Bruce Springsteen

Glory Days

No Surrender: Bruce Springsteen Hates Radio Almost as Much as You Do

Boss Fans Take Note: Springsteen Announces First Local Date Since 2002

Drenched in Blog: Happy 25th, Thriller

Get Lit: For You: Original Stories and Photographs by Bruce Springsteen’s Legendary Fans, edited by Lawrence Kirsch

Dave Matthews Sucks, Almost as Much as Ken Hoffman Does

Last Night: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at Toyota Center

Alejandro Escovedo Spills the Beans on Houston Springsteen Duet

New Tape Of A Young Springsteen Remembering His First Houston Gigs

Someone has put up on YouTube the long audio interview he did with a very young Bruce Springsteen in Phoenix on March 24th, 1974 (Way before the 1978 Phoenix show that included the legendarily filmed "Rosalita").In part two of the six-part interview, Springsteen talks about the reception he's been g ... More >>

Aftermath: The Magpies and Sideshow Tramps at the Continental Club

Photos by Chris Gray It didn't look good at the beginning. A few minutes after 9 p.m. Wednesday, the posted start time for visiting Cleveland roots-rockers the Magpies, the "count" at the Continental Club front door was all of 16 paying customers, and the band was nowhere in sight. Two chicken t ... More >>

U2 Lace Up Their Dirty "Boots"

Among, you know, a few other things, the past 24 hours have been the start of a very, very big year for the band Rocks Off affectionately refers to as the Best Band Ever. U2 appeared alongside Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, "One" pal Mary J. Blige and many more as Barack Obama's opening acts at ... More >>

Musicians Don't Have W. to Kick Around Anymore... So Now What?

Now that Lil' Bush has shuffled off the Presidential coil - or will in a couple of hours, anyway - and heads off into some Dallas burg to write his memoirs and reflect on his two wild and strange terms as Commander in Chief, it seems that the writers of so many protest songs can call off their guns ... More >>

Bruce Springsteen Confirms Second Houston Show in a Year

Alejandro Escovedo with Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band,"Always a Friend," Toyota Center, April 14, 2008 After last year's sold-out show that ended with both Alejandro Escovedo and Joe Ely duetting with the Boss, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are headed back to Houston for ... More >>

Aftermath: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at Super Bowl XLIII

Part 1: "10th Avenue Freeze-Out" and "Born to Run" Score another one for the old folks. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's quarter-hour onstage at Super Bowl XLIII Sunday night may not have been the most contemporary booking the NFL could have landed - but, and we'll get to this in a minut ... More >>

Album of the Week: Bruce Springsteen's Working on a Dream

Bruce Springsteen is one prolific motherfucker. After all, he's produced one entire 4 CD box set (Tracks) of songs that he thought weren't good enough to be included on a regular album, and much of it still blew away anything in comparison. In that vein, we have Working on a Dream, coming littl ... More >>

St. Patrick's Day Special: Sinead O'Connor, "You Made Me The Thief Of Your Heart"

Fun Fact: This song was written by Bono and his childhood friends Gavin Friday (Virgin Prunes) and Maurice Seezer, and featured in the 1993 Jim Sheridan film In the Name of the Father. It lost the 1994 Best Original Song - Motion Picture Golden Globe to Bruce Springsteen's "Streets of Philadelp ... More >>

WrestleMania: The Slideshow!!!!!

Photo by Dan Kramer"Have you ever seen a one-legged dog making its way down the street? If you've ever seen a one-legged dog than you've seen me," Bruce Springsteen sings in the title song to The Wrestler.Well, we've never seen a one-legged dog, to be honest, but we could have seen Mickey Rourke if ... More >>

Springsteen Tickets for 20 Bucks

Chris Gray The line for Springsteen tickets shortly after noon - Rocks Off would assume there are still tickets available (they're in the upper deck, btw). Bring a couple of canned goods please. It's always nice to find something out from the daily, but when it involves Bruce Springsteen, ... More >>

Crooked Fingers

Chris Gray The line for Springsteen tickets shortly after noon - Rocks Off would assume there are still tickets available (they're in the upper deck, btw). Bring a couple of canned goods please. It's always nice to find something out from the daily, but when it involves Bruce Springsteen, ... More >>

Who Stole the Roll?

Chris Gray The line for Springsteen tickets shortly after noon - Rocks Off would assume there are still tickets available (they're in the upper deck, btw). Bring a couple of canned goods please. It's always nice to find something out from the daily, but when it involves Bruce Springsteen, ... More >>

Bruce Springsteen, Magic

CD Review

Tortoise & Bonnie "Prince" Billy

The Brave and the Bold

Beastie Boys

To the 5 Boroughs (Capitol)

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

Monday, November 4

Bruce Springsteen

The Rising (Columbia)

Listen In

Clandestine -- Dave Nevling and the Blues Kats -- Tommy Dardar and the Sheetrockers

St. Boss

Clandestine -- Dave Nevling and the Blues Kats -- Tommy Dardar and the Sheetrockers

Static

Clandestine -- Dave Nevling and the Blues Kats -- Tommy Dardar and the Sheetrockers

Aftermath: Fake Problems and Born Anchor at Walter's on Washington

Photos by Craig Hlavaty On a Monday night, all you can really look forward to is a decent evening of lackluster television and maybe some leftover barbecue from the weekend's flame-kissed debauchery. But last night at Walter's was the exact anecdote for a "case of da Mondays" in so many ways. In rec ... More >>

Eyeballin: Bruce Springsteen: Road Trip - 40 Years of the Boss

While its packaging and title are fairly misleading - the cover photo of Road Trip is a contemporary concert shot, and there's nothing here covering anything past 1984's Born in the USA, this nearly three-hour, 2-DVD documentary is still a worthwhile title for the hardcore Boss lover looking to ... More >>

Houston 101: You Knew We Would Have To Do This One -- Liberty Hall

​Liberty Hall, by the 1970s, had somewhat survived its time as a church and an American Legion hall to become probably the hippest rock club in the city.Comfortably seedy, the Hall hosted legends like the Velvet Underground, Gram Parsons (with Neil Young and Linda Ronstadt sitting in), the Ramones ... More >>

Slide Show: Albums That Went Darker

​ For most rock acts, the traditional way to deal with success is to rework their lyrics, image and sound to become palatable to a larger audience. Usually this means brightening the subject matter, cleaning up the bad words, softening the sharp edges on those power chords and getting haircuts tha ... More >>

Chris Knight

​ For most rock acts, the traditional way to deal with success is to rework their lyrics, image and sound to become palatable to a larger audience. Usually this means brightening the subject matter, cleaning up the bad words, softening the sharp edges on those power chords and getting haircuts tha ... More >>

9/9/09: Songs With a Certain Number in the Title

​As Hair Balls pointed out, we've only got three more of these weird number/same number/same number days left this century after today. Such chronological repetition appeals to the hidden obsessive-compulsive in all of us, so join us as we wash our hands nine times, lock the door nine times, and l ... More >>

Get Lit: Three More for That Already Groaning Springsteen Bookshelf

Daniel KramerThe Big Man, the Boss and Mighty Max Weinberg at Toyota Center, April 2009​ Just as Bruce Springsteen winds down a frenzied period of back-to-back album and tour marathon - despite the death of Springsteen's cousin/assistant tour manager earlier this week in Kansas City, he and the E ... More >>

Hiding on the Backstreets: Remembering Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band In Houston

Daniel KramerThe Boss at Toyota Center, April 2009​This past weekend's show in Buffalo, N.Y., was the last date on a nearly two-year (and two-album-supporting) trek by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, which found them criss-crossing the country and the globe several times to rapt audiences ... More >>

Hiding on the Backstreets, Part 2: Bruce Springsteen Brings The River, Born In the U.S.A., Tunnel of Love and Tom Joad to Town

Daniel KramerBruce Springsteen and Miami Steve van Zandt at Toyota Center, April 2009​ As Bruce Springsteen fans come to grips with the unfortunate reality that this past weekend's show in Buffalo, N.Y., may well have been the final offical tour date - although surely not the final show - from the ... More >>

Hiding on the Backstreets, Part 3: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's Last (and Final?) Four Houston Shows

[Ed. Note: This is the final installment of our series reminiscing on Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's long history in Houston. See here for the '70s, and here for the '80s and '90s.] April 18, 2000: E Street Band Reunion Tour, Compaq Center (the Summit) Daniel Kramer​"It was on this to ... More >>

Listology: The American Heist Soundtracks Their Funerals

​ ​Of all the bands to emerge out of the Houston music puppy mill this year, none has been as steadfastly working class and punk rock as the American Heist. Rocks Off first spied the band opening up for Florida's Fake Problems in May. At the time they were still called Born Anchor, but a Seattle ... More >>

He Said She Said: Our Christmas Musical Wishlists, Part 2 - LPs Nobody Can Buy

​When He Said was four years old, all he wanted for Christmas was big brown tape recorder that Play Skool put out so he could record his own imaginary radio shows and crazed ramblings about He-Man. Santa Claus brought it that year, and He Said wore that thing out over the next few months. For Chri ... More >>

Beasting Off the Riesling: The Most Ridiculous Lyrics of 2009, Part 1

The lowest common denominator having been achieved in 2005 with the release of the Black Eyed Peas' Monkey Business, popular musicians have had to work extra hard in recent years to find new and inventive ways to be inane. They found great success in 2009, with artists as varied as Lady Gaga, Bruce ... More >>

House Of Blues Extends Tax-Free Merch Sale Through 7 p.m. Today

​House of Blues has extended its "Great Rock 'N' Roll Sample Sale" to a second day, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. today in the Bronze Peacock Room. Sales tax for all merchandise, available for as low as $3 for CDs and hats (Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, KISS) or even $1 for tour programs (Springstee ... More >>

Springsteen Darkness Reissue Includes 1978 Houston Show

​Did you know Bruce Springsteen mentions bygone downtown venue Liberty Hall in his song "This Hard Land"? Of course you did, because Rocks Off is contractually obligated to mention it every time we post something about The Boss. So now that's out of the way, here's something else Houston-re ... More >>

Springsteen 2.0: Can Baby Bosses Cruise The Backstreets?

Daniel Kramer​This fall, Houstonians salivating for another touring run by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band don't have to search to hard to find bands heavily influenced by the man's sound and work ethic. Even though Springsteen and his merry band of musicians may be cooling their road ... More >>

Last Night: Gaslight Anthem At Warehouse Live

Photos by Jason Wolter​Gaslight Anthem Warehouse Live October 7, 2010 Quite a great deal of press - too much, really - has been given to the similarities between New Jersey's Gaslight Anthem and that other guy from the Garden State - Jon Bon J... er, Bruce Springsteen. Both Springsteen and GA ... More >>

Springsteen Web Site: '78 Summit Show Best Video Ever

​ Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, "Fire," live at the Summit 12/8/78 Since one of the extra goodies is a complete video of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's December 1978 concert at the Summit, Rocks Off is sure Houston's Boss fans don't need much more reason to buy the expande ... More >>

10 American Anthems That Tell It Like It Is

​Captain America, Marvel's newest superhero movie, comes out today. We'll pause until the excitement passes. ... Rocks Off likes Captain America. The three comic books we read with any regularity as a scupper were Cap, Batman (Detective Comics), and Spider-Man. But we love America. The land ... More >>

Rolled Up Like a Douche: "Blinded by the Light" Explained

​A few years ago, my band took a trip up the east coast to play some shows in and around New York City. One of the stops was in Asbury Park at a club called The Saint. Not more than probably a mile down the road was the Stone Pony, the legendary venue where some great bands got their start inc ... More >>

Bruce Springsteen's New Single and a Preemptive Review of His Upcoming Album

​Like any red-blooded American rock and roll fan, I am looking forward to the next year to be filled with Bruce Springsteen. The man has a new album, Wrecking Ball, coming on March 6, a massive tour in the planning stages, and he's set to be the keynote speaker at this year's South By Southwes ... More >>

The Top 10 Laziest Music Videos Ever

​We're obsessed with music videos lately, and have spent almost the whole of the weekend seeking new and brilliant ones in order to feature in our weekly column. We're just so impressed with the capabilities open to modern artists at all strata of stardom, and how brilliant a piece of work can ... More >>