Three Reasons I May Not See Springsteen Play in Austin Next Month…and Four Reasons I Probably Will

The struggle is real

Three long years ago in Dallas…(Photo by author)

You’ve probably heard by now that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will kick off the Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour in Minneapolis on March 31st. That show doesn’t matter to me much, but his lone stop in the Lone Star State on April 26th in Austin definitely does. It also presents a conundrum I never faced back when I first saw him in concert more than 40 years ago. In fact, it presents several conundrums (“conundra” is also acceptable but used less frequently).

As I sit here with The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle spinning on the turntable, I find myself pondering more than whether that album title is the most creative avoidance of the Oxford comma ever. I’m pondering whether or not I will make the three-and-a-half-hour drive to see the man who wrote the soundtrack of my life, and right now it’s something of a toss-up. Below are three reasons I might not and four reasons I probably will.

Why I Won’t Be There

1. Bruce becoming overtly political at his shows. As I wrote during his 2025 European tour, I already know where the man stands with regard to the current president. I don’t need to hear a screed at a rock concert like his introduction to “My City of Ruins” in Manchester last year, an eight-paragraph lament listing multiple sins (and make no mistake, they are sins) of the Trump administration.

If I want to hear more political talk, I’ll turn on the news or reactivate my Twitter account (I still refuse to call it X). When I go to a concert or baseball game or whatever, I’m doing it to escape that nonsense. Yes, we need to take a stand on things that matter, but sometimes we also need a moment to simply breathe and enjoy something we love. Constant rage is exhausting.

Also, as a fan paying hundreds of dollars for a ticket that cost me $17.50 in 1984 during the Born in the U.S.A tour, I want to maximize that brief time I have with the man and his band who, while still amazingly energetic for septuagenarians, typically play shorter shows than they did 20 years ago. Instead of political speeches, I would much rather the time be used to play “Night” (the only song from Born to Run I’ve never seen in concert), “Where the Bands Are,” “The Promise,” or “Loose Ends.”

2. The insane ticket prices. Speaking of that $17.50 ticket from 1984, perhaps the best reason to stay home this year is the obscene price of concert tickets. I did log on to Ticketmaster when tickets for the Austin show went on sale (of course I did), but I have no clue what the original face value was because they were already sold out and showing up on resale sites. As I type this, the cheapest tickets (in the upper deck) are available at around $200, with the lower deck running $500. There is even some optimistic maniac asking $2,300 for floor seats, bless his mercenary heart.

Since I need two tickets, even choosing the nosebleed section will set me back $400, plus gas for a 7-hour round trip, plus food, plus tour merch, plus hotel; I am far too old to drive three hours through Texas backroads at 1:00 in the morning. Even if I did brave the late-night drive and avoid the cost of a hotel, the total would surely run past $500. For that, I could get a signed first edition of Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s The Labyrinth of the Spirits, a sweet Mossberg 590 Persuader pump shotgun for the coming apocalypse, or 160 Crunchy Taco Supremes at Taco Bell.

3. The crowds. This final reason may scream “I’m a grumpy old man,” but hear me out. There is no denying that in 2026 any large gathering is a potential target for some lunatic, whether that lunatic is Left, Right, or neither. And it’s not just bombs or shooters, either; the preferred method of attack in recent years seems to be assault by automobile.

Potential terrorists aside, I don’t like crowds anymore for a more basic reason. Since we were set free following the pandemic lockdowns, it seems that we left two things behind with our masks and sourdough starters: common sense and common decency. At any gathering of more than a few people, there is a fair chance of some type of altercation breaking out, and I just don’t need that nonsense. It’s less likely at a concert where the vast majority of the crowd has gray hair, but still.

Why I Probably Will Be There

1. The political talk is worth suffering through in order to hear “Born to Run” and “Thunder Road.” Even an eight-paragraph screed pales in comparison to 15,000 fans screaming “tramps like us” at the top of their lungs along with the King of New Jersey, so my first objection is the easiest to overcome. I have endured nonstop political ads for the past three weeks just to see the local weather and Dallas Stars hockey scores, so a little “No Kings” talk before the band launches into “Prove It All Night” shouldn’t be a problem.

2. Prices are what they are. I can moan about ticket prices from now until the end of time, but the fact is that the cost of everything has gone nuts, and we just have to deal with it. For example, just a few hours ago I paid $20 for a chicken-fried steak dinner (lunch, actually) that would have cost me $3 back when I first saw Bruce in 1984. Tasty as it was, I’ll have forgotten that chicken-fried steak by tomorrow; I still remember every moment of every Springsteen show I’ve seen.

I could also take a massive risk and pray that the Land of Hope and Dreams Tour is a moment of hope and dreams for me by going to Austin without buying tickets first and hoping prices of unsold seats plummet at showtime. This happened for some lucky fans in Tulsa in 2023 when unsold tickets were going for $7 (7 dollars!) as the band opened with “No Surrender.” The downside is that those fans missed “No Surrender,” which sucks. Maybe I would get extra lucky and only miss Bruce’s first Trump rant or extra-extra lucky and miss him opening with that God-awful “Glory Days.” Hope springs eternal.

3. Crowds are annoying, but they don’t actually scare me. I turned 60 in January, which means I have now lived twice as long as I ever expected to. I can’t think of a better way to meet my demise than while listening to Bruce play live (except maybe comfortably in bed with a Swedish twin on each side of me). Plus, this is Texas, which means I can carry my firearm of choice if I so choose. I may or I may not, but the fact that the guy next to me doesn’t know if I’m strapped or not is often enough to deter any rude encounter.

4. The Legendary E Street Band. The final reason I will likely find myself in Austin on April 26th is the most important. Time marches on, and eventually the day will come when there is no longer an E Street Band. Only two members are under the age of 70 (Soozie Tyrell at 68 and Jake Clemons at 46), and the rest are running toward 80 at breakneck speed; Bruce, Roy Bittan, and Garry W. Tallent will all turn 77 this year. I want to see the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, hard-rocking, booty-shaking, love-making, earth-quaking, Viagra-taking, justifying, death-defying, legendary E Street Band play together while I still can.

There is a bonus reason that I will surely be there, and it needs no words:

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Rock on, my friends.