something

Not as gorgeous as Jerry Garcia & David Grisman but still pretty cool,

from Bruce Springsteen & The Seeger Sessions Band

She spoke so kind, she talked so fair

I wasn't planning on posting anything here today -- nada, zip, zilch --

but it would appear I am feeling better this afternoon

(Thanks, Ame.)

Might even get to an actual show soon. For now just this...

Phishing with The Boss

Phish -- June 14, 2009
Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival
Manchester, Tennessee

·
* with Bruce Springsteen

1st Set
AC/DC Bag-» NICU, Gotta Jibboo, Punch You In The Eye-»
Sparkle-» Bathtub Gin-» Character Zero-»
The Horse-» Silent In The Morning-» Run Like An Antelope-»
Mustang Sally*, Bobby Jean*-» Glory Days*

Set 2
Rock & Roll-» "Manchester Jam"-» Light-» 46 Days,
Limb By Limb, Farmhouse,
Backwards Down The Number Line-» Prince Caspian, First Tube

Encore: Suzy Greenberg-» Tweezer Reprise

So what do I know of Phish? They're from Vermont. That's most of what I know. Apparently lead singer/guitarist Trey Anastasio spent some time growing up in the Princeton, New Jersey area. Hey, despite what many ignorant people think, anything New Jersey is usually cool so that's cool. Growing up, Trey dug Springsteen... a Springsteen concert was the first concert he ever saw... and he still does dig Bruuuuuuuuuce.

Some Deadheads jumped on the Phish train and when Jerry kicked the bucket, they adopted Phish as their new favorite band. Me, I never saw 'em. I never wanted to as I'd heard too many bad things about the scene. Take what was bad about the GD scene and multiply it times about 40 and it was pitiful. Range Rover frat boy Phishheads with their cell phones and trust funds? No, that wasn't all of them but that was enough to keep me away.

For whatever reason, Phish went on hiatus (broke up?) several years back and for a short while at least there was the Trey Anastasio Band plus other various side projects from band members. Now Phish is back and they headlined Bonnaroo this year.

There are a couple Phish shows that I'd been meaning to listen to someday, and probably still will -- both at Shoreline and one is with special guest Bob Weir and the other with special guest Phil Lesh. Other than those two shows, I figured I'd never listen to this band. Thanks to a roommate back in Missoula, Montana, I'd heard some Phish once upon a time I and thought their music was incredibly stupid. I never listened to them since. I know some very close-minded people will consider me stupid for my thinking that Phish's music is stupid but if someone wants to think that way, they're free to... but it's a sad way of thinking. Unfortunately I know some Phishheads are going to be incredibly pathetic like that but eh, that's life. Fortunately there are others who will respect my opinion even if they disagree with it. While some [people?] might be close-minded, I'm not going to be -- I've opened my mind to trying them out again; I'm going to listen to Phish. The reason I decided on this isn't really because I wanted to listen to Phish, though... it's because Bruce Springsteen came out and played on a few songs and I'm a pretty big Springsteen fan. I could've listened to those songs alone but I thought I'd give the whole show a chance. Actually, I've been listening to this show off and on for about a week now and here I am listening to the whole thing straight through.

The first two songs of the show left me a little bored but Gotta Jibboo, while perhaps kind of dumb, does get into such a sweet jam!! Holy moly, this got me hooked!

I love the opening to Punch You In The Eye but not the vocals. Is it me or does this sound a little like Sex and The City? Overall it's not bad and I've got positive feelings for that one. Sparkle returns to the dumb, unfortunately. It feels like a train wreck and I just don't get it.

The cool jamming returns in Bathtub Gin. Again I completely dislike the vocals of the song but it gets into a GREAT groove. It sounds like these guys are firing on all cylinders and playing the hell out of this. More of the same on Character Zero -- so sweet!! Another tune which is a minimum of 10 minutes follows -- Tweezer. This features a bit of a funk sound that had me movin' around my living room. When the song is less funk, it seems like it's all jam. Man, oh man... if I was at Bonnaroo hearing these guys, I'd've been dancin' my ass off!

The Horse-> Silent In The Morning I'm not crazy about but Run Like An Antelope is pretty cool. This is one of their signature songs or something like that? No? I dunno. I really like the playing here. This is definitely a song that makes me see how some Deadheads can very easily dig this band.

My favorite part of the show is when Bruce Springsteen is introduced as Trey's childhood hero. The first song they do isn't a Springsteen song but it's one Bruce knows well. Bruce's voice sounds kinda like crap on Mustang Sally but it's cool to hear him and Trey trading guitar licks. They have a lot of fun with this as I doubt the E Street Band ever jams it out to ten minutes! I don't often think of Springsteen as a guitar player but he surely knows how to play and he doesn't do a bad job. Mustang Sally really shoulda been the last song of the three they played because it smoked whereas Bobby Jean was a little tired. It wasn't so E Street Band great only because these guys don't know it like they know their own songs. The pros they are, they were able to do a decent job with it plus there's a nice guitar solo in there... which I'm not sure if it's Trey or Bruce. In this case it could be either as maybe Trey stood aside for a moment to let Bruce wail on his own song. Glory Days wraps up the trio of tunes. The band seems to have a slightly better grasp on this than they did on Bobby Jean. Trey lights up a guitar solo that Bruce, in about a minute, joins in on but eventually Springsteen settles back into a rhythm player mode while Trey momentarily completely launches that sucker into freakin' orbit. Holy crapola, what a blistering finish!!!! That was way cool. Since it wasn't the E Street Band, it wasn't perfectly Springsteen but they had fun and the guitar work was sometimes better than what might be offered up at a Springsteen show, not to mention, other than an official live album release, there are no recent Springsteen soundboards to listen to so for the Springsteen fan, this should be some cool stuff! Or not. Hey, whatever floats your boat and it sure floated mine!

Set two starts off with a cover of the Velvet Underground's Rock and Roll which flows incredibly into something labeled "Manchester Jam." Here is Mike Gordon's strongest bestest Phil Lesh-sounding bass playing of the night so far. What an incredible thirteen or so minutes of music. I didn't care much for the following Light until they set off into jamland... then it got interesting. Trey's guitar is amazing. Everybody here is just awesome. Gordon's bass is non-stop while Jon Fishman on drums and Page McConnell on keys keep the pace crankin' full blast. When they finally slow it down you get a healthy heaping helping of Gordon's bass while Trey kinda noodles along for awhile. Fantastic stuff! And then the way they find their way out of the jam to begin 46 Days -- epic! Maybe not of true epic proportions as far as Phish is concerned (I have no clue) but it's so classically Grateful Dead, like how when the boys are deep into a jam and so far gone but BAM all of a sudden out of nowhere they're so perfectly making that left turn into something we all recognize. That's what happened here, it appears. Holy cow, 46 Days is sweet!

That's all I've got for now. Perhaps I'll finish writing later.

I should add that listening to this hasn't turned me into a Phishhead and I'm not gonna start regularly posting Phish shows 'round here. I'd be surprised if I listen to them more than once or twice a year... three times tops. I kinda dug this, definitely dug the jams, but I'm not sure I'll warm up to the vocal parts of the songs. None of that really thrilled me. But again, the jamming, that's a whole 'nother story! Awesome stuff!!!

Download The Show Here (320 kbps) Phish - 6/14/09 - Bonnaroo - Part 1 Part 2 ♦ Part 3 Source & Lineage: Digital Soundboard > FLAC

free digital mp3 download with setlist 6-14-09 a.k.a. 06-14-09 a.k.a. 6/14/09 a.k.a. 06/14/09 a.k.a. 09-06-14

Lone Star Springsteen - 4/5/09 Erwin Center, Austin

Something Else For Saturday...

It's that time again, Springsteen time. Tis about time I start making a better effort to listen to the other Bruce more often. Springsteen most definitely has become the other Bruce to this Deadhead -- friend of Springsteen and former Grateful Dead band member Bruce Hornsby must be the first Bruce. I've probably said it before -- I'm sure a lot of Springsteen fans would take exception to that and that's fine. Springsteen was the first Bruuuuuuuuuuce for me once upon a time. Without a doubt he was. I was diggin' Born To Run before China Cat Sunflower or Shakedown Street, but even though he's been absent from Dead proceedings for the past several years, Hornsby is Bruuuuuuce #1.

In any frickin' case, time for more live Bruce. I've been getting tons of his shows recently, first time in my life, other than his official releases, that I've collected live Springsteen. Here we go with something from early on in his current tour which kicks off a leg of European shows tonight in somewhere, Pinkpop Belgium or something like that. EuroBruce? I don't got nothin' against Europe, in general, but when it comes to live Springsteen, I always wanna track down good old American shows and Texas -- Dallas Cowboys, John Wayne in a John Ford western, cattle, George W. Bush! -- that's about as American as ya get, y'all!

Hey, if you're here downloadin', of if you're reading this for whatever reason under the sun, give the below link a click and consider helping out others who haven't got anything good to eat... or anything at all to eat. Springsteen, during each show on his tour, has been promoting a local food bank and they always need every cent a person can afford to donate. So make Bruuuuuuuce happy and think about giving a buck or two. Seriously, it doesn't have to be 10 or 20 dollars or more... non-profit charities often appreciate even a single dollar and I'm a-bettin' right here and now that anyone reading this can surely afford a dollar or two to help others less fortunate than yourself. Right? Cool. Thanks for readin' this and enjoy the music!

www.feedingamerica.org

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band April 5, 2009 Frank Erwin Center University of Texas Austin

Badlands Outlaw Pete My Lucky Day Prove It All Night Out in the Street Working on a Dream Seeds Johnny 99 Youngstown Working on the Highway Sherry Darling She's the One Because the Night Waitin' on a Sunny Day The Promised Land The Wrestler Kingdom of Days Radio Nowhere Lonesome Day The Rising Born to Run * * * Hard Times Come Again No More Jungleland Tenth Avenue Freeze-out I'm a Rocker Land of Hope and Dreams American Land Glory Days

Very cool show. For the most part. Well, let's see here... sound quality is pretty good, perhaps a bit above average. I listened with an mp3 player and in this case it might be better on a stereo with good speakers.

In this show there are 9 different songs from Night #1 of the tour which I posted some weeks back. That's why I chose this night. The number of different songs dwindles after this.

There was one moment during the show that was just... odd. During Waitin' On A Sunny Day, Bruce puts the mic to a kid and has him sing a couple lines... and he sucks. In all fairness, the kid sounds about 13 and it was fun for Bruce and the band, I'm sure; to let someone so young be a part of this event, even in such a small way, not the best sounding thing on the recording but I'm sure it was fun and gave that kid something he'll never forget.

As far as energy in the music -- how old is Bruce? 35? He sounds great! He clearly sounds aged at times, but that comes through as grit in his voice. It's a great thing having a night off between shows because it allows them a day of rest to come out fresh and ready. In this show -- they're fresh and ready... and rockin'!

from Backstreets: "We've had some crazy times here since 1974," Springsteen told the Austin crowd, recalling the days when he found an important early fanbase in the Lone Star State. "We were from New Jersey, of course -- the Corruption State -- and Texas was a long way away." Bruce talked about taking the train all that way, unable to fly, and getting seats instead of berths, to come and play Houston's Liberty Hall and here in town at Armadillo World Headquarters. "We have lots of great memories playing in Austin." Add another one to that list with this loose show at the Frank Erwin Center, stretching out to a whopping 28 songs only three shows into the tour. Tour premieres outnumbered songs from the new album tonight, seven to five, starting with "Prove It All Night." Turning up in the Recession Arc was "Youngstown," with that killer solo from Nils. "Sherry Darling" was requested via sign -- via gum wrappers, actually -- and took the place of the setlisted "I'm on Fire." "She's the One" rocked, with Max in a mighty groove. An epic in the encore, the premiere of "Jungleland," and a couple songs later it was the very rare "I'm a Rocker" -- which, like "Sherry," was on the ragged side, but injected some real fun into the show. Finally, "Glory Days" closed the show post-"American Land," a major crowd-pleaser this night. by: ?

Download The Show Here (320 kbps) Part 1 ♦ ▬ ♦ Part 2 ♦ ▬ ♦ Part 3 Wevodau Source: SP-CMC-20->SP-SPSB-1->Nomad JB3 Lineage: Nomad JB3->WAV->Adobe Audition->WAV->FLAC Notes: (1) Recorded from Section 71 Row 8 Seat 8. There was an unobstructed line between my mikes and one of the speaker stacks even though our seats were technically behind the stage. There was no one in front of us as we were right above the exit. Occasional woo-ing can be heard from the people around us and some close clapping but otherwise a very clean/clear recording. (2) Due to the three hour recording time limit on the JB3, I had to stop and restart towards at the very end of American Land as the band was working their way into Glory Days. Only 10-20 seconds of the outro of American Land is missing. Glory Days is complete.

mp3 (not flac lossless) download 09-04-05

It all starts in San Jose!

If you're downloading this, or even if you're just here reading this, please think about helping out some people who do a great job getting food into the hands of those who don't have enough, who don't have what you and I probably often take for granted. It's not the government's job to feed those who need something to eat. If our neighbors and fellow citizens need help, we should be helping them.

www.feedingamerica.org

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band April 1, 2009 ** 1st show of the tour ** HP Pavilion San Jose, California

Badlands
Outlaw Pete
My Lucky Day
No Surrender
Out In The Street
Working On A Dream
Seeds
Johnny 99
The Ghost of Tom Joad
Good Eye
Good Rockin' Tonight
Darlington County
Growin' Up
Waitin' On A Sunny Day
The Promised Land
The Wrestler
Kingdom Of Days
Radio Nowhere
Lonesome Day
Born To Run
****
Hard Times Comes Again No More
Thunder Road
Dancing In The Dark
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
Land Of Hope and Dreams
American Land

Fantastic show! I don't really know what all to say about it besides that. Well, maybe a little more: there are TWELVE songs that were not played on the Rehearsal Night #1 -- 3/25/09 in Asbury Park -- which I posted a couple weeks ago. A few things don't work so great like Good Eye is just difficult to hear the lyrics and Good Rockin' Tonight doesn't work well in this slot in the set. I mean Good Rockin' Tonight is a set-closer or maybe a first encore to really get people UP and Dancin'! Eh, what are ya gonna do? What is very cool, though, is that song is a total bust-out for Bruce: he only did it once in 2008 and October 1980 was the last time before that! Plenty of great rockin' tunes besides that one. So many tunes just smoke. This band is alive, baby! The setlist may have many, many similarities to Asbury Park Rehearsal Night #1, and also to many, many, many shows that have so far followed and will follow, but the differences thrown in, the crowd suggestions, they definitely help make this interesting.

Sound quality is really good. Taper did a great job, no cuts, fairly clear separation of instruments, strong vocals, very LITTLE crowd clapping, cheering, singing along and all that crap. Splendid... yes, splendid!

from Backstreets: Bruce and the E Street Band go west to kick off the Working on a Dream tour in San Jose, their first of three California shows. The structure from the second Asbury Park rehearsal was clearly the model -- the setlist was nearly identical to March 24, opening with "Badlands" into a hard-rocking "Outlaw Pete" (Springsteen threw on a cowboy hat for this one) and onward. But a few additions to the set stretched this opener to 26 songs already, suggesting that Bruce is still putting the pieces into place. The "hard times" arc of the show -- the fantastic Recession Trilogy of "Seeds," "Johnny 99" and "The Ghost of Tom Joad," into the "Good Eye" blues -- was followed by a surprise mid-set cover: "Good Rockin' Tonight." It served as an antidote to those blues, and an invitation -- "Baby, bring my rockin' shoes / 'Cause tonight I'm gonna rock away all my blues / Have you heard the news, there's good rockin' tonight" -- and a smart transition into the back half of the show. And the signs are back! Just a few songs later, "Growin' Up" was played by request, and in the encore, "Thunder Road" was an audible after someone in the audience gave Bruce a small poster from the Robert Mitchum movie. Still a lighter focus on the new album than we'd expect at the beginning of a tour. The sixth and final Working on a Dream track was "Kingdom of Days" toward the end of the main set, one showgoer describing it as "gorgeous, with Patti singing at a mic next to Bruce, and Bruce clearly focusing attention on her to highlight her role in his life. This to me was the show that did not happen, the personal show, because the times just don't call for it." Overall a solid opener, clocking in at 2:40, with a few minor hiccups, but not nearly as many performance kinks as past Night Ones and a quick pace -- Bruce and the band, in mid-tour shape, played continuously without a break from the opening until 90 minutes into the show. What we'll be watching for as we move to Night Two, Night Three, and beyond is a show that feels new, and reconciles the new material with the times. A sharp review from Shay Quillen the San Jose Mercury News, calling the show "decidedly subpar," points to the challenge Bruce confronts right now: "As Don Rumsfeld might say, you don't go on tour with the album you wish you had, you go on tour with the album you've got. So Springsteen faces the tough task of hyping a new romantic pop record while simultaneously offering hope and support to a wounded nation — not an easy task." by: ?

Download The Show Here (320 kbps) Part 1 ♦ ▬ ♦ Part 2 ♦ ▬ ♦ Part 3 Neumann KM140s > Sound Devices MP2 > Edirol R09 (16/44) > CD Wave > FLAC16

mp3 (not flac lossless) download 09-03-23

Born To Run Run

Baseball. Mets. 3rd game of the year. They lost. Their record's 2-1. They suck. I went for a run. Second in just over 2 days. I'm tired. Ay caramba. Definitely needed this run as March sucked and April's approaching mid-month already. Exercise is important! Must be healthy!!!!

Thursday afternoon Run: 21 minutes 47 seconds

+37 sec

.
2 Days Since My Last Run
.
4:25 pm - 76° - sunny, sunny, sunny & way warm

A decent run with over a half minute added. I felt fine when I was stretching and when I started but I soon tired, maybe only a few minutes into my Running Time. Tired, yeah, but it was easy to keep it moving. The heat didn't get to me for awhile. Great music sure came to the rescue today. I did want to quit, pretty badly for a little while. Once I heard the Stop Cue and hit the end of my time, I felt about dead, "needing" to stop and bend over with hands on knees, gasping for air. The warmth of the afternoon really really really got to me. Thankfully the bent over and gasping rest stop didn't last long and I was able to keep moving. The walk back to the house was a serious drag but I guess somehow I made it. I am just not used to running twice in just over two days and now in this kind of heat. Ugh. But March was crap and now April's only starting as far as running goes. It'll be awhile before I'm running 30 minutes easily. I'm workin' on it, though.
April :: -03 sec· X

2 runs in APRIL: 41 min 6 runs in March: 2 hours 28 min *** FEBRUARY *** 3 hours 41 min January 2009 2 hours 54 min December 2 hours 42 min November: 2 hours 31 min October 2008: 2 hours 10 min

Thursday's Running Playlist included most of this amazing album...

Bruce Springsteen Born To Run 1975	Thunder Road Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out Night Backstreets Born To Run She's The One Meeting Across The River Jungleland

BEST ALBUM EVER. Seriously, what more needs to be said?

Born To Run - Download @ 320 kbps

"Jungleland" - Hammersmith Odeon, 1975

The Boss Reconnecting To Asbury

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band Monday, March 23, 2009 Convention Hall Asbury Park, New Jersey

Outlaw Pete
My Lucky Day
Night
Out In The Street
Working On A Dream
Johnny 99
Good Eye
Radio Nowhere
Candy's Room
Because The Night
Mary's Place
The Wrestler
This Life
Long Walk Home
Surprise, Surprise
Badlands
No Surrender
****
Hard Times Comes Again No More
Mustang Sally
Thunder Road
Born To Run
American Land
Seven Nights To Rock

Wow. This is cool. I've got to admit, I am a stranger to recent live Springsteen music. While I love Bruce more than any other music outside of the Grateful Dead family, concerts aren't something I pay for anymore and, until now, I haven't tracked down live Springsteen recordings. Unfortunately that means I've got nothing to compare this to... but that's not necessarily a bad thing as I don't really see the point in comparing. I see the point in judging something all on its very own compared only to itself (or the studio recordings the songs come from.) And what's here, the very first rehearsal show for Springsteen's upcoming Working On A Dream Tour, is something I'm sooooooo glad that I took the time to get my hands on.

As the first few songs played in my ears, I thought what a great birthday gift it might be this summer (hint, hint) to get a couple tickets, perhaps an early birthday gift for, oh, Springsteen in Dublin or Glasgow, maybe Roma or Torino? Way out of the question probably. Ahhh, but bein' more of a fan of Bruuuuuuuce [Hornsby] than Bruuuuuuuuuce [Springsteen], my lovely girlfriend probably ain't a-readin' this anyway. Oh well, still it doesn't hurt none to drop a hint just in case, does it? I guess by summer, though, when my birthday is, a second America leg for late Summer or Fall will be announced, so I suppose an American show might suffice.

Anyway, even though the sound ain't so hot for the first few songs, it's still a GREAT feeling of being at the show on the Jersey Shore a couple nights ago. Mannn...... I'm simply in awe during my second listen right now. The first two new songs -- Outlaw Pete and My Lucky Day -- from the new album are just excellent played live. Hearing the classic Night -- from '75, I believe -- is nice but too much like the album. Yup, bein' a Deadhead, sometimes hearing certain songs played live just don't it for me when they're just a facsimile of the song on the album. It does, though, make a nice little sandwich between My Lucky Day and Out In The Street.

One thing I love here is they're having fun and the band sounds soooo good. The recording is kind of muddy and instrumentation isn't the clearest but overall it clears up during the fourth song and is a constant, relatively smooth sail to the end. Crowd noise isn't bad which really surprised me as I thought for an Audience sourced recording for a Springsteen concert it would be absolutely horrible.

The new songs really pop and with old gems and newer tunes (like from 01's The Rising and 07's Magic) sprinkled in, it makes for a great mix. A few nice surprises, too...

I Ain't Got No Home has almost never been played live. Bruce recorded this Woody Guthrie tune for the Folkways: A Vision Shared album and he's played it live, I think, only a handful of times, the last being over 15 years ago! Hell yeah, how cool is that?! Another bust out came later with Stephen Foster's Hard Times. It's funny....... ugh......... I really didn't want to get political here but Bruce is talkin' up the hard times for so many in America right now......... but......... uh......... what's your man doin' to fix it????!!!!??? Yeah, yeah, he is trying.... but not instilling a lot of confidence, eh? Bruce just couldn't bring himself to admit it. It's almost like he wanted to because it feels like he's sick and tired of those hard times for his fellow Americans. Can't blame the last guy anymore, though. (DAMN, I did not want to go there. Oh well. Maybe Better Days will be ahead. We've just got to hang in there.)

My mostest favoriteist song o' the night just might be Because The Night. Holy freakin' cow, what a bit of jam they get into! Such a peak they hit; it's so hot! Right after that came my only sad tune -- Mary's Place. This was written in the wake of 9/11 and it's on The Rising, an album I loved from first note to last and listened to two or three dozen times in the weeks following its release... but then I shelved it because it was too painful. I'm a New Yorker... sort of, I mean, I'm from the Jersey 'burbs of NYC... and almost growin' up in the shadow of the World Trade Center, 9/11 is incredibly personal to me. I just couldn't take listening to The Rising anymore and this show is the first time I've heard any song from that album. Mary's Place brought me to tears. What a sad yet hopeful song it is. So beautiful and fun, as well. Listening again now -- wow . . . it's hard. Bruce takes his time with crowd interaction here and has fun with it so that helps. On second thought, yeah, this is my favorite! Turn It Up!!!! Turn It Up!!! Turn It Up!!!!

The Wrestler and This Life really slow things down before Long Walk Home gathers some really nice steam. The weakest song of the night, methinks, follows -- Surprise, Surprise. It's just got so little substance to it. Man, that sucker can't hold a candle to Night. Eh, but to each his own. And then someone really really really jumps the gun on the transition into Badlands. Ouch! I guess that's why this is a rehearsal! No Surrender smokes to put a capper on things before the band would normally walk off stage before they return for their encores. Not tonight. They just stay and the encores commence in just a few minutes.

As old as Hard Times is (from like the late 1800's, I think) they give it a really nice modern arrangement. Fun dancin' is up next when Bruce takes a request for Mustang Sally. He brings his Jersey Shore friend John Eddie out to play and a fun is time is had by all. I do not dig the crowd singing along (often out of sync) to Thunder Road but still it's great to hear. Sho' is weird, though, to hear Bruce & The E Street Band go Irish on American Land. One must wonder if they're Riverdancing during this. Definitely way different but way fun! And one more tune I'd never heard closes it all out -- Seven Nights To Rock. I guess this is a cover tune and especially with solos and the crowd interaction, it's yet another fun one!

Basically this is a great first night in 2009! Okay, well, he did play the Super Bowl on Feb 1st but now it's time for some real shows again and this "rehearsal" session to kick things off -- not bad!

from Backstreets: "Tonight is the night you get to be the guinea pigs..." Bruce told the Convention Hall crowd, "the guinea pigs for the rest of the world!" This first rehearsal show for the Working on a Dream tour, and the first live airing of a decent portion of the new album, was a mixed bag -- and Springsteen seemed to know it going in. "I don't know if we got a show yet," he qualified at the outset, "but we'll do a bunch of songs and see how we do." You can't say he isn't self-aware: that's what we guinea pigs got, the Boss throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks, and that was pretty much the point. It's not a show yet; it's on its way, and this is the way. Sure, we had full lighting and the semblance of a show, but tonight felt less like a dress rehearsal and more like just the next incremental step in the rehearsal process, a first stab at playing this new batch for faces looking back. As Springsteen said later in the night, "These shows are really important to us. They allow us to get our wheels underneath us and touch base here at home... it does help us a lot. You can practice a lot in isolation... I tell myself everything sounds great! But when we come out and play [for you], we hear it through your ears, hear what works and what doesn't. So as we construct the show, it's very helpful to us." So what worked? 12 players on stage, that worked. In addition to the full E Street Band (with Patti Scialfa present and accounted for, Soozie Tyrell and Charlie Giordano also returning), we've got two more faces up there. In between Garry Tallent (now positioned on Max's right -- shades of '88!) and Charlie are two backup singers, "the fabulous Curtis King and Cindy Mizelle from the Sessions Band." And if you thought the E Street Band had a full sound before, wait til you hear this. It's an expansion of their sonic palette on the level of Soozie's addition to the band on the Rising tour. Any question of how the pop sound of Working on a Dream might translate to the stage is answered by the presence of Curtis and Cindy. (Makes me wish they'd been there for "Girls in Their Summer Clothes" last time around.) They're still learning the E Street ropes, but especially with a full Springsteen tour under their belts already, look for them to make this tour shine in short order. The message worked. The most clearly thematic song choices made for the most compelling performances of the night. And it wouldn't take a genius to guess what might be on Bruce's mind this time around. "A lot of folks struggling out there, a lot of hard times," he said, introducing a muscular, guitar-heavy "Johnny 99" with the Big Man on baritone sax, melding the late-'03 and Sessions Band arrangements. Another inspired song choice was "I Ain't Got No Home," originally released on Folkways: A Vision Shared. In this live version, the vocalists came down front for an a cappella intro, simply massive harmonies that recurred on the chorus throughout. (And a nice twist of the lyric at the end: "The banking man is rich, and the working man is poor.") Kicking off the encore was a reinvention of Stephen Foster's "Hard Times Come Again No More," akin to what he and the Sessions Band did with "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?" The pacing worked, in a sense. Not that Bruce has yet figured out the structure or the flow; clearly that's still to come. But the relentless drive of the Magic tour is gone, and right now that feels like a good thing, letting these songs breathe a bit. Jay Weinberg worked -- and worked hard. In the middle of the set, Bruce brought him out for a five-song stretch: "Just a little magic -- I can actually make Max 40 years younger!" Jay's big beat powered "Good Eye" first, Bruce with the bullet mic, of course, and the backup vox getting wild, callling out "Ride that train!" This was cooool. From there into "Radio Nowhere" they really put Jay through his paces, with the huge drum breakdown at the end of that song leading right into the stamina-fest of "Candy's Room." His hair flying, even breaking a freakin' drumstick, Jay came through the gauntlet with a big grin, Bruce going back for a high five. "Jay is 18!" Bruce laughed, and the implication was clear -- he's that good already? Nils' new hips -- they worked! "Because the Night," with Jay still behind the kit, featured Lofgren's signature solo, complete with lunges and spins. Looks like the PT paid off. Working on a Dream songs are getting up on their feet pretty nicely, though there weren't as many in the set as we might have expected. ("Kingdom of Days," for one, was on the setlist but not played.) "My Lucky Day" in particular had a good, classic E Street feel; stripped of some of the busy-ness of the album version, it was a straightahead, high-energy rocker that brought Bruce and Steve face to face at the mic and really got things going. After Charlie's swirling keyboard intro, a beautiful airing of "The Wrestler" was driven largely by Bruce and his acoustic, but it gradually built with subtle accompaniment from Charlie and Roy, Soozie's fiddle, and finally Max coming in to give it a climactic beat. "This Life" was a complexly arranged vocal showcase, with majestic, sunny harmonies -- unabashed pop, and while some hearts of stone may not dig it, it was glorious to these ears. What didn't work? Well, teaching some of those "This Life" parts to the crowd was awkward. This half do this... now this half do that. ("Two-sevenths, five-sevenths," Steve Martin would add.) The transition from "Surprise, Surprise" into "Badlands." Structure? What structure? "Mustang Sally," played by request with guest John Eddie, was a bit of a mess, though Bruce and the band held it together, and getting a classic cover in the encore is always a good direction. But the real issue was the retread factor. The Magic tour may have ended not very long ago at all, but the feeling among fans seems to be that we're ready and hoping for something new, not simply picking up where we left off. Maybe Bruce felt he and the band needed a few safe places to land, but while the night was surprisingly light on Magic material, too many moments felt like holdovers. A lengthy "Mary's Place," complete with "Are you ready?" intro and mid-song rap, feels more tired than ever. At this point the song feels like an AC/DC stage prop: built for touring, why leave it in storage when you can keep taking it on the road? And shouldn't that house down by the river be built by now? We can only hope Springsteen finds a new centerpiece for the show, and soon. Compulsory takes of songs like "Badlands" and "No Surrender" as the night wore on, and "American Land" at the end, just served as a reminder of the vast swaths of Springsteen's songbook he has visited all too rarely -- or in the case of Devils & Dust and a good deal of his '90s material, not at all with the E Street Band. But all things in good time. Here in the preparation phase, getting to watch Springsteen develop a show is compelling in and of itself -- as long as you're not looking for one fully grown at birth. And with surprisingly few miscues tonight, even the goofs were fun. Like when Bruce stopped "Johnny 99" dead for a moment: "Waitaminute! We almost... We almost had it! A one-two-three!..." "This is a run-through," he reminded us at the encore break. "We'll see what flies. Next time you see us we'll be a well-oiled machine. We're sort of a well-oiled machine tonight." At that, Steve shook his head. But "sort of well-oiled" feels about right for night one. report by Chris Phillips; photographs by Michael Zorn

Download The Show Here (320 kbps) Part 1 ♦ ▬ ♦ Part 2 ♦ ▬ ♦ Part 3 Schoeps MK41's> Nbox> Edirol R-09HR (@24/48)> Soundforge 9 ( fades,Bit Rate/Sample Rate Conversion)> CDWAV> FLAC Recorded By FG & Daughter

mp3 (not flac lossless) download 3-23-09 aka 03-23-09 aka 3/23/09 aka 03/23/09 aka 09-03-23

Happy Bruce Day... that doesn't mean anything, just being ridiculous

I'm wondering... is there any love in the world? Is there any peace in the world? Well... is there? I'll tell ya this -- there's peace in my stomach! Or at least there was earlier, after I wolfed down a giganto stack o' chocolate chip-banana pancakes. It's not often that I go out to eat but this morning, after my shift, when asked I said sure, what the heck. That's always a dangerous thing; when given the chance I will over-eat to my heart's delight. Bad, bad, bad. Was there peace in my stomach or turmoil? After a 12-hour shift, that hit food hit the spot, without a doubt... so yeah, there was peace. But when I walked in my front door awhile later, all I wanted to do was turn into a statue and never move again.

But the thing is -- I had to move! Been 3 days since I last ran... I'm okay with that but I'm not okay with more than that so I absolutely had to motivate.

Now that that's done -- sleepy time, big time.

Trail Run!!! Outdoors -- Sunny, 58°

Late Monday Morning Run: 20 minutes 19 sec

+4 sec

XXXXXXXX++++++·33 sec·++++++XXXXXXXX

Run Time May: 2 hours 0 minutes April: 3 hours 51 minutes <-failed to pass March March: 3 hours 57 minutes

Good deal. 6 runs in 12 days. Didn't add much time, a minuscule 4 seconds, but at least I ran! And it was outdoors!!

We have had some seriously dry weather for the past week or so and with the sun beginning to show itself for the day starting around 4:30 a.m. and darkness finally occurring around 11 p.m., lotsa time to dry out the land. That's exactly what was needed to be able to finally get back on the trail down at the end of my road. Actually I had one outdoor run a couple weeks ago... but on snow... yo. That's approximately 98% gone, still some patches down below some thick spots of trees, but the trail has dried out, the mud is gone, and the ground underfoot is nice and solid.

Just one problem -- my legs and feet have gotten used the gym, very used to the gym. There's quite a difference between the wooden track indoors and the dirt/rock/gravely trail. I felt amazing immediately after my run, no big whoop what-so-freakin'-ever. Now, after showering and sitting, my legs are like jelly, they're a bit weaker than usual.

So long as I don't fall behind my 50% frequency rate, I won't be worried. I'm just gonna have to adjust to this warm weather outdoor surface again.

Bruce Springsteen The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle 1973

320 kbps
	Springsteen: The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle - Part 1 The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle - Part 2

Not as good as his debut from earlier in '73... but still a great listen all the way through. 4th Of July and Rosalita are both incredible tunes and without them this wouldn't be too memorable. This may not have had great commercial success but it makes for a great stepping stone between that amazing first album and what comes next, the collection of tunes that would launch Springsteen way out there, escalating his popularity to legendary status -- Born To Run.

WHOOPS -- late edit: I completely forgot to mention, not that it really has anything to do directly with this album, the Grateful Dead connection here. Clarence Clemons has played with the Grateful Dead, maybe just once... and a whole bunch of times with the Jerry Garcia Band... all in 1989, I do believe.

The E Street Shuffle

4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)

Kitty's Back

Wild Billy's Circus Story

Incident On 57th Street

Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)

New York City Serenade

Running with Madman drummers bummers and Indians in the [late winter] with a teenage diplomat...

There's something completely wrong here. I've seemingly lost an entire week? What the heck?! I'd say "What the hell" but the swearing's been cranked way too high lately. In tryin' to always be a better Christian, there's no damn place for swearing.

Anyway... last time I went for a run: almost a freakin' week ago?! Seriously?! So there it is -- I've lost an entire week. Just like that [in the snap of the fingers.] Great, I must say totally sarcastically. I wonder if Jesus frowns upon sarcasm. I've never thought of that. And right now I'm not worried about it too much. I suppose so long as it's not in a putting down kind of way. Hey, He'd probably use sarcasm today as a way to get His point across to certain people. Maybe? Why'm I typing so much about Christ all of a sudden? Yes, I should really devote more time to study God's word and the life of Christ, have strayed quite a ways from that in the past many months ... but that's not why I'm posting this post, yo. I'll save that for later. Yes, save it for later, always the right thing to... procrastinate!

Okay ... now I'm done with that.

Got my butt to the Rec Center tonight before they closed. Was really lookin' forward to gettin' a run in ... but twasn't until just a few minutes ago when I realized it's been half a day shy of one whole week since I last ran. NOT good. Absolutely positively way not good.

Sunday Night Run: 17 minutes 56 seconds

+7 sec · indoors ·

XXXXXXXX+++++++ 29 sec +++++++XXXXXXXX

Run Time March: - 53 minutes February: 3 hours 11 minutes January: 2 hours 56 minutes

For not having been in my running shoes for almost a week, I didn't do too badly tonight. Hydrated and fueled, not tired, added 7 seconds, almost up to 18 minutes, so close. Had to stop as soon as I hit my End Cue ... actually, I probably didn't have to stop, but I did, few seconds worth of stoppage time, bent over, hands on knees, gasping for normalcy. Even though I did that, still wasn't bad. Resumed moving within 2 to 3 seconds, walked a couple laps around the track, started feeling great within moments.

Back in the comfort of my house, showered, clean, resting... and feeling probably better than I have since my last run. To take 6½ days off was just idiotic and completely wrong. Can NOT allow that to happen!!! Must run!!! (with regularity.)

Running tunes from
the album of the day...

Bruce Springsteen

Greetings From
Asbury Park, N.J.

recorded: 1972
released: Jan '73







· Blinded By The Light
· Growin' Up
· Mary Queen Of Arkansas
· Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street?
· Lost In The Flood
· The Angel
· For You
· Spirit In The Night
· It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City

There are no words from me for this album. It's perfection. Okay, so maybe I've got a few words. All of a sudden I'm wondering if there are Springsteen fans, casual fans, who like his music but don't care for his older stuff. Perhaps a few people like that? In my opinion this blows the crap out of Magic, Bruce's 2007 release with the E Street Band. That's it. I'm done. This is just one of the best rock and roll albums ever. Period. End of discussion. My roots are in Jersey and I dunno if that entitles me to have more importance than non-Jersey Springsteen fans... seems completely silly to think such a thing, but truly when I'm listening to some Bruce, I'm damn proud to have grown up in The Garden State. So many of the lyrics have got nothin' to even do with Jersey... but when I hit the Play button, right back there is the only place I wanna be. Maybe someday. This'll sounds absolutely insane to a lot of people but I actually miss the place! Even more so when I'm listening to Springsteen. Mmm... such good stuff!

	320 kbps
	Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.

a Very Special run

Run Time -- 15 minutes 10 seconds (+0:18)

• indoors

• Total Running Time for December -_______44 min 38 sec
____________________November -- 2 hours 18 min 45 sec
_____________________October ---_______57 min 06 sec
____(starting Oct. 1)
· Weight Loss Goal -- 24 pounds (11 kg)
_________· So Far -- 10 lb... finally double digits

Alright! Another excellent run today!! Another milestone kinda, sorta... no, not really... 1/16th of the way to running a marathon! Uhhh... whew, I've a lonnnnnngg way to go. [big sigh] Oh boy. Increasing by 15-20 seconds each run will never get me there. Actually sure it will, I haven't done the math, don't have the insanely impossible to comprehend Einstein-kind of ability to figure it out instantaneously, don't wanna take a whole part of a minute to figure it out, but if I did do the math then maybe I'd know in about 35 years or so I'd be up to 4 hours... if my body doesn't fall apart first. Ay caramba. Part of me wants to jump up to half minute increments. I know I can do it. Surely I can. I think. I'm not sure. The other part of me is just fine with the exercise I'm getting now. Better than nothing! And besides, running a marathon is not my dream... more like a crazy idea and with the sole purpose being to raise money for charity. I could care less about accomplishment. Since there are other ways and other things I can do to raise money, not using a marathon for that purpose will probably be just fine.

Yup, in any case -- good run at the gym today! Got there just before noon and as usual was in and outta there and back home gettin' cleaned up in less than an hour. Time for a nap soon... I gotta work at 9 tonight, all night long, another overnight shift, my last for at least a couple weeks.

Hopefully another run tomorrow.
I'll probably be too darn tired but I'll see how it goes!

Part 1 is one post
before this one...
here's the rest...


A
Very
Special
Christmas

1989






192 kbps whole album dload
► A Very Special Christmas (Volume 1)

256 kbps
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) -- U2
I Wish Everyday Could Be Like Christmas -- Bon Jovi
Christmas In Hollis -- Run D.M.C.
Winter Wonderland -- The Eurythmics
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas -- The Pretenders
Run Rudolph Run -- Bryan Adams
Merry Christmas, Baby -- Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
+ a bonus tune...
• Santa Claus Is Coming To Town -- Springsteen & The E Street Band

There are a bunch of really good tunes on this album. Part 1 has the songs I care less for while (most of) these are my favorites. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) has seriously, I think, gotta be one of U2's best songs ever. Even the tune from Run D.M.C. is pretty cool as is Winter Wonderland from Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart (The Eurythmics.) And Run Rudolph Run is a fun romp from relic Bryan Adams... I guess he was pretty big when this was released in '89.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmasby The Pretenders is absolutely without a doubt one of the best versions I have ever heard. Chrissie Hyne makes this beautiful song just about perfect. It completely gives me the feeling of a peaceful and pleasant Christmas that I used to have years ago.

And while they don't have the same quiet sound as Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, both of Springsteen's tunes here are also Christmas to me. Each of them I used to hear on the radio quite often around Christmastime, back on New York City's WNEW (the best radio station in the world once upon a time) when I was growing up out in the Jersey 'burbs.

So much Christmas music I can't tolerate because it's garbage. Fortunately there are collections like this that give me some excellent Christmas tuneage that can be enjoyed all through the year, not just in December. With this album there's something for almost everyone and it's for a great cause which makes even sweeter!

This is an album that benefits an amazing and wonderful 501(c)(3) non-profit that does a beautiful thing in the world so please consider buying this and/or other volumes in the series.

The Special Olympics doesn't operate solely in the United States. Currently they reach an incredible 2.5 million people in 165 countries. If they had their way, they would leave NO one out.

Or please consider donating your time or a few dollars to this great organization. You don't have to give $100 or even $25... they would still appreciate even just 5 dollars! Most charities would. Please help. Thanks.

Early Morning Magic Snow Run

_· Run Time --- 9 minutes 34 seconds (+1:34)

__· Temperature -- 16ºF (-9ºC)

__· Total Trail Time -- 52 minutes

· Trail Time in October -- 8 hours 8 minutes

____(starting Oct. 1)
· Weight Loss Goal -- 24 pounds (11 kg)
__________· So Far -- 3 lb.

I hurt. Specifically my lungs hurt. It's not really a pain. It's more like -- it's tough to breathe properly when taking deep breaths. This was a seriously unfun run. This was not easy by any means. That's not accurate. The first minute was a piece of cake. The last 8½ minutes were essentially hell. That's not accurate. It wasn't really hell. The music playing in my ears was quite difficult to concentrate on due to my mind saying over and over, "Please be close to the end of the song. Please be close to the end of the song. Please be close to the end of the song." All I wanted was for the two chosen tracks to get done so my finishing cue would sound and I could stop and have relief. I could've just quit. That's not accurate. I couldn't just quit because I didn't want to quit, I don't wanna quit, I wanna get better at this. Last spring, before I fractured my tibia, I was improving so nicely. Each run was relatively easy. I was going around 20 minutes then. Now I'm not even to 10 yet. Perhaps I'm impatient and once again I'll get better. All I know is -- I am not looking forward to running ever again. But I will.

More Musical Magic...

Bruce Springsteen
and the E Street Band

Magic

2007

Radio Nowhere
You'll Be Comin' Down
Livin' In The Future
Your Own Worst Enemy
Gypsy Biker
Girls In Their Summer Clothes
I'll Work For Your Love
Magic
Last To Die
Long Walk Home
Devil's Arcade
[Untitled]

Prior to getting this a few days ago, I never heard the first single nor did I download any of it. I'm a fan of Bruuuuce, for sure, very much so... but seriously, one can wait awhile. Speechless Gasping is what many hardcore Bruce fans would think about that statement. I say -- come on, aren't there more important things in life? Will anyone really think about suicide and/or going on a shooting spree if they can't have a new album at the very earliest point in time they possibly can? I don't think so.

In any case, I finally got it and I've gotta say, it's pretty good. Springsteen and the E Street Band have recorded a pretty fun bunch o' tunes here. Many customer reviews on Amazon weren't very positive, often focusing on the sound of the recording being way too over-produced making the music somewhat unpleasant to listen to. I heard a couple instances of that but overall it's just good rockin' Springsteen.

Often I found myself being reminded of the past on so many of the tunes. A bunch feel like leftovers (without a 9/11 theme) from the last E Street Band album, The Rising which was recorded and came out not too long after 9/11, maybe in early 2002. Mostly I'm reminded of the Human Touch/Lucky Town era. One or two feel, at times, like maybe they coulda been on The River and even Born To Run.

One and only one tune I just can't care for and that's Bruce's heaviest political statement, Last To Die. It centers in on, what I am assuming is, the Iraq War. I guess to Bruce, removing Hussein was wrong and fighting terrorists who want us dead, that's all wrong. Maybe appeasing evil is right? Allowing evil men like Hussein to stay in power while they thumb their nose at the world, that's right? Maybe terrorism isn't really a threat to America? And maybe the United States should just sit down and try to talk with Muslim extremists who plan our destruction? Or just ignore them and allow them to do as they please without any interference? Damn, last thing I wanted to do with this writing was be political. Last thing I want from music is political messages but sometimes they're there and sometimes they're wrong. The song itself, like other political songs, isn't a bad song if it was fiction ... but it's Bruce who's making a mistake in singing it.

Anyway, Gypsy Biker is absolutely the best song on here, well, at least in my opinion. I've listened four times to the album so far and that's the only one I've always got to try to crank the volume up on just a little bit higher. Definitely I'm gonna be playing this a few more times in the immediate future and when all is said and done, even though it's Bruce's older stuff I'll turn to most often, I'm happy to have this album!

320 kbps dload
Bruce Springsteen - Magic