CHICAGO
Steven Van Zandt was working the backstage dining room at the United Center like he owned it.
After hobnobbing with Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen and his entourage, Van Zandt settled into an oversized semicircular booth in the corner. Fresh from a sound check with Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, the guitarist had one topic on his mind: performing Springsteen's 1980 double-album "The River" in concert that night and for 51 performances on tour, including St. Paul on Monday.
"It's my favorite [Springsteen] album, including the outtakes," said Van Zandt, who has known the Boss since they were teenagers on the New Jersey rock circuit in the 1960s. "It's the most rock 'n' roll band album we ever did. I like it as much — or more — now than I ever did."
The idea of a classic act playing one of its old albums in its entirety is not new. Brian Wilson, Van Morrison, Cheap Trick and Springsteen, among others, have all done it. The practice, which became trendy a few years ago, isn't the province solely of classic rockers; Snoop Dogg, Lucinda Williams, Weezer and Nine Inch Nails have done it, too. Phish has made a tradition of offering a different album in concert every Halloween. The 1990s alt-rock acts Soul Asylum, Big Head Todd & the Monsters and Matthew Sweet built an entire tour together around the concept in 2013.
But the notion of doing a double album live in concert? It's daunting.
The Who delivered their two-LP rock operas "Tommy" and "Quadrophenia," and Roger Waters pulled it off masterfully with Pink Floyd's theatrical "The Wall." But those are landmark concept albums.
The same could be said of Stevie Wonder's "Songs in the Key of Life," which he presented in concert in 2014 and '15. That album was not only his biggest seller, but it captured a Grammy for album of the year in 1976 and included such smashes as "Sir Duke" and "I Wish."
Springsteen's "The River" is hardly a milestone album in the Boss' canon, though it did feature his first big radio hit, "Hungry Heart." "The River" might not rate in the Top 3 of albums Springsteenites want to hear live in concert. But he decided to do it because last fall he released a boxed set "The Ties That Bind: The River Collection," which includes 52 songs (more than 30 outtakes) and three DVDs.
Springsteen's manager, Jon Landau, suggested doing a couple of small-hall concerts of "The River" to promote the project.
"Bruce said, 'It takes as much time to rehearse for two shows as it does for 20. Why don't we do 20?' " Landau told Rolling Stone. "I fell out of my chair."
The Boss made the decision in November and, after three or four days of rehearsal in early January, the E Street Band hit the road on Jan. 16.
New song, new players
For saxophonist Jake Clemons, that meant lots of songs to learn, because he was born the year "The River" was released. His uncle, the late Clarence Clemons, was the saxophonist on the album.
Guitarist Nils Lofgren didn't join the E Street Band until 1984 but he'd learned "The River" before a one-off performance of the record in 2009 at Madison Square Garden. Still, he had to get acquainted with many of the outtakes, which can show up on any given night.
In fact, every night Springsteen has been kicking off the show with an outtake, "Meet Me in the City."
"I like the fact that we're starting with something new," said Van Zandt. "It puts the whole night in the present tense immediately. You evaluate the songs on how they affect you right now."
With the same 21 songs to start the show, this tour has a different vibe from most Springsteen tours, for which the set list can change dramatically from night to night. The musicians are OK with this new approach.
"If we're playing a whole album, that's fine," Lofgren said by phone this month. "That last run of 26 months on the road, it was the height of improv. The set list didn't matter. Sometimes it was 3½ hours of improv. You just roll with it. This tour is a very healthy presentation of that double album with room for reckless, free-form, spur-of-the-moment inspired music on top of that."
In other words, there are 90 minutes or more of Springsteen favorites after "The River" — compared with more abbreviated hits set by Wonder and the Who during their double-album tours.
Nonetheless, experiencing "The River" live is not like listening to one of Springsteen's other albums in concert.
"I think 'Born to Run' is 38 minutes. It goes by very quickly," drummer Max Weinberg said backstage in Chicago. "This album is about 90 minutes. We're playing it at about two hours with talking."
Weinberg appreciates "The River" because "it gives you every emotion, every style. Great rockers, fantastic ballads, thematic pieces."
But a two-hour presentation of an album with many quiet moments can test any Springsteen fan, no matter how hard-core.
"During some of the slow songs, a couple hundred guys run for beer and a piss, understandably," Lofgren pointed out. "It's all good."
Other projects
Springsteen wasn't planning to tour with the E Street Band in 2016. He has reportedly recorded a solo album and a solo tour was expected. But when the Boss put out the word in November for a band tour, the E Streeters immediately adjusted their schedules.
Lofgren had booked a solo tour, which included two nights at the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis in May. But he had to scrap all plans to promote his new album, "UK2015 Face the Music Tour."
After the first few "The River" shows, Springsteen extended the current tour, doubling the original number of concerts and adding a European leg. The band members didn't have much warning about that.
Similarly, Lofgren said he had no idea about Springsteen's autobiography that will arrive in September by Simon and Schuster. Its publication was announced in February.
"I knew on the plane he mentioned he was writing a journal. He didn't spell out he was writing a book," Lofgren said. "I didn't even hear about it till my wife told me about it. Oh, my Lord, that's a lot of work."
The various E Streeters have their own projects, as well. Weinberg leads two eponymous ensembles — a jazz quintet and a 23-piece big band for dancing.
Van Zandt, who produced Darlene Love's comeback album last year, has several projects in the works. He's writing the third draft of a script for an HBO film in which he'd star, and he's penning a script for a Hispanic family comedy he wants to produce. He also hosts his syndicated radio show, "Little Steven's Underground Garage."
Taking stock of his projects while relaxing backstage at the United Center, Van Zandt couldn't remember everything on his to-do list. In mid-sentence, he was interrupted by Arny Granat, who stopped by to introduce himself. Even though Granat was the promoter of the night's concert in Chicago and a Broadway producer, it was obviously Van Zandt's house.
"I got a call regarding the Bert Berns musical and your name was brought up," Granat told Van Zandt, referring to the 1960s songwriter/producer who worked on such classics as "Twist and Shout," "Piece of My Heart" and "Brown Eyed Girl."
"Yeah. Here's my assistant," Van Zandt said. "Give him my cell and everything."
Then the rocker/actor continued the interview. "Oh, yeah, I forgot I'm working on that. I'm producing it and I'm doing the music."
Twitter: @JonBream • 612-673-1719
