Bruce Springsteen Taps ‘Wrecking Ball’ Fenway Gig For Bootleg Series

Just released is Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band's August 15th, 2012 concert at Boston's Fenway Park. The set is the latest release in “The Boss'” growing archive series, and marks the eighth show in the series from the 2012/2013 “Wrecking Ball” tour. The trek, which was the band's first following the 2011 death of Clarence Clemons, featured a five-man horn section, a percussionist, and three additional vocalists.

Among the rarities on the new Fenway set are the show opening “Take Me Out To The Ball Game,” “Does This Bus Top At 82nd Street?,” “Frankie,” “Girls In Their Summer Clothes,” “Thundercrack,” “My City Of Ruins,” as well as covers of Eddie Cochrane's “Summertime Blues,” Eddie Floyd's “Knock On Wood,” and Creedence Clearwater Revival's “Who'll Stop The Rain?”

Guitarist Steve Van Zandt recalled the promise of the E Street Band's powers shining through on some of his and Springsteen's darkest days as bandmates after “The Big Man's” 2011 death: “A lot of discussion. I think that's the most me and Bruce talked about anything since we were kids. We must've had six months of discussions about it, and I think we made a lot of good decisions, beginning with — let's turn the tour into a sort of anything goes. Let's include all 40 years of what you've been doing — including the E Street Band, of course. And have a band big enough to handle anything you feel like doing — be it standing there by himself with and acoustic guitar all the way to the biggest possible production with everything else in between.”

Van Zandt told us during the 2012 dates that the influx of horns, background singers, and a percussionist supplementing the E Street Band kept things both exciting and slightly dangerous: “It's been a long time since we screwed up, (laughs), y'know, I'm just kidding. But there haven't been. . . there haven't been that many screw-ups — even with the new guys. I'm more likely to screw up than they are. What makes it — you get a little bit of the excitement that they have, being, y'know, a new edition to the group. Y'know, I think you get a little bit of that rubbing off on you so it makes it just even more exciting.”

The tracklisting for Fenway Park, Boston MA – August 15, 2012 is: “Take Me Out To The Ballgame,” “Thunder Road,” “Hungry Heart,” “Sherry Darling,” “Summertime Blues,” “Girls In Their Summer Clothes,” “We Take Care Of Our Own,” “Two Hearts,” “Wrecking Ball,” “Death To My Hometown,” “My City Of Ruins,” “Knock On Wood,” “Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street?,” “Thundercrack,” “Frankie,” “Prove It All Night,” “Darkness On The Edge Of Town,” “Working On The Highway,” “Shackled And Drawn,” “Waitin' On A Sunny Day,” “Backstreets,” “Badlands,” “Land Of Hope And Dreams / People Get Ready,” “Who'll Stop The Rain?,” “Rocky Ground,” “Born To Run,” “Detroit Medley,” “Dancing In The Dark,” “Quarter To Three,” “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” and “American Land.”

Tomorrow night (August 17th), Bruce Springsteen reusmes his Springsteen On Broadway run at Manhattan's St. James Theatre.