This is not a drill!
Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band announced Tuesday what will be the legendary group’s first New Jersey concert in seven years — an April 14, 2023 date at Prudential Center in Newark.
Tickets for the Newark show go on sale July 29 at 10 a.m. on Ticketmaster, but, as some fans may regrettably recall, Springsteen uses Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan service for ticket purchasing. This means prospective ticket buyers must first register for their chance to get tickets here by Sunday, July 17, in hopes of then receiving a code, which in turn allows you to attempt to buy tickets July 29. Registering does not guarantee a code, and a code does not guarantee tickets — call it The Boss’s double lottery. Verified Fan is used by some artists in effort to stop bots and ticket brokers from scooping up dozens of tickets at a time and reselling them for exorbitant costs on secondary markets like StubHub.
The announcement comes as part of the band’s 2023 international tour, which in May announced its European dates but teased U.S. arenas for early 2023 and then U.S. stadiums in summer 2023 — surely MetLife Stadium will be on the list.
The full U.S. arena leg was announced Tuesday, which also includes dates at Madison Square Garden in New York (April 1), Barclays Center in Brooklyn (April 3) and Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia (March 16). Tickets for the New York shows go on sale July 29 at 10 a.m. The Philly show goes on sale July 26 at 10 a.m.
The Prudential Center show will be the final Springsteen show before the band heads to Europe.
Springsteen’s last proper tour was 2016-17′s “The River” 35th anniversary tour, which also visited Prudential Center (Jan. 31, 2016) and later MetLife for three nights (Aug. 23, 25 and 30, 2016).
Beyond Springsteen’s prolific catalog, the band has plenty of new material to play, between Springsteen’s solo effort, 2019′s “Western Stars,” and the booming full-band return in 2020′s “Letter To You.” Here’s what I believe the perfect new tour set list could look like.
Bobby Olivier may be reached at bolivier@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BobbyOlivier and Facebook.