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Scheduled: 20:00 Local Start Time ??:?? / End Time ??:??Info & Setlist | Venue
Bruce's first known appearance in Pennsylvania. One show (part of Homecoming festivities), triple bill, with Springsteen bottom-billed and opening for the second-billed acapella group The Persuasions and headlining comedy duo Cheech & Chong. Bruce and the boys were a last-minute addition to the show itinerary. According to one of the College's concert organizers soon after Springsteen began his performance a dispute erupted backstage with Cheech & Chong's management, who apparently were upset they had not been informed a third act had been booked. The end result was that Springsteen was forced to end his set prematurely, after only about six songs. A very brief review in the school's newspaper gives the show a positive overall review but does not give any details on Springsteen's set. Bruce would make a return appearance at West Chester on November 22, 1974 and a review of that show notes that Springsteen was 'heckled off the stage' at the 1972 show. The College's 'Serpentine' 1973 yearbook does feature this event, but unfortunately only includes photographs of The Persuasions and Cheech & Chong. This West Chester show is currently the earliest known public performance of the as-yet unnamed 'E Street Band' (Clemons, Federici, Lopez, Tallent). This show was the first that Springsteen played with his now-iconic electric guitar, a "1950s mutt with a Telecaster body and an Esquire neck," as Bruce describes it in Born To Run. He had bought the guitar from Phil Petillo's shop in Belmar for $185, and it would be his primary guitar for the next forty years.
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