Bruce Springsteen
November 16, 1990
Shrine Auditorium
Los Angeles, CA

Master recording 

Source: Sony D-3 with stock microphone to Sony UX-Pro 90-minute cassette

TRANSFER: 
Nakamichi CR-7A > PreSonus FireStudio Project > Adobe Audition 3.0 > FLAC Frontend 1.7.1

GENERATION: 
ANA(M) > WAV [96kHz/24bit] > WAV [44.1kHz/16bit] > FLAC [Level 8]

RECORDED BY: 
Slipkid68 in association with JEMS

TRANSFERRED BY: Mike Z.

REMASTERED BY: Flynn


Disc 1:
1. Show Intro
2. Brilliant Disguise
3. Darkness on the Edge of Town
4. Mansion on the Hill
5. Intro (to Reason to Believe)
6. Reason to Believe
7. Intro (to Red-Headed Woman)
8. Red-Headed Woman
9. 57 Channels (and Nothin' On)
10. Intro (to My Father's House)
11. My Father's House
12. 10th Avenue Freezeout
13. Atlantic City
14. Wild Billy's Circus Story
15. Intro (to Nebraska)
16. Nebraska
17. When the Lights Go Out

Disc 2
1. Thunder Road
2. Intro (to My Hometown)
3. My Hometown
4. Real World
5. Highway 61 Revisited (with Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne)
6. Across the Borderline (with Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne)


This recording captures the first night of Bruce Springsteen's two concerts for the Christic Institute, a left-leaning public-interest law center. Whether playing new arrangements of older songs or experimenting with elements he would explore in the ‘90s, he showed his craft in its most basic form and put on what amounted to a master class. 

Springsteen hadn’t played an announced performance in just over two years. In that time, he had gotten divorced, dismissed the E Street Band, moved to Los Angeles, and fathered his first child. It made sense not only that his first gig after these events was a benefit, but also that he stood by himself.

After sets by Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt, Springsteen appeared to a huge ovation. He appeared nervous but sounded well-rehearsed, both particularly evident when he sat down to play the piano. Between songs, he spoke with candor at about his life, past and present. From "My Father's House" to "Real World," this was the most moving and interesting 90 minutes of any Springsteen performance I've seen.

The recording was something of an afterthought. Although tapers' presence in the house was a sure bet (props, Persic and RT), I brought my gear anyway. I was seated in the 9th row of the orchestra, just off center toward stage right (house left). People were excited, and the buzz grew prior to Springsteen's set. When he emerged from the wings, people erupted. But the audience heeded his request for quiet, which helped on every level. The crowd element on this recording captures the vibe perfectly; check out the reaction as Springsteen makes his way through the first verse of “Red Headed Woman,” then again as he tickles out the beginning of “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” on piano. From start to finish, it was that kind of performance, with surprises coming one after another. On this night, he played four new songs; two others debuted the second night. Both shows featured an identical encore of covers performed with Browne and Raitt.

Days after, I made a copy for a good friend, then put the master away. Soon, the well-known bootleg “Springsteen, Raitt and Browne” emerged --- a good document, to be sure, but to me the CDs came across a bit flat. Still, the sound is clear and even, so I never returned to my own recording.

To mark the concert's 20th anniversary, Mike Z. converted the master tapes using the azimuth-adjusting Nakamichi deck, then Brother Flynn assumed remastering duties. Through judicious equalization, one will hear slightly cleaner sound with greater depth than the master tape presents. Flynn basically unlocked the sound, and let the natural low end take its rightful place in the spectrum. As I had run out of tape, just over a minute of "Real World" contains a patch borrowed from the source used for the "Springsteen, Raitt and Browne" set. Hope that's okay.

Alongside gigs like the Vets Show and Winterland, Springsteen historians rank the Chrsitic shows among the great ones of his career. The sets certainly stand out from anything he had done previously, and gave a clear glimpse of the transition he was managing at the time. Strip all that away, and you've still got close to 90 minutes of great music.

Thanks to Mike Z. and Flynn for their work. Special thanks to Butterking for his input and efforts as executive producer. And shouts out to the other JEMS --- it's an honor to sail underneath their flag.

If you download this, please consider making a small donation to charity.


Slipkid68

P.S. I was joking over e-mail with my co-producers about just how far we've come in 20 years. In 1990, had I said that we would one day use something called BitTorrent to share the recording, but wouldn't post it on the anniversary proper because it would compete with a multi-CD/DVD deluxe reissue of "Darkness on the Edge of Town" that was coming out on November 16... or that Springsteen would green-light the playing of fan-based recordings... on his satellite radio channel...