Tunnel of Love Express Tour

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Tunnel of Love Express

Tour by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
Dates	February 25, 1988 - August 3, 1988
Legs	2
Shows	67

The Tunnel of Love Express was a concert tour featuring Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band that took place in 1988. It followed by four and a half months the release of Springsteen's 1987 album, Tunnel of Love.

1 Itinerary
2 The show
3 Critical and commercial reception
4 Broadcasts and recordings
5 Band members
- 5.1 E Street Band
- 5.2 The Miami Horns
6 Sources
7 External links

[edit] Itinerary

One of the few Springsteen tours to be formally named, the "Express" part came from the shorter duration of the tour - roughly half his typical length - and the shorter stays in any given location, generally just one or two nights.

The United States leg of the tour took place in arenas, starting on February 25 at the Worcester Centrum and continuing for 43 shows. There were five-night stands in two major markets, at the Los Angeles Sports Arena and at New York's Madison Square Garden, whose shows closed the American leg on May 23. The European leg commenced on June 11 at the Stadio Comunale in Turin, Italy, and continued for 24 shows, concluding the tour on August 3 at Barcelona, Spain's Nou Camp.

[edit] The show

Springsteen's concerts from his beginnings up through the massively popular Born in the U.S.A. Tour had been a linear progression of basically the same show, scaled to greater and greater heights. Apparently having achieved all he could along those lines, with the Tunnel of Love Express Springsteen sought to change directions.

First, the entrance of the band onto the stage was set up to mimic fairgoers entering a carnival ride, as an extended intro to "Tunnel of Love" was played. Next, the band's traditional positions on stage were flipped: Clarence Clemons on the right, Roy Bittan on the left, and so on. A small thing, but declared by Springsteen to be evidence of his desire to shake things up. An addition to the band: The Miami Horns were present and both highly visible and audible.

Set lists were unusually static during the tour (perhaps due to not having to play multiple shows in a venue, although some of the faithful were travelling to multiple cities to see the tour).

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[edit] Critical and commercial reception

Due to the limited number of dates in each city and the continuing popularity of Springsteen from the 1984-1986 period, tickets were hard to come by. This was in the era of the "ambush sale", when often no advance word would be given of when tickets were going on sale (or bracelets for the rights to get tickets were being distributed). Thus, for example, in the weeks preceding the New York area shows, several dozen fans would gather at major Ticketmaster outlets on Saturday mornings, listening on portable radios with the idea that something might be happening right then. Most often, nothing would happen, and a rock radio disc jockey would then confirm that no tickets were going on sale that day.

Reviews of the Tunnel of Love Express were generally favorable.

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[edit] Broadcasts and recordings

The first set of the July 3 show in Stockholms Olympiastadion was broadcast live on radio to an international audience. It followed tour practice except for the addition of Bob Dylan's "Chimes of Freedom" at the close, as Springsteen announced his upcoming participation in Amnesty International's Human Rights Now! Tour later that year.

The Chimes of Freedom EP, released in August 1988, included that rendition, as well as documenting three other song performances from scattered dates on the Express, including the radical simplification of "Born to Run".