COVID Temporarily Shrinks E Street Band at Springsteen Dallas Gig

The pandemic is still an issue for touring musicians

Bruce Springsteen, 2023
Nils Lofgren and Bruce Springsteen perform onstage during the Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band 2023 tour at State Farm Arena on February 03, 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Paras Griffin/Getty Images

Attendees at a recent Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concert in Dallas may have seen a bit less of the E Street Band than they were expecting. Why? Because it turns out that COVID-19 has a way of infecting anyone, even if you happen to be a nigh-invulnerable force of rock and roll.

As Ultimate Classic Rock reports, Springsteen made the announcement at the band’s February 10 show at Dallas’s American Airlines Arena. Absent from the lineup that night were Steven Van Zandt, Soozie Tyrell and Patti Scialfa. As Springsteen shared with the audience, the first two musicians were sitting the show out due to positive COVID diagnoses.

Longtime Springsteen collaborator Van Zandt took to Twitter to provide more details on his case of COVID. “Thank you all for your best wishes and positive vibes,” he wrote. “I’ve got a very mild case and hope to be back for Houston or Austin at the latest.” He went on to note that he was both vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19. “That’s why it’s a mild case,” he added. “No real danger or damage.”

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Springsteen’s tour marks a return to the road for one of rock’s most enduring and beloved acts. Pandemic disruptions aside, the tour has also been adversely affected by a controversy over high ticket prices — one of the reasons the long-running Springsteen fanzine Backstreets announced it was shutting down.

The tour will run through April in the United States before Springsteen and company cross the Atlantic to begin its European leg on April 28 in Barcelona.

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