March 8, 2024
Arriving one week after the first Friday of this month, presumably due to last Friday's official announcement of Best of Bruce Springsteen, is the latest release from Live.BruceSpringsteen.net: Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ, September 21,1978. And it's another great one, well worth the slightly longer wait.
The arrival of this release also makes all three shows from Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's historic back-to-back-to-back 1978 stand at the Capitol Theatre - also their final performances ever at the long-gone venue - now available in Springsteen's official archival live recordings series. Each of these shows was recorded professionally on multi-track reel-to-reel tapes, and now - thanks yet again to Plangent Processes and the Jon Altschiller-led team that also oversaw the mixing/mastering of the 9/19/78 show (with the legendary Bob Clearmountain himself mixing the 9/20/78 show) - all three nights sound better than ever.
Highlights of Passaic, NJ, September 21,1978 include covers of two first-generation rockers' classics: Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen" and Jerry Lee Lewis' "High School Confidential." This release marks the first time that Springsteen's official live-archive series has issued recordings of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band performing their versions of each of these classics. "High School Confidential" and "Sweet Little Sixteen" are embedded in a typically intense 24-songs Darkness on the Edge of Town-Tour set bolstered by the heightened excitement of a Jersey-based audience that also was very eager to help Springsteen celebrate his 29th birthday two days early, at his final show before he no longer would be the ripe old age of 28.
Click here to read more about Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ, September 21,1978 in the essay "Before The Jukebox Blow The Fuse" by Nugs/Columbia's Erik Flannigan.
Click here to purchase Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ, September 21,1978 from Live.BruceSpringsteen.net.