Longest Springsteen shows

[ Introduction ]
During the May/June 2012 run of the ‚Wrecking Ball Tour‘ Springsteen played one looong concert after the other. On 17.06.2012 he finally played for unbelievable 3:48 hours without any break! The next day I started a thread about show length on the SPL Board and compiled a list of concerts based on a blog entry from the ‚Stay Hard, Stay Hungry, Stay Alive Blog‘.

With the help of some of the board members more and more concerts for contenders of the longest shows came on that list. This process is still ongoing and will maybe never be finished…

After a while the list got so big that I dicided to maintain it in a data base. The current output of that database can be seen below.

The following rules for the evaluation of the show length apply:
1. The show starts when Bruce first speaks to the crowd, or the band starts playing for the first time. Introductory music played over the PA (or by a Calliope) cannot be factored in.
2. The show ends when the band stops playing or when Bruce says his final “goodbye” to the crowd. Music played over the PA after the show cannot be counted. Nor can there be any adjustment for how long it takes for the band to leave the stage once the final “goodbye” is said. As the band has gotten larger (and yes, older), it stands to reason that it takes a little longer for them to leave the stage. Hence the need for a definitive end point.
3. The method described above necessarily is used to determine the end of the first set and beginning of the second set for shows that included an intermission. Obviously, the intermission time is not used in these calculations, as the length of intermissions varied widely and they haven’t been used since the 1992-93 World Tour.
4. Each of these starting and end points can be independently confirmed by audio recordings of the show. Unfortunately, any other method is subject to bias in the collection of data, whether unintentional (checking one’s watch a little too late) or intentional. Yes, there will occasionally be an incomplete recording of a show. While it would present a problem if one desired to rank all shows by length, it does not hamper this specific analysis.

[ Longest Concerts ]