E Street Band

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.

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.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- It's a steamy night at Giants Stadium and I am watching Bruce Springsteen sing about love and loss and redemption, watching him radiate pure joy as he jumps around a stage that sits like a huge altar in the midst of 55,000 frenzied parishioners, when I think: Do not weep for New Jersey. Sure, the only place that gets worse PR is Baghdad. Jersey's got monster traffic jams and ridiculous congestion and the kind of hazy pollution that sits like a gray blanket on hot summer days and smothers everyone underneath.

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.

Contrary to popular belief, you can go home again. What you can't do is expect things to be exactly as they were -- especially if it has been a dozen or more years since last you were there.Seeing Bruce Springsteen back together with the E Street Band for the first time since the late '80s was a lot like going home for many of the roughly 20,000 fans packed into Washington's MCI Center last night.They mainly played the old favorites, the songs that made Springsteen a rock and roll legend: "The River," "Jungleland," "Thunder Road" and "Born to Run."

DANNY FEDERICI, 58 Rock musician Danny Federici, the longtime keyboard player for Bruce Springsteen whose stylish work helped define the E Street Band's sound on hits from "Hungry Heart" through "The Rising," died Thursday at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He had suffered from melanoma for three years. News of his death was posted late Thursday on Mr. Springsteen's Web site. He last performed with Mr. Springsteen and the band last month.

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.

Chris Armbruster was standing in line to buy Moody Blues tickets when he heard Bruce Springsteen was coming to town. Armbruster didn't know much of Springsteen's music, but he'd heard great things about Springsteen's live shows. On a whim, he bought a ticket and went to the concert, at the old Capital Centre. Springsteen pinballed from one side of the stage to the other, firing up the crowd and tearing through his tunes. "He was an unbelievable performer," Armbruster said.

Dave Matthews Band / Nissan Pavilion The Dave Matthews Band is one of the hardworking (and highest grossing) groups today. Known for its tight instrumentation and poignant lyrics, the rock band plays Nissan Pavilion in Bristow, Va., Saturday night at 7. Tickets are $38.50-$56 and are available through Ticketmaster, but ticket availability may be limited. Bruce Springsteen / FedEx Field Bruce Springsteen was all over the press around this time last year for The Rising, his acclaimed album that reunited the E Street Band and explored the events of 9 / 11. The Boss plays the FedEx Field in Landover Saturday evening at 7:30.

The sound of Magic, Bruce Springsteen's new CD out today, suggests a return to rock - the pumping, hard-driving kind that brightened 1984's Born in the U.S.A. Although the E Street Band isn't named on the cover, the eight-piece group is back with the Boss again, the first time since 2002's The Rising. But don't be fooled by the new album's bright, punchy finish. Like Born in the U.S.A., a lyrical somberness at times seethes underneath the charging, bombastic arrangements. Unlike that heralded, 23-year-old smash, Magic sounds overly deliberate and meticulous.

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.

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.

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.

Chris Armbruster was standing in line to buy Moody Blues tickets when he heard Bruce Springsteen was coming to town. Armbruster didn't know much of Springsteen's music, but he'd heard great things about Springsteen's live shows. On a whim, he bought a ticket and went to the concert, at the old Capital Centre. Springsteen pinballed from one side of the stage to the other, firing up the crowd and tearing through his tunes. "He was an unbelievable performer," Armbruster said. "Even if you didn't know the songs, you were on the edge of your seat."

DANNY FEDERICI, 58 Rock musician Danny Federici, the longtime keyboard player for Bruce Springsteen whose stylish work helped define the E Street Band's sound on hits from "Hungry Heart" through "The Rising," died Thursday at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He had suffered from melanoma for three years. News of his death was posted late Thursday on Mr. Springsteen's Web site. He last performed with Mr. Springsteen and the band last month.