Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band 2023 02 05 Amway Center

As measured by cultural impact and mass popularity, Bruce Springsteen’s 1984-85 World Tour was the apex. Considering its stunning scale, playing multi-night stadium stands, it’s easy to forget that 1984 was a rebirth of sorts, the start of a new era as much as a continuation of what came before it. On the biggest tour of his career, Springsteen was rebuilding the engine while the plane was flying.

The Tunnel of Love tour again? That’s surely a sentiment some are expressing with this month’s release of New York 5/16/88, the outstanding opening night performance from the final, five-show stand on the US leg of the 1988 tour.

Bruce Springsteen surprised diehard fans over the holidays, releasing the first-ever official recording of his legendary and much-bootlegged concert on August 9, 1978 with the E Street Band at Cleveland's Agora. The new stereo mix was available for download only at first, but a Triple-CD set has been released via live-brucespringsteen-net.

Imagine that years after your favorite television series had ended (be it Seinfeld, The Sopranos, Stath Lets Flats, Twin Peaks or any other), you learned that additional episodes had been shot during the show’s best years and were about to be released in pristine quality. Would it matter that you had already watched dozens of episodes from the same season?

As measured by cultural impact and mass popularity, Bruce Springsteen’s 1984-85 World Tour was the apex. Considering its stunning scale, playing multi-night stadium stands, it’s easy to forget that 1984 was a rebirth of sorts, the start of a new era as much as a continuation of what came before it. On the biggest tour of his career, Springsteen was rebuilding the engine while the plane was flying.

Playing what was originally scheduled to be their final show of the tour, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band drop one of the best of 1978 at The Fox. No full recording of Atlanta 10/1/78, audience or otherwise, has ever been available. Newly mixed from Plangent Processed, multitrack masters, 10/1/78 is a previously unheard Darkness tour masterwork, from the show-opening cover of the Rolling Stones' "The Last Time" through the encore closer "Quarter To Three." In between, we're treated to "Heartbreak Hotel," "It's My Life," "Meeting Across The River," "For You," "Because The Night," "Point Blank," "Kitty's Back" and "Incident On 57th Street" across this go-out-with-a-bang, 24-song set.

Playing what was originally scheduled to be their final show of the tour, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band drop one of the best of 1978 at The Fox. No full recording of Atlanta 10/1/78, audience or otherwise, has ever been available. Newly mixed from Plangent Processed, multitrack masters, 10/1/78 is a previously unheard Darkness tour masterwork, from the show-opening cover of the Rolling Stones' "The Last Time" through the encore closer "Quarter To Three." In between, we're treated to "Heartbreak Hotel," "It's My Life," "Meeting Across The River," "For You," "Because The Night," "Point Blank," "Kitty's Back" and "Incident On 57th Street" across this go-out-with-a-bang, 24-song set.

The earliest show on the Darkness tour to be released in the Archive Series, Berkeley 7/1/78 bristles with energy on songs like "Darkness On The Edge Of Town" and "Adam Raised A Cain," along with "Night" and "For You," both of which featured in the early months of the '78 tour. A memorable encore opens with Bruce's definitive solo-piano arrangement of "The Promise", the first live version of the song to be released from 1978, and offers only the second E Street Band performance ever of "Because The Night," with alternate lyrics.

As Fenway Park’s concert series gets into full swing, with five shows this week alone, it’s worth recalling who played the very first rock concert at Boston’s storied ballpark.

Recorded live at Madison Square Garden, June 6, 2000.