Bruce Springsteen Honors 9/11 In Pittsburgh, Announces Book Tour & Extends World Tour

As The Boss closes in on his 67th birthday, Bruce Springsteen is busier than ever. The New Jersey native played a show in Pittsburgh on Sunday which commemorated the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks with six songs from The Rising, announced a coast-to-coast book tour and extended his The River Tour to make a visit Down Under.

Let’s start with last night’s Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band show at Consol Energy Arena in Pittsburgh. The Boss’s first-ever performance on September 11th since the terrible attacks of 9/11/01 saw the band focus on songs with special meaning for the anniversary. Not only were there six songs from his 2002 record The Rising, which is viewed as a reflection on the attacks, he also played tunes which fit the tone of the occasion such as “New York City Serenade,” “Streets Of Fire” and “Long Walk Home.”

Each song from The Rising was filled was extra emotion whether it was just the second “Into The Fire” since 2012, the uplifting title track, the heart-felt “My City Of Ruins” or the tour debut of “You’re Missing,” a tune last played by the full band in 2003. Springsteen and his band were joined by local musical hero Joe Grushecky and his son Johnny Grushecky on “Light Of Day.” The encore began with a solo acoustic rendition of “Long Walk Home,” played the the request of a fan who put the name of the song on a copy of the U.S. Constitution on which according to Bruce (as per Backstreets) a fan had written “Fuck Trump.”

[Long Walk Home w/ “Fuck Trump” Banter – Captured by Matt Orel]

Just after Bruce Springsteen ends the current North American leg of The River Tour, he’ll embark on a book signing tour in support of his soon-to-be-released auto-biography Born To Run. Bruce kicks off the tour with an appearance (he is not expected to perform during the book tour) at the Barnes & Noble in the town where he was raised – Freehold, New Jersey – on September 27. He then makes appearances in New York City, Philadelphia, Seattle, Los Angeles, Portland, San Francisco and Boston over the course of the following two weeks.

In other Bruce Springsteen news, The Boss has officially confirmed he’s bringing The River Tour to Australia and New Zealand in early 2017. Springsteen will open the tour at Perth Arena in Perth on January 25 and will perform in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Mt. Macedon, Brisbane, Hunter Valley and Christchurch before he is currently scheduled to conclude the run at Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland on February 25. Tickets for all shows go on sale Friday, September 23.