You Can’t Always Call Bruce a Sellout

“Seats Still Available for Bruce Springsteen’s Anaheim Concert.”

OK, so it’s not exactly “Victory in Europe” or “Man Walks on Moon” as far as headlines go. And the seats are small in number (just a few for the second of two shows, May 21 and 22, at the Arrowhead Pond) and not exactly prime (behind the stage).

To veteran rock fans, though, it’s still news that the tour reuniting Springsteen with the E Street Band--the most anticipated and effusively praised trek of recent years--has any unsold tickets for a concert.

Well, what would they make of this news of March ticket sales reports from concert trade magazine Pollstar?

About 4,000 tickets were unsold in a two-night stint March 9 and 10 at the 19,000-seat National Car Rental Center in Sunrise, Fla., and about 3,500 empty seats on March 19 at the 17,000-capacity New Orleans Arena.

But the real shocker was March 14 at the Alltel Arena in North Little Rock, Ark., where only 7,025 out of 17,649 seats were filled. That’s just 39% of the tickets that were put on sale.

Is the Boss slipping?

“There will always be pockets where any act won’t sell out,” says Gary Bongiovanni, Pollstar’s editor in chief, shrugging off any implication that Springsteen is losing his drawing power. Indeed, most dates on this leg of the tour have sold out.

“There’s no doubt about it, Little Rock is no L.A. for Bruce,” a Springsteen publicist at Brooklyn-based Shore Fire Media says. “But the people who were there said the show was great.”

It might not help, though, that Springsteen’s tour comes without any new music to propel it on radio. And with the tour’s first U.S. run (including four sold-out nights at Staples Center in October) having generated tremendous amounts of coverage, this second swing has received less press attention.

“Bruce is touring without benefit of a record and is relying on classic-rock radio airplay at this point,” Bongiovanni says.

John Scher, president of concert promotions firm Metropolitan Entertainment, which covers New York and Springsteen’s New Jersey home turf, agrees that the lack of a new album could be a contributing factor, and notes that the Rolling Stones always have new music before they tour. He also cites the novelty factor of a return to action, which fueled recent box-offices smashes for Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles.

But even at an act’s peak intensity, Bongiovanni says, it’s not unusual for some shows to prove weak sellers.

“On the [mid-’80s] ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ tour, when Bruce was as big as an act can be, he went to Birmingham, Ala., and didn’t sell out an arena.”

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TO THE MAX: With his “Yellow Submarine” and Woodstock designs, Peter Max was the official artist of the psychedelic ‘60s. But when he starts releasing CDs anthologizing the music that has inspired him, don’t expect it to be all Beatles and Jimi Hendrix.

In fact, Max says he was just as musically turned on by Woodstock ’99 as he was in ’69.

“I was backstage when they had Limp Bizkit--right in front of me, 200,000 kids jumping up and down,” says the New York-based painter. “It was wild. And I loved when Rage [Against the Machine] came out. And when I heard [rapper] DMX on stage I was amazed.”

Of course, the projected eight-volume series--with the first release due in September from the compilation-oriented label M2, which is now part of the SFX music conglomerate--will feature a lot of classic rock. Max is currently culling from thousands of candidates, but expects such artists as Eric Clapton, Hendrix, Neil Young, the Band and Fleetwood Mac to be prominent presences. But he also hopes to be able to highlight offbeat and new acts that have given audio support to his visual work.

His latest musical passion? Mindless Self Indulgence, a decidedly out-there act whose debut album--which to Max has a stylistic range running from Rage to Queen--was just released by Elektra Records.

“I was searching for things for the CDs and was at a listening station in a record store,” he says. “I was jumping and singing and had to look around to see if anyone was watching me. Since then I’ve bought 17 copies of the CD for friends.”

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WOLF HUNT: Having spent most of last year working on great quantities of new music via a group album and several solo and side projects, the members of Los Lobos are now at work on an old album. The band is preparing a reissue, through Hollywood Records, of its long-unavailable 1973 self-released debut, “Just Another Band From East L.A.,” a collection of mostly traditional Mexican material.

Plans are for a bonus disc to be included that will feature “Mexicano Americano,” a cultural anthem that’s been part of their live shows for years, and a newly mixed version of “Cumbia Raza,” which was on the group’s 1999 album “This Time.”

Los Lobos, which is the grand marshal (and a performer) at Fiesta Broadway in downtown L.A. next Sunday, is also working on a boxed set that could be out before the end of the year. Planned as a four-CD release, the collection will include, says manager Tim Bernet, “a complete cross section of everything they’ve done, plus various selections from side projects, soundtracks and what I’d guess we’d call rarities.”

The group will be touring heavily this summer. On a side-project note, David Hidalgo and former Canned Heat member Mike Halby, who as a duo released a haunting album last year under the name Hound Dog, will appear June 22 at a special Carnegie Hall re-creation of the famed late ‘30s concert series “From Spirituals to Swing.”