Pittsburgh fans relive decades of Bruce Springsteen shows

Local fans of rock legend Bruce Springsteen have been waiting a long time for his return to Pittsburgh — not just because The Boss hasn’t been here since 2016, but because this week’s two upcoming shows were supposed to happen almost a year ago.

Originally slated for Sept. 12 and 14, 2023, the rescheduled Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band World Tour shows will be at PPG Paints Arena on Thursday and Sunday. The concerts were postponed because Springsteen had to break from touring after experiencing symptoms of peptic ulcer disease last September.

Since Pittsburgh tickets went on sale in February 2023, many fans have been waiting a year and a half to see the 74-year-old live.

Starting in 1973, Springsteen has played in Pittsburgh more than 35 times. He’s moved to much larger venues since his early shows at Schenley Plaza and Syria Mosque.

While many Western Pennsylvanians have resonated with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s unique brand of “heartland rock” over the past five decades, some locals have an especially personal connection.

Joe Grushecky — a rock musician and a Pittsburgh legend in his own right — looked back fondly on 44 years of memories with Springsteen. They initially met in 1980 at New York City recording studio Power Station. At the time, E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt was working on both Grushecky’s band the Iron City Houserockers’ album “Have A Good Time But Get Out Alive!” and Springsteen and the E Street Band’s album “The River.” Grushecky said Van Zandt is uncredited on the Iron City Houserockers’ album, but “he pretty much produced a couple tracks on it, including one of our favorite songs, ‘Junior’s Bar.’ ”

Grushecky’s most famous association with Springsteen is their work together on Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers’ 1995 album “American Babylon.”

“We’d become friends over the years, and I was sort of at a low point in my career and was looking to get something going where people would pay attention to what we were doing again. I got in contact with Bruce. He called me one night when I was playing an acoustic show on the South Side. He invited me to Los Angeles to work on a record. The idea was pretty loose, we were going to do something together. Initially, I thought it was just going to be one song, but eventually it blossomed into a record,” Grushecky said.

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He said he and Springsteen have played music together more than 50 times, typically with each other’s bands, starting in the early 1980s.

“The first time I played with him, we played at a bar. Clarence (Clemons) owned a bar in Red Bank, N.J., called Big Man’s (West). Bruce came in and sat in with the band … and played with us,” Grushecky said.

He said every time he’s played with Springsteen and the E Street Band it’s been a thrill.

“He invites you up … you walk onstage and there are thousands of people there. The band’s so good, it’s a very exciting experience, one I’ve been very fortunate to be a part of.”

Roslyn Neiman, a good friend of late E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons whose husband served as Clemons’ manager for a time, has been to more than 100 of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s shows.

“It’s pretty electric. They go longer than probably any show. In the beginning, the shows could be four hours, four and a half even. When he would go to leave, the crowd would go ‘No no, more more more!’ and he would go, ‘OK, we’ll play till I drop over.’

“He would come out onstage and hold his microphone to the crowd and he would say, ‘OK everybody, everybody’s got a hungry heart’ and the crowd would sing the rest of the song,” she said.

Before Clemons passed away in 2011, the Neimans were close friends of his and spent plenty of time around Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

“He would come to Pittsburgh and stay with us. We were friends. I remember he made us a Caesar salad one night at my house,” Neiman said.

After his passing, Clemons’ nephew, Jake, took over his position as saxophonist for the E Street Band.

“The band had a camaraderie like none I’ve ever seen in my life,” Neiman said.

She and her husband will be attending when Springsteen is in Pittsburgh this weekend.

Jeff Martinelli, 58, of South Fayette has seen Bruce Springsteen in concert more than 50 times, going back to the 1984 “Born in the USA Tour.” He became a fan when he heard “The River” in 1980.

“I remember being at that first show thinking, ‘Wow, this is a pretty good show.’ But towards the end, in the encore, when they hit the lights and light up the whole Civic Arena for ‘Born To Run’ and you see the humanity rise together, you sit there and think, wow, this is something different than all the other rock concerts I’ve been to over the past three years. This is something new and something about togetherness and having fun,” Martinelli said.

He’s seen The Boss in three different countries, including May 19 of this year in Dublin, Ireland.

Martinelli doesn’t have a favorite song to hear live.

“If he pulls out a song I haven’t heard in 15 or 20 years or that I’ve never heard, whether it’s played well or not, it’s something special,” he said.

He’s been anticipating this Thursday’s Pittsburgh stop for a long time — as far back as Springsteen’s last performance here on Sept. 11, 2016.

“They were just absolutely on target, that’s a memorable show for me,” he said.

“If people are questioning whether they should see him or not, if you haven’t got a ticket, go now. He still has a lot of energy and still brings a lot every night,” Martinelli added.

Some tickets to Springsteen’s two PPG Paints Arena shows are still available on Ticketmaster.