The Rising Tour

The Rising Tour was a concert tour by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's to promote Springsteen's twelfth album The Rising, which was released on July 30, 2002. The worldwide tour, which ended in October 2003, reached 17 countries. A performance filmed in Barcelona aired live on MTV Europe and VH1 UK and was later released on DVD as Live in Barcelona.

Tour preparations began in late July and early August 2002 with closed and then semi-open rehearsals, and then several public rehearsal shows, at Asbury Park, New Jersey's Convention Hall, as well as a highly advertised early morning promotional appearance there on NBC's The Today Show. He also appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman on CBS, NBC's Saturday Night Live, and Nightline on ABC. His Nightline interview was one of the most revealing of his career.

The first leg of the tour formally began on August 7, 2002, with an opening show in Springsteen's home floor of Continental Airlines Arena in New Jersey. This commenced what Springsteen's management called their "Barnstorming" [1], playing 46 arena shows in 46 different cities in North America (39) and Western Europe (7) through the end of the year, ending on December 17 at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The idea was to maximize the publicity effect of the tour for aiding sales of the already heavily promoted new album by visiting as many markets as possible. The attendant publicity would only be increased if tickets were hard to come by, which was the case in Springsteen hot spots which were accustomed to multiple-night stands. The strategy appeared to succeed, as The Rising did well commercially and became Springsteen's best-selling album of new material in 15 years.

After a break of more than two months in winter, the second leg of the tour began on February 28, 2003, with seven more one-night stands in the United States. The band then travelled to Australia and New Zealand in March for five shows. They then returned to North America for six more shows in April, mostly in Canada.

After a three-week break, the tour went back to Western Europe, this time satisfying much pent-up demand by playing 24 shows in May and June, all in stadiums, with multiple dates in cities where necessary. These dates began in Feyenoord Stadion in Rotterdam and ended in Stadio San Siro in Milan. Concerts in Europe were very successful, with the shows in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark selling out in a record two hours. Then, from mid-July through early October, the band played 33 dates in stadiums (with an intentional emphasis on baseball parks as venues in addition to the usual professional football stadiums), mostly composed of multiple-night stands along the Eastern Seaboard where Springsteen was most popular, starting with what would become 10 shows in New Jersey's Giants Stadium. These were Springsteen's first full appearances in United States stadiums since the 1985 leg of his Born in the U.S.A. Tour, and included visits to iconic venues such as Fenway Park and Dodger Stadium. The Rising Tour finally concluded on October 4, 2003, at Shea Stadium in New York City.

In all, the tour played 120 shows in 82 cities over a span of 14 months.

Songs from The Rising played a key role in the structure of the tour's shows. Concerts typically began with "The Rising" followed by "Lonesome Day", both songs about the September 11 attacks. New touring musician Soozie Tyrell's violin played a prominent role in establishing the texture of these numbers, as it would throughout the concert. Two more September 11-themed songs, "Empty Sky" and "You're Missing", appeared soon after, to continue the mood; the latter featured an extended instrumental coda from the band, led by Danny Federici's organ. Typically seven or eight songs into the show, "Waitin' on a Sunny Day" provided the first buoyant, upbeat moments. Springsteen's first-ever use of recorded backing music took place on the mid-show "Worlds Apart", where Middle Eastern vocals were applied. The role of elongated band introductions song for this tour was taken by "Mary's Place", which also usually included interpolations of R&B classics. The main set closer was a final September 11 number, "Into the Fire", which, relevant to the new album's themes, emphasized togetherness and praise for sacrifice rather than the pure exuberance of previous tours' closers such as "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" and "Light of Day". A few Rising songs were almost never played during the tour, including "Nothing Man", "Paradise", and "Let's Be Friends".

For the rest of the main set, a mixture of songs from throughout Springsteen's catalog would emerge. Set lists were unusually static during the barnstorming (perhaps due to not having to play multiple shows in a venue, although plenty of the faithful were traveling to multiple cities to see the tour), but gradually loosened up. One consistent mid-show mainstay was "Badlands", which never failed to bring audiences to their feet. The next-to-last spot in the main set was often reserved for Springsteen playing a heretofore unusual solo piano spot, running through an old classic such as "For You" or "Incident on 57th Street".