Bruce Springsteen To Play Bridgestone On April 17th | No Bonnaroo For The Boss?

In a news story that leaked during Nashville Cream’s Kings On Leon coverage on Friday night, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band will be performing at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on April 17th. Tickets will reportedly go on sale Saturday February 15th, and this will mark the first time that The Boss has performed in Nashville since his 2009 performance at the same venue (then nomed Sommet Center). A string of North American dates are anticipated in support of their unbelievable 18th studio recording, High Hopes, which has received significant critical acclaim (except by Pitchfork, of course) since it’s release last month. An official announcement is likely today or tomorrow, and we’ll bring you ticket links and any pre-sales as they are released. [update: show is confirmed… and the ticket link is here.] In the meantime, get to know more of High Hopes with the Spotify player below.

In other news, unless this is an AC Entertainment production, it likely means that we will not have another performance from The Boss at Bonnaroo this year. I guess some of you out there could claim that Bruce & Co. last played Bonnaroo in 2009 (the same as their last Nashville performance). While it is possible, Springsteen would command headlining attention at the Roo, and it’s unlikely that Bonnaroo organizers would want a headliner who will have just played a string of dates within the festival’s geographic radius less than two months prior. The currently announced tour doesn’t extend past May, so we still can’t officially rule out an appearance. We’re not saying it won’t happen, but it’ll definitely move The Boss into the “probably not” category in our Bonnaroo Rumors.

P.S. You may have also noticed the news bit over the weekend (also referenced in the Nashville Scene article) that Bruce and the boys covered the AC/DC classic “Highway To Hell” in Bon Scott’s hometown of Perth Australia over the weekend. A couple of shaky fan cell phone vids of that have circulated around the internet, and it prompted music industry sounding board Bob Lefsetz to remark about how Springsteen’s live shows are an example of how the music industry has moved to the power of live shows (regardless of what you think about his recent catalogue). He even relates an experience like a Springsteen show to surfers with a “you should have been out there yesterday”. The point of this post-script? If you love live music, you probably don’t want to wait around to get your tickets, because Lefsetz just convinced half of Nashville’s enormous music scene that this is a “not to miss” show. The AC/DC cover video is below, and you can read more Lefsetz for yourself here.