BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN : IN CONCERT / MTV UNPLUGGED

  1. Red Headed Woman
  2. Better Days
  3. Local Hero
  4. Atlantic City
  5. Darkness On The Edge Of Town
  6. Man's Job
  7. Growin' Up
  8. Human Touch
  9. Lucky Town
  10. I Wish I Were Blind
  11. Thunder Road
  12. Light Of Day
  13. The Big Muddy
  14. 57 Channels (And Nothin' On)
  15. My Beautiful Reward
  16. Glory Days
    Bonus :
  17. Living Proof
  18. If I Should Fall Behind
  19. Roll Of The Dice

Label : Columbia

Venue : Warner Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Recording Date : September 22, 1992

Release Date : November 9, 2004

Length : 120 minutes

NTSC : 4:3

Review (AllMusic) : In Concert/MTV Unplugged, Bruce Springsteen's second home video (following 1989's Video Anthology/1978-88), presents the television concert that was broadcast on MTV on November 11, 1992, with an additional two performances, "Living Proof" and "If I Should Fall Behind," not seen on TV. Springsteen begins alone with an acoustic guitar, singing the risqué, previously unheard "Red Headed Woman," and having warmed up the crowd dispenses with the "unplugged" nature of the show to introduce his band. (He does, however, return to an acoustic format periodically, performing the old favorites "Growin' Up" and "Thunder Road" with spare accompaniment.) This group, organized to back Springsteen on his Human Touch/Lucky Town tour, includes only keyboard player Roy Bittan (plus, on "Human Touch," Patti Scialfa) from the E Street Band, and it differs in instrumentation from that outfit by eliminating one of the keyboard players and the saxophonist, while adding no less than five backup singers. The vocalists, who come and go throughout the show, add a gospel tone to some of the material, and smooth-voiced tenor Bobby King in particular is a strong vocal foil on "Man's Job." While the musicians don't have the legacy with Springsteen that the E Street Band did, they prove to have some chemistry of their own with him. Eleven of the 18 songs are drawn from the disappointing Human Touch and Lucky Town albums, but the performances of such selections as "My Beautiful Reward" and "If I Should Fall Behind" help redeem those discs. Oldies like "Darkness on the Edge of Town" and "Glory Days" remain effective, meanwhile, and the climax of the show comes with "Light of Day," a song written for a 1987 film of the same name. The pacing and sequencing of the concert (presumably designed to accommodate commercial breaks that are no longer included) sometimes leave something to be desired, and it would have been better for the home video to have presented the complete show in actual performance order. As it is, this is not the great Springsteen concert fans have been waiting to see on video, even if it is often a very good one.

Review (Wikipedia) : In Concert/MTV Plugged is a 1992 concert video and 1993 live album by Bruce Springsteen. It is part of MTV's Unplugged series, recorded on September 22, 1992 at the Warner Hollywood Studios in Los Angeles near the start of Springsteen's tour for Human Touch and Lucky Town. The concert originally aired on MTV on November 11, 1992 with a one-hour Springsteen documentary beforehand. Springsteen played one song, the previously unreleased "Red Headed Woman", solo on acoustic guitar, then he and his hired band (this was during the time the E Street Band was dissolved, although members Roy Bittan and Patti Scialfa continued to perform with Springsteen) used amplified instruments the rest of the show; hence, the concert was called MTV Plugged (sometimes written XXPlugged after the album cover art). Reportedly Springsteen had been unhappy with the touring band's rehearsals of acoustic arrangements, and this is what led him to break the Unplugged format. Commercially the album was certified Gold in the US. A VHS and Laserdisc release of the show preceded any audio release, coming on December 15, 1992 and running 120 minutes. More songs were present here than on the later audio incarnation and on what actually aired on MTV. On November 9, 2004, a DVD reissuing of this performance was released.