Springsteen heading back to Europe

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will return to Europe this spring.

Springsteen will perform on May 22nd, 23rd, and 25th in Dublin; two shows in Germany -- Dusseldorf on June 16th and Hamburg on June 21st; Milan, Italy on June 25th; Paris on June 27th; and what will probably be the European leg-closer in Barcelona, Spain on July 19th. Additional dates are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

There have been rumors since the beginning of the tour that Springsteen would be returning to the U.S. over the summer for a series of multi-night stands in various cities. No U.S. dates beyond the shows on the itinerary for February, March, and April have been announced.

Springsteen's wife and bandmate Patti Scialfa says that the band is always prepared for any rarity that Springsteen might decide to pull out of mothballs on any given night: [ Click to listen if you have a backstage pass] "We're never shocked, because you know that the catalogue is a living creature. And at any time, it's like having hundreds of horses in a corral, and at any time somebody might say, 'Hey, guess what, we haven't ridden that palomino in two years, we're riding that right now (laughs).' So you know that you also have to be ready to do songs in the catalogue. You're responsible for the whole catalogue."

Although the current E Street Band tour is only two months old, Springsteen has already played numerous rarely performed songs, including "It's Hard To Be Saint In The City" and "For You" from Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ; "The E Street Shuffle," "4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)," "Incident On 57th Street," and "Kitty's Back" from The Wild, The Innocent, And The E Street Shuffle; "Meeting Across The River" from Born To Run; "Something In The Night" from Darkness On The Edge Of Town; "Jackson Cage" from The River; and "Brilliant Disguise" and "Tougher Than The Rest" from Tunnel Of Love, among others.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will perform tomorrow night (November 30th) in Arnhem, Netherlands.