By Bobby Olivier | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Down in the basement of Bruce Springsteen's imagined musical library — beneath the main floor that would house his 18 studio LPs, officially released B-sides, compilations, live packages and box sets — lies an immeasurable amount of bootlegged material: unofficial, often amateur recordings of The Boss's songs dating all the way back to his high school band The Castiles.

Now, any Springsteen super-fan worth his or her saltwater taffy values these rare cassettes and vinyls high above any record you could've bought at your local Sam Goody. Hop on eBay and you'll see how much more these cuts are worth to collectors than the average album.

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But even casual fans — especially those in the Garden State — know there is one bootleg in particular, recorded at an old North Jersey theater 40 years ago today, that is often listed above all others for its capturing of what many diehards consider to be one of the greatest Bruce performances of all time: Springsteen and The E Street Band's legendary Sept. 19, 1978, concert held at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic.

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It was an immense, three-hour jam session The Star-Ledger’s music critic George Kanzler Jr. described as “driving, apocalyptic rock n’ roll,” performed before an “ecstatic” crowd of about 3,300, who got up close and personal with The Boss on his first of three nights booked at the venue.

“Springsteen proved he was a real rock hero early, during his second number, ‘Spirit In The Night,’ when he leaped down into the stomping, swaying crowd in front of the stage and sang along with them,” Kanzler wrote, in his review headlined “Fantasy Rules As ‘The Boss’ Thunders On.” “What other rock star could throw himself into his audience and emerge unscathed?”

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This late summer date, booked as part of the heavily fan-lauded Darkness Tour, turned out to be a pivotal roadshow for Bruce and E Street. It perpetuated the band’s reputation as a propulsive live-music force, despite its corresponding 1978 release, “Darkness On The Edge Of Town,” failing to produce a high-charting single. “The River” would follow in 1980, “Hungry Heart” would become the band’s first Top-10 single, and onward it hurtled toward superstardom.

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But in September 1978, the concert that would soon be labeled Springsteen's "Piece De Resistance" reached far more fans than those in the building. This concert was famously broadcast live on 10 rock radio stations throughout the northeast (New Jerseyans would have heard it via WNEW in New York or WIOQ in Philadelphia). And from there, countless avid listeners recorded the radio feed, creating their own homemade copies. Plenty more would buy the official "Piece" bootleg (talk about an oxymoron) when it was released later that year by Great Dane Records.

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A page from the program provided to attendees of the Sept. 19, 1978, concert.

Courtesy of Brucebase

"I wasn't at this show, but I feel like I was," says John Kelly, administrator for the highly active "Brucebook" Facebook fan group. "I bought the 'Piece De Resistance' bootleg as soon as it became available and listened to it just about every night as a student at Syracuse University. My best friend Kevin and I would play backgammon and listen to this incredible show until we knew every word spoken by heart. I think it is either the greatest bootleg from the Darkness tour ... or perhaps the second greatest after the Winterland radio broadcast."

And Joe Csire, a Springsteen fan from Connecticut, still has his copy.

“It was the first Bruce Boot that I ever bought, a reaffirmation of his show I saw earlier in the summer in New Haven. I picked it up for $15 which was about my monthly record budget at the time. I dubbed it onto cassette, and listened to it commuting to school my first semester freshman year just about every day. One of the best music purchases I ever made, and still one of my favorite live recordings.”

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Courtesy of Joe Csire

In-house video was also recorded during this show, and exists on YouTube in austere black and white, though the intensity from this performance can still be felt. Springsteen released official audio of the following night, Sept. 20, 1978, in December 2017. Though Sept. 19 is the iconic outing fans speak of most when discussing Bruce's three-night stay at the Capitol, which earlier that year had hosted one of the most memorable Rolling Stones concerts in New Jersey history. The theater was torn down in 1991.

Check out the epic setlist below, which closes with a longtime favorite cover of Springsteen: Eddie Floyd’s 1967 banger “Raise Your Hand.” Also worth noting: Two tracks from "The River," which would not be released for two years, appear in this set, as well as "new tracks."

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The setlist

"Badlands"

"Streets of Fire"

"Spirit in the Night"

"Darkness on the Edge of Town"

"Independence Day"

"The Promised Land"

"Prove It All Night"

"Racing in the Street"

"Thunder Road"

"Meeting Across the River"

"Jungleland"

Set II

"Kitty's Back"

"Fire"

"Candy's Room"

"Because the Night"

"Point Blank"

"Not Fade Away" / "She's the One"

"Backstreets"

"Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)"

Encore:

"4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)"

"Born to Run"

"Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out"

Detroit Medley

"Raise Your Hand" (Eddie Floyd cover)

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Bobby Olivier may be reached at bolivier@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BobbyOlivier and Facebook. Find NJ.com on Facebook.