BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN : AKRON, OHIO 1996

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN : AKRON, OHIO 1996

Disc One (69:43)

Tom Joad
Atlantic City
Straight Time
Highway 29
Darkness On The Edge Of Town
Murder Incorporated
Nebraska
It's The Little Things That Count
Red Headed Woman
Shut Out The Light
Born In The U.S.A.
Dry Lightning
Reason To Believe

Disc Two (63:12)

Youngstown
Sinaloa Cowboys
The Line
The New Timer
Across The Border
Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street?
This Hard Land
No Surrender
Galveston Bay
The Promised Land

Label : Nugs.net

Venue : E. J. Thomas Performing Art Hall, Akron, Ohio, USA

Recording Date : September 25, 1996

Quality : Soundboard Recording (A+)

Review (Kieran's Thoughts) : For all of its blessings, with the Live Archive Series there is a small matter of concern, especially the longer it goes on. Although Bruce Springsteen’s live legacy will be remembered as one of surprises, excitement and unpredictability – as January’s release of July 24th, 2013 in Cardiff very nicely showcased – there have been many occasions over the decades where he hasn’t diverted too much from his original, core setlist. We can experience this with releases from the revered ’78 Darkness Tour, the 1988 Tunnel of Love Express Tour, and as recently as the shows from the 2023 International Tour, which was of course subject of much discussion over the last year. Releases from the 1995-1997 Ghost of Tom Joad Tour allow us to experience it, too, and this new release from Akron in September 1996 provides us with a new example of Bruce playing the music that had shaped his setlists for the last year. While Joad releases are sparse, the fall of 1996 has been represented better than any other period of the tour, with the three celebratory shows in Freehold and Asbury Park serving as the stand out selections of the six tour releases up to this point. This seventh tour release however sees Bruce playing a setlist more representative of the Joad Tour late into its second year. A setlist not without tweaks and additions to the Archive Series, we can understand why some fans mightn’t care for a show in which twenty of its twenty-three songs feature on other tour releases, especially if this genre of Bruce’s music isn’t their cup of tea. For me, there’s a real satisfaction in listening to these songs and knowing Bruce is simply enjoying the music he’s playing. I’ve said many times in the past how hearing or seeing the joy of Springsteen and the E Street Band onstage can be very infectious on a live audience and consequently Live Downloads listener, and to sense his joy with this quieter music makes for a similar feeling. Of these quieter Joad tracks, this night in Akron saw Bruce play ten of the album’s twelve, which of course means the Archive Series now has additionally fantastic readings of tour highlights such as “Straight Time,” “Highway 29,” “Youngstown” (which is all the more fitting in Ohio), “Sinaloa Cowboys” and “Across the Border.” The latter was the main set finale and for good reason, as it complemented the stark album selections prior with its beauty, its hopefulness and its reminder that there is good in a world that sometimes feels the opposite. It was, once again, preceded by a lovely monologue, too, and I’d dare say it’s one of the best insights into Bruce’s upbringing across his entire career, albeit very unsung on account of where this tour stands against ones he played with the E Street Band. Although I’m writing this review a month after the release of this show, I’d be remiss if I didn’t comment on how it was unearthed shortly after the passing of Adele Springsteen, Bruce’s mam, and how any mention of her or mothers within this show hit differently compared to previous Joad releases. During his “Across the Border” introduction this is very much the case as a result of one simple comment that I can’t recall hearing before. In recalling his youth, he gave Akron a practically perfect tribute in saying of her, “she liked that rock and roll music.” Twenty years later, Bruce would further stress to us the importance of music for the most important and impactful person in his life, and we know it will have been playing for her as “the saints blessing and grace” carried her across the border. Rest well, Adele, thank you. There is another reference to mothers that strikes us greatly upon knowing the above mentioned context at the start of the show, too, and it comes in a song that immediately hit me as an Archive Series essential. Last time out in my Cardiff 2013 review I spoke of the Series’ strong run of form in relation to rarely/never before played songs and that is once again apparent here in his reading of Woody Guthrie’s “Tom Joad.” Having been asked to play a Guthrie tribute concert on the 29th, Bruce readied himself on this night by alternating his tour’s titular track, and in return he gave to Akron – and now those of us fortunate enough to hear it – an absolute stunner of a performance. I can not get enough of this, and it has very quickly landed amongst my personal favourite Archive Series tracks. Where Bruce’s “Tom Joad” is a song inspired by Steinbeck’s novel set in the 1990s drawing comparisons of the day’s poverty to that of the 1930s, Guthrie’s “Tom Joad” retells John Steinbeck’s novel, and ultimately Bruce’s reading wouldn’t just have Akron in the palm of his hand. With a strong, clear vocal, but one that also soothed like the syrup they gave to Grandpa Joad, this performance was instantly captivating in the E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall, but as it went on there were several flashes of urgency sung with such gravel and such fire to keep everyone on their toes – us listening, too. This show featured plenty of quiet music, but upon hearing Bruce sing lines such as “that truck rolled away in a cloud of dust,” “now the deputies come, Tom and Casey they did run…” and “Tom Joad he did grab that deputies club and hit him right over the head,” you can feel a spark of the same electricity he’d be bringing to E Street Band shows three-four years down the road. While those lines sung with a burst of energy stand out most to me, Bruce also compelled in Akron with his picturesque line readings; from the simple “they had a little drink” and dazzling “Tom Joad took flight in the dark rainy night,” to the sorrowful way he sung the final line of each verse – all the while playing rapid, purposeful guitar – but as mentioned above, it’s very arguably the tender, beautiful declaration of “He kissed goodbye to the mother that he loved” that stands out to all of us, before he sung the final two verses that capture the words from John Steinbeck’s novel and John Ford’s film that inspired him most for the project that was The Ghost of Tom Joad: “Ever’body might be just one big soul Well it looks that a way to me. Everywhere that you look in the day or night That’s where I’m gonna be, Ma, That’s where I’m gonna be. Wherever little children are hungry and cry Wherever people ain’t free. Wherever men are fightin’ for their rights That’s where I’m gonna be, Ma. That’s where I’m a gonna be.” After listening to this performance, you’ll likely want to read Steinbeck’s novel, watch Ford’s film, replay this song, or do all three! While “Tom Joad” stands out as the highlight of the show and finds itself in the upper echelon of songs unearthed by the Archive Series, it isn’t the only Series debut or gem featured here. Akron also saw a fine selection of back catalogue favourites in addition to unreleased songs shape the remainder of the show, with a brooding “Atlantic City” following “Joad” to contrast the hope of the final verse with a strong sense of despair, and Bruce didn’t relent, further suffocating his audience with “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” “Murder Incorporated” and “Nebraska,” with the 1982 LP title track complementing my comments about “The New Timer” in my Upper Darby 1995 review because of Bruce’s clear “New Timer” harmonies at the start of the song. In February 2022 I said that the Upper Darby version of “Timer” can serve as a sequel to “Nebraska” on the Belfast 1996 release, but with the Joad gem also featuring in this show, there’s a direct parallel we don’t have to look too far to find. For all of its despondency, Bruce also brought some relief to Akron in the shape of “It’s the Little Things That Count” and “Red Headed Woman,” before concluding the first half of the show with more bleakness through “Shut Out the Light” and “Born in the U.S.A.” to highlight the horrors of Vietnam and the horrors of home for those who hardly survived. The second half was dominated by six of the show’s Joad selections, with a menacing “Reason to Believe” in between “Dry Lightning” and “Youngstown” early on, similar in a sense to “Tom Joad” with Bruce for the most part quiet in his vocal, until he stunned with eerie falsetto and an erratic harmonica finale. With the exception of “Across the Border” and its promise, it wouldn’t be until the encore where Bruce gave Akron another moment of relief, bursting into a spirited “Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?” to set the tone for a lighthearted finale – although he rebukes a fan’s shout for “Thunder Road” by making it clear “I ain’t gonna play that old warhorse!” – which included a typically gorgeous “This Hard Land” and a “No Surrender” that, if it wasn’t for “Tom Joad” I’d be telling you is my highlight of the show right now. After a laughed off mix-up at the start of the song, Bruce delivered a truly lovely reading of a song we’re currently very used to hearing played with a lot of force. That force was replaced by pure endearment here, with magically delivered “li li li” harmonies the purest and finest example. Twenty songs in this show we may have heard on Joad releases prior, but the fact that two of three we haven’t stand out so much is a reason to never take Archive Series releases for granted.