Bruce Springsteen - Live in Dublin with the Sessions Band

[Sydneyfan]

Oh yeeesssss.

Uncut loves it and the other reviews I've read today are equally glowing. Can't wait to get this one.


In these demographic-specific times, Springsteen's desire to reach out and encompass a wider tradition than ever ironically means he gets smaller audiences. Yet the largest band of his career - the live incarnation of The Seeger Sessions album outfit – is the most the most mournful and celebratory. And, all due respect to the chaps and chappessses on
E Street, possibly the best.

You can't see the most racially complex and gender-blended band of Bruce's career on this set from Dublin barn The Point (recorded over three November nights last year). But you certainly can hear it - and also how much they had increased in fluidity and sense of purpose from their debut performance in New Orleans earlier that April.

That show had added emotional edge, given the distinctive Crescent City thread Bruce brought to proceedings, in the post Katrina protest climate. Here, though, The Boss’s mastery of several traditions in American music simply teems with glee and finery. On "Old Dan Tucker", second song in, bright country fiddle, weird but rapturous brass and massed harmonies make the overcooked "Atlantic City" seem an odd opener.

Bruce's connection to folk protest deepens, in righteously swaggering preacher and congregation style, on the epochal rewrite of "How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live". A Depression era classic that Springsteen found on a Ry Cooder album and then amended with his own brilliantly Bush-baiting verse is perhaps the most politically extreme and, as hammered home here, exultant performance of his career.

Arguably even more profound, certainly as dramatic, is "Eyes On The Prize". Gilded by pedal steel and prowling stand up bass, the duet between Springsteen and raw throated guitar player Mark Anthony Thompson is like Sinatra and Sammy Davis doing revolutionary Gospel.
The stately waltz of "If I Should Fall Behind", a duet with Patty Sciafla, meanwhile brings the drama of the human heart into focus, while the choruses of "When The Saints Go Marching In" and "This Little Light Of Mine" rock free and easy.

In short, it's everything Springsteen's big-hearted thoughtfully impassioned take on Americana ever set out to be. Swing out sisters and brothers, swing out.

[blueone]

I'm reallllllly excited for this now. I don't think it's going to leave my CD player for a few weeks. Such great shows.

[blueone]

Plus, "epochal" is my new favourite word.

[Sydneyfan]

Plus, "epochal" is my new favourite word.

I love the "Boss as preacher" image in that review. :guitarsolo

[blueone]

I'm liking the reviewer muchly, or maybe it's just a really good record. :D

[Sydneyfan]

Oh my. Just picked this up a couple of hours ago. Sensational. The band is incredible, the audience is brilliant (they not only sing along, they sound good doing it) and the Boss is in top form.

I don't think I've ever heard a live album that is quite as celebratory and joyous as this one.

[Sydneyfan]

Highlights so far after a number of listens:

The alt-country version of Growin Up. Pedal steel y'all.

The slow gospel version of When The Saints Come Marching In

Seegerised cut of Highway Patrolman. Piano/strings = outstanding.

[blueone]

:rock You're the 2nd person I know who is loving this albumn! I need to get it soon!!! :D

[blueone]

Ok, I went out and got it today. This is some goddamn awesome stuff. Every song is top notch. :upyours

[blueone]

I'm blown away how good it makes some of the more boring songs off the studio albumn (Eyes On The Prize, for example. It's now a bundle of gospel goodness).

[blueone]

Apparently we're the only Springsteen fans here. :lol

[Sydneyfan]

Apparently we're the only Springsteen fans here. :lol

:lol These people are crazy.

I even love the live version of Old Dan Tucker, even though I thought the studio version was a bit meh. Its all the energy from the audience that makes the difference.

[blueone]

Do you agree that this is far superior to the studio albumn?

[Sydneyfan]

Do you agree that this is far superior to the studio albumn?

Without a doubt. These song work so much better in a live setting with an enthusiastic audience. Its brilliant stuff.

[blueone]

A particularly brucey amen to that. :upyours

[maleneee]

I think I need to get myself a copy of this.

[blueone]

That's a wise choice. :D

[blueone]

Although I will admit to absolutely loathing the reworked version of 'Blinded By The Light'...

[Sydneyfan]

Although I will admit to absolutely loathing the reworked version of 'Blinded By The Light'...

I don't mind it. But there are plenty of much stronger tunes on the album.

[Sydneyfan]

:rock

One listen to the joyous noise made on the track "O' Mary Don't You Weep," and any doubts I had about The Seeger Sessions were wiped clean off the map. In a gruff voice reminiscent somewhat of a born again Tom Waits, Springsteen summons all the fire and brimstone of Moses himself as he belts out the lines about how "Pharoah's army got drownded" while his gospel army of singers and musicians wail on in rapturous delight.

As my fellow Blogcritic Lisa McKay put it in an email just the other day, "'O' Mary' kicks ass." Yes it does, Lisa.

The setlist here runs the gamut from the Springsteen Songbook to the Smithsonian. You get the "Seegerized" versions of Springsteen classics like "Atlantic City," "Blinded By The Light," and "Growin' Up." You also get well chosen covers from the folk tradition like "We Shall Overcome," straight up Dixieland jazz in the form of "When The Saints Go Marching In," and even spirituals like "This Little Light Of Mine."

In performing these songs, The Sessions Band (shortened here from its original "Seeger Sessions Band" moniker) draw from multiple uniquely American music traditions including New Orleans Jazz, Southern Gospel, and even Roadhouse Blues to create a ruckus that is quite unlike anything you have ever heard. In their own way, these guys make every bit the noise with their banjos, trombones, and fiddles that the E Street Band does with their own guitars and drums. Like those legendary E Street shows, the crowd also gets into the act quoting entire song verses in unison. And Springsteen himself appears to be having the time of his life here.

The highlights on this set are too numerous to mention. They include a reworking of Springsteen's "Open All Night" where the stark number from Nebraska becomes a boogie-woogie workout, complete with a mid-section featuring four female vocalists (led by Patti Scalfia) trying to out doo-wop four male vocalists doing their best to keep up. Bruce gets into his best tent-revival preacher's mode here leading the call and response.

"Long Time Comin" from Devils And Dust gets a surprisingly straight treatment here - albeit with a full band featuring horns, fiddles, and the rest. One of the best songs from that album, it sounds great here in a full-on band arrangement which has me whetting my lips to hear it again with the E Street Band. By the time of "Pay Me My Money Down," the crowd is eating out of Bruce's hand, continuing to sing even after the song has ended. The DVD also has an impromptu, uncredited backstage performance of "Cadillac Ranch."

The Seeger Sessions tour never played my hometown of Seattle, making it the first Springsteen tour I've missed since I first saw him on the 1975 tour for Born To Run. Experiencing this great performance on both CD and DVD makes me realize just how great a show I missed. It also shows a side of Springsteen that has never before been revealed.

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/06/07/090810.php

[blueone]

What a charming chap. :)

[Whiskeyfan]

Yeah this record got me through my hangover last weekend at work. I can always count on The Boss to ease my suffering. I agree that these songs just become amazing with such great crowd participation, I totally lost my shit when I heard it and tried to start selling it to randoms in the store I work. Alas there were no takers...

[Sydneyfan]

I totally lost my shit when I heard it and tried to start selling it to randoms in the store I work. Alas there were no takers...

:lol Good work!

btw - this is a great album to listen to while driving. Except you may look like a knob singing along.

[thunderoad]

I got the dvd/cd package two weeks ago, and I've been playing the dvd constantly since, Open All Night is so fucking droolworthy

[Sydneyfan]

I got the dvd/cd package two weeks ago, and I've been playing the dvd constantly since, Open All Night is so fucking droolworthy

Open All Night is ridiculously good.

I also love how the audience keeps on singing Old Dan Tucker after the song is finished. They are so into the moment they don't even need Bruce and the band anymore.

[Sydneyfan]

The only thing that could have made this album better is if they had included the versions of Johnny 99 and The Ghost of Tom Joad that are on the PBS EP.

[jumpshipmusic]

I saw this a few weeks ago when it came out. Definitely gonna pick it up based on the reviews and your thoughts.