Again in 2024

It's been a long time since rock and roll was a young person's game. If you need proof check out this list of famous musicians who were on tour way back in 1984, and are still out there doing their thing 40 years later in 2024. In most cases we've also got live video footage from the 1984 shows.

Ready to feel inspired and also very very old? With tour statistics from SetList.fm , here's 30 Rockers Who Toured in 1984 and Are Touring again in 2024.

Although they spent most of 1984 off the road, AC/DC joined the Monsters of Rock festival for 10 late summer dates in support of the previous year's Flick of the Switch album. The tour was the first to feature Simon Wright on drums. 40 years later, the band will return to Europe for their first tour in eight years. Angus Young, Brian Johnson and Stevie Young will be joined by a brand-new rhythm section featuring Chris Chaney on bass and Matt Laug on drums.

Watch AC/DC Perform in 1984

Five years after Joe Perry's departure from the band, Aerosmith 's original lineup reunited for 1984's Back in the Saddle tour. Although the group had floundered without Perry and fellow guitarist Brad Whitford (who left in 1981), their comeback tour was a rousing success and the first step in their remarkable Permanent Vacation / Pump rebirth. Nearly four decades later the band launched their Peace Out farewell tour in September 2023 but were forced off the road when Steven Tyler injured his vocal chords after just three shows. With their singer now recovered, the group aims to hit the road again this fall.

Watch Aerosmith Perform 'Lightning Strikes' in 1984

The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys were embroiled in major interpersonal turmoil in the mid-'80s, with Brian Wilson largely living in exile to focus on his health and addiction issues, and his brother Dennis drowning after his own long substance abuse battle. But somehow the band still managed to perform over 130 shows in 1984. 40 years later the group's touring lineup, led by Love and Bruce Johnston, has another busy tour scheduled planned for 2024.

Watch the Beach Boys Perform 'Surfin' U.S.A.' in 1984

Blue Oyster Cult

While touring throughout 1984, Blue Oyster Cult were dealing with internal and external changes. Longtime drummer Albert Bouchard was fired before the recording of 1983's The Revolution by Night , which found the band trying to keep up with MTV and the increasingly pop-friendly sound of rock music. The band kicked off 2024 by releasing their first new album in four years, Ghost Stories , and longtime members Buck Dharma and Eric Bloom will lead the band out on the road for the 57th consecutive year in 2024.

Hear Blue Oyster Cult Perform Live in 1984

Cheap Trick

While supporting their 1983 album Next Position Please , Cheap Trick spent much of 1984 on the road, sharing bills with a diverse group of bands including Ratt, .38 Special and Til' Tuesday. They'll spend most of 2024 supporting a reunited Heart on the Royal Flush tour.

Watch Cheap Trick Perform 'She's Tight' in 1984

Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton had a relatively quiet touring year in 1984, finishing up the 11 dates of his tour in support of 1983's Money and Cigarettes in February, then embarking on a tour of Australia in November. He spent part of 1984 recording Behind the Sun with help from Phil Collins. The following year the album and its hit single "Forever Man" would help revive Clapton's commercial fortunes. Clapton has about two dozen shows planned for 2024, with a UK tour kicking off May 9. So far three American dates have been announced for November, in San Diego, Palm Desert and Los Angeles' Hollywood Bowl.

Watch Eric Clapton Perform 'Layla' in 1984

Elvis Costello

During his early 1984 U.S. tour, Elvis Costello treated fans to a preview of upcoming album Goodbye Cruel World by performing the song "The Only Flame in Town." The studio version of the song featured harmony vocals by Hall and Oates star Daryl Hall . 40 years later, Hall and Costello are teaming up for a tour that kicks off June 2 in Troutdale, Oregon.

Watch Elvis Costello Perform Live in 1984

Deep Purple

Freshly reunited with the classic "Mark II" lineup of Jon Lord, Ian Paice, Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan and Roger Glover, Deep Purple released the hit album Perfect Strangers in late 1984 and then launched a massive and highly successful tour with a 15-date tour of Australia and New Zealand. The tour continued to the United States, Europe and Japan in 1985. Paice, Glover and Gillan remain in the current lineup, which will release a new album named =1 in July and launch a North American tour with Yes in August.

Watch Deep Purple Perform 'Highway Star' in 1984

Def Leppard

After establishing themselves as superstars with 1983's Pyromania , Def Leppard launched a massive 188-date world tour that concluded with seven 1984 dates in Japan, Australia and Thailand. In July 2024 they'll launch a stadium tour alongside Journey , with support on select dates from Heart, Cheap Trick and the Steve Miller Band.

Watch Def Leppard Perform on the 'Pyromania' Tour

Bob Dylan spent the summer of 1984 touring Europe alongside Santana , with a band that featured ex- Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor (who had also played on 1983's Infidels) and Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan. Later that year, the live album Real Live documented the tour. He's already played 24 dates so far this year, and will join Willie Nelson's Outlaw Music Festival tour this summer along with John Mellencamp, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss and others.

Watch Bob Dylan Perform 'Highway 61 Revisited' in 1984

Sammy Hagar

1984's VOA and more specifically, the single "I Can't Drive 55' made Sammy Hagar a household name. He wisely capitalized with an 89-date headline tour that kicked off Sept. 1 in Portland. Soon after the tour's completion he joined Van Halen , a decade-long era he will be celebrating with help from Michael Anthony and Joe Satriani this summer on the Best of All Worlds tour.

Hear Sammy Hagar Perform 'I Can't Drive 55' in 1984

Heart entered the '80s in turmoil and commercial decline, losing longtime members Steve Fossen and Michael Derosier after the release of 1982's Private Audition , which was the group's first album not to achieve gold sales status. Neither did 1983's Passionworks , but the band launched a 75-date tour that stretched into June of 1984. The following year they teamed up with outside songwriters and switched to a keyboard-dominated sound for their five-times platinum self-titled comeback album. In late 2023 Ann and Nancy Wilson formed a new version of the band, who will spend the summer of 2024 on the Royal Flush tour with support from Cheap Trick.

Hear Heart Perform Live in 1984

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

Neither 1983's Album nor 1984's Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth reached the same sales heights as Joan Jett 's 1981 smash I Love Rock 'n Roll . But she remained a popular concert draw, performing 70 shows on a tour that was split almost equally between 1984 and 1985. In 2024 she will join Alanis Morissette and country singer Morgan Wade on the Triple Moon Tour , which kicks off June 9 in Phoenix.

Watch Joan Jett Perform Live in 1984

After 1982's darkly themed Nylon Curtain proved to be a (very, very) relative commercial letdown for Billy Joel , he rebounded spectacularly with 1983's An Innocent Man , a tribute to the '50s and '60s music of his youth. He performed 68 concerts on the tour in support of the seven-million platinum selling album in 1984, concluding with seven shows at New York City's Madison Square Garden. In addition to concluding his record-breaking MSG residency, 2024 will find Joel sharing the bill at stadium shows across the country with fellow legends Stevie Nicks , Sting and Rod Stewart .

Watch Billy Joel Perform 'Piano Man' in 1984

Judas Priest

Barely two weeks into 1984, Judas Priest followed up 1982's masterful Screaming for Vengeance with the almost-as-awesome Defenders of the Faith . They spent the next nine months on the Meal Conqueror tour, showcasing future classics such as "Freewheel Burning," "Love Bites" and "Some Heads Are Gonna Roll." 40 years later, the heavy metal legends are back with a new album named Invincible Shield and another headlining tour .

Watch Judas Priest Perform 'Love Bites' in 1984

Although 1983 ended with the exit of founding members Kerry Livgren and Dave Hope, and newly recruited singer and keyboardist John Elefante followed them out the door early the next year, Kansas managed to play a handful of shows in support of 1983's Drastic Measures in 1984 before radically re-casting their lineup for 1986's Power . Guitarist Rich Williams is the only member of the band's classic '70s lineups to remain in the touring version of the band in 2024, although drummer Phil Ehart, who is recovering from a recent heart attack, is still an official member of the group. The band has extended last year's 50th anniversary tour well into 2024 , with dates that are currently set to conclude Dec. 11 in Pittsburgh.

Hear Kansas Perform Live in 1984

A year and two days after essentially rewriting the rules of metal with their 1983 debut Kill 'Em All , Metallica displayed a stunning level of creative growth with 1984's sophomore effort Ride the Lightning . Still striving to make a name for themselves, the group performed about two dozen shows both before and after the album's June release date. 40 years later and firmly established as the kings of the genre, Metallica will launch the second year of their ambitious "two nights in every city" 72 Seasons tour on May 24th in Munich, Germany.

Watch Metallica Perform 'Phantom Lord' in 1984

Night Ranger

1984 marked the release of " Sister Christian ," Night Ranger 's career-defining smash from the previous year's Midnight Madness album. The band performed 110 shows in support of the album that summer, and will spend much of 2024 on the road in an extended celebration of their 40th year as a band.

Watch Night Ranger Perform 'Sister Christian' on the Midnight Madness Tour

Robert Plant

Four years and two solo albums after the breakup of Led Zeppelin , in 1984 Robert Plant played the last 19 shows in support of 1983's The Principle of Moments without performing a single song from his former band. It was a streak he wouldn't break until 1987's Non Stop Go tour. 44 years into one of the most restless and rewarding solo careers in the genre's history, Plant will spend the summer of 2024 touring together with Alison Krauss, including a number of dates on Willie Nelson's Outlaw Music Festival.

Hear Robert Plant Perform Live in 1984

After losing two of her founding bandmates to drug addiction, Chrissie Hynde led a reconfigured Pretenders to new heights with 1984's Learning to Crawl . Empowered by new hit singles such as "Back on the Chain Gang," "2000 Miles" and "Middle of the Road," the band played 129 shows in 1984. They'll spend much of 2024 touring in support of their latest album Relentless , both headlining as as the support act for the Foo Fighters .

Watch Pretenders Perform 'Thumbelina' in 1984

Reportedly angered by the negative reaction to their 1984 video "I Want to Break Free," Queen decided not to tour America in support of their new album The Works . But they played nearly 50 shows in England, Europe, Australia and Japan in support of the album. Sadly, it would be singer Freddie Mercury's second-to-last tour with the group. So far the band's 2024 tour schedule is rather light, listing only a five-date tour of Japan with singer Adam Lambert, who has fronted the group since 2011.

Watch Queen Perform 'I Want to Break Free' in 1984

Red Hot Chili Peppers

By their own admission, the Red Hot Chili Peppers ' 1984 debut album didn't do a great job of demonstrating the band's abilities, but even with the temporary absence of founding guitarist Hillel Slovak, they proved themselves to be a dynamic live attraction, performing 73 dates across the country that year. Four decades later and firmly established as one of the biggest concert draws in the world, the band will kick off a summer 2024 tour on May 28 in Ridgefield, Washington.

Watch Red Hot Chili Peppers Perform Live in 1984

REO Speedwagon

REO Speedwagon released the double-platinum Wheels Are Turnin' in November 1984. The gigantic success of the " Can't Fight This Feeling " single propelled that band onto a 143-date tour, with the first two dozen dates taking place in the winter of 1984. The band will team up with Train for a summer 2024 tour that kicks off July 8 in Somerset, Wisconsin. The groups promoted the tour by performing a mash-up of their respective hits "Keep On Loving You" and "Drops of Jupiter" on Jimmy Kimmel Live! this February.

Hear REO Speedwagon Perform Live in 1984

In addition to the above-mentioned summer European tour with Bob Dylan, Santana mounted a brief autumn run of U.S. dates in 1984. He'll spend most of May performing at his long-running Las Vegas residency. On June 14, he'll kick off a summer 2024 trek with the Counting Crows.

Watch Santana Perform 'Touchdown Raiders' in 1984

The Scorpions' popularity got a big boost early in 1984 with the release of " Rock You Like a Hurricane " and their first multi-platinum album, Love at First Sting . They played 160 concerts all over the world in support of the album that year. In 2024 they are celebrating its 40th birthday with the Love at First Sting Las Vegas residency .

Watch Scorpions Perform 'Rock You Like a Hurricane' in 1984

Bruce Springsteen

1984 was a watershed moment for Bruce Springsteen , as his Born in the U.S.A. album became one of the year's biggest hits, going on to eventually sell over 30 million copies. He celebrated with a 156-show tour that spread from June 1984 to October 1985. Nearly half of his 1986 five-album Live 1975-85 box set was recorded on this tour. After having to postpone his current tour with the E Street Band due to peptic ulcer disease, Springsteen is back on the road with dates scheduled through November 2024.

Watch Bruce Springsteen Perform 'Born to Run' in 1984

Although 1983's "(She's) Sexy + 17" was a Top 10 hit, frontman Brian Setzer had grown bored with the Stray Cats , and after performing 45 shows in 1984, the group broke up and began would be be a decades-long cycle of reunions and hiatuses. They'll be back on the road in 2024 for the first time in five years, starting July 27 in Woodinville, Washington and concluding Aug. 17 in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Hear Stray Cats Perform Live in 1984

George Thorogood

Although it miraculously somehow never cracked the singles charts, George Thorogood was still riding high off 1982's "Bad to the Bone" in 1984. He spent part of the summer recording 1985's Maverick - home to the classic "I Drink Alone" - but found time to perform a handful of shows with his longtime backing band the Delaware Destroyers. He'll spend the summer of 2024 touring with John Fogerty on the Celebration tour.

Watch George Thorogood Perform 'Who Do You Love' in 1984

A newly reunited and reconfigured Yes entered 1984 on a big winning streak, as their pop-friendly late-1983 album 90125 became the band's biggest-selling album thanks to the hit single "Owner of a Lonely Heart." They capitalized on this success with a 138-date tour which was documented in the 1985 concert film 9012Live .

Currently led by guitarist and '70s-era veteran Steve Howe, Yes willl join Deep Purple for a summer 2024 North American tour that kicks off Aug. 14 in Hollywood, Florida.

Watch Yes Perform Live in 1984

A year after becoming full-fledged superstars and unlikely MTV darlings with the previous year's Eliminator , ZZ Top spent the last two months of 1984 completing a 151-date world tour in support of the 11-million copy-selling album. They'll spend much of 2024 headlining their own Elevation tour or sharing the stage with Lynyrd Skynyrd on the perfectly-named Sharp Dressed Simple Man tour.

Watch ZZ Top Perform on the Eliminator Tour

Rockers on Tour in Both 1974 and 2024

Gallery Credit: Bryan Rolli

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How Bruce Springsteen Learned to Love Arenas for His 1984 Tour

A reluctant Boss agrees to play stadiums in the wake of his biggest album's success. Continue reading…

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BEAT featuring Adrian Belew and Steve Vai extend 2024 tour. Get tickets

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Due to overwhelming demand, BEAT marches on.

BEAT, made up of rock icons Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, Steve Vai, and Tool drummer Danny Carey, have announced they’re extending their 2024 tour where they’ll play reinterpretations of iconic ’80s King Crimson albums “Discipline,” “Beat” and “Three of A Perfect Pair” at venues all over North America from September through November.

Previously announced New York and New Jersey-based gigs included concerts at New York City’s  Beacon Theatre  on Oct. 5, Red Bank, NJ’s  Hackensack Meridian Theatre  on Oct. 9, Rochester’s  Kodak Center  on Oct. 19, and Albany’s  The Egg  on Oct. 21.

Now, they’ll also drop into Buffalo’s UB Center For The Arts on Dec. 2, Atlantic City’s Tropicana Showroom on Dec. 7 and Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre on Dec. 8.

And, while original King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp won’t take part in the fall and winter run, he did give the upcoming trek a thumbs up.

“This is the project that Adrian Belew called me about last autumn, a project which I support and fully encourage, and discussed with Steve Vai recently at McCabes in Santa Monica,” the 77-year-old shared on  Facebook . “I suggested the name.”

Fans can purchase tickets for all upcoming BEAT shows on sites like Vivid Seats ; the official on-sale is Friday, June 28.

Vivid Seats is a secondary market ticketing platform, and prices may be higher or lower than face value, depending on demand.

They have a 100% buyer guarantee that states your transaction will be safe and secure and will be delivered before the event.

A complete calendar including all tour dates ( newly added concerts are in bold ), venues, and links to buy tickets can be found here:

On top of the sprawling BEAT tour, Belew is returning to the road with Talking Heads and Modern Lovers member Jerry Harrison for a quick jaunt this year.

To find out if they’re headed to your neck of the woods, check out all of Adrian Belew’s 2024 tour dates here .

If it’s been too long since you’ve heard the band’s ’80s output, here’s how you can hear King Crimson’s three sonically adventurous albums that inspired the upcoming tour.

“Discipline” (1981)

“Beat” (1982)

“Three of a Perfect Pair” (1984)

Many of the biggest names in rock are making the rounds this year and next.

Here are just five of our favorites you won’t want to miss live.

•  Robert Plant with Allison Krauss

•  David Gilmour

•  Alan Parsons Project

•  Electric Light Orchestra

•  Deep Purple

Who else is out and about? Take a look at our list of the  50 biggest concert tours in 2024 here  to find out.

This article was written by Matt Levy , New York Post live events reporter. Levy stays up-to-date on all the latest tour announcements from your favorite musical artists and comedians, as well as Broadway openings, sporting events and more live shows – and finds great ticket prices online. Since he started his tenure at the Post in 2022, Levy has reviewed Bruce Springsteen and interviewed Melissa Villaseñor of SNL fame, to name a few. Please note that deals can expire, and all prices are subject to change.

Vivid Seats is the New York Post's official ticketing partner. We may receive revenue from this partnership for sharing this content and/or when you make a purchase.