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Rating: "There are two types of people in the world: those who have seen a Springsteen concert, and everyone else." It wasn't me who said it, but an American journalist. But it easily could have been me. A Bruce concert is one of those things you shouldn't miss in life, if you love rock. Bruce, live, is a marvel. A force of nature, a volcano in eruption. Perhaps, the best live performer existing with his E-Street Band! It has little or nothing to do with his studio recordings. I've seen friends come to the concert because they didn't know how to spend that Saturday and leave exhilarated and forever changed by the experience.
The first thing that impresses at a Springsteen concert is his voice. Astonishing for its power and sound impact on the audience. Secondly, the magnificent "war machine" that is the E-Street Band. A group of excellent, precise, powerful, and talented musicians that has accompanied Bruce since the early '70s and which, at that time, delivered their best performances. Finally, his Fender Stratocaster used like a machine gun. Going to a concert and getting chills, crying, laughing, and dancing—this is Springsteen. His passion is so true and strong that it annihilates you, strikes you there, in your seat, as you listen to him. You lose the sense of where you are, you only know that you're listening to the greatest rock music. Who, in rock history, can boast concerts of four hours of this level?
This record excellently testifies to our legendary live performances during the best period, and with magnificent sound quality. Listening to the voices of an entire stadium exalted by Springsteen feels like a bomb exploding! The songs present are the best up until 1985, a time when Springsteen graced the covers of "Newsweek" and "Time" in the USA. It is useless to repeat the titles of the forty songs present. I would just like to highlight some gems. Like "Because The Night" written for Patti Smith and here passionately sung by Bruce. An unforgettable performance for this song. "The Promised Land," a historic ballad by Woody Guthrie sung with 60,000 people. "Jersey Girl," a jewel by Tom Waits represented here by Bruce in a passionate manner. And a small, personal selection that, in power, is equivalent to an atomic bomb: Badlands, Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town, Backstreets, and Born in the USA.
Dreams, car races, women, highways, hopes, loves, fathers and sons, soldiers, delinquents, prostitutes, workers, and outcasts, these are some of Bruce's themes. But, returning to the CD, only by listening to the powerful voice over his splendid songs on a long summer night, in a stadium full of people, can one understand the unattainable greatness of Bruce Springsteen. This triple CD, or quintuple LP at the time, went down in history as the first official collection of Springsteen's historic live shows after hundreds of bootlegs. It was 1986, and Tg1 reported this news: "a truck carrying Springsteen's new quintuple was robbed, just think of the value of these records!" It was a forewarning to understand what the fan's expectations were for this first Live. Personally, I have a decent concert collection, Nirvana, REM, U2, Santana, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, etc., all incredibly good live, but... There was always something missing, that quid more that makes Bruce's concerts an unrepeatable unicum: the soul, the passion, the strength, and the respect for his fans. One can debate his songs, they may or may not be liked, but I have never found anyone who questions the deadly live shows. No one who has seen one of his concerts.
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