Darkness Tour

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's Darkness Tour was a concert tour of North America that ran from May 1978 through the rest of the year, in conjunction with the release of Springsteen's album Darkness on the Edge of Town. (Like most Springsteen tours it had no official name, but this is the most commonly used; it is also sometimes referred to as the Darkness on the Edge of Town Tour or most simply the 1978 Tour.)

Darkness Tour

Tour by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Associated album	Darkness on the Edge of Town
Start date	May 23, 1978
End date	January 1, 1979
Legs	1
No. of shows	115
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concert chronology
Born to Run tours (1974–77) Darkness Tour (1978–79) The River Tour (1980–81)

The tour has since become viewed as perhaps Springsteen's best in a storied career of concert performances. Biographer Dave Marsh wrote in 1987, "The screaming intensity of those '78 shows are part of rock and roll legend in the same way as Dylan's 1966 shows with the Band, the Rolling Stones' tours of 1969 and 1972, and the Who's Tommy tour of 1969: benchmarks of an era."

Itinerary

The tour ran in one continuous motion, starting May 23, 1978 at Shea's Buffalo in Buffalo, New York and playing halls, theatres, and occasional arenas across the United States and back several times, with a couple of forays into Canada. The first eight shows were played before the Darkness album was released on June 2. Big cities, secondary cities, and college towns were all visited. A few shows were cancelled due to sickness but were made up later in the run. The tour wrapped up, after 115 shows, on New Year's Day 1979 in Cleveland, Ohio's Richfield Coliseum.

After a brief, unpleasant 1975 touring experience in Europe after the release of Born to Run, and with the weaker commercial appeal of Darkness compared to its predecessor, Springsteen did not venture overseas on this tour.

The show

The 1978 shows were longer than in previous Springsteen tours, typically around 25 songs, but they were not yet the true marathon concerts that would occupy the River and Born in the U.S.A. Tours. Nor was the set list variety that great among Springsteen songs, as his career was not yet long enough to offer the old rarities surprises of the later Reunion Tour and those that followed.

Rather, the word that almost every account of the 1978 shows uses, is intense. "Badlands" often opened, with the verses being taken at a much faster pace than in the studio, with drumming more active, and with Springsteen fairly spitting out the lyrics nearly ahead of the band's ability to keep up. "Born to Run" near the end of the show was also done at breakneck speed. In contrast, slower numbers such as "Streets of Fire" were taken even more slowly, with ghostly organ lines set off against Springsteen's growling-to-screaming vocals.

Many new Springsteen songs appeared. Some were songs that were or soon would be big hits for others, such as "Fire" and "Because the Night". Two new slow numbers that were immediately accessible and especially effective were aching family saga "Independence Day" and the nightmare "Point Blank", both of which would later appear on the 1980 The River album, as would several other songs first heard sporadically in 1978.

Especially notable were some of the treatments of his most famous songs. "Prove It All Night", the failed first single from Darkness, was reshaped into an eleven-minute epic with a long, howling guitar-over-piano introduction and a frenetic organ-and-guitar-over-drums outro; this rendition would become a fan favorite still referred back to decades later. "Racing in the Street"'s piano outro was surprise-segued into the piano intro to "Thunder Road". On Born to Run, "Backstreets" was already a six-and-a-half minute epic tale of betrayal and loss that critic Greil Marcus had likened to The Iliad; now it was extended to eleven to thirteen minutes by way of a long, mostly soft piano-based interpolation variously known as "Baby I remember you", "Little girl don't cry" or "Sad eyes"; on some recordings the audience can be heard squealing as the emotional drama plays out, before the tempo rises, suddenly stops, and the "Hiding on the ba-ack-streets" coda kicks back in full force. This interlude would later be used as the basis for part of "Drive All Night" on The River, but for many fans, in this extended 1978 "Backstreets" Springsteen had found the height of his performance artistry.

Throughout, the E Street Band had a powerful but almost sparse sound, with each instrument's role clearly delineated (as members were added in the 1990s and 2000s the band's sound would become bigger but lose this clarity). In particular, Roy Bittan's piano was the musical keystone of many of the numbers.

Of course not everything in the show was moody. The third number played was nearly always the seriocomic, crowd-involving "Spirit in the Night", and towards the end of the shows things lightened up considerably with set closer "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" and encores including Springsteen's classic R&B "Detroit Medley" frolic and James Brown-styled antics during Gary U.S. Bonds' party dance anthem "Quarter to Three". Springsteen's on-stage raps and stories became a little more honest than before, with his trademark "goddamn guitar" story about the bitter conflicts with his father leavened by a hint of embrace (especially when a family member was present).

The tour also saw Springsteen headlining full-sized arenas for the first time (including New York City's Madison Square Garden), a move that he agonized over lest the increase in scale undermine his control over the audience. The shows still translated in the larger venues, and Springsteen would play in arenas or sometimes even stadiums for decades to come.

Songs performed

Originals

Greetings from Asbury Park, New Jersey "For You" "Growin' Up" "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City" "Lost in the Flood" "Spirit in the Night" The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" "The E Street Shuffle" "Incident on 57th Street" "Kitty's Back" "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" Born to Run "Backstreets" "Born to Run" "Jungleland" "Meeting Across the River" "Night" "She's the One" "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" "Thunder Road"

Darkness on the Edge of Town "Adam Raised a Cain" "Badlands" "Candy's Room" "Darkness on the Edge of Town" "Factory" "The Promised Land" "Prove It All Night" "Racing in the Street" "Something in the Night" "Streets of Fire" Other "Because the Night" "Drive All Night" "The Fever" "Fire" "Independence Day" "Paradise by the "C"" "Point Blank" "The Promise" "Ramrod" "Rendezvous" "The River" "Sad Eyes" "Sherry Darling" "The Ties That Bind"

Cover songs

"A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On " "Around and Around" "Auld Lang Syne" "Chimes of Freedom" "Detroit Medley" "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)" "Gloria" "Good Rockin' Tonight" "Heartbreak Hotel" "High School Confidential" "Honky Tonk" "I Fought the Law" "I Heard That Lonesome Wind Blow" "It's My Life" "Louie Louie" "Lucille"

"Mona" "Night Train" "Not Fade Away" "Oh, Boy!" "Pretty Flamingo" "Quarter to Three" "Raise Your Hand" "Rave On" "Ready Teddy" "Runaround Sue" "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" "Sea Cruise" "Summertime Blues" "Sweet Little Sixteen" "The Last Time" "Twist and Shout" "You Can't Sit Down"

Critical and commercial reception

According to the unofficial fan website Brucebase, most of the shows on the tour were sell-outs or near sell-outs; only a handful had substantial numbers of empty seats, including one in Kalamazoo, Michigan where Springsteen offered to compensate the promoter for any financial loss. According to Lynn Goldsmith, tour photographer and Springsteen's girlfriend at the time, there were more than a few half-full venues, but Springsteen's performance level never varied no matter how many were there to watch.

Los Angeles Times critic Robert Hilburn wrote, "I realized the faith I was beginning to put in Springsteen the December day in 1978 that I drove 400 miles to Tucson, Arizona, to see him in concert [for personal reasons, not as a professional assignment]. The show was part of a short western swing near the end of the Darkness tour that skipped Los Angeles.... [a] swell of emotion came to me during Bruce's concert in Tucson ... seeing Springsteen push himself so hard on stage and listening to the eloquence of his songs made me forget about doubts and think about my own dreams again."

Lynn Goldsmith later said that the 1978 Tour was far from the stereotypical rock tour, and compared it to The Rolling Stones' 1978 American Tour which she had also covered: "With Bruce, it was no drugs, no drinking, [long] sound checks and [long] shows. With the Stones, it was no sound check, lots of parties and running off-stage as quickly as possible to catch the private plane.... During that tour, Bruce didn't have any money, period. Instead of hanging out at discos after shows, he'd just as likely pass the time by playing pinball or watching the landscape roll by from the back of the bus."

Author Dolan called it "one of the most legendary tours" in rock history,^[1] while the staff of Ultimate Classic Rock said the tour solidified Springsteen and the E Street Band as "one of the most exciting live acts in rock 'n' roll".^[2]

Broadcasts and recordings

 

Live radio broadcasts help spread the reputation of the 1978 Tour.

One of the reasons the 1978 Tour is so well-remembered, and often viewed as the peak of Springsteen and the E Street Band in concert, is that several complete shows were broadcast live on album-oriented rock radio stations. These included the July 7 show at West Hollywood's The Roxy, broadcast on KMET; the August 9 show at Cleveland's Agora Ballroom, broadcast on WMMS and seven other Midwestern stations; the September 19 show at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, New Jersey, broadcast on WNEW-FM; the September 30 show from the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, broadcast on about 20 Southeastern stations; and the December 15 show from the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, broadcast on KSAN-FM. These broadcasts, mixed by Jimmy Iovine, were of very high audio quality, and were heard at the time by a much larger audience than had attended the concerts. Over the years the stations would play the broadcasts again, and many high-quality bootlegs of these shows were recorded and circulated.

A syndicated radio interview with New York disc jockey Dave Herman also included live excerpts from a July 1 Berkeley Community Theatre show, including the long "Prove It All Night"; these clips would also be heard on other radio promotional vehicles such as the King Biscuit Flower Hour.

In addition, in the early 1980s a long music video for "Rosalita" was released to MTV, from the July 8 show on this tour (filmed in its entirety) at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Arizona, that included band introductions and numerous adoring women rushing the stage. It captured the energetic and playful side of Springsteen and the E Street Band in concert, and was the first such introduction many casual fans had. This was later included in the 1989 release Video Anthology / 1978-88.

The 1986 Live/1975-85 box set contained nine selections from the 1978 Tour, but fans were generally dissatisfied with them, as the "Backstreets" interlude was edited out, other raps and stories were edited or spliced together from different shows, and the long "Prove It All Night" was missing altogether. Additionally, a few of the tracks from the 1978 contained overdubs recorded at the Hit Factory during 1986.

In 2006, Springsteen manager Jon Landau indicated that a full-length filmed concert DVD from the Darkness Tour might be in the offing, following a similar release for a 1975 Born to Run tour show. Fans speculated heavily about such a possibility. It finally materialized in November 2010 with the release of The Promise: The Making of "Darkness On the Edge of Town", an elaborate box set that included a DVD containing a house recording of the full December 8, 1978, show from Houston's The Summit arena.

Various live recordings of every track from the Darkness album, and additional material from the period, were released on streaming services in June 2023 to mark the 45th anniversary of the album.^[3]

Several shows were released as part of the Bruce Springsteen Archives:

• Berkeley, July 1, 1978, released June 18, 2021
• The Roxy, July 7, 1978, released July 6, 2018.
• The Agora, Cleveland 1978, released December 23, 2014.
• September 19, 1978 (Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ), released September 6, 2019.
• Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ, September 20, 1978, released December 22, 2017.
• September 30, 1978 (Fox Theatre, Atlanta, GA), released October 9, 2020.
• Atlanta, Oct 1, 1978, released October 7, 2022.
• The Summit, Houston, TX December 8, 1978, released September 21, 2017.
• Winterland 12/15/78, released December 20, 2019.
• Winterland 12/16/78, released December 20, 2019.

Personnel

• Bruce Springsteen – lead vocals, guitars, harmonica
• Roy Bittan – piano, background vocals
• Clarence Clemons – saxophone, percussion, background vocals, clarinet
• Danny Federici – organ, electronic glockenspiel, accordion
• Garry Tallent – bass guitar
• Steven Van Zandt – guitars, background vocals
• Max Weinberg – drums

Tour dates

Date	City	Country	Venue	Tickets sold / available	Revenue
May 23, 1978	Buffalo	United States	Shea's Performing Arts Center	3,187 / 3,187	$23,200
May 24, 1978	Albany		Palace Theatre
May 26, 1978	Philadelphia		The Spectrum
May 27, 1978
May 29, 1978	Boston		Boston Music Hall
May 30, 1978
May 31, 1978
June 2, 1978	Annapolis		Halsey Field House
June 3, 1978	Uniondale		Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
June 5, 1978	Toledo		Toledo Sports Arena
June 6, 1978	Indianapolis		Indiana Convention Center	2,014 / 6,000	$15,015
June 8, 1978	Madison		Dane County Memorial Coliseum	4,739 / 9,000	$33,420
June 9, 1978	Milwaukee		MECCA Arena
June 10, 1978	Bloomington		Metropolitan Sports Center	6,428 / 13,000	$44,966
June 13, 1978	Iowa City		Hancher Auditorium	2,568 / 2,568	$20,177
June 14, 1978	Omaha		Civic Auditorium Music Hall	2,518 / 2,518	$18,455
June 16, 1978	Kansas City		Memorial Hall	2,777 / 2,777	$20,828
June 17, 1978	St. Louis		Kiel Auditorium	4,516 / 10,000	$33,662
June 20, 1978	Morrison		Red Rocks Amphitheatre	6,315 / 6,315	$49,824
June 23, 1978	Portland		Paramount Theatre
June 24, 1978				2,504 / 2,504	$19,627
June 25, 1978	Seattle		Paramount Theatre	2,976 / 2,976	$22,677
June 26, 1978	Vancouver	Canada	Queen Elizabeth Theatre
June 29, 1978	San Jose	United States	San Jose Center for the Performing Arts	2,463 / 2,463	$19,082
June 30, 1978	Berkeley		Berkeley Community Theatre	3,475 / 3,483	$23,959
July 1, 1978				3,483 / 3,483	$24,018
July 5, 1978	Inglewood		The Forum	12,723 / 12,723	$101,472
July 7, 1978	West Hollywood		Roxy Theatre
July 8, 1978	Phoenix		Veterans Memorial Coliseum	7,783 / 12,000	$56,059
July 9, 1978	San Diego		San Diego Sports Arena	6,339 / 12,000	$40,082
July 12, 1978^[a]	Dallas		Dallas Convention Center Theater	1,761 / 1,761	$12,327
July 14, 1978	San Antonio		Municipal Auditorium	3,152 / 5,000	$23,583
July 15, 1978	Houston		Sam Houston Coliseum	9,012 / 9,012	$66,999
July 16, 1978	New Orleans		Municipal Auditorium	5,000 / 5,000	$35,644
July 18, 1978	Jackson		Jackson Municipal Auditorium	2,283 / 2,283	$17,123
July 19, 1978	Memphis		Dixon-Myers Hall
July 21, 1978	Nashville		Nashville Municipal Auditorium
July 28, 1978	Miami		Jai Alai Fronton
July 29, 1978	St. Petersburg		Bayfront Center Arena
July 31, 1978	Columbia		Township Auditorium
August 1, 1978	Charleston		Gaillard Municipal Auditorium
August 2, 1978	Charlotte		Charlotte Coliseum
August 4, 1978	Charleston		Charleston Civic Center
August 5, 1978	Louisville		Louisville Gardens	4,000 / 5,000	$28,328
August 7, 1978	Kalamazoo		Wings Stadium
August 9, 1978	Cleveland		The Agora
August 10, 1978	Rochester		Rochester Community War Memorial	5,984 / 10,000	$42,729
August 12, 1978	Augusta		Augusta Civic Center	5,892 / 5,892	$48,780
August 14, 1978	Hampton		Hampton Coliseum
August 15, 1978	Landover		Capital Centre
August 18, 1978	Philadelphia		The Spectrum
August 19, 1978
August 21, 1978	New York City		Madison Square Garden
August 22, 1978
August 23, 1978
August 25, 1978	New Haven		New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum	9,586 / 9,586	$76,841
August 26, 1978	Providence		Providence Civic Center	10,500 / 10,500	$82,568
August 28, 1978	Pittsburgh		Stanley Theatre	3,489 / 3,489	$29,236
August 29, 1978				3,473 / 3,489	$29,034
August 30, 1978	Richfield Township		Coliseum at Richfield
September 1, 1978	Detroit		Masonic Temple Theatre
September 3, 1978	Saginaw		Saginaw Civic Center
September 5, 1978	Columbus		Veterans Memorial Auditorium
September 6, 1978	Chicago		Uptown Theatre	4,381 / 4,381	$34,793
September 9, 1978	Notre Dame		Athletic & Convocation Center	5,310 / 10,000	$38,996
September 10, 1978	Cincinnati		Riverfront Coliseum	6,630 / 17,000	$49,090
September 12, 1978	Syracuse		Syracuse Memorial Auditorium
September 13, 1978	Springfield		Springfield Civic Center	6,664 / 6,664	$53,217
September 15, 1978	New York City		The Palladium
September 16, 1978
September 17, 1978
September 19, 1978	Passaic		Capitol Theatre	10,518 / 10,518	$85,791
September 20, 1978
September 21, 1978
September 25, 1978	Boston		Boston Garden	11,000 / 11,000	$102,707
September 29, 1978^[b]	Birmingham		Boutwell Memorial Auditorium
September 30, 1978^[c]	Atlanta		Fox Theatre	3,828 / 3,828	$32,538
October 1, 1978				3,822 / 3,828	$32,487
October 17, 1978	West Hollywood		The Troubadour
November 1, 1978	Princeton		Jadwin Gymnasium
November 2, 1978	Landover		Capital Centre
November 4, 1978	Burlington		Patrick Gym
November 5, 1978	Durham		UNH Field House
November 7, 1978	Ithaca		Barton Hall
November 8, 1978	Montreal	Canada	Montreal Forum
November 10, 1978	St. Bonaventure	United States	Reilly Center
November 12, 1978	Troy		RPI Field House
November 14, 1978	Utica		Utica Memorial Auditorium
November 16, 1978	Toronto	Canada	Maple Leaf Gardens
November 17, 1978	East Lansing	United States	Munn Ice Arena
November 18, 1978	Oxford		Millett Hall
November 20, 1978	Champaign		Assembly Hall
November 21, 1978	Evanston		McGaw Hall
November 25, 1978	St. Louis		Kiel Opera House	3,557 / 3,557	$29,380
November 27, 1978	Milwaukee		MECCA Arena
November 28, 1978	Madison		Dane County Memorial Coliseum
November 29, 1978	Saint Paul		St. Paul Civic Center Arena
December 1, 1978	Norman		Lloyd Noble Center
December 3, 1978	Carbondale		SIU Arena
December 5, 1978	Baton Rouge		LSU Assembly Center	5,337 / 12,000	$40,027
December 7, 1978	Austin		Special Events Center	9,197 / 15,000	$63,927
December 8, 1978	Houston		The Summit	12,003 / 15,000	$98,925
December 9, 1978	Dallas		Dallas Convention Center Arena	6,959 / 9,500	$44,951
December 13, 1978	Tucson		Tucson Community Center Arena
December 15, 1978	San Francisco		Winterland Ballroom	10,800 / 10,800	$80,975
December 16, 1978
December 19, 1978^[d]	Portland		Paramount Theatre
December 20, 1978	Seattle		Seattle Center Arena
December 27, 1978	Pittsburgh		Stanley Theatre	6,962 / 6,962	$58,270
December 28, 1978
December 30, 1978	Detroit		Cobo Arena
December 31, 1978	Richfield Township		Coliseum at Richfield
January 1, 1979

Cancelled dates

Date	City	Country	Venue
July 25, 1978	Jacksonville	United States	Civic Auditorium
July 26, 1978	Lakeland		Lakeland Civic Center
August 8, 1978	Toronto	Canada	Ryerson Theatre
December 11, 1978	Boulder	United States	Macky Auditorium

Notes

1. The concert in Dallas on July 12, 1978, was originally scheduled to take place at the Dallas Convention Center Arena.
2. The concert in Birmingham on September 29, 1978, was originally scheduled to take place on July 22, 1978.
3. The concert in Atlanta on September 30, 1978, was originally scheduled to take place on July 23, 1978.
4. The concert in Portland on December 19, 1978, was originally scheduled to take place on December 18, 1978.

References

1. Dolan, Marc (2012). Bruce Springsteen and the Promise of Rock 'n' Roll. New York City: W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 160–166. ISBN 978-0-39308-135-0.
2. Gallucci, Michael; DeRiso, Nick; Lifton, Dave; Filcman, Debra; Smith, Rob (June 1, 2018). "'Darkness on the Edge of Town' at 40: Our Writers Answer Five Important Questions". Ultimate Classic Rock. from the original on February 4, 2023. Retrieved January 31, 2023.
3. Cohen, Jonathan (September 19, 2023). "Bruce Springsteen Celebrates 45th Anniversary Of Darkness On The Edge Of Town With Rare Live Tracks, Photos". Spin. Retrieved June 2, 2023.

Sources

• The Light in Darkness: Limited edition book featuring original stories and photos from this iconic 1978 album and tour. The Light in Darkness celebrates this classic record.
• Born in the U.S.A. Tour (tour booklet, 1984), Springsteen chronology.
• Hilburn, Robert. Springsteen. Rolling Stone Press, 1985. ISBN 0-684-18456-7.
• Graff, Gary. The Ties That Bind: Bruce Springsteen A to E to Z. Visible Ink Press, 2005. ISBN 1-578-59157-0.
• Marsh, Dave. Glory Days: Bruce Springsteen in the 1980s. Pantheon Books, 1987. ISBN 0-394-54668-7.
• Roger Catlin, "Capturing The Boss' Spirit of '78", Hartford Courant, May 5, 2000.
• Killing Floor's concert database gives valuable coverage as well, but also does not support direct linking to individual dates.
• Brucebase's concert descriptions even more valuable coverage