Here is one of the essential precepts of the work of Bruce Springsteen: one must never cease to have faith in life. A promise that his fans will have been right to doubt: the Boss will be back at the Bell Center on November 20.
If our calculations are correct, the cathartic rock marathon runner will visit Montreal for the first time in 15 years. During his last visit to the Bell Center on March 2, 2008, Barack Obama was still only the senator from Illinois and Clarence Clemons, Bruce’s faithful saxophonist, still brandished his instrument to the right of his friend.
It was his nephew Jake Clemons who was entrusted, after the death of the Big Man in 2011, with the mission of keeping alive the legendary solos of Born to Run And jungleland. The young American musician, who lives in the Laurentians with his Quebec spouse, will finally have the opportunity to perform on a Montreal stage in the company of his venerable boss – our common boss.
PHOTO CHRIS O’MEARA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Adopted Quebecer Jake Clemons and Bruce Springteen in Tampa on the 1ster last february
The $5,000 ticket controversy
Springsteen’s immaculate reputation took a hit last July, when tickets for the inaugural leg of this first tour with the E Street Band since 2017 went on sale on dynamic pricing.
The implausible price of some seats – up to $5,000, depending on the New York Times – swore, to say the least, with the reputation of the ally of low-income earners that the septuagenarian had always carried around in the back pocket of his faded jeans.
In a rare exercise in transparency, Ticketmaster had defended itself by means of a press release from allowing access to its shows only to the deepest pockets. According to the entertainment giant, tickets with dynamic pricing only represented a minority of the seats available for these performances by the singer. Thus, 88.2% of the seats for this first part of his tour would have been sold at fixed prices ranging from $59.50 to $399 (before service charges), and 1.3% of the tickets would have exceeded $1,000. .
Asked about it by the magazine RollingStone last November, the interpreter of Dancing in the Dark explained that he traditionally asks his team to take a look at what his peers are charging for, then set his own a little bit lower. “But this time, we’re 73, and I wanted to do what everyone else is doing. »
He added at the same time that the world of ticketing is now as difficult to understand (“confusing”) for the artists as for the spectators, and swore that the majority of his tickets were “totally affordable”.
evenko was unable to specify on Tuesday whether the sale of Montreal tickets will follow a dynamic pricing principle.
How to get tickets?
In order to obtain tickets for the November 20 concert in Montreal, it is first necessary to obtain on the Ticketmaster site the status of “Certified Fan”, a simple procedure which, according to the company, “helps to filter out buyers looking to resell tickets and distribute more tickets to fans going to the show.”
You must then, before February 19 at 11:59 p.m., fill out a form in which you can choose three shows you wish to attend, from among the twenty American and Canadian dates on the schedule this fall. In addition to Montreal, Bruuuuuuce (as his followers call him) also passes through Toronto on November 14 and 16 and Ottawa on November 18.
Fans selected by this mysterious lottery will receive a code on the evening of February 21 allowing them to access the sale of tickets, which will take place in the following days.
Bruce Springsteen’s tour began on the 1er February in Tampa, during an evening charged with emotions, bringing together no less than 18 musicians and interweaving some of his most striking songs with several others taken from his albums letter to you (2020) and Only the Strong Survive (2022). His show last Friday in Dallas lasted no less than 2 hours and 50 minutes.