The E Street Band's Delaware Valley Roll Call
A look at the E Street Band's Philly history.
The E Street Band's Delaware Valley Roll Call
Bob Vetrone Jr.
Today, we take a temporary reprieve from the world of fun and games and concentrate on the world of Rock 'N' Roll.
Wednesday and Thursday nights, the butt-kicking, history-making, Boop-rocking, legendary E Street Band returns to stage their 115th and 116th shows in the Philadelphia area.
Those appearances cover 19 different venues — indoor, outdoor, stadiums, arenas, clubs, colleges, lounges, etc. — over a 39 1/2-year period.
In fact, the first official gig ever performed by the E Street Band (after the transformation of many names and many members) was at what was then West Chester State College on Oct. 28, 1972.
Along the way there were a bunch of two-show nights at the Main Point, a disappointing Spectrum debut as the opening act to Chicago, last-minute gigs, cancelled appearances, an extremely humid night at Veterans Stadium, a show under a full moon at Lincoln Financial Field and a day-after 50th birthday party show that will almost certainly go down as our best ESB show ever.
Below is a roll call of the band’s Delaware Valley appearances, in chronological order of the venue’s first show:
| Location | Shows | First Show(s) | Most Recent Show(s) |
| West Chester | 2 | Oct. 28, 1972 | Nov. 22, 1974 |
| Main Point (Bryn Mawr) | 44 | Jan. 3-6, 1973 (2) | Feb. 5, 1975 |
| Villanova | 2 | Jan. 16, 1973 | Oct. 6, 1973 |
| Spectrum | 30 | June 6, 1973 | Oct. 20, 2009 |
| Erlton Lounge (Cherry Hill) | 2 | Aug. 14, 1973 | Dec. 22, 1973 |
| Roxy (Manayunk) | 2 | Nov. 17, 1973 (2) | — |
| Widener | 3 | April 5, 1974 | Feb. 6-7, 1975 |
| Burlington County College | 1 | April 6, 1974 | — |
| Ursinus | 1 | April 20, 1974 | — |
| Swarthmore | 1 | April 28, 1974 | — |
| Bucks County College | 1 | May 6, 1974 | — |
| Newark (Del.) | 1 | Aug. 13, 1974 | — |
| Tower Theatre | 7 | Sept. 20, 1974 | Dec. 31, 1975 |
| Camden County College | 1 | Nov. 21, 1974 | — |
| Veterans Stadium | 2 | Aug. 14-15, 1985 | — |
| JFK Stadium | 1 | Sept. 19, 1988 | — |
| Wells Fargo Center | 11 | Sept. 13, 1999 | March 28-29, 2012 |
| Boardwalk Hall | 1 | March 7, 2003 | — |
| Lincoln Financial Field | 3 | Aug. 8-9-11, 2003 | — |
if you were sitting where we sat at the first show at the Linc the sound was horrible. It got fixed for the second show we heard. The people around us at Linc 1 knew the words to every song so we paid a lot of money for some really bad karaoke by people who didn't need the sound. Bruce sounded a lot better at JFK and the Spectrum. The karaoke followed us there too but sound system drowned it out.— creekmud
