Springsteen and E Street Band Better than Ever

Written By Chrissy Mauck 

Fender welcomed Nils Lofgren of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band by Scottsdale headquarters on Thursday. Lofgren, who has a home in Arizona with wife Amy, was on a four-night break from the "Working on a Dream" tour. 

Next weekend Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will take part in the 25^th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concerts, a massive extravaganza at Madison Square Garden in New York that also features performances by world-class artists Eric Clapton, Aretha Franklin, Metallica, Stevie Wonder, U2 and more.

“It keeps growing,” Lofgren says about the anniversary celebration. “It’ll be exciting and crazy; television is always frenetic and chaotic. But it’s always fun to see your peers, and to see all of these great musicians perform at one time.” 

Coincidentally, this year also marks Lofgren’s 25^th year touring with Springsteen. In all, the masterful guitarist has been on the road 41 years now.

“Honestly I would have never been that greedy when I was 17 and hit the road to think, ‘Oh yeah, 41 years from now I’m going to be in one of the best bands in rock history, and I’m going to be learning and playing better than I ever have,” says Lofgren. “That’s way too presumptuous and arrogant and pie in the sky. But that’s what’s happened so I’m very grateful. I really embrace every night.”

Though they are 70 shows deep into their latest tour, the Boss has kept things interesting by taking advantage of the E Street Band’s wealth of experience.  

“Bruce is taking advantage of our history because he’s doing improv, changing the set every night and calling audibles all night long,” shares Lofgren. “Now we are playing songs we don’t even know how to play. Bruce is taking signs out of the audience and throwing it at the teleprompter guy and they are frantically getting lyrics to a song we never play, while we are working out the arrangement right on mic, in front of the audience, and 30 seconds later we play a song we’ve never played before. If 10 guys forget the bridge and one guy remembers it, we’re good. If eight guys forget the verse and one guy remembers it, it’s good. That saying ‘Working well with others,’ we are taking that to new heights I think.” 

Elvis Presley’s “Burnin’ Love,” and Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Women” are two recent covers that Lofgren and team have managed to pull off.

“’Pretty Women’ has a particularly challenging bridge,” says Lofgren. “The riff, it’s a famous riff, but there are some very complex chords in the bridge and that was one of the more challenging ones. But it’s become a nightly adventure.”

The adventures began when Springsteen selected a song from his voluminous discography, not realizing it wasn’t in his band’s repertoire.

“I think he accidentally saw a song that he thought would be cool to play, but it was a song no one had ever played and that we’ve never performed,” shares Lofgren. “But we did it, and so I think he’s even as a band leader discovering what we can do. I think he’s also feeling like, ‘I’m 60 and I’m kind of doing the best shows I’ve ever done.’ So he’s challenging himself and he’s recognized he has a band that can do this if he wants to lead it. Thanks to technology you aren’t burdened by memorization. With the teleprompter you can play a song you haven’t played in 20 years. We give each other hand signals and help each other out and get through it. It’s raggedy but very powerful and emotional because of the band’s history.”

The band added to that history by recently performing the final series of concerts to close out Giants Stadium, which is set to be demolished in 2010.

“We just did the last five shows at Giants Stadium, which was kind of historic because it was Bruce’s backyard and he’s the favored son of New Jersey,” says Lofgren. “It was spectacular. Those were really huge shows. Anytime you are trying to project to 55,000 people, it’s a bit more energetic adventure and a bit more challenging; we’re up to it, but it was an exhausting, exhilarating five nights.”

Lofgren also has conflicting emotions about the "Working on a Dream" tour nearing its Nov. 22 end.

“I’m going to miss the work but really enjoy being home,” he says. “That always happens at the end of the tour. We’ve been on the road for two years, so it’s great to have been home this week for a few days, especially since the weather is finally starting to break. I’m glad we have another dozen shows though. I don’t like being away from home, but I love being in this band and I love playing with this band. I’m just going to enjoy it.”