Bruce Springsteen wraps up tour

Bruce Springsteen wrapped up his three-month solo acoustic tour last Saturday night (August 13th) in Vancouver. The three-month tour supporting Springsteen's new Devils And Dust CD kicked off officially on April 25th in Detroit. Before returning to the US in July, Springsteen played a 17-city European tour which took him to Denmark, Spain, Italy and the UK, among other countries.

Throughout the course of the tour, the Boss performed not only on acoustic and electric guitars, but on various keyboards as well - including grand piano, electric piano and pump organ. He took full advantage of the informal setting, dipping into his back catalog and avoiding longtime concert standbys in favor of rarities from overlooked works such as his pair of 1992 albums Human Touch and Lucky Town as well as performing every song off his 1987's Tunnel Of Love album - which proved to be the live premiere of several of the songs.

For the first few shows, Springsteen was ending the shows with a dramatically reworked dirge-like version of "The Promised Land." In Chicago, he started following the song with a cover of the late '70s punk band Suicide's "Dream, Baby Dream," which he performed on the pump organ. The shows ended with the song's two-chords being played on a loop while Springsteen sang at the edge of the stage with a hand-held mike.

Among the well known songs performed regularly on the tour were "The Rising," "Into The Fire," "Growin' Up," "For You," "The River," "State Trooper," "Blinded By The Light," "Bobby Jean" and "Darlington County," from the Born In The U.S.A. album.

At several shows the Boss performed a reworked version of "I'm On Fire" on the electric banjo.

Rarities included several B-sides and songs that appeared on his 1998 outtakes collection Tracks - "The Promise," "Cynthia," "Part Man, Part Monkey," "Frankie," "Two For The Road," "Janey Don't You Lose Heart," and "Be True."

For the latter part of the second US leg Springsteen's oldest son, 15-year-old Evan traveled along and at several stops appeared onstage handing his dad his guitar during the instrument changes.

Springsteen has mentioned that additional US dates may be added "sometime soon," yet no further shows have been announced.