After reviewing the final show of the Reunion Tour, I now feel inclined to talk a bit more about my other 10/10 Archive Series release, another of my favourites and most played: The famed Stockholm radio broadcast, complete with the additional two hours presented in the same quality as that of the opening set fans had been playing over and over for years.

Yes, for as lucky as fans all over the world were on July 3rd 1988 to hear the first hour and twenty minutes of this show, it was essentially one big tease as the broadcast would come to an abrupt end following the best “Born in the U.S.A.” that Springsteen and The E Street Band have ever performed. Roger Scott – who was hosting the Radio 1 broadcast in the UK – summed up what everyone listening was thinking when he quipped, “it makes you want to jump on a plane to Stockholm to catch the second half of the show doesn’t it?” Well, since November 2017 fans have been able to transport themselves into 1988 courtesy of this Nugs.net release and experience one of the Archive Series’ finest shows.

While the Tunnel of Love Express Tour was notable for its static setlists and the way it was structured meant a majority of E Street warhorses were shelved, the nightly playing of a good half of songs performed in this show of course had its benefits in making this the tightest of all Springsteen and The E Street Band performances, as evidenced in the mighty cover of John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom”, coming after a splendid “Tunnel of Love” opener where Bruce, Patti and The Horns of Love set the tone for the night with superb vocals and sublime playing. The only downside of this one is the VFX on Nils’ guitar being substandard on this occasion, which makes this the lesser of the three available live versions from 1988.

Fortunately, Nils’ guitar playing in general on the night is very good and a large part of what makes songs such as “Seeds”, “Roulette” and “Because the Night” as good as they are. The aforementioned “Boom Boom” and “Adam Raised a Cain” see Bruce perform with some serious intensity and both versions allow for all instruments: guitars, bass, drums, horns, to combine for a powerful ten minutes of music. That being said, it’s “The River” that stands out in this opening (and arguably the rest of the show) as the perfect performance. I’ve written before about this version being the best of all available live versions of the song and I stand by that to this day. Springsteen’s vocals and harmonica, Federici’s organ playing, Lofgren’s acoustic guitar and Bittan’s piano all create such an eerie and despondent atmosphere that sets this apart from any other performance – yeah, even the ‘man possessed’ masterpiece from Tempe ’80. – so if you’ve never heard this, hurry up and check it out!

The mood is momentarily lifted with “All That Heaven Will Allow” and Springsteen’s first opportunity to talk to those in attendance. While I’ve seen photos and bits of footage from this show over the years, it’s Springsteen’s talking about the summertime and what he’s seen everyone wearing is that allows me to picture this night in my mind. Of course, Clarence’s sax and Danny’s synth add a lot to the ambiance and vision of the scenery. Without the park bench intro, this is an easier listen and is a nice breather after the sorrow of “The River” and before the run of songs focusing on political and relationship catastrophes.

“Seeds” starts that run and really all you can do during this one is to sit back and marvel at the full band performance. Bruce’s rage is reflected well by Nils’ and Garry’s riffs – that “you’re better off buyin’ a shotgun dead off the rack” line is one of my favourite moments of the entire show. “Roulette” afterwards is mainly a showcase of Max and Clarence, but it features that anger from Bruce – listen to the “I got a house fulla things that I can’t touch” line – in the previous song and Patti also provides more excellent backing vocals. Truth be told, it’s because of how good this is that “Seeds” doesn’t shine massively like it does in the Madison Square Garden ’88 release.

It might be worth mentioning that these particular performances of “Seeds” and “Roulette”, as well as the two songs that follow, “Cover Me” and “Brilliant Disguise” were the ones I chose as the “definitive versions” earlier this year. That’s how high I rate this four-pack of songs from this show. As I mentioned in their respective guide, it’s primarily the the interpolation of “Gimme Shelter” in “Cover Me” and that perfectly simple, “watch out” to transition into “Brilliant Disguise” that contributes towards me loving these two versions more than any other. Well, them and the stellar vocals and guitar playing that is. Being performed after details of Bruce’s personal life were made public these two tracks, “Brilliant Disguise” in particular, have so much more about them and you can feel that he’s almost trying to warn the audience to make the same mistakes as him. There’s a lot of pain in that voice.

“Tougher Than The Rest” is next, being included in the first set rather than opening the second in order to give it some radio play and promotion and while Springsteen’s vocals aren’t as immaculate singing this one as they would be at Christic two years later, this is a solid version that’s elevated by Max’s drumming, the work of the Horns and Patti’s contributions. It’s interesting to listen to this one after “Brilliant Disguise”, as there’s no pain or regret in his voice here, but instead an exhausted acceptance of guilt and a confession of true feelings (in public) to the woman he’s looking at while singing.

So, the reason “The River” is only arguably the stand out of the show is because I’d argue the “Spare Parts” / “War” / “Born in the U.S.A.” trio is to absolutely everyone. Even without thinking of the notion of a child being raised by a single mother, going into an unnecessary war and coming home a broken man betrayed by his government and country, these three songs just sound so damn good. Fuelled by Springsteen’s fury and seething instrumentals, what we get in this twenty minutes is essentially the peak of The E Street Band in 1988. This is trifecta, but mainly “BITUSA”, is something I can only as one Springsteen fan to another implore you to listen to, for your own benefit. The haunting screams and riveting guitar solo to end the latter are, well, beautifully contrasted by the closing song of the set.

After announcing their involvement in the Human Rights Now! Tour later that year, Springsteen and The E Street Band play their cover of Bob Dylan’s “Chimes of Freedom”. I’ve talked before about how Springsteen has this amazing knack of making other people’s songs his, and “Chimes” is most definitely one of them. Sung to perfection, this choice of cover not only represents the theme of the oncoming tour, but also acts as a fitting bookend to the set following “Born in the U.S.A.”, with the protagonist’s support towards the tyrannised. Even though this and the rest of the set had been circulating in very good quality for years before this official release, there’s a special aura to the first set that sounds even better thanks to Altschiller’s mix and Ayan’s master.

With “Tougher” having already been played, the second set opens with a track that harks back to almost a decade earlier – only four days out from the ten year anniversary of The Roxy ’78 – as “Paradise By The “C”” allows for a Big Man inspired instrumental to ease us back in a second set that’s nearly as good as the first. “Paradise” isn’t the only immediate contrast to the usual ToL Express Tour setlist as “Ain’t Got You” is replaced by “Who Do You Love”, which I prefer a lot more. Both are very similar in the guitar and drumming, but I think Bruce’s less downbeat tone of voice makes for a much better listen and because of that “She’s the One” seems to be more lively – if that was even possible – with Bruce sounding more triumphant than desperate.

As for the rockabilly “You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)” that follows, I’ve said in the past that I consider this to be the best of all the available live versions, as for a song that had been played in two different ways to the studio version on the tour, The E Street Band are performing remarkably well. I also really love the “Don’t touch that thing” intro for the humorous ‘stories’ and Nils’ ongoing guitar riff. This four-pack is what I’d consider to be equally safe and experimental, the safe performance being “Paradise By The “C”” and the experimental being the “Who Do You Love” cover and the alternate “You Can Look”, but it’s the five-pack that comes next that I believe to be the strongest of the second set.

As mentioned in another post, this “I’m a Coward” has few differences to the versions in Los Angeles and New York, but there’s a strong connection between Springsteen and the audience in this one that I don’t think is present in the other two performances. He’s comical in calling out Godzilla and Mike Tyson, he’s serious in admitting his relationship failures, and it’s clear that he’s having the time of his life. It works well alongside the always excellent “I’m on Fire”, which focuses on the lustful desires of relationships and sounds immense thanks to Bruce’s singing, Danny’s organ playing and Garry’s bass in particular. The themes continue with “Downbound Train’s” loss of love and the dejection that comes with it. This is an excellent version, but does suffer from Bruce not singing that high note (“‘boundtraaaiiiinnn“) that he’d sang on previous tours and would sing again in the future. That can be forgiven though due to the continuing great vocals and guitar playing in the song, and these elements are even more evident in “Because the Night”. Listening to this version again, a good argument could be made for it being one of the very best released through the Archive Series.

“Dancing in the Dark” and “Light of Day” end the main set, and while the latter is nothing particularly special and quite skippable on future listens, this “Dancing” is an absolute joy to hear time and time again. It’s noticeable that the audience’s participation is mixed quite low, which is one of the series’ greatest inconsistencies, but the sound of the performance is sublime. Springsteen sounds really motivated and is complemented by Nils’ “even if we’re just dancin’“, Max’s stellar beat and, particularly, Clarence’s amazing outro solo that I always think should’ve been included fully on the studio release.

Starting the encore is the beautiful acoustic “Born to Run”, which has a different vibe to it in this show in comparison to the Los Angeles release. In the LA show it’s unquestionably the highlight, whereas in this one I can’t help but think it’s more of a ‘hidden gem’ thanks to the amount of spectacular performances before and after it. Hearing and appreciating the likes of “The River” and “Chimes of Freedom” genuinely makes you forget about this, so when it starts it sounds even better. Unfortunately, for as great as this one is, I’ve always been bored listening to the horns heavy versions of “Hungry Heart” and “Glory Days” that are played next. They’re not bad performances by any means, but at a combined fifteen minutes, I’d rather be listening to something different, like the next four tracks that come a combined eighteen minutes.

“Can’t Help Falling in Love” is relatively overproduced when comparing it to the lovely intimate performance from Wembley ’81, but you can still hear the genuineness in Bruce’s voice when he’s singing the lyrics enough to make this a really enjoyable listen. In a show that’s full of special moments, the biggest surprise to me first time round was Bruce saying, “here he is, ladies and gentlemen Mr Jon Landau!” because who on Earth saw that one coming!? That’s right, Bruce’s manager, Mr Landau, joins him and The E Street Band on guitar for a stunning performance of “Bobby Jean” and does a more than impressive job alongside Bruce and Nils.

The “Cadillac Ranch” that follows isn’t the wildest version of the song I’ve ever heard, but it’s fun and nice to have a performance of this song from 1988. While The Horns of Love are also prominent in this one, in contrast to “Hungry Heart” and “Glory Days”, this is far from boring. The same can be said for “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”, which isn’t the perfect version of the song, but is powerful, funky and after three hours a testament to the quality of Bruce Springsteen’s vocals in 1988. He (still) sounds amazing singing this one and is, once more, backed up greatly by the entire E Street Band.

After teasing the audience about them getting tired on him, the home stretch of the show finally begins – only lasting the thirty minutes – kicking off with a magnificent cover of Arthur Conley’s “Sweet Soul Music” where Bruce’s singing is (somehow) better than at the start of the show. Seriously, listen to the moment where he sings, “spotlight on the band now, working hard for the money“. It’s bliss. Much like “Paradise By The ‘C'”, “Raise Your Hand” is an outing that brings up similarities to The Roxy ’78, and also like the former, it’s a safe choice to keep the audience moving in the final stages of the show. This “Quarter to Three” is the first live E Street performance since 1981 and it sounds a lot more polished, even if not properly rehearsed. There are a few moments of madness, but it’s nowhere near as chaotic as the No Nukes version and others from the 70s. The show closes with a ten minute “Twist and Shout”, which does its job of sending the audience home happy and exhausted, while showing that time isn’t an issue for Springsteen and The E Street Band, who sing and play like they’ve just started. It’s truly staggering.

Even with a couple of tracks that don’t thrill me, there’s no doubt in my mind that this is one of the best releases from the Archive Series. If you’ve ever had a negative interpretation of this tour because of what was going on in Springsteen’s personal life and because of the E Street Band firing a year later, all I can say is to listen to this, it’ll change your view of the tour, the era and might also change what you believe to be the best E Street tour.

Rating: 10/10

Kieran’s recommended listening from July 3rd, 1988 – Stockholm, SE:

“Boom Boom”, “The River”, “Seeds”, “Roulette”, “Cover Me”, Brilliant Disguise”, “Spare Parts”, “War”, “Born in the U.S.A.”, “Chimes of Freedom”, “You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)”, “Downbound Train”, “Because the Night”, “Dancing in the Dark”, “Born to Run”, “Bobby Jean”, “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” and “Sweet Soul Music”.

You can download this magnificent concert here.