Red Mosquito

dimejinky99 wrote:

McParadigm wrote:My god, the Broadway record is magnificent. I was pretty cynical in spite of the hype, and I was wrong.

I’ve seen more ads for it on Facebook than Bruce has ever played shows. It’s relentless

I haven’t heard the recording but I went in January to see the show and it was really fantastic.

I saw him Solo about a decade ago on the devils and dust tour.
But I will listen to this one

Im looking forward to the netflix movie.
Im not a big fan of Bruce, but i like him acoustic.

Springsteen on Broadway is fucking incredible. The man is a national treasure and should be protected and celebrated as such. When he goes there won't be another like him. He deserves all the accolades coming his way for this.

There are some killer performances in the Netflix show. My Father's House, Tougher Than the Rest, and Born in the USA all shine. I still need to watch the final 30 minutes or so.

Bruce solo acoustic with extra talking struck me as a potential disaster, but I was blown away by this. The performances are great, but it thrives really because the spoken passages in between. He obviously put thought and care into them and they really elevate and illuminate the songs (I think the story for Born in the USA, and especially the last line, is part of what makes that performance so harrowing).

I watched about half an hour of this today. Love the spoken word stuff but the song performances have been snoozers for me so far. Probably a combination of not loving the song’s he choosing and never being interested in acoustic performances in general.

I'm finding the performances are getting elevated by the spoken passages. Springsteen straight acoustic has never been super exciting for me, although the 2005 show I saw of his was one of the best solo performances I'd ever seen. For the first hour of the show, he was completely rethinking one song after another, and doing it in a way that was exciting as opposed to cloying. I know there were some people talking up that tour a few pages back, and that year (along with the following year's Seeger Sessions tour) was certainly one of more interesting periods Springsteen's had since the turn of the century.

I think his 2005 tour was a triumph -- an astounding deep dive into his catalog that saw him engaging with his (oftentimes long-abandoned) material in new and unexpected ways, and his singing was in top form. From what I've heard so far, strictly musically speaking, the "Broadway" performances seem weaker, less committed, and less imaginative in every way. I'm yet to sit through the whole thing and really follow the narrative, but I will say that in his traditional concerts, his extended rambles always seem to lose my interest after a couple minutes (and I *really* don't enjoy it when he shoehorns the chatter into the actual songs), so I have my doubts about how much I will love a longform version. I'll check it out when I have some time to really engage with it from start to finish; in fits and starts, it's hard to see what all the fuss is about.

LoathedVermin72 wrote:I watched about half an hour of this today. Love the spoken word stuff but the song performances have been snoozers for me so far. Probably a combination of not loving the song’s he choosing and never being interested in acoustic performances in general.

I think he's probably more focused on the spoken word storytelling aspect of the Broadway performance rather than playing the perfect version of each song. Inserting the rambling into the song pretty much kills that from go.

Oh and Thunder Road has always been a thousand times better acoustic.

verb_to_trust wrote:Oh and Thunder Road has always been a thousand times better acoustic.

On this we cannot agree. Full band is still the best.

Further in and I gotta say I am not liking this. “Thunder Road” and “The Promised Land” - two of his best, most powerful songs - were almost comically terrible. Why is he doing this awful spoken word singing where he seems to be randomly rearranging the rhythm and pace and cadence of every line? Just awful.

Also, is a lot of what he’s saying verbatim from his book? Because it seems like it is.

LoathedVermin72 wrote:Further in and I gotta say I am not liking this. “Thunder Road” and “The Promised Land” - two of his best, most powerful songs - were almost comically terrible. Why is he doing this awful spoken word singing where he seems to be randomly rearranging the rhythm and pace and cadence of every line? Just awful.

Also, is a lot of what he’s saying verbatim from his book? Because it seems like it is.

Thunder Road was terrible, and brings down an otherwise wonderful show overall. Dylan can pull off the spoken word singing thing, and he's the king when it comes to rearranging his own material. Bruce can rarely do it in a way that's enjoyable.

I'm probably in the minority here, but I think his best Thunder Road is from MTV 'Plugged'

BootsToAsses wrote:

LoathedVermin72 wrote:Further in and I gotta say I am not liking this. “Thunder Road” and “The Promised Land” - two of his best, most powerful songs - were almost comically terrible. Why is he doing this awful spoken word singing where he seems to be randomly rearranging the rhythm and pace and cadence of every line? Just awful.

Also, is a lot of what he’s saying verbatim from his book? Because it seems like it is.

Thunder Road was terrible, and brings down an otherwise wonderful show overall. Dylan can pull off the spoken word singing thing, and he's the king when it comes to rearranging his own material. Bruce can rarely do it in a way that's enjoyable.

I'm probably in the minority here, but I think his best Thunder Road is from MTV 'Plugged'

My favorite Thunder Road is the piano and harmonica only version from Hammersmith Odeon ‘75. What a great way to open a show and then right into Tenth Avenue Freezeout is pure magic live Springsteen.

The studio cut of Thunder Road is so cheesy sounding. Might as well have BoB hammering those cringey keys at the beginning. The only thing that is redeemable is the sax.

You’re crazy. Studio TR is magnificent.

The broadway shows happened to help promote the book I was told.
Makes sense some of the same stories would appear.
The book is wonderful to be fair.

dimejinky99 wrote:The broadway shows happened to help promote the book I was told.
Makes sense some of the same stories would appear.
The book is wonderful to be fair.

The book came out two years ago.

wease wrote:

dimejinky99 wrote:The broadway shows happened to help promote the book I was told.
Makes sense some of the same stories would appear.
The book is wonderful to be fair.

The book came out two years ago.

He’s been on broadway for a year.