In an interview with Nugs' Brad Serling early into Springsteen's live archive series (probably 2014 or 2015), Brad stated that the most popular bootlegs also happened to be the best selling archive releases. The final night in LA in '99 was one of the best audience captures of the tour (it was originally released on Crystal Cat's Los Angeles Night bootleg) and was subsequently mixed with multiple in-ear-monitor sources for a rather impressive (at least from a sound quality and mix standpoint) document of the tour called Prodigal Son in the City of Angels. On the Backstreets forum several years ago, fans voted for their all-time favorite Springsteen bootlegs and the LA '99 IEM/audience matrix somehow managed to place in the top 4 so, as long as they had a usable professional recording of it, this was always going to be a show in consideration for release. But in terms of performance, it's not hard to find superior examples from the tour - particularly several of the spring and early summer 2000 gigs.
The vocal intro before Take em as they come is so bad. Jesus, don't they warm up their voices before the show?
This is the first and last post reunion show I will ever buy. The soundmix is muddy and drum heavy and the guitars are embarrisingly low. Altschiller mixes on the 70s shows are miles better than this thankfully. But why the inconsistent approach?
I can't. It's endless. On a related note, the Mary's Place "I'm gonna build a house" thing is like getting beaten with a bag of oranges.
The ministry, the majesty yada yada yada. People say he stopped having a mid-show break. I certainly didn't!
I certainly get what he's doing; it's in the spirit of the great showmen like James Brown. Personally, my patience level for that sort of shtick is pretty low. For the one-time concert attendees in the room that night, I'm sure it's entertaining. But for repeat listening, it's pretty close to intolerable.
I don't mind a little bit of showbiz schtick. He just goes on waaayyy too long. On the reunion tour I remember going out for a beer during 10th Ave. The line was pretty long. When we got back into the arena, he was still yammering away. Too much.
The majority of people at an arena show are one-time attendees, even for Springsteen. I think, in general, he does a great job of servicing repeat fans (and enjoys that part, since it keeps things fresh), but he's still playing every show as if it's the only time everyone is going to see it, which I don't think is a bad philosophy, even if I generally agree about the schtick. But as you said, he's from the James Brown school of performance, and it's just part of the deal. He's also not factoring in people listening to bootlegs of the show 20 years later when he's onstage, which is another thing to consider. A lot of elements of a concert make sense in the room, and don't really work on tape, or are just "you had to be there" things.
FWIW, I feel like most of this has subsided post-Rising and "Mary's Place." There was the intros and speech before "My City Of Ruins" on the Wrecking Ball tour but that was a nice moment, and didn't feel that long, and the spiel before "Livin' In The Future" on the Magic tour, which also wasn't too bad. But I don't recall any Reunion-"10th Ave" or "Mary's Place"-length diversions on subsequent tours, although I might be forgetting something.
Slightly different angle, but doing Point Blank in stadium shows also made for a well timed mid-show break.
I finally bought it and found I couldn't get past Darkness, through Darkness actually (the twang didn't bother me on the boots of it); it was kind of boring me before that though; and then I tried Youngstown, which I love so much and a song the twang sounds fine on, to open the second CD-R I burned, and the sound's not terrible but no excitement there for me this time, the mix; I went and listened to the Prodigal Son In The City of Angels version of it to compare and it's way better, vastly more exciting to me. Thew out $12.95. I'll know better next time. I sure wish Clearmountain was doing these and had been from the start. (I do like how Passaic and the two Nassau shows sounded, those are excellent, and the Chicago reunion show sounded much better than this one). ah well...
I was about to post the same thing. I recognize that the sound is a bit clearer on the Archive release, but the palpable excitement of Prodigal Son is missing. Perhaps I've gotten so used to associating a certain level of distortion with arena shows that if a live release doesn't include it, it doesn't feel live to me. And Prodigal Son is one of the best sounding boots around - I assumed for years that it may have been professionally mixed for release at some point. Among other things, the bass seems much more compelling, but maybe that's just the brickwalling that more sophisticated ears complain of here. So perhaps the most popular boots also make for the most successful Archive releases. (If so, you'd surely expect more pre-78 Archive releases than we've seen.) But with this one, as with the Agora 78 show, I'd rather hear the boots (though I don't mind paying the Archive for a legit copy, as I've been enjoying it for many years without paying the artist).
I can't remember if it was Prodigal Son himself posting, but there were definitely comments on the old SPL board back in the day that he had access to studio time and was able to use "industry standard" equipment for some of his work.
My brother, a pretty fair guitar player, says he likes the E Street Band, and Bruce's arrangements, but "As soon as he opens his mouth, I'm done".
I agree with the comment about how he plays for one time attendees, which make sense. But if he’s going to play Sunny Day, please keep it as an audience sing a long like Hungry Heart. The crap shoot of bringing audience members on stage, whether they’re kids or inebriated (no difference, really), is painful to listen to.
I would have no problem if Sunny Day was omitted from future concert releases for creative and/or technical reasons. Completists/collectors would probably have a problem with that approach, but it is a nauseating live track.
And let’s not go near the 23 minute Twist And Shout on LA 1985.The skip function was invented for stuff like this.
Agree.The kid sing alongs belong in a day care centre not a Springsteen concert.Corny beyond belief. Even if I am poisoned against the song by these versions I quite like the take on Apollo 2012.Hint-no singalong.
