Bruce Springsteen and The "Other Band" Tour - Commercial and Critical Reaction

Commercial and Critical Reaction

The tour played a large number of dates and sold many tickets. The eleven-show stint in the Meadowlands surpassed his 10-show run there in the first leg of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour, but ticket demand was much higher then; here, the shows were not actually sold out at start time. Ticket sales were strong along the Eastern Seaboard, but weaker in areas such as Cleveland and Detroit, a reflection of the two albums' lackluster sales performance and failure to generate much in the way of hit singles.

Critical reception of the tour was varied. Lars Lindstrom reviewed the opening Stockholm show for Back Beat and said, "the musicians have not yet become a band - and they lack the moments of total togetherness both musically and physically. Only singer and percussionist Crystal Taliefero and singer Bobby King have the undisputed charisma." USA Today nationally visible music writer Edna Gundersen thought very highly of the opening New Jersey show, saying that "For those doubting that such inner contentment can co-exist with rebellious rock passion, Springsteen offers living proof: an emotionally resonating, downright rowdy 27-song rock 'n' roll shindig." She also said that the new band was "a cohesive force worthy of succeeding the crack E Street Band," and also called out Taliefero for praise. The New York Times's Jon Pareles, reviewing the same show, also commented about the show's themes of "the healing power and everyday complications of love," and said that "Mr. King brings a falsetto gospel to songs with a touch of 1960's soul music, while Ms. Taliefero is a sassy female foil." Matty Karas of the Asbury Park Press wrote that "The whole show seemed something of a monologue on what he's been up to: getting divorced, getting remarried, having children, changing bands, sorting out a rocky life, falling off the pop charts, realizing there are more important things in life than rock 'n' roll and realizing you need to rock 'n' roll anyway. Mirroring his real life, it was as directly autobiographical a show as he's ever performed."

Fan response fell roughly into three categories:

1. Those who welcomed the new sound and thought highly of the shows
2. Those who were open to a new sound but did not think that this particular band hit the mark
3. Those who were aghast at the very notion of departing from the E Street sound.

It is impossible to measure the relative proportion of these; among the Springsteen faithful, the most common verdict over time has been that they enjoyed the shows while they were there, but have not felt cause to revisit them (via bootleg or official recordings) since. However, Springsteen biographer Dave Marsh later wrote that the Springsteen hard-core fan base had rejected the tour because "its sound was somewhat blacker." Whatever the cause, certain new numbers such as "Big Muddy" and "If I Should Fall Behind" were completely ineffective in the United States, eliciting an exodus to the beer and bathroom lines and minimal applause afterward.

Several specific developments did annoy fans. One was the general discovery that Springsteen was using a Teleprompter to remember his words by. It soon became clear that he was dependent upon the device, as for on long lyrics such as "Thunder Road" he would check the screen a good eight or nine times. A similar discovery was made by those seated behind the stage, that drummer Zak Alford was using a red-LED metronome to keep proper time. Finally was the unexpected outcome of the band's MTV Unplugged appearance, where Springsteen lost the confidence in the band and after one acoustic song, did the rest of the concert in normal electric mode, thus violating the show's fundamental premise. This did result in the In Concert/MTV Plugged album release, which documents what the 1992-1993 Tour band sounded like.

In the end, the fact that this was still a rock band, with a still conventional instrumental line-up, meant that it would be directly compared with the E Street Band and thus find it hard to establish a significant identity of its own. Over a decade later, Springsteen would solve this problem in his next non-E Street Band, non-solo tour, the Sessions Band Tour, where the makeup of the band and of their sound was utterly different from anything before and thus impossible to compare.