Just a few weeks following the release of their New Year's Eve show from Nassau Coliseum on December 31, 1980, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have confirmed the latest volume in their ongoing live archive series. Pre-orders are open now for Brendan Byrne Arena, New Jersey 1984. The release is a bittersweet one for New Jerseyans; the Byrne Arena (later the Continental Airlines Arena and the Izod Center) opened in July 1981 in East Rutherford's Meadowlands and earlier this year was closed, likely for the final time.
Springsteen and the E Street Band's August 5, 1984 concert from the Born in the USA tour, which commenced in June of that year, was recorded with the Record Plant Remote Truck by Toby Scott. Brendan Byrne Arena, New Jersey 1984 marks the first complete release of a show from the landmark tour which solidified Springsteen's reputation as the most electrifying performer in rock and roll. The tour introduced audiences to Nils Lofgren on guitar (replacing Steven Van Zandt) as well as The Boss' future wife Patti Scialfa on vocals and percussion. August 5 was the first of a ten-show stand at the arena, and includes a number of the songs from the chart-topping, international smash album (including the title song, "Glory Days," "My Hometown," "Dancing in the Dark" and "Bobby Jean") as well as staples like "Thunder Road," "Jungleland," "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" and "Born to Run" plus favorite covers such as "Jersey Girl" and the "Detroit Medley."
The show was recorded live with Record Plant Remote by Toby Scott, assisted by David Bianco and Jim Scott. It was transferred from 24-track analog tape to PCM 24 bit/192khz at Sonicraft in Freehold, New Jersey. The multitracks were mixed by Toby Scott at Thrill Hill, assisted by Rob Lebret. This release has been mastered by Adam Ayan at Gateway Mastering.
Due to the high quality of the recording, it will be offered in Direct Stream Digital or DSD ($39.95) - a format with 64 times the sampling rate of CD - as well as the usual options of MP3 ($9.95, 256 kbps), FLAC or Apple Lossless ($12.95), HD-Audio ($24.95, 24 bit/192 kHz, FLAC-HD or ALAC-HD) and CD-R ($23.00). CDs will not begin shipping until June 11, but those purchasing the CD have the usual option to pay an extra $5.00 to obtain the MP3s now.
All five volumes of The Bruce Springsteen Archive Series - plus a number of recent concerts from 2014 - are available at Springsteen's official live store for download and physical purchase. You can also sample tracks at this link which you'll find just below!
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Brendan Byrne Arena, New Jersey, 1984 (Columbia/Nugs.net, 2015)
Set One
- Born In the USA
- Out in the Street
- Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
- Atlantic City
- Johnny 99
- Highway Patrolman
- Prove It All Night
- Glory Days
- Promised Land
- Used Cars
- My Hometown
- Badlands
- Thunder Road
Set Two
- Hungry Heart
- Dancing in the Dark
- Cadillac Ranch
- Sherry Darling
- No Surrender
- Pink Cadillac
- Growin' Up
- Bobby Jean
- Backstreets
- Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
First Encore
- Jersey Girl
- Jungleland
Second Encore
- Born to Run
- Detroit Medley
- Travelin' Band
- Twist and Shout
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keep'em coming boss!!!
Not a huge Bruce fan, but this is one I will be buying!
How is the packaging on these Live CD-R's?? Fairly decent or minimal Amazon 'bare bones'??
The CD packaging is nice, but spare. It's similar to other concerts I've picked up from other artists like this. It's a brown-bag colored wallet that opens up with the discs in it with a black label across the outside (giving you the front and back art with the spine). The back has the track listing as well as the line-up of the band for the show. If you have more than one, they look nice on a shelf together. I kind of prefer this, to keep the price down on them.
Keep them coming
Pretty cool! I'll be getting this one too, just like all the others (Well, I haven't gotten the Apollo show yet... Very little post 80's Bruce interests me).
I was hoping the first 1984 release might be from the Alpine Valley shows that year. One of the shows is a good sounding audience release that I'd love to have as a pristine, official soundboard. The one I'm thinking of has an unreleased track that was only performed a handful of times -- "Man at the Top" -- but the "Travelin' Band" cover on this new release gives us something rare at least.
Maybe we'll get that Alpine Valley show, and an official release of the full 1978 Roxy show, and some 1976 and 1977 shows, eventually.
Downloaded, very good quality too.
I must admit I did find the playing quite raw and, including a pretty shocking sax break in Bobby Jean where most of the notes are not quite landed. Yes it was a long show...
Also the crowd noise is very invasive, it seems the audience will clap at just about anything that is said by Bruce or that happens on stage. I am all for an artist being appreciated but it is kinda wearing.
Allphones, Sydney was the best release so far for me.