Peak "Backstreets" is somewhere around the last week of February 1977 (St. Louis?) or the first week of March (Miami?). The '78 performances are good, but fundamentally different; they are not quite as focused or intense. 9/19/78 is fine. You really need to get 2/7/77 or 2/8/77 -- even though, as rusty tour leg openers, they are not quite as good as what would follow about three weeks later.
Appreciate everyone’s help with recommendations. I had a hard time narrowing it down, but I ordered two. 12/12/75 Greenvale, NY because god help me, I still love ‘75. I was pretty tempted by the second Hammersmith show too. I’ll probably end up coming back for anything ‘75 eventually, as time and money allow. I also picked up the 6/5/81 Wembley show. I knew I wanted to get an early ‘80s The River era type show, but there are a bunch available and they all looked interesting, so your recommendations really helped here. This show was mentioned several times, so I went with it. On 1978: The only reason I didn’t grab a ‘78 is because I already have The Agora show. But with how well regarded the ‘78 tour is, and how much I love Darkness… I will probably end up grabbing all these eventually… so long as the muse holds out! There are a number of shows on the shortlist for the near future. The ‘99 LA show was in my cart at one point. I really want to check out a reunion tour show. Also that ‘88 show from the satellite broadcast was pretty tempting. I’d like to spread things out initially before going back to fill in some holes, so I might even do one of the Joad tour shows. This goes against all the stuff I mentioned in my initial post, but I was pretty tempted by that 2009 (I think) show where they played the entire WIESS album… anyone have an opinions on that one? Again, thanks for the help, y’all!
If you are looking for more recent performances of the WIESS era songs then I'd go for an autumn 2016 show such as august 30th or September 7th. Both terrific shows. 88 shows followed a more stable set list and general feel. Stockholm has as much to recommend it as any of them. The solo shoes have some great stuff. Joad very different to the 2005 shows, pick one of each maybe based on songs played.
Thanks for this! I’ll check out those 2016 shows too. Not having dug into the archive releases before, the albums are my real touchstones with Bruce. I’m only 35, so a lot of these albums are older than me, or I was too young to appreciate them when they came out. Devils and Dust is one of the first albums that I was able to buy on release day. It wasn’t an E Street record, obviously. But I spent a lot of time with that one, and grew to really enjoy it. So for that reason, I’d definitely go with a 2005 show! Same goes for Magic, which I thought, and still think is a pretty great record.
for historical reason alone, the 2009 performance with Clarence, and the album in sequence, is well worth getting. stellar gig, too.
The '77 versions of Backstreets/Sad Eyes are certainly intense, but give me the first Winterland show version as by that point, Sad Eyes was practically a fleshed out song, where everything felt just right in Bruce's delivery and the way the tension built. It reminded me of the Main Point 75 version of NYC Serenade, where Bruce's ramblings sounded tight and focused. Not gonna disagree with your assessments as August 30th was perhaps the single greatest concert I've ever attended. But "autumn"?? That day as I recall was hot af (high 80s / low 90s) and it felt every bit like summer was giving us (and Bruce) one last hurrah. Autumn was lurking around the corner to be sure. The calendar told us as much. But for just one day, with the heat and the incredibly generous setlist played (the show went on for just over four hours - his longest ever show in the US to that point), it felt like Bruce was doing everything in his power to hold onto summer for as long as humanly possible.
Just wanted to say, if you think the latest one is another boring solo acoustic release, you're dead wrong. There are superb performances of the standards from this tour, but the encores are something else again. I don't think I ever heard such a carefree and joyful Rosalita.
Some of us just aren't especially interested in solo acoustic stuff. I find those Bruce shows entertaining enough in person but not material I'd listen to outside of the live setting. Same as the Broadway show. Enjoyed it when I attended, have no real desire to experience it again via CD or Blu-ray...
I totally get that. I'm the opposite. I love pretty much all the acoustic shows. Joad or DD is great and I buy each one. I don't get any of the others. Long shows with little variation past 2001. I love modern Bruce, but for whatever other reasons just keep going back to the story telling vibe of those records. That said; I have to just edit out Red Headed Woman on these 95-96 shows. I just can't take it anymore.
And that's cool! I just never have much cared for acoustic solo music period - it's a very tough sell for me. Outside of Bruce, not even sure who I'd pay to see in that environment. Maybe acoustic band performances, but one person with a guitar/piano/whatever? Just not my thing. I'm sure I would've seen Bowie in that setting if he'd done it - I'd have paid to see Bowie stare at the floor for 2 hours - and almost certainly McCartney, but boy, that might be it. Oh, maybe Gaga too!
With Springsteen shows the solo Tom Joad and Devils and Dust shows are the only ones after 1981 I've heard that I've liked much.
I liked the D&D tour. I thought he played and sang really well, and gave us interesting arrangements that we might not have thought of. (The bullet mic sucked, though). For much of the Joad tour (I went to 8 or 9 shows) it felt like we were watching him practise.
Understood. Watched Broadway once and no inclination to revisit, but I play the acoustic shows these days more than the electric, I guess. And what makes the latest one so special are the acoustic band songs in the encore.
Yes, this has been stated once or twice before. We get it. I welcome those who comment on the actual performances of recent archive releases. Although they are outnumbered about 20:1, I think it was the true intent of this thread all along. To add my take, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this show on a long car trip recently. Great energy and the classic songs really shine. Not to mention Tougher Than The Rest and Straight Time are probably the best acoustic versions I’ve heard.
I emailed Nugs about the gap in my copy (CD) and they are sending me another - whether it too has the 2 second gap remains to be seen.
The comment to which I replied advocated the album as not "another boring solo acoustic release", so I replied that while this might be accurate, it didn't matter to some of us. I didn't simply drop in my comment out of nowhere.
Its sadly not part of the archives, but I also recommend the Backstreets from 3/25/77 in Boston. It's floating around from the original AUD master tapes by Steve Hopkins. It's a fantastic version and then has a mid-song story break which builds to an incredible crescendo.
Forced to Confess was the first bootleg cd of the 25 march 1977 show. The Boston Godfather, a boxset with All the 1977 Boston shows has a significant better sound.