Lion’s Den!
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
I never thought I'd hear this one outside of listening to it on my copy of Tracks, so I was severely geeked to see (well, virtually anyway) Bruce Springsteen pull out "Lion's Den" last night at the first MSG show. Now that they appear to have worked up a nice arrangement for the band, I would be perfectly okay if they should decide to air it out again at the Cleveland show on April 17th.
Wow! Enjoy the moment for yourself here below.
Props to Clark Kent for the excellent filming on this one....Superman, indeed.
Blogness has the complete setlist here.
moreBruce Springsteen Vs. Your Wife
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
Yesterday's announcement of Springsteen tour dates puts some people in an interesting position. I'm definitely a lock for Cleveland on April 17th, Buffalo looks possible and talking with my good buddy Tony, we agreed that should any tour dates materialize later for Columbus and Cincinnati, it's very likely that we'll be in the house.
Plans like these can cause tension on the homefront, as this humorous video demonstrates below. Don't worry - there's equal time for both sides with a "husband" version here too.
moreSpringsteen at Winterland
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
Every now and then, someone will leave a comment here that for one reason or another, fails to post in the comments of the actual post. A gent named "Mark" left a comment on my post of Bruce Springsteen's classic Agora show, which as you can imagine remains as one of the most popular posts on this site.
Mark writes:
Wow, add me to the last of many who used to have this one on an old cassette tape (or two) and can no longer play it. Outstanding. I listened to a few of these old gems tonight and had the biggest grin on my face after hearing these for the first time in years.
Now if I can replace my Bruce Winterland concert from about the same time - he did a fantastic version of 'Santa Claus', then my collection will be complete again.
Thanks so much.
I tried to email Mark, but there was apparently some sort of glitch with his email address (which looked legit), so I thought I'd throw this post up for Mark and anybody else that might be on the hunt for that classic Winterland show. You can grab it here, thanks to Dr. Forrester and the Just Add Cones website.
Enjoy!
moreBlack (Vinyl) Friday
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
So, did everybody have fun picking up one or more of the Record Store Day exclusive releases for Black Friday today? I hadn't planned to do much, but then I remembered that there was an exclusive release from U2, an exclusive 7" from Tom Petty and oh yeah, an exclusive 7" from that Bruce Springsteen guy.
Well, the U2 ended up being a hotter item than I would have expected. Shut out. Still looking for one. HELP?
An early call on my cell phone brought me vinyl pal Stacy to let me know that she had a copy of the Bruce in her hands...and did I want it? Yes indeed. Score!
As for my own pickups, I grabbed the exclusive 7" release from the Gaslight Anthem for Brian and a copy of the Tom Petty 7" (which means that I now have a copy of "Surrender" for the jukebox if I ever get around to getting one). The Petty is a numbered limited edition and the copy that I got is #9 in the series. Awesome!
My personal score of the day had nothing to do with vinyl and instead, it was a used copy of Fresh Out Of Georgia Live Like A Satellite, the import only live DVD (PAL format) from Dan Baird & Homemade Sin. 8 bucks. Sweet! (Huge amounts of credit go to Kevin for hooking me up with a CD copy of the same show a year or so ago.)
I'd love to pull the trigger on a copy of the new All Things Must Pass vinyl reissue but I wasn't feeling like making a $50 impulse purchase today. Yep, I was good for once instead of bad. It happens every now and then.
I love these exclusive releases and although occasionally I feel like some of them could be priced a bit more reasonably, the end result is good: People are buying music instead of stealing it bringing some much needed support to both indie record stores and the record industry. And we all end up with something new and cool to listen to that we didn't have before. That's alright with me.
moreEnjoy The Darkness
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
Now that I've had almost a week to soak up selected contents (I still don't have my copy yet) from the new Springsteen box set, I'm very happy to say that this set was more than worth the wait. This past weekend, we had a really nice time at The Winchester with Springsteen author Lawrence Kirsch in town with his buddy, Springsteen fan photographer Rocco Coviello. I spent a good solid 4 1/2 hours on Friday night with Lawrence and Rocco at Zocalo, nerding out about a ton of different bands and artists (not just Springsteen!).
Saturday night, we convened for our scheduled get-together at The Winchester where we dove into the contents of the box set, viewing the "house cut" of Houston '78 on the big screen for the first time*.
(* = I cheated a little bit by watching the Houston show on Tuesday night with John "Radio" Hannibal on his beautiful 55" Sony television amidst a stormy night in Cleveland.)
For me, the Houston show is the jewel of the set, a true treasure to watch - three hours of live Bruce from the fabled 1978 touring cycle in quality that's better than good with a performance that is truly great. When considering the "legendary" shows like the Agora show, the Houston show is noticably different with very little storytelling, but the actual performances are just as golden as any of the classic shows that one might think of. Ain't it great to have an officially released version of the "long" version of "Prove It All Night?" The Houston set also has typically great versions of "Backstreets," "Jungleland" and the nice one-two of "Racing In The Streets" and "Thunder Road."
moreWaiting for Darkness
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
On Saturday night, we'll celebrate the long awaited release of the Springsteen Darkness on the Edge of Town box set at The Winchester with Springsteen author Lawrence Kirsch, photographer Rocco Coviello and Springsteen tribute band Jersey. Listen to V107.3 this week for your chance to win tickets to the event and a copy of the 2 CD version of The Promise.
I held this year's version of the holy grail in my hands tonight. Thanks to a chain of local record stores that you can always count on to break street date, I knew I'd be able to find The Promise sitting on the shelves to get at least a quick look at the future enjoyment that awaits me in the coming weeks. The event was slightly anti-climactic, thanks to video released earlier this week featuring a page by page look at the contents of the box set. But still, with the opportunity right there in front of me, I had to take a look at the box set and also the 3 LP vinyl edition of The Promise (which collects only the previously unreleased tracks included in the box set, minus the video content).
Worth the wait? Absolutely. But as Springsteen fans, I think we already knew that.
moreCelebrating Darkness in Cleveland: An Evening of Bruce at The Winchester
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
The Winchester Music Hall and Addicted to Vinyl are pleased to present a tribute evening to a longtime Cleveland favorite, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Bruce Springsteen, happening on Saturday, November 20th at The Winchester (doors are at 7pm). Tickets are $10.00.
With the forthcoming release of The Promise, Bruce Springsteen's incredibly massive box set dedicated to his classic Darkness on the Edge of Town album, we will have a listening and viewing party to finally experience what many of us have been waiting for over 2 years.
Come meet Lawrence Kirsch, publisher of the Bruce Springsteen books The Light in Darkness and For You, Original Stories and Photographs by Bruce Springsteen's Legendary Fans. Lawrence will be signing copies of his book The Light in Darkness. This is a limited edition book only available on line or at The Winchester the night of the show. (You can read our interview with Lawrence about The Light in Darkness here.)
Springsteen goes surfing - Rocco Coviello©
For Springsteen fans, Christmas comes in November
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
Leave it to Bruce to make sure that the holidays are just a little bit more special this year with today's announcement that you can celebrate the legacy of Darkness on The Edge of Town with six (!!!!) discs overflowing with more Darkness related material (three CDs and three DVDs) than we possibly could have hoped for!
Conversing with fellow Springsteen author and aficionado Lawrence Kirsch earlier tonight, he remarked that with this project, "Bruce is absolutely delivering on this one - he's been listening to his fans."
My pals over at Blogness have done a great job of collecting many of the news links that have been posted so far regarding the pending release of the set, which will hit stores on November 16th. The box has a retail price of $119.98 and you can pre-order it right now at Amazon for $95.99, with an additional choice of a Blu-ray edition dropping day and date with the regular CD/DVD version. (And there will also be a version coming out on vinyl!)
Dave Lifton has additional thoughts and a look at the trailer for the box right here.
Me? I'll just be over here counting the days until November 16th. You know what I mean, right?
Box set image via Backstreets
moreDVDs You Probably Need: Nils Lofgren “Cry Tough”
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
Besides the recent release of Live in Hyde Park, things have been otherwise a bit quiet for Springsteen fans. I've been amusing myself, attempting to collect the 2005 Japanese remasters, which are slowly starting to trickle onto the shelves at Half Price Books. So far, I have (at $7.99 a pop) Nebraska, Plugged, Born to Run and The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle. (For those that don't have the luxury of having a Half Price Books nearby, you might enjoy doing some shopping at DeepDiscount.)
And then I saw the news about Cry Tough, the new Eagle Rock DVD release that collects three Nils Lofgren Rockpalast performances from 1976, 1979 and 1991. The two DVD set will be in stores on August 10th and thanks to the DVD gods, an advance copy showed up last week in my mail.
From the Amazon description:
Nils Lofgren's career has seen him achieve great success as a solo artist whilst also establishing himself as a guitarist for both Neil Young in Crazy Horse and Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band. These three live performances from Germany were all filmed for the famous Rockpalast TV series and see Lofgren at differing points in his career. In 1976 he had released his debut solo album to considerable critical acclaim and was beginning to lay the foundations of his reputation. By 1979 he was well established as a solo artist and influential guitar player. For the third show in 1991, Lofgren had already done a substantial stint in the E Street Band and had just begun to return as a solo performer with his album Silver Lining . All three are great performances and catch the excitement and showmanship of one of America s finest guitar players live in concert.
The last sentence above is the understatement of the year. As I've begun to dig deeper into Lofgren's discography over the past few years, I've been busy picking up the Lofgren solo albums that were missing from my collection. The release of Cry Tough is a gift full of riches for all, whether you're a die-hard fan or simply a Springsteen fan looking to find out more about the individual band members.
With over 250 minutes of footage, Cry Tough will give you plenty of material to choose from, for your educational journey. Priced at $17.99 pre-order via Amazon, it's a helluva good deal, considering I recently paid the same price for an Eric Johnson DVD that had barely an hour's worth of material. The 1991 footage is better quality than the footage from the '70s, but it's all really nice for the time period in which it was filmed and it's a nice showcase of one of the most under-rated guitar players in the biz.
One of my favorite highlights from the collection comes right at track one of the 1991 concert with Lofgren's solo acoustic opener of "Sticks and Stones" from Silver Lining. Unfortunately, I can't find a clip on Youtube, but here's a nice version (very similar) from Boston in 1993.
Sticks and stones will break my bones
But your words, they break my heart...
I'll leave you with three clips from Cry Tough. Hopefully the concert gods will find a way to put a Cleveland date onto Lofgren's list of tour dates for this fall!
moreRecord Store Day 2010 – This Saturday!
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
For those of you that inexplicably haven't been to your favorite local indie record store since Record Store Day last year, guess what? It's time to do it all again!
This Saturday, music fans will once again congregate at record stores throughout the United States and the UK to celebrate Record Store Day, with a number of limited/exclusive releases to choose from to celebrate the occasion. For a complete list of the exclusive titles available, check out the official Record Store Day website.
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