To be fair, both the Stones and the Stones' audience were 30 years younger in 1989. I think Bruce got it right by doing GA floors at his gigs though...it almost forces the people near the stage to be "into it." It's pretty great.
I finally got Tower Theater '75 and Passaic '78 on CDRs and the difference in sound is like night and day. Both are supposedly from multi-tracks, so why does the '75 gig sound so dull and unbalanced (especially in the first part when piano is often drowned in organ)? Hammersmith '75 is supposedly more compressed, yet it blows this one out of water in the sound quality department IMO. Here you need to turn the volume up to hear the details, but it's not a pleasant experience. On the other hand Passaic '78 is, as reported here, great all around and I actually dig it a lot performance-wise. Unlike many Bruce fans I prefer him in a more subdued, pensive mood, without too much shouting and raging, and this gig fits perfectly my preferences. Is there any other show on offer from his vault, especially from the 70s, that would have such a good mix? I can live with an excessive compression (if it is not below DR6), but I want a good mix. Any suggestions?
Tempe 1980 is an excellent mix. What it basically boils down to is that when it comes to mixing, there is Bob Clearmountain, and there's everyone else. On a related note, I was listening to the Rolling Stones Brussels Affair show from 1973 this morning. As I was listening, I said to myself, "damn this is a good mix". Drums and bass real punchy, good ambience, good balance, etc. So I go on Wikipedia to see who mixed it.. Bob Clearmountain
Yes. Passaic had a proffesional mixer and the mastering in nice too. Altschiller's mixes is more like a fan made thing thing in comparrison. But he has gotten better and better. It's the mastering that sucks. Try Roxy '75 and '78 for good mixes. London '81 is nice too once you get past the missing guitar in Born to run
i hope they'll offer the full tempe '80 concert some day, the current situation is a bit awkward. the entire filmed show from the box set is up on springsteen's youtube channel now anyway
My understanding is that it’s a rights issue. Sony owns the Tempe material that appears in TTTB. Nugs is not allowed to duplicate it.
The fan made complete Tempe 80 show is the best live release (so far) of Bruce's career in my opinion.
Tower 75 was an early victim of Toby Scott's incompetence.If Nassau is number 1 candidate to be done again Tower is number 2.
Someone on Backstreets got a reply from Nugs that it was a "warehouse issue".The shipping date was originally given as 7 January.For the last 3 releases they have quoted cd shipping dates 4 weeks after download release whereas for most of the last year it has been 5-6 days.
It’s definitely the best video document of Bruce and the ESB in their peak years. It’s also a killer audio document.
Has anyone posted a suggested top to bottom list of recorded live Bruce concerts, in terms of best to least best, taking sound and performance into account? I have the Passaic, NJ CD-R, the Live In New York City on vinyl, and I'm currently listening to my new vinyl copy of the Hammersmith Odeon concert (on 4LPs). The Passaic has probably been the best combination of performance and sound. The Hammersmith is a little compressed to my liking, and the top end a bit grainy. Well-pressed to vinyl, however, and cut by Chris Bellman. Oh, I also have the Live In Dublin CD set, documenting The Seeger Sessions tour.
Can someone recommend me a good (i.e. not too complex) program for ripping the audio from the Tempe DVD?
There is a poll on Backstreets ranking E St Band Nugs releases.They are a different beast to the official releases so comparisons aren't easy with those although the Nugs release of New York 2000 kills Live In New York City. By the way the top 2 in the poll were Passaic and London 81 and they received more than twice the votes of any other show.The only concerts from the last 30 years in the top 10 were New York 2000 and the 2 Magic shows (St Louis and Boston).
Personal opinion only.The Nugs release is the full show which gives you the pace,breadth and depth of a full show.Live In New York City is a heavily edited and rearranged version which does not do any of that although I loved it until I heard the Nugs release.Also although it is heresy to many here I much prefer Altschillers mix to Clearmountain's mix.Most people on Backstreets did as well.
If we are comparing Nugs releases Tempe is the 10 song release whereas London is a full show.Marginally better sound quality doesn't overcome that.Personally prefer the London set list as well.
Ok. I have full Tempe (Nugs plus dvd audio rip) so my comment is from that perspective. I still think the Tempe sound quality is quite a bit ahead of London. But...I enjoy them both. The River tour had a major evolution from Tempe to London. 2 very different shows. I’m happy to have both of them. Here’s hoping we get one of the July 81 shows from NJ. And maybe even the Vets show.
Plenty of songs that have appeared on Sony releases have been issued on Nugs releases as well. Much of 7/1/2000 or things that were on Live 75/85 and then released as a full show (e.g. a bunch of songs from the Roxy '78 show). Are those technically different because the mix and mastering weren't the same? Here's an easy solution then: instead of Nugs, have Sony issue the full Tempe '80 show on CD. It's pretty much already done, so no real work is needed. I'd gladly buy it.
