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Inside Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band’s Return to the Stage: The 5 Best Moments From Phoenix

After a six-month break, half of it unintentional, Springsteen opened the new leg of his tour in Arizona, where he showed he was in peak form.

If there was any doubt that Bruce Springsteen hadn’t fully recovered from the peptic ulcer disease that caused him to postpone 29 dates on his world tour with the E Street Band last fall, he dispensed of that notion within minutes of taking the stage Tuesday (March 19) at Phoenix’s Footprint Center for the first time in six months. The Boss was in top form from show opener “Lonesome Day” and fully had his sea legs back by third song, “No Surrender,” when he gave his first trademark shout out, “C’mon, Steve!” beckoning for his brother-in-music for over half a century, Steven Van Zandt, to join him on the mic. When everyone is playing, such as on songs like “Wrecking Ball” or “Glory Days,” between the boldness of the horn section and the beauty of the backing vocalists and the craftmanship of the E Street Band, it felt like a wall of sound was crashing from the stage over the audience.

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