Bruce on Saturday Night Live, 12/19/15

As twenty-firstly reported on Legends of Springsteen, Bruce played on Saturday Night Live last night.  Continuing the promotion for The Ties That Bind, Bruce played "Meet Me In The City" and "The Ties That Bind".

Saturday Night Live is a notoriously poor place to perform, and Bruce did his best.  While it was interesting to see the "stripped-down" band (if you can call 5 guitarists, a bassist, two keyboardists, a sax and a drummer "stripped-down), I felt that the keyboard was too high in the mix, and you could tell Bruce was missing the front-row of fans to play off of.  However, Bruce wasn't done with the night:



Instead of saying their regular goodbyes, Bruce joined the SNL cast to sing "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town", with a little help from Sir Paul McCartney!  It was a great treat for people who were lucky enough to stay up to 1AM, or, if you were a tired blogger, a delightful surprise to view on YouTube early the next morning.

Breaking News - Springsteen to Play SNL, 12/19 (Also, a 3 Month Tour!)

Yesterday, Springsteen announced that he would be performing on Saturday Night Live on December 19th, with hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.  Even though The River is probably the least classic of Springsteen's classic albums, I must say I am loving the hype around the upcoming box set (moreso than last year's Outlaw Pete hype).  Speaking of hype, Springsteen also released another performance from the Tempe tour that will be on the aforementioned box set:



Here, we get a new piano introduction for the song, leading up to the iconic harmonica.  There aren't many performances of "The River" that would rival that from the 1975-1985 live set, but this is pretty darn close.

EDIT TO ADD: There's also a three month tour coming!  No dates or cities announced yet, but man, this is quite a shock.  I am still processing it.

Springsteen Video of the Week- Lucky Town (Saturday Night Live 1992)

This was a strange time for Bruce and Bruce fans.  It’s almost as if he was trying too hard to be “Bruce Springsteen”.  I know it was the early 90’s and grunge was in, but between the ripped jeans, the incredibly gravely voice, and Bruce playing with a “non E Street Band” band I can’t say I’m a huge fan of this video.  Oddly enough, I like “Lucky Town”, one of the few I like from his “Other Band” era, but watching him play it here is just odd.


I came across this video when I was looking for Bruce’s 2002 Saturday Night Live performance with the E Street Band.  I believe Matt Damon was the host.  But this was all I could find.  I did not even know Bruce performed on this show.  To my knowledge those were Bruce’s only two SNL performances.  However I can confirm that this is Tom Hanks' first, but hopefully not last, appearance on Legends of Springsteen.