One Of Best Bruce Springsteen Shows Gets Official Release

Ever since Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band stepped off the stage at The Agora in Cleveland, Ohio on August 9, 1978 it’s been considered one of the best performances in the group’s history. Add that most of the show was broadcast on radio and was frequently bootlegged and you have a performance that’s on the level of the way Deadheads feel about Cornell ’77. Well, after more than 35 years The Boss has finally authorized an official release of the show.

Cleveland ’78 is the second archival release found on the new Live.BruceSpringsteen.net website run by Nugs.net and authorized by Team Springsteen. But we’re not just talking about the same old radio broadcast that’s been circulating ever since that night. Team Springsteen has secured the original stereo reels and have mastered said reels expressly for this release bringing what’s described as a “renewed vigor to the already exciting show.”

Here’s the release notes from producer Toby Scott:

I found the seven Agora tape reels in a box that had been returned from the Rock’n Roll Hall Of Fame. The tapes were part of an exclusive Springsteen exhibit “Asbury Park to the Promised Land”. It wasn’t until the request to release this show came up that the tapes needed to be found. Not at Sony, not at Thrill Hill Archives, not at the archiving company. Last known location was the Rock’n Roll Hall of Fame. They informed me what box to look in and there they were, marked with the original indication of speed, tracks and show date.

I had the tapes delivered to Plangent Processes for evaluation and transfer, if they seemed to be of adequate quality. After comparison to other copies of this show, this was the best version and potentially the original master tapes. Plangent transferred all seven reels using their unique process, which corrects any speed variations for accurate playback. This eliminates the wow and flutter usually found in the playback of any analog tape. This new transfer to the digital domain was done at 192 (samples per second) with 24 bit resolution. The resulting digital files were sent to Gateway Mastering for evaluation and mastering, as was done to the Box Set Volume 1, recently released to critical acclaim. The resulting new master will give a renewed vigor to the already exciting show.

Bruce and the band were at the top of their game as they came to Cleveland that night and treated fans to a marathon performance filled with tunes from the new at the time Darkness At The Edge Of Town album along with a choice set of covers. Soon after three-hour Springsteen shows would be par for the course, but were an anomaly at the time. After listening to this show with its massive climaxes around nearly every turn, it’s hard to believe the band members were able to stand by the time the “Twist & Shout” encore concluded.