'Somebody tried to blow us up tonight': A look back at Bruce Springsteen's famous 'bomb scare show' in Milwaukee

Editor's Note: This story is a revised version of articles previously published in the Journal Sentinel.

On Oct. 2, 1975, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band made its explosive Milwaukee debut at the Uptown Theater.

Fortunately, the evening wasn't literally explosive.

About 40 minutes into the concert, Bob Reitman, then a DJ at WFM-FM, stepped onto the stage, Springsteen by his side, telling the 1,800 in attendance that they had to evacuate: There'd been a bomb threat.

The concert resumed three hours later, with a liquored-up Springsteen leading the band through a wild set that stretched past 2 a.m. Over the decades, it has become one of the most famous concerts the Boss has ever played.

"It was the only time we've ever gotten drunk before a show," Steven Van Zandt, Springsteen's lifelong friend and longtime guitarist, told the Journal Sentinel in 2018. "I grew up with Bruce, we were very tight, and that's the only time I've ever seen him drunk in public."

Springsteen's first show in Milwaukee came at a career high

Springsteen was on top of the world when he rolled into Milwaukee for the first time.

"Born to Run" had come out that August, and Springsteen ended up on the covers of both Time and Newsweek magazines later that October.

That context alone made Springsteen's show at the Uptown — a former movie palace on Milwaukee's west side at North Avenue and Lisbon Road — a highly anticipated event. Ultimately, it was "unlike any other concert I've seen," Reitman told the Journal Sentinel in 2015. "We didn't know what was going to happen."

An Uptown cashier received a threatening phone call at 8:45 p.m., according to the Milwaukee Sentinel. Head of security Terry Cullen met with promoter Allan Dulberger and Springsteen's manager, Jon Landau, and they collectively decided to stop the concert for three hours while police "tore the theater apart," Cullen told the Journal Sentinel in 2015.

No bomb was found.

Springsteen and the band party at the Pfister Hotel — too hard

The concertgoers left peacefully, most of them waiting in a nearby parking lot in the cold. Springsteen and the band, on the other hand, hung out at the Pfister Hotel bar.

As Van Zandt explained to the Journal Sentinel in 2018, Columbia Records had planned a post-show party in Milwaukee, a routine procedure for every tour stop at the time. With the show on pause while police combed through the Uptown, the party started early.

And Springsteen partied so hard that night, Van Zandt recalled, he could have ended up in the hospital, or worse.

"I remember very specifically not being able to enjoy the buzz on the way back to the show," Van Zandt said. "He kept trying to crawl out the window and onto the roof of the car."

"I was holding him in the car with all of my might," Van Zandt said between laughs. "We almost lost Mr. Springsteen that night. History would be quite different."

Bruce: We were 'drinking our skulls out'

So there was no bomb at the Uptown that night. But Springsteen himself was bombed, confessing in a rant once the show resumed that he and the band had been "drinking our skulls out" during the pause.

"We said, 'Bartender, somebody tried to blow us up tonight,'" Springsteen said to the crowd, like a slap-happy preacher, part of a rambling monologue that kicked off a killer cover of Chuck Berry's "Little Queenie." "He looked at me and said, 'Son, son, are you loose?'"

Springsteen busted out laughing, hilariously repeating the phrase over and over throughout the night. Across the decades, it's become a recurring refrain at Springsteen's Milwaukee shows, where fans, and sometimes Springsteen himself, shout out "Are you loose?"

'Like the Packers going to a Super Bowl game'

Even though the band was smashed, Reitman said, Springsteen and the band "came out like the Packers going to a Super Bowl game. You had a sense that they were on the cusp and knew already things were going to get huge."

Listening to a recording of the Uptown concert, you can practically hear Springsteen's ascent to superstardom on "Jungleland," bellowing out his poetic verses with heartfelt gusto before retreating near the climax to a mesmerizing whisper. And Clarence Clemons "practically took over the stage" that night, Cullen recalled, his sax solos providing the show-stopping finish for the night's final song, "Quarter to Three."

"Pulling a stocking cap over his eyes, ripping out a guitar duel with a member of his band, jumping offstage and plunging into the audience, Springsteen has a jubilant enthusiasm that goes beyond the usual dreary stage theatrics," Damien Jaques wrote in his review for The Milwaukee Journal.

"The new rock messiah has been found."

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's 'Bomb Scare Show' setlist at the Uptown Theater in Milwaukee

1. "Meeting Across the River"

2. "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out"

3. "Spirit in the Night"

4. "Pretty Flamingo"

5. "She's the One"

6. "Born to Run"

7. "Thunder Road" (last song before the bomb scare)

8. "Little Queenie"

9. "The E Street Shuffle/Havin' a Party"

10. "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City"

11. "Baby It's You"

12. "Jungleland"

13. "Kitty's Back"

14. "Come a Little Bit Closer/Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)"

15. "Detroit Medley"

16. "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)"

17. "Quarter to Three"

Contact Piet at (414) 223-5162 or plevy@journalsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at @pietlevy or Facebook at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: A look back at Bruce Springsteen's famed bomb scare show in Milwaukee