There we were, young, loose, maybe a bit drunk on a summer night in the swamps of New Jersey...we had those hard-to-find $17.50 tickets. Back then you needed the luck to grab a seat. In truth, I went with scalper prices for a few of the Sports Arena shows around Halloween. It's criminal none of those 7 shows were recorded. But in life, we live with choices, as we do now and we did then. I can imagine the parking lot outside the arena, in the soft light of a summer Sunday night...girls and boys in t-shirts and sneakers, beers flowing. Back then we had no setlists to track on the internet, just the ever present now. That girl is looking at me, or is she not?? Have another beer, we are in the concourse upstairs tonight. Who cares about the seats when all you want is to be there. Yes, she was looking at me.
This recording is as massive as those memories, he's in fine form on the 9th night of the Jersey stand. I just put this on, hoping the feeling of the last two weeks will leave me. I really love these Born in the USA shows. Now we have 6.
My Father's House has never been a particular favourite of mine, but this version... I was captivated. Chalk up another win to the Archive series in getting me to re-evaluate stuff I might’ve over looked before.
That Prove It All Night which explodes out of the quiet No Surrender... brilliant version, love it.
What these shows demonstrate yet again is how much more powerful a 'less is more' approach can be to some of the rock songs. This compact Darlington County is much more fun than having an over long outtro which is just the same riff repeated. Same with Glory Days (ok, yeah, it's longer with the schtick on this tour, but it does it's business and finishes quick after that instead of that same riff just being bludgeoned to death for two or three minutes). This is probably the one thing I'd love to see on the next tour... the fun rockers pared back to a length where they are, well, fun.