Bruce Springsteen

BRUUUUCE! BRUUUUUCE! The boss is back on tour. He'll perform at the Verizon Center April 1. It's the first tour for Bruce Springsteen and his E Street Band since 2009 and the first without saxophonist Clarence Clemons, who died in June. Springsteen is promoting a brand-new album, "Wrecking Ball," that's out in March. As part of the ritual that precedes every Bruce album release, fans already hate the cover. Springsteen is one of a handful of marquee acts - Madonna and Van Halen, included - that are expected to buoy flat concert sales this year.

The Boss is coming back to D.C. Just two weeks after playing Washington's Verizon Center , Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have announced a second date in the nation's capital. This time, they'll be playing an outdoor concert at Nationals Park on Sept. 14. Tickets for the concert go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, April 27. Prices are $103 for the field, $53-$103 for tickets in other parts of the stadium. Tickets will be available through tickets.com. The Nationals Park show is one of 10 new dates on the "Wrecking Ball" tour announced today.

First the St. Patrick's day concert at the White House. Now an interview where he effuses over Bruce Springsteen. Gov. Martin O'Malley is showing his rocker side again. In an interview just published on Politico, the governor says Bruce "has been the soundtrack of my life. " He also reveals he's seen The Boss more than a dozen times. And that his favorite album is "Born to Run. " (One could see how "Born to Run" would, quite literally, be the soundtrack of his life.)

Bruce Springsteen was nearly an hour late starting his show at D.C.'s Verizon Center Sunday night, and the crowd was getting a little restless. But when he finally took to the stage about 8:30 p.m., it took all of about 30 seconds for that frustration to be forgotten. Nobody puts on shows like The Boss, and no one appreciates them more than his fans. In their eyes, the man can do no wrong. Not that he usually does. From the opening chords of "We Take Care of Our Own," the same song he used to open the 2012 Grammy Awards broadcast, Springsteen and his 17-piece E Street Band rocked out like nobody's business, with an energy and enthusiasm that belies the fact they've been doing this for some 35 years.

The Boss is coming back to D.C. Just two weeks after playing Washington's Verizon Center , Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have announced a second date in the nation's capital. This time, they'll be playing an outdoor concert at Nationals Park on Sept. 14. Tickets for the concert go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, April 27. Prices are $103 for the field, $53-$103 for tickets in other parts of the stadium. Tickets will be available through tickets.com. The Nationals Park show is one of 10 new dates on the "Wrecking Ball" tour announced today.

Here's our round-up of the week's most notable concerts. For more shows, check out FindLocal . Ticket prices do not reflect any additional surcharges and taxes. On Monday, Rachel Yamagata (whom you may have heard sing on Jason Mraz and Conor Oberst songs) performs at Rams Head on Stage ( $23.50 ). On Tuesday, D.R.I. (aka Dirty Rotten Imbeciles) performs at Baltimore Soundstage ( $15 ). Pop-punk meets folk at the Recher Theatre when "The Revival Tour" stops at Towson.

One look at the discography of Nils Lofgren, the longtime guitarist in Bruce Springsteen's E. Street Band, and it's clear the 60-year-old musician can't slow down. His new album, "Old School," which comes out Nov. 1, will be his 37th solo record, according to his website. Not that he's keeping count. "I can't tell how many of my own records I've made," he says. "The numbers aren't important. For me, what's important is that I had the idea to write another one. " Though he now lives in Arizona with his wife, Amy, Lofgren still has ties to the area.

Pssst -- hey buddy! You interested in front-row seats for Springsteen?It sounds like a scalper's come-on, but actually it's just another sweeps-week gimmick. "Saturday Night Live" producer Lorne Michaels announced yesterday that Bruce Springsteen will perform three songs on the May 9 show (WMAR, Channel 2). Actor Joe Pesci is the scheduled host.Not only will this be Springsteen's network debut -- his tube time up to this point has consisted mostly of music videos -- but it will also mark his post-E St. Band debut.

It would be hard to name another rock legend whose star rose as dramatically and whose luster has faded as abruptly as Bruce Springsteen's has. But after spending time with Springsteen's newly released "Greatest Hits" (Columbia 67060, arriving in stores today), it seems just as hard to justify that fall from favor.By rights, this new album ought to be heralded as a major music event. Not only does it collect some of the greatest work of a major rock star, but its four "new" tracks -- a previously unreleased tune from the "Born in the U.S.A."

Sandy, the aurora is rising behind us This pier lights our carnival life forever Oh, love me tonight and I promise I'll love you forever.- From "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)," by Bruce Springsteen ASBURY PARK, N.J. - This is the story of a love affair of sorts between a rock legend and this gritty beach town of 17,000, some 40 miles south of New York. Yet sometimes, as on this overcast morning just before Christmas, you wonder what the rocker, Bruce Springsteen, sees in the old girl.

First the St. Patrick's day concert at the White House. Now an interview where he effuses over Bruce Springsteen. Gov. Martin O'Malley is showing his rocker side again. In an interview just published on Politico, the governor says Bruce "has been the soundtrack of my life. " He also reveals he's seen The Boss more than a dozen times. And that his favorite album is "Born to Run. " (One could see how "Born to Run" would, quite literally, be the soundtrack of his life.)

Here's our round-up of the week's most notable concerts. For more shows, check out FindLocal . Ticket prices do not reflect any additional surcharges and taxes. On Monday, Rachel Yamagata (whom you may have heard sing on Jason Mraz and Conor Oberst songs) performs at Rams Head on Stage ( $23.50 ). On Tuesday, D.R.I. (aka Dirty Rotten Imbeciles) performs at Baltimore Soundstage ( $15 ). Pop-punk meets folk at the Recher Theatre when "The Revival Tour" stops at Towson.

One look at the discography of Nils Lofgren, the longtime guitarist in Bruce Springsteen's E. Street Band, and it's clear the 60-year-old musician can't slow down. His new album, "Old School," which comes out Nov. 1, will be his 37th solo record, according to his website. Not that he's keeping count. "I can't tell how many of my own records I've made," he says. "The numbers aren't important. For me, what's important is that I had the idea to write another one. " Though he now lives in Arizona with his wife, Amy, Lofgren still has ties to the area.

Maryland's Consumer Protection Division announced Monday that it has settled with Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc., Ticketsnow.com Inc, and TNOW Entertainment Group over allegations that the companies misled consumers surrounding a 2009 Bruce Springsteen concert at Verizon Center in Washington. As part of the settlement, the companies agreed to pay a $90,000 penalty and reimburse the state $25,000 for its costs. They also will pay $10,000, which can be used to pay damages to Springsteen fans who weren't reimbursed by Ticketmaster yet. According to the division, consumers who couldn't find tickets on Ticketmaster's website were misled into the TicketsNow resale site, which sold them Springsteen tickets at inflated prices that it couldn't provide.

A host of A-list bands hit the road this year, and nearly every one played a show in the area. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band made a triumphant return to Baltimore, playing the 1st Mariner Arena for the first time since 1973, when they opened for Chicago. Springsteen led the band through an electric set that lasted nearly 3 1/2 hours. Frank Remesch, 1st Mariner's general manager, had tried for years to get The Boss to come back to Baltimore. When Springsteen finally returned to the old arena, in front of an audience of 14,839, Remesch said it was a religious experience.

It's been more than 35 years since Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band played in Baltimore, but Friday night's show at the 1st Mariner Arena was well worth the wait. Bruce and the boys plowed through nearly 3 1/2 hours of rock 'n' roll that rattled the old arena like few bands can. Seeing Springsteen and the E Street Band was like going to church on a Friday night. From the first notes of set opener "Wrecking Ball" to the fist-pumping finale of "Glory Days," Springsteen grabbed hold of the capacity crowd and never let go. The last time Springsteen was in town was 1973, when he opened for Chicago at what was then the Baltimore Civic Center.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The screen door slammed Thursday night, and I was a Jersey girl again.Not the Jersey girl I once was, a four-eyed chub with the bathing-suit blues, but the one I once wished I could be, cruising down the boardwalk with my friends, a curfew just beyond the horizon, my mind spinning with top-10 lyrics and an awesome case of entitlement.That's the beauty of Bruce Springsteen. He doesn't sing for the kids who are already having a great time; he sings for the ones who lie in bed at night dreaming about what they think they're missing.

They've got to be one of the oddest-looking couples in rock: this big, hulking black man who looks like he just stepped off a football field, and this wiry, streetwise white guy, with his scruffy beard that, even when they met in the early 1970s, screamed beatnik chic. But Clarence Clemons and Bruce Springsteen have made for far more than some odd visuals over their 35-plus years together. They've made some great music, with Springsteen writing the songs and Clemons, immortalized as "The Big Man" on 1976's "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out," blasting out some of the rock era's most powerful sax solos.