Bruce Springsteen - 2012-10-27 - Pittsburgh, PA (AUD/FLAC)

 

(Audience FLAC)

Consol Energy Center

Source: Church Audio CA-11 cards => UGLY pre-amp => Tascam DR-2D (24/48)

Transfer: DR-2D => WAV => Audition 1.5 (dither to 16-bit) => WAV => Magix Audio Cleaning Lab => WAV => FLAC (level 8)

Location: Side stage, ~12 rows up

Disc one (79:49):
01) Intro (1:39)
02) Don't Look Back (3:04)
03) Candy's Room (2:59)
04) The Ties That Bind (4:06)
05) Streets of Fire (5:56)
06) Hungry Heart (4:52)
07) We Take Care Of Our Own (4:47)
08) Wrecking Ball (6:27)
09) Death To My Hometown (5:13)
10) My City of Ruins (17:28)
11) Spirit in the Night (12:29)
12) Sign collection (3:29)
13) Pretty Flamingo (7:14)
Disc two (65:38):
01) Talk To Me (7:18)
02) Adam Raised a Cain (6:14)
03) Because The Night (5:48)
04) She's The One (5:12)
05) Working on the Highway (5:20)
06) Shackled & Drawn (7:48)
07) Waitin' on a Sunny Day (7:25)
08) The Rising (5:06)
09) Badlands (6:19)
10) Land of Hope and Dreams (7:48)
11) Encore break (1:15)
Disc three (44:50):
01) PSA (2:05)
02) Racing in the Street (10:27)
03) Born To Run (6:12)
04) Glory Days (4:35) *
05) Light of Day (5:46) *
06) Dancing in the Dark (6:54)
07) Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (8:47)

* w/Joe & Johnny Grushecky

Comments:
Outstanding show by Bruce last night in Pittsburgh. The show started with the rarely-played "Don't Look Back," and the rocking intensity of that song carried over throughout the set, which featured a high-energy rendition of material from across Bruce's career, with a heavy emphasis on "Darkness." He absolutely tore up "Streets of Fire" (also a relative rarity) and "Adam Raised a Cain" later in the set .... a few poignant moments during an emotional "Pretty Flamingo" (an audience request) and a beautiful "Racing in the Street" (requested, I assume, by a member of the local food bank). Joe Grushecky and his son Johnny sat in for the perfunctory "Glory Days" (in which Joe appeared not to know the words) and a really fun "Light of Day." Definitely the best of the five I've attended from this tour so far, and according to TallTaper, the best he's seen (and he's seen a LOT) except for one of the Fenway shows. At 190 minutes of intensity, the crowd definitely left satisfied.

The recording is pretty good, though not perfect. There are three issues, in the spirit of full disclosure:
* My levels were way too high starting out; I caught the issue a few seconds into "Don't Look Back," but there are some level swings while I figured it out.
* The crowd near me was quiet and respectful, though unfortunately I had an enthusiastic clapper to my right. Every clap is painfully evident to me, but perhaps a casual listener wouldn't be bothered by it. I did not do anything to eliminate the claps because I have neither the skill nor time to edit them out. Anyone who wants to take a crack at it is welcome to the 24-bit files and try to work their own magic.
* I wasn't in a real good line to the PA. The overall sound is very full, but there's some echo that I tried to mitigate with Audio Cleaning Lab. Again, anyone who wants to improve on my EQ'ing (admittedly, I'm a hack) is welcome to try. I increased the highs and lows somewhat and brought down the +1kHz band, which seemed to help.