Wrecking Ball World Tour

Itinerary

Planning and rehearsals

Private rehearsals started in late January 2012 at the Expo Theater in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, the same site where rehearsals were held for the Tunnel of Love Express Tour and the Rising Tour. Some rehearsals were held at the Sun National Bank Center in Trenton to allow the band and crew to try a new stage design.

It was announced on February 9, 2012, that Eddie Manion and Clarence Clemons's nephew, Jake Clemons, would share saxophone duties with Clemons handling most of the lead solos. Additional horns were provided by Clark Gayton, Curt Ramm, and Barry Danielian. Everett Bradly provided percussion and backing vocals while Curtis King Jr. and Cindy Mizelle returned as background singers. Michelle Moore joined the tour as a background singer featuring on Rocky Ground for the rap (as on the album).

In advance of the album's release on March 5, 2012, the band kicked off a string of warm-up performances prior to the tour, including a performance of the album's first single, "We Take Care of Our Own", at the 54th Grammy Awards. During the final week of February, talk show host Jimmy Fallon dedicated an entire week of his show, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, to Springsteen's music. Different artists covered Springsteen's songs each night of that week.

The new touring lineup performed their first full show together on March 9, 2012, at the Apollo Theater. Springsteen then gave a keynote speech at the SXSW convention in Austin, Texas, on March 15, 2012, and was joined later in the evening by the E Street Band for a 2+1⁄2-hour set before a crowd of a few thousand.

Ticket sales

On January 26, 2012, dates for the first U.S. leg of the Wrecking Ball world tour were announced to the public, with many going on sale during the first weekend of February.

Much like with the previous tour, many U.S. fans encountered problems, thought to be due to ticket scalpers, through Ticketmaster as the first dates of the tour went on sale. Shows were selling out within minutes and many tickets appeared, at much higher prices, on resale websites such as StubHub less than an hour after the onsale time. Ticketmaster said web traffic was 2.5 times the highest level of the past year during the online sales. U.S. Representative Bill Pascrell, who introduced the BOSS ACT in 2009 to increase transparency in the ticket industry, said he would reintroduce the bill in Congress.

The show

The world tour began on March 18, 2012, in Atlanta. The early shows established a routine of using "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out", performed as the show closer, as a tribute song to Clarence Clemons. Following the lyric the Big Man joined the band, Springsteen paused the song so the band and audience could pay tribute to Clemons, following which the band resumed the remainder of the song. "My City of Ruins" was used as the band introduction song and frequently included a Springsteen rap about "ghosts", referring to Clemons and Danny Federici, the long-time E Street Band organist who died during the Magic Tour in April 2008. For cities that had more than one consecutive show, American Land was used as the show closer, with the entire band on the front line and finishing the show on the main center platform.

Per Springsteen's standard practice, the set list varied from night to night, sometimes significantly. The tour saw the revival of a number of long-absent aspects of Springsteen's concerts, such as the return (during some shows) of a lengthy instrumental introduction to "Prove It All Night" that fans had unsuccessfully requested during the "sign request" (also sometimes known as "Stump the Band") segments during the Magic and Working on a Dream Tours. The instrumental introduction had been a noted point of 1978's Darkness Tour show but had not been played since. Shows were longer than on recent tours, culminating in Helsinki on July 31, 2012, with the longest performance of Springsteen's career at 4 hours and 6 minutes. Earlier the same night, prior to the show proper, Springsteen had performed a five-song acoustic set for early arrivals.

During the encore of Springsteen's show in London at the Hard Rock Calling festival, the city council pulled the plug on his performance because he ran a few minutes past the show's 10:30 pm curfew. Springsteen was performing "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Twist and Shout" with Paul McCartney when their microphones and instruments were shut off. Springsteen ended the set with a brief a cappella, unamplified version of "Goodnight Irene." The incident resulted in the show being the lone concert on the tour at which "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out", with its Clarence Clemons tribute, was not performed. Following the performance, Steve Van Zandt took to Twitter and said, "English cops may be the only individuals left on earth that wouldn't want to hear one more from Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney!" and followed that up with "There's no grudges to be held. Just feel bad for our great fans. Hard Rock is cool. Live Nation is cool. It's some City Council stupid rule." When Springsteen next performed three nights later in Ireland, he poked fun at the London incident. During "Dancing in the Dark" the big screens by the stage displayed only a battery switched "On." A fake policeman came out to the stage to stop them playing "Twist and Shout" but Springsteen refused. While playing American Land, the fake policeman pulled the plug, but Van Zandt plugged it back in.

Critical and commercial reception

The tour was a commercial success and was named the second highest-grossing tour of 2012, finishing behind Madonna, and was the most attended tour of the year, winning the Billboard Touring Award for Top Draw. It was also named the 21st highest-grossing tour worldwide as of December 2012. In July 2013, the tour was named one of the top three grossing tours for the first half of 2013, along with tours by Bon Jovi, who had grossed the highest so far, and the Rolling Stones.

Springsteen was named the #1 musical act by Rolling Stone magazine in their August 2013 issue.

Aftermath and Springsteen's response

During the tour, Springsteen felt inspired to start working on his eighteenth studio album, which eventually became High Hopes. The album was recorded in 2013 during breaks in the Wrecking Ball Tour and was released in January 2014. Springsteen cited Morello, who helped re-introduce some previously recorded songs and cover songs to the recording sessions and live shows, as a huge inspiration on the album.

Broadcasts and recordings

A number of the festival dates performed on the tour had excerpts from the performance broadcast on television. Additionally, 45 minutes of the 2012 Hyde Park show in London was released as a bonus feature on the Springsteen & I DVD release.

Coinciding with the Born in the U.S.A. album's 30th anniversary, Born in the U.S.A. Live: London 2013, a live DVD of the full performance of the album recorded at the 2013 Hard Rock Calling festival, was released through Amazon.com as part of a deluxe edition of the High Hopes album.

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

Apollo Theater 3/09/12 released on November 17, 2014

Ippodromo delle Capannelle, Rome 2013 released on November 11, 2015

Olympiastadion, Helsinki July 31, 2012 released on May 23, 2017

Leeds July 24, 2013 released on November 9, 2018

East Rutherford, NJ 09.22.12 released on June 7, 2019

Gothenburg July 28, 2012 released on April 3, 2020

St. Paul November 12, 2012 released on January 8, 2021

Fenway Park August 15, 2012 released on August 6, 2021

Paris July 4 and Paris July 5, 2012 released on July 1, 2022

Cardiff, July 23, 2013 released on January 12, 2024

Omaha, NE Nov 15, 2012 released on March 7, 2025

Supporting acts

Tom Cochrane – August 26, 2012, Moncton

The Trews – August 26, 2012, Moncton

The Black Crowes – June 22, 2013, Nijmegen

Jamie N Commons – June 22, 2013, Nijmegen

The Cyborgs - July 11, 2013, Rome

Josh Ritter & The Royal City Band – July 27, 2013, Nowlan Park

Glen Hansard – July 27, 2013, Nowlan Park

Damien Dempsey – July 27, 2013, Nowlan Park

Imelda May – July 28, 2013, Nowlan Park

LAPD (Liam O'Flynn, Andy Irvine, Paddy Glackin & Dónal Lunny) – July 28, 2013, Nowlan Park

Delorentos – July 28, 2013, Nowlan Park

Personnel

The E Street Band

Bruce Springsteen – lead vocals, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar, harmonica, piano

Roy Bittan – piano, synthesizer, accordion

Nils Lofgren – rhythm guitar, lead guitar, pedal steel guitar, acoustic guitar, accordion, background vocals

Patti Scialfa – background vocals, some duet vocals, acoustic guitar, occasional tambourine (did not appear at every show due to family commitments)

Garry Tallent – bass guitar, background vocals, rare tuba

Steven Van Zandt – rhythm guitar, lead guitar, mandolin, acoustic guitar, background vocals, occasional featured lead vocal

Max Weinberg – drums, rare tambourine

and

Soozie Tyrell – violin, acoustic guitar, percussion, background vocals

Charles Giordano – organ, accordion, electronic glockenspiel, rare piano, occasional background vocals

with

Tom Morello – guitar, backing vocals, co-lead vocals on "The Ghost of Tom Joad" (Morello filled in for Van Zandt during the Australian leg of the tour)

The E Street Horns:

Jake Clemons – saxophone, percussion, background vocals

Eddie Manion – saxophone, percussion

Curt Ramm – trumpet, percussion

Guest musicians/appearances

Jarod Clemons (3/23/12, 12/6/12)

Peter Wolf (3/26/12)

Adele Springsteen (3/29/12, 9/22/12, 9/30/13 – Bruce's mother danced with her son on "Dancing in the Dark", presented him onstage with a cake on his birthday)

Tom Morello (4/26/12, 4/27/12, 7/14/12, 9/7/12, 9/8/12, 12/4/12, 2013 Australian leg)

Dr. John (4/29/12)

Kevin Buell (5/2/12 – Bruce's guitar tech performed guitar on "Waiting on a Sunny Day")

Garland Jeffreys (5/29/12, 12/6/12)

Mumford & Sons (5/29/12)

Elliott Murphy (6/11/12, 5/3/13, 6/29/13)

Southside Johnny (6/17/12)

Jessica Springsteen (7/5/12 – Bruce's daughter danced with her father during "Dancing in the Dark")

The Roots (7/7/12)

John Fogerty (7/14/12)

Paul McCartney (7/14/12)

Ken Casey (8/15/12)

Tom Cochrane & Red Rider (8/26/12)

Olivia Tallent (9/2/12 – Garry's daughter performed backing vocals on "Working on the Highway" with Michelle Moore's daughter)

Eddie Vedder (9/7/12, 9/8/12)