Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band did a full dress rehearsal Monday and Tuesday in front of 3,000 fans each night at Convention Hall in Asbury Park, N.J.  

 Sitting in on drums for several songs was Jay Weinberg, 18, who apparently will replace his dad, Max, when “Tonight Show” duties call (yes, Conan and Max are moving to a new show and a new coast if you haven’t heard). Also new are backup singers Cindy Mizelle and Curtis King, who toured with Springsteen as part of the Seeger Sessions band.

Springsteen’s tour starts April 1 in San Jose, with a visit to  the X in St. Paul on May 11 with Mighty Max on drums.

So now I see why M. Ward comes to South by Southwest almost every year: He rents a sweet little house in a quiet and picturesque corner of South Austin, where I interviewed him Thursday morning. This year is his biggest yet, and he said he’s having a blast so far. After not touring for a while, and then touring just for a little with She & Him, Ward said, “I have sort of rediscovered the joys of performing again.” One of the ways he keeps it enjoyable, he said, is by mixing solo shows with full-band sets. The latter is what he played Thursday night on Auditorium Shores downtown, where shows are free and open to everyone. Thus, probably 7,000-8,000 people were there. And Ward wasn’t just going through the motions when he said, “Austin, Texas, how’s it going?” because there really were a lot of Austinites there (you can tell them by the fact that they don’t think they’re too cool to wear shorts on an 80-degree day). With the openers “Chinese Translation,” “Requiem” and “To Save Me,” the band showed off a punchy, rollicking, “Highway 61 Revisited” charm that was irresistable. Minnesotans can see Ward and the band April 25 at First Avenue (and look for my interview to run that weekend).

As was promised when the first four albums were reissued in April, the latter four albums in the Replacements discography are set to be reissued with bonus tracks galore. Rhino Records has just announced a Sept. 23 release date, and it included a list of the extras on each album.

Coincidentally or not, Sept. 23 is also the date Rhino is issuing “Stay Golden: The Best of Golden Smog,” which includes a couple unreleased tracks (a cover of Brian Wilson’s “Love and Mercy” and demo of “Until You Came Along). Click here to read about that. 

Here’s a list of the ‘Mats bonus tracks:

Tim: Can’t Hardly Wait (acoustic demo, Alex Chilton session) / Nowhere Is My Home (Alex C produced outtake) / Can’t Hardly Wait (electric demo, also w/ Alex C) / Kiss Me on the Bus (alt) / Waitress in the Sky (alt) / Here Comes a Regular (alt)

Pleased to Meet Me: Birthday Girl (demo) / Valentine (demo) / Bundle Up (demo) / Photo (demo) / Election Day / Alex Chilton (alt) / Kickin’ It In (demo) / Route 66 / Tossin’ ‘N Turnin’ / Can’t Hardly Wait (alt) / Cool Water

Don’t Tell a Soul: Portland / Wake Up / Cruella DeVille / Talent Show (demo) / We’ll Inhert the Earth (mix #1) / Date to Church / We Know the Night

All Shook Down: When It Began / Nobody / One Wink at a Time / Torture / Attitude Happy Town (all demos) / Tiny Paper Plane / Sadly Beautiful (demo) / Kissin’ in Action / Ought to Get Love / Satellite

Only about a fourth of those tracks appeared on the “All for Nothing/Nothing for All” two-disc compliation, so there’s enough there to interest the diehards. “Nowhere Is My Home” is one of my personal favorite outtakes, as is “Satellite,” our first clue that Tommy was due to front his own band soon. I’m really interested in hearing all the “All Shook Down” demos, which (if memory/legend serves) back then were supposed to amount to Westerberg’s first solo album. Let’s go ahead and call it a travesty that “All He Wants to Do Is Fish” didn’t get included.   

Old-school metal fans will be hitting Myth nightclub in Maplewood on consecutive weekends in early August, and they might have to bust the bank to get there: The Scorpions have already announced an Aug. 8 Myth date (tickets are already on sale for $48), their first metro area gig in many years. Now Judas Priest will be there Aug. 2, with Metal Church as openers. Those tickets go on sale tomorrow (Sat) for $49. Funny how neither show breaks the $50 mark, as if $1-$2 lessens the blow. Ah well, they’d probably cost even more at an arena. And who didn’t like the Crue’s Myth show over their two at Target Center that followed? I thought Priest were pretty dull and uninspired their last time here at Xcel Center, so I gotta say I’m more excited about the Scorps.

The mainfloor was packed on Saturday (and the upper level closed off by curtains) for this German cult fave. It was Kraftwerk’s first local appearance since 1975. My friend Tim said he was disappointed that they didn’t play “Pocket Calculator.”

Here’s what they did play:

1 MAN MACHINE 2 PLANET OF VISIONS 3 NUMBERS 4 COMPUTERWORLD 5 TOUR DE FRANCE 6 VITAMIN 7 AUTOBAHN 8 COMPUTERLOVE 9 MODEL 10 Neonlicht11 SHOWROOMDUMMIES 12 RADIOACTIVITY 13 Trans Europa Express  ENCORE 14 ROBOTS 15 Elektrokardiogramm 16 Aerodynamik 17 MUSIK NON STOP

 What did you think of the show? Please post your comment here:

Not sure if it was another instance of him trying to be cute or a real slip of the tongue, but Stephen Malkmus commented how great it was “to be back at Third Avenue” last night (he was performing at First Avenue, of course). If it was a slip-up, then it was just one of many in the rather sloppy and haphazard set. That’s nothing new from the former Pavement frontman, whose old band I saw perform five times, and only one of those gigs I’d actually qualify as “good” (but nothing stronger adjective-wise). The couple of post-Pavement gigs I’ve seen him play with his band the Jicks weren’t any better.

I had higher hopes for Wednesday’s gig, though, considering his new album “Real Emotional Trash” is a real winner, and he has a rock-solid new drummer in his band now, Janet Weiss (ex-Sleater-Kinney). But it was more of the same. “Pencil Rot” had to be started over. He also botched the opening riff of “Baby C’Mon.” And several songs were just plain stagnant. There were some charming moments, though. The crowd helped turn “Baby C’Mon” around, singing the title hook each time. A couple of the new songs were tight and strong, too, including “Elmo Delmo” and especially the title track, which the band turned into a bursting jam.

What did you think of the show? Has the charm worn off on Malkmus’s fumbling rock? Or is the fact that he’s not Yes or ELP the point?