Bruce Springsteen
Hampton Roads Coliseum
Hampton, VA
January 4, 1985
ML Master via JEMS

Recording Gear: NAK CM 300s + CP 4 (shotgun capsules) > Sony D5

2015 JEMS Transfer: Sony UCX 90 master cassettes > Nakamichi CR-7A (azimuth-adjusted) > Sound Devices USBPre2 (24/96 Audacity 2.0 capture) > iZotope RX 4 > iZotope MBIT+ convert to 16/44.1 .wav > Peak Pro XT (volume smoothing / edit / index) > xACT 2.21 > FLAC

01 Born In The USA
02 Prove It All Night
03 Darlington County
04 Johnny 99
05 Atlantic City
06 Reason To Believe
07 Mansion On The Hill
08 Johnny Bye-Bye
09 Out In The Street
10 Glory Days
11 The Promised Land
12 My Hometown
13 Badlands
14 Thunder Road
15 Cover Me
16 Dancing In The Dark
17 Hungry Heart
18 Cadillac Ranch
19 Downbound Train
20 I’m On Fire
21 Pink Cadillac
22 Bobby Jean
23 Racing In The Street
24 Born to Run
25 Detroit Medley > Travelin’ Band
26 Twist and Shout
27 Do You Love Me
28 Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town (Recorder 2 Bonus Track)

Known Faults:
Out In The Street: last few notes cut
Glory Days: first few notes cut
The Promised Land: Splice
Bobby Jean: Splice
Racing In The Street: first few notes cut
Twist And Shout: end slightly cut
Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town: Missing (Recorder 2 source included)

Courtesy of taper ML, here’s what we believe is a massive upgrade of the very first show of 1985, as the band return to the road after two-and-a-half weeks off. This fresh transfer from ML’s fine master tapes sounds light years ahead of circulating copies of the show.

ML taped from a sweet spot, “the first row of seats off the floor almost DFC” (Dead Fucking Center). The tape has that classic, appealing ‘80s arena sound, clear, steady and with plenty of low end. Samples provided.

The set list lacks for rarities—not surprising for the first show of a new leg—but still includes highlights from this period like “Johnny Bye Bye,” the synth-lead “Reason to Believe,” “Racing in the Street” and an excellent “Atlantic City.”

mjk5510 did identify a second source for the show, but it is so inferior as to be a distraction if it were used to patch gaps, so we have left those as is. We did decide to include "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" as a bonus track in the interest of making the night complete. Thanks to him for doing the prep work on this. And huge thanks to ML for reaching out and loaning us his terrific masters which he was keen to share with all of you.

BK for JEMS