Capitol Theatre 40 yrs ago today. The end of an era for me.
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On this date in 1978 Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band did what many consider the greatest concert of all time in New Jersey. Simulcast by WNEW-FM to radio stations around the country it is also one of the most bootlegged shows on Springsteen's career. It was the middle show of a 3 night stand and my 23rd and final show on the Darkness On The Edge of Town tour. (more about that later) The concert sound, as well as the stereo broadcast mix was done by recording engineer, producer, founder of Interscope Records and current chairman of Interscope-Geffen-A&M.
Here is a link to the in house video from that night. https://youtu.be/o1EPtFQFTLA
I had crisscrossed the US from Boston to Red Rocks and back following this tour all because I wanted to get back at my parent's for not allowing me to go on Dead Spring '77 tour because it was my senior year in high school. I showed them and took off in my '73 Chrysler Newport Royale buying tickets along the way for as little as 2 dollars in middle America to see what, in my opinion, was the tour which all others are judged. At the conclusion of this show, I realized that I would never top the shows I had already seen and was just chasing the dragon at this point of time. In the next few days I sold the rest of the tickets I had to very grateful fans. While still a fan, I didn't see Bruce Springsteen again live until 1992...by choice. it wasn't going to get any better than I had already seen. Waited again until 2003 and The Rising Tour but slipped back into my addicted ways soon after. lol
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Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Sycamore Slough
Went to this one, a
Went to this one, a difficult ticket to find. My buddy in High School got me one last-minute; his Dad worked at Princeton University as a bigwig in the Alumni relations dep't. One of the most amazing Rock shows I've ever encountered. Although that year I saw Talking Heads, ELO, Peter Tosh, The Rolling Stones, Yes, and Foreigner. Pretty good for a 13-year old without a car.
Looking at the list, I see that it was the premiere of "Ties That Bind". As a kid, I knew most of the songs but thought that one was "Your Tire's On Fire".
I've always wanted to get a recording of this show, and see that they exist.
https://theultimatebootlegexperience7.blogspot.com/2014/10/bruce-springs...
"...BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND THE E STREET BAND
Jadwin Gymnasium, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
November 1, 1978
Darkness On The Edge Of Princeton
cdr -> db poweramp -> flac (level 8)
CD 1
01. Intro (sc)
02. The Ties That Bind (sc)
03. Thunder Road (sc)
04. Badlands (sc)
05. Prove It All Night (sc)
06. The Promised Land (sc)
07. Badlands
08. Streets Of Fire
09. Spirit In The Night
10. The Ties That Bind
11. Darkness On The Edge Of Town
12. Independence Day
13. The Promised Land
CD 2
01. Prove It All Night
02. Racing In The Street
03. Thunder Road
04. Jungleland
05. Fire
06. Candy's Room
07. Because The Night
08. Point Blank
09. The Fever
CD 3
01. Not Fade Away / She's The One
02. Backstreets
03. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
04. Born To Run
05. Quarter To Three
Notes (from brucebase)
Audience tape - Premiere of The Ties That Bind.
A reader present comments "I rank this as one of the all-time greatest Bruce concerts
(of the 50+ I have attended and I know I’m just a piker on that standard).
The audience jumping and dancing caused the gym floor to vibrate and move up and down.
The “urban legend” is that this concert caused structural damage to the facility
and that this was the last major rock concert to take place in Jadwin gym."...."
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Bryen
Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band - Rosalita
https://youtu.be/z1jMGOdjVg8
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Sycamore Slough
Regarding "Urban Legend"
Regarding "Urban Legend" described above --
I was close to the stage, maybe 10 - 12 rows back. Excellent seat. They were assigned seats and the chairs were folding 'Samsonite' type chairs. Everyone on the floor did indeed jump up & down on their chairs, for most of the show, causing a 'Resonant Wave' upon the structure.
So it (Jadwin Gymnasium) is primarily a College basketball gym. The floor did actually undulate like a mild Sea, and the upper balcony structures were also moving around on a vertical axis. If you were there, it was obvious. E-Street band literally almost tore down the place.
But the death-knell to having more Rock concerts there was the damage to the "Tartan" floor. It's liek, a very tough sponge material. All the Samsonite chairs became little boring devices from the people jumping, and the metal tubes wore through the rubber feet, then the Tarp, and ruined the Tartan surface.
I think 'Boston' was the last band that played there for some years.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: skyjunk
I will see your no show and
I will see your nj show and raise you the WMMS broadcast of a show at the Cleveland agora in 78
https://youtu.be/79FibeilkPk
my buddy claims that an an earlier Springsteen show at the agora, and South Side Johnny’s band was playing a bar next door. Both bands went played the same song and south side Johnny and Bruce worked their ways out of the clubs and finished in the street with both singing away
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: skyjunk
At the time of the wmms
At the time of the wmms broadcast I was working for dominos delivering pizzas in NE Ohio. This show has always been special to me. I spent the night driving around, smoking pot, delivering pizzas while the show played. My walks to the door steps and at the shop to pick up more pizzzas became sprints. It felt like my own personal show going on in my Impala. I went to the Richfield show also that year, and was blown away seeing him live for the first time
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Lasher Von Zekenstein
The closest I can come to
The closest I can come to having anything to do with this is that I ran about 8 track meets in Jadwin Gym. LOL.
I think I chose NOT to get Springsteen in the 70s, because everyone I knew growing up in Jersey raved about him, and I didn't want to get on that bus.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: skifurthur
Unfortunately, I did not
Unfortunately, I did not attend the Princeton show. That was one of the shows after the Capitol and I sold my tickets. Was pretty easy to unload them.
Out of the three radio broadcast shows on that tour, Passaic, Cleveland and San Francisco, I attended the Passaic and Cleveland shows. There have been debates since the shows happened on which show was "the one!" From my ratings, I vote the Capitol Theatre show, perhaps because it was home turf for me and Springsteen. Truth be told, out of 23 shows, I would rate all of them as A and at least 5 A+. I didn't see an A- show on that tour and I suspect nobody else did either. It was a moment in time that everyone who attended remembers as some of the best shows, if not the best, that they ever saw.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: skifurthur
I think I chose NOT to get
Silly zeke. :-)
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Bluelight
Such a cool post Tony
Such a cool post Tony
I memorized it.
You going to see Nils Lofgren this week?
He's playing The Space in Westbury tonight and I 'm going.
50% of the tickets remain. Seats this time, no general admin.
If you do come, I want meet you & say hi ~
I am "Dead-Center" third row sporting a Blue Jerry Garcia hat.
Peace ~
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Lance minimum goad Newberry
Tony, I came upon this photo
This photo crossed my path on facebook recently.
I think this is from his Steel Mill days.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: skifurthur
You going to see Nils Lofgren
I was going to see him in Asbury Park earlier this week but had some work come up. Nils as a solo/duo act is an amazing thing. Be ready for the tap dancing solo.
Yep. From when he was living in "Tinker" West's surfboard shaping space. Also when Bill Graham wanted to sign him and brought him and the band out to California to sell him on the idea.