Bruce Springsteen is returning to Darkness.  Last week, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the performance, Springsteen gave his concert from July 7, 1978 at the Roxy in West Hollywood, California its first official release as part of his ongoing Archive series.  The gig was part of the tour to promote the Darkness On The Edge of Town album.  This particular tour has been well-documented: this latest release marks the fourth show to be officially released from the tour.

The Darkness album had been released just a little over a month prior to this concert in June.  Springsteen and the E Street Band had actually kicked off the tour to promote the album a month before that in May.  For many, the 1978 tour is considered the best of Springsteen's career and the Roxy gig is one of the best shows of the tour.  The show took place a couple of days after Springsteen headlined the Fabulous Forum in L.A. and was unannounced until the last minute.  It would also be the first club date played by Springsteen in almost three years.  Many more potential concertgoers showed up for tickets than could fit in the 500-capacity Roxy.  Luckily for those left out, the concert was broadcast on L.A. radio station KMET.  (A total of five shows were broadcast from the Darkness tour.)

The setlist naturally features several songs from Darkness.  But Springsteen and the E Street Band did give the audience and listeners something special with debut performances of several songs including covers of Buddy Holly's "Rave On" and Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" and two songs which would show up eventually on The River album: "Independence Day" in a solo piano version and "Point Blank."

The Roxy gig has been famous since it was first heard by audiences.  Eight songs where excerpted from the show for 1986's Live 1975-1985 box set.  These include "Adam Raised a Cain," "Sprit in the Night," "Paradise by the 'C'," "Growin' Up," "It's Hard To Be a Saint In The City," "Backstreets," "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" and "Raise Your Hand."  ("Backstreets" was edited on that box; it has been returned to its full length for this new release.)  Due to its radio broadcast, the concert has circulated unofficially for years.  This marks its first official release, and naturally, in superior sound.

The concert was recorded live with the Wally Heider Mobile truck by Jimmy Iovine and crew (Pete Carlson, Biff Dawes, Dennis Mays, Phil MacConnell and Paul Sandweiss).  It has been mixed by Jon Altschiller from a 24 track 2" 15 IPS tape source with additional engineering by Danielle Warman.  It has been mastered to DSD and PCM by Adam Ayan at Gateway Mastering in Portland, ME.

The release will be offered in Direct Stream Digital or DSD ($49.95) - 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 are shipping now but those purchasing the CD sets have the option to pay $28.00 to obtain the MP3s immediately.

All previous volumes in The Bruce Springsteen Archive Series 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, The Roxy, West Hollywood, California, 1978 (Columbia/Nugs.net, 2018)

Set One

1. Rave On!
2. Badlands
3. Sprit in the Night
4. Darkness On The Edge of Town
5. Candy's Room
6. For You
7. Point Blank
8. The Promised Land
9. Prove It All Night
10. Racing in the Street
11. Thunder Road

Set Two

1. Paradise By the "C"
2. Fire
3. Adam Raised A Cain
4. Mona
5. She's The One
6. Growin' Up
7. It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City
8. Backsteets
9. Heartbreak Hotel
10. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)

First Encore

1. Independence Day
2. Born To Run
3. Because The Night
4. Raise Your Hand
5. Second Encore Break

Second Encore

1. Twist And Shout