Magic Tour (Bruce Springsteen) - Itinerary

Itinerary

On August 28, 2007, it was announced on Bruce Springsteen's website that there would be a tour with the E Street Band immediately concurrent with the release of his album Magic. The two first-announced legs followed the practice established during the 2002–2003 Rising Tour, of quickly visiting cities in North America followed by the same in Western Europe. Possible lengthier engagements, or dates in areas outside the Northeastern United States, where Springsteen's commercial appeal had dimmed, were viewed as additional legs in 2008.

In an interview at the time of the tour's announcement, Springsteen made clear that this outing would be a return to expectations after the substantial stylistic departures of the solo, multi-instrumental 2005 Devils & Dust Tour and the big folk 2006 Sessions Band Tour: "Yeah — I'll be playing the rock music this time." Magic selections would be likely heavily featured, as they were written for playing in concert. And he shot down fan speculation that (with band members getting on in age and health and drummer Max Weinberg likely heading to Los Angeles when Conan O'Brien would take over The Tonight Show in 2009) this might be a farewell tour – "I envision the band carrying on for many, many, many more years. There ain't gonna be any farewell tour.... I'll never do that, man — you're only gonna know that when you don't see me no more" – as did band members the following year.

As per past Springsteen practice, the tour proper was preceded by a couple of weeks of the band holding closed rehearsals at Asbury Park Convention Hall – but now with loudspeakers playing local radio stations positioned outside the hall to foil the Springsteen faithful who gathered outside the building to hear a glimpse of the set lists and arrangements to come. This was followed by two rehearsal shows (which doubled as charity benefits) at Convention Hall on September 24 and 25, an early morning appearance on The Today Show's concert series on Rockefeller Plaza on September 28, and another, small-audience rehearsal at Continental Airlines Arena that night.

The first, North American leg began at the Hartford Civic Center on October 2, 2007 and played in arenas through two shows at the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston concluding November 19. The second, European leg began on November 25 at the Palacio de Deportes de la Comunidad de Madrid and finished at The O2 in London on December 19. As customary on some other Springsteen tours, a two-month winter holiday break was then taken.

The third, North American leg again started up at the Hartford Civic Center, on February 28, 2008, playing both previously visited and not markets, in arenas. It concluded on May 2, 2008, at BankAtlantic Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. (The leg's conclusion was followed by a special out-of-tour, very-high-priced benefit show May 7 for and at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey, where Springsteen's classic 1970s albums Darkness on the Edge of Town and Born to Run were played in sequence in their entirety.) Meanwhile, both arenas and stadiums were scheduled for a fourth, European leg to take place in mid-May through mid-July 2008, beginning at the RDS Arena in Dublin.

The fifth and final leg of the tour would return to North America for a few stadium and mostly arena or smaller outdoor venue shows, starting at Giants Stadium in New Jersey and visiting such places as Hershey, Pennsylvania, Richmond, Virginia, Nashville, Tennessee, and the like. The tour officially marked its end at the Harley-Davidson 105th Anniversary Celebration in Milwaukee on August 30, 2008, which Rolling Stone viewed as "a very odd way to end an epic tour."

A more extensive final leg, running into the autumn, was "in the works" but scrapped in mid-June 2008. Fans, however, still hoped for something after the Harley show, and were rewarded when plans were announced for Springsteen and the E Street Band to play the halftime show at Super Bowl XLIII, with strong speculation extending to a new album in early 2009 and a tour run before Max Weinberg went to California for The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.