Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band
Hammersmith Odeon,London'75

THE REVIEW

November 18, 1975: Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band hold their first historic concert in Europe to promote a seminal album like "Born To Run", in a setting that will deliver other wonderful moments to the history of rock.

With this release, the rocker offers for the first time on CD an entire concert of his, perfectly capturing the figure of an artist who was not yet at the peak of his live dimension but was preparing to reach unattainable heights in the following years.

The setlist is simply fantastic and only some gems ("Night" and "Thundercrack" for example) are missing. The performance obviously opens with a piano version of "Thunder Road" that gives chills and demonstrates the wonderful significance of this song. "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" and "Spirit In The Night" are two absolute rock'n'roll earthquakes featuring Clemons' sax prominently throughout and introducing a live staple like "Lost in The Flood", always characterized by the unmistakable voice of the street poet figure.
"She's The One" thrives on splendid duets and the band's superb group cohesion; "Born To Run" needs no comments, it remains always a rock anthem, even though in this occasion it lacks the complete epic of the "celestial" break in the middle of the song. The long almost rural execution of "E-Street Shuffle" is one of the most fun and comedic moments of the first CD, which closes with an electrifying and frenzied version of an underrated song like "It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City" and with the usual immortal "Backstreets", a perfect synthesis of lyricism in music.

The second CD instead opens with the torrential "Kitty's Back", a river-like song with a jazzy soul and a frenzied rhythm; "Jungleland" and its indispensable sax solo (the best use of sax in rock music that I know of, along with Fun House by the Stooges and Idiots Rule by Jane's Addiction) foreshadow the rock'n'roll classicism of Rosalita and an effective execution of "Sandy"; the "Detroit Medley" is the typical Springsteen homage to the roots of rock'n'roll, as always pushed to the max, while the other cover, the overflowing "Quarter To Three", is preceded by the minimalist execution of "For You", as chilling as the initial "Thunder Road".

Ultimately, this is probably the best official live release by Bruce Springsteen so far, even though it is hoped that others are produced that are decidedly better (especially from the Darkness-The River period).