Bruce Springsteen
Uptown Theatre
Chicago, Illinois
September 6, 1978
(drwilkie Master Tapes)
16/44 Edition

Transfer: Master Tapes > Nakamichi DR-01 (azimuth adjusted) > Sound Devices USBPre > Audacity (2496 Capture) > Peak Pro 6 (pitch adjusted) > iZotope RX / ozone 5 (mastered) > Peak Pro 6 (post production) > 16/44 > xACT 2.39 > FLAC

01 Good Rockin’ Tonight
02 Badlands
03 Streets Of Fire
04 Spirit In The Night
05 Darkness On The Edge Of Town
06 Heartbreak Hotel
07 Factory
08 The Promised Land
09 Prove It All Night
10 Racing In The Street
11 Thunder Road
12 Jungleland
13 Paradise By The “C”
14 Fire
15 Candy’s Room
16 Adam Raised A Cain
17 Not Fade Away > She’s The One
18 Growin’ Up
19 Backstreets
20 Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
21 Born To Run
22 Because The Night
23 Quarter To Three

Known Faults:
-Backstreets: first few notes missing

Previous versions of this show include a CDR version titled “Uptown Fire” and a JEMS digital clone of the analogue master titled “Relentless As The Rain” out of the JEMS archives but is not an official JEMS mastered release. 

There is only one source for this show from drwilkie’s tapes and this new transfer removes the DAT step in the lineage and is the first direct from the master tapes release in both 16/44 and 24/96 editions. The previous version is very good and differences will most likely come down to a matter of taste and your specific listening set up.

As is the case with many Darkness shows with the tour moving back and forth from arenas to theaters to arenas the sound is a bit unstable for the first song or two as the sound crew finds the right balance. Drwilkie is locked in from the start and reports the overall sound was excellent from where he was taping on the main floor, 5th row left of center section on the right aisle, once the crew stabilizes the mix/volume the result is an excellent capture.

Drwilkie gives us a glimpse into taping that night:
" I used either a Sony TC150 with an external mic or a Sony Walkman WM-R2 with an external mic.  I was in the 5th row main floor left aisle first seat (main floor had 3 sections - left, center, and right) - I was rightmost seat of left section.  Sound was great, and the only freak-out moment was when Clarence came off the stage into the aisle I was on, while Bruce jumped down into the aisle between center and the right section.  The Big Man stopped right next to me for his solo (can't remember which song) and I think he saw me recording, but he returned to the stage without incident.  While I could never fully enjoy a show when I was taping, it was good to know that a good recording would be enjoyed by me and others for years to come.  Still appears to hold true." 

Amen to that!

Taking place two weeks before the legendary Passaic run of shows, this is a classic Darkness show featuring the last "Growin' Up" of the tour.

After a needed pitch adjustment and standard pre-mastering fixes (channel alignment, extracting external audience noises, de-clicking, etc) I focused the mastering process on tightening and focusing the bass sound which tended to stray in places while working to not make the highs too shrill. I am very pleased with the finished product, the strong capture and targeted focus in mastering will hopefully elicit repeat listens …samples provided.

Thanks to CB for putting me in touch with drwilkie and a huge debt of gratitude to drwilkie for taping and trusting me with his master tapes so we can enjoy his excellent work for years to come.

mjk5510 & drwilkie