Bruce Springsteen Tour: E Street Band Tour Never Ending? Springsteen Announces February Australian Tour

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are about to wrap up their Wrecking Ball tour with four shows in South America. Springsteen announced last week that those shows would mark the end of the tour, but he then said just a few days later that the band would play more shows in Australia and New Zealand in February.

The announcement made fans curious, as Springsteen made clear that the Australian and New Zealand shows would be separate from the Wrecking Ball tour. What do these new shows signify?

Rolling Stone offered three possibilities. Firstly, these new Australian shows could be a different tour to promote a brand new album. As the site points out, Springsteen has not launched a tour without promoting an album since 1999. He also started the Working on a Dream tour in 2009 just eight months after the Magic tour ended in 2008. This new tour could be a similar situation.

Secondly, the Australian and New Zealand shows could just be an independent, short series of performances, as the E Street Band has not been to the area in years. Last time, they drew massive crowds, so they might want to tap into that again.

But the third option is the most intriguing: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are on a never-ending tour.

"Springsteen is in incredible shape for sixty-three, but he must know that he can't do three-and-a-half-hour shows forever," according to Rolling Stone. "His three children are now out of the house, and he clearly loves performing. Why do tours need to have clear start and stop dates? Everyone from Metallica to Elton John to Paul McCartney launches tours whenever they feel like, regardless of how recently they released a new album. Why should Springsteen be any different?" 

Here's hoping option three is true.