BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND : GIANTS STADIUM 2009

 

Disc 1 (74:16)

  1. Wrecking Ball
  2. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
  3. No Surrender
  4. Outlaw Pete
  5. Hungry Heart
  6. Working On A Dream
  7. Intro
  8. Badlands
  9. Adam Raised A Cain
  10. Something in the Night
  11. Candy's Room
  12. Racing in the Street
  13. The Promised Land
  14. Factory

Disc 2 (63:02)

  1. Streets Of Fire
  2. Prove It All Night
  3. Darkness On The Edge Of Town
  4. Waitin' On A Sunny Day
  5. Raise Your Hand
  6. I'm Goin' Down
  7. Be True
  8. Jailhouse Rock
  9. Thunder Road
  10. Long Walk Home
  11. The Rising
  12. Born To Run

Disc 3 (32:43)

  1. Cadillac Ranch
  2. Bobby Jean
  3. American Land
  4. Dancing In The Dark
  5. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)

Disc 4 (60:40)

  1. Wrecking Ball
  2. Out In The Street
  3. Outlaw Pete
  4. Hungry Heart
  5. Working On A Dream
  6. Intro
  7. Born In The U.S.A.
  8. Cover Me
  9. Darlington County
  10. Working On The Highway
  11. Downbound Train
  12. I'm On Fire

Disc 5 (60:50)

  1. No Surrender
  2. Bobby Jean
  3. I'm Goin' Down
  4. Glory Days
  5. Dancin' In The Dark
  6. My Hometown
  7. The Promised Land
  8. Last To Die
  9. Long Walk Home
  10. The Rising
  11. Born To Run

Disc 6 (51:55)

  1. Applause
  2. Raise Your Hand
  3. Jersey Girl
  4. Kitty's Back
  5. Detroit Medley
  6. The American Land
  7. Waitin' On A Sunny Day
  8. Thunder Road

Label : no label

Venue : Giants Stadium, Meadowlands, New Jersey, USA

Recording Date : October 2 & 3, 2009

Quality : Soundboard recording (A+)

Review (Collectors Music Reviews) : The two shows presented here were the second and third shows of a five-night stand at Giants Stadium, the others being on 30 September and 8 and 9 October. The first three discs contain the show of 2 October, which featured a complete performance of Darkness On The Edge Of Town. The complete show, taken from a very good though not outstanding, audience recording appeared as Rocking Down The Giants on the Godfather label. An IEM recording of the complete album portion of the concert has also been released on the CD-R Darkness At Giants Stadium. This appeared as a bonus disc accompanying the Social Graces 2-CD set Innocent And Glory Days. The IEM-sourced performance of Born In The U.S.A. from 3 October occupies the second disc of this set (which features the complete The Wild, The Innocent And The E Street Shuffle from Madison Square Garden on 7 November 7 0n disc 1.) Both these releases have already come under consideration on CMR and readers are directed to my reviews of these titles for comments on the quality of the performance of the full show of 2 October and the Born In The U.S.A. section from 3 October. The October 3 show opens with an excellent rendition of Wrecking Ball, with Curt Ramm's trumpet adding a distinct liveliness to the fast sections and the upbeat mood engendered continues with a vibrant, crowd-pleasing Out In The Street, which appears to contain an earlier-than-usual attempt to get a youngster from the audience to sing a little. A sprightly and enjoyable Outlaw Pete retains its customary place near the beginning of the show and then the audience gets to participate en masse at the start of Hungry Heart. Working On A Dream, which contains the usual house building spiel, brings to a close a good-time opening section to this show, which many will find an appropriate prelude to the complete performance of Born In The U.S.A. After the complete-album section, the show continues with a stirring version of The Promised Land, which is succeeded by tour premiere Last To Die. Dante Cutrona, writing on the Backstreets website, sees Last To Die as part of a powerful closing sequence, stating, "perhaps in a decision to illustrate how far we've really come since 1985, 'Last to Die' received its Working on a Dream tour premiere following 'The Promised Land' and prior to 'Long Walk Home' and 'The Rising,' for a powerful combination reminiscent of the 'five-pack' that closed the main set during 2007 and 2008 on the Magic tour." Tom Cantillon, posting on the Greasy Lake website, argues that, "Long Walk Home is a great addition to the main set, working much better than Lonesome Day or Radio Nowhere." The band then concludes the main set with an exciting Born To Run. Sign-collection number Raise Your Hand kicks off the encores and the final disc of this set. Tom Waits' Jersey Girl is rightly reckoned by Cutrona to be "a perfect selection" for a Saturday night in New Jersey, and he goes on to point out that the lengthy performance of Kitty's Back, with its extensive soloing, "showcased the band in fine form." The two songs earn plaudits from posters on the Greasy Lake site: "killer rendition of Kitty's back" (Vince); "a brilliant Kitty's Back" (Cantillon); "great versions of Jersey Girl and Kitty's Back " (Kevin). As Cantilllon writes, a "hard-stomping Detroit Medley sent the already enthusiastic crowd into a frenzy," and this is followed by a rollicking American Land, which, as usual, sees Springsteen introducing the members of the "legendary" E Street Band. Along with Curt Ramm on trumpet, American Land also features Sessions Band members Art Baron on pennywhistle, Lisa Lowell on backing vocals and Jeremy Chatzky on upright bass. After all the excitement engendered by Kitty's Back and the Detroit Medley, and at the virtual climax of the show, Waitin' On A Sunny Day seems more than a little out of place, but fortunately a splendid Thunder Road redeems the situation at the very close of the show. The concert of 3 October, while extremely enjoyable, is not the equal of the previous night's performance. "There's no doubt this show will rank as one of the best E Street Band concerts in years," writes the Point Blank website of the October 2 show, "immediately reminding us of the great St. Louis concert during the Magic tour. A colossal show." The site rightly ranks the succeeding night's concert a notch lower in the hierarchy, contending that, "it was the night to have fun and perform all the hits, and the whole audience had a great time from the very beginning.It was a solid performance, but like night #1 [30 September], not his greatest concert." As this comment implies, the difference is largely down to the choice of complete-album performance, with the playing of Born In The U.S.A. resulting in what Stan Goldstein, on nj.com. calls "a very good show and a fun show." As when the complete-album performances appeared on disc, these complete versions have attracted extremely positive comments on the sound quality. On the Jungleland website bsfanatic states that, "the mix on this is incedible! I skipped around and listened to a few songs here and there and everything sounds crystal clear!" On the same site catman states that, "the sound is fantastic," and ThundeRoad33 adds that, "I'm currently listening to the October 2nd show and the sound quality is awesome!" On the Stone Pony London message board, Buddhabone's enthusiasm overspills into profanity with the obsevation, "holy fuck!!! They sound great." I noted in my review of Innocent And Glory Days that there was a clearly audible echo to Springsteen's voice at times during the performance of both complete albums, and this problem can be discerned elsewhere now that we have the full shows. I wrote in my previous review that, "I did not find it too distracting; others listeners may." One who does is rick, who states on the BigO website that, "I was at the second show, and wished I was at the first (much prefer Darkness over Born In The USA), so am happy to hear the whole 10/2 show now. I find the echo distracting, though.." Curiously, bobo, posting on the same site reveals that, "I like how you can hear the echo in the quiet sections." The packaging of this release is fairly simple, with just front and back inserts and no booklet. The obverse of the front insert shows Springsteen on stage with partial reproductions of the artwork of Darkness On the Edge Of Town and Born In The U.S.A. behind him to the viewer's right; the reverse carries further onstage shots of Springsteen and other band members. The inner side of the rear insert has an onstage photograph of Springsteen side-by-side with Steve van zandt; the back has track listing and band personnel in white lettering, save for the songs from the albums, which are in red. As with other Lighthouse-related releases the type is small and not easy to read. (The band members' names are smaller than the songs and the details of the instruments they play are tiny.)