
After a brief spate of California shows this month to lead up to its appearance at the Bonnaroo Music Festival, Buffalo Springfield will indeed tour more extensively in the fall.
“There will be a fall tour — September, October, November,” the group’s Richie Furay told Billboard.com during a conference call to promote the Bonnaroo appearance. “We have a bunch of cities for the fall that we’re looking at right now to just logically put together.”
Furay, Neil Young and Stephen Stills — who reunited for the first time in 42 years to play the Bridge School Benefit Concerts last October — opened with two shows at the Fox Theatre in Oakland, Calif., on June 1-2 and will play in Los Angeles (June 4-5) and Santa Barbara (June 7-8) before the June 11 stop at Bonnaroo. The set list features all Springfield songs — including the first-ever band performances of “Broken Arrow” — plus a final encore of Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World,” and Furay reports that all three of the group’s founders are pleased with the way things are going so far.
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“When we did that (Bridge School) show, there was so much electricity between us and among us, and the shows came off so well we decided we need to probably take this out a little more,” Furay said. “I’m just enjoying hanging out with the guys and reconnecting with them after all these years. How many groups do you know after 44 years could really get back together and make music and still have it become so alive, like it has been to us. I know it’s inspiring to Neil, and I know it’s inspiring to Stephen as well. We’re just having a great time.”
A vinyl box set of the group’s three albums, titled “Buffalo Springfield Complete,” is due out soon, and Furay said the group is recording all of the shows, although an eventual live album “is anybody’s guess.” So is the prospect of some new Springfield material, but Furay doesn’t rule it out.
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“I’ve learned never say never,” he said. “Right now our focus has been on, ‘OK, let’s get the foundation.’ If we don’t have the foundation, then there’s nothing to build from. So I would think as we’re projecting and looking towards the fall, doing another tour, certainly new songs, collaborations…It’s all possible.”
Furay added that the Bonnaroo booking was responsible for the group’s six California dates. “I think Bonnaroo is probably the most significant music festival in the country,” he noted. “I think it was just a great platform for us to be able to come out and be part of. We wanted to kind of have some shows together and under our belt before we actually went to Bonnaroo. We wanted to be in good form when we hit Bonnaroo — actually, we were in good form when we hit the Fox stage the other night.”