When Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band started performing requests at its 2009 Erwin Center blow-out, fans frenzied. With the South by Southwest Music conference announcing this morning that Jersey’s favorite son will be its 2012 keynote speaker, local die-hards now have three-plus months to work themselves into a similar state, myself included!

Here’s:

A live review of the Erwin Center sell-out.

Immersion into last fall’s Darkness on the Edge of Town box set.

And an extensive Q&A with Springsteen’s longtime pianist Roy Bittan.

This article appears in November 25 • 2011.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.