Sound quality: A

I’ve been thinking lately, what’s an overlooked Bruce era? The first thing that came to mind for me was the 1976-1977 time period, in particular the Lawsuit Tour. Officially, the “Lawsuit Tour” began on September 26th, 1976 and lasted until March 25th, 1977, with this Boston show being the tour’s finale. It also saw Bruce begin to play large arena sized venues such as The Spectrum in Philadelphia or the Richfield Coliseum for the first time, although they were relatively few and far between throughout the tour, mostly consisting of smaller venues. Anyway, this Boston show is the final of four shows at the Boston Music Hall, and also as said, this is the tour’s grand finale. And boy do they go out with a bang!

All four Boston shows are outstanding and among the best of the tour, but this final night is, in my opinion, the tour’s crowning moment. Not just that, this is one of the greatest Bruce Springsteen shows of all time. Basically everything is magic tonight, from Bruce’s fantastic vocal form, to the out of this world band playing. And from an excellent version of Darkness era outtake Don’t Look Back, to one of the all time great versions of Incident on 57th Street, to a smoking, near fifteen minute Mona/She’s The One medley, to an ultra rare performance of Action In The Streets (a 1977 exclusive just about), to a superb Saint In The City, to a version of Backstreets worthy of the “best of all time” title, to an encore run featuring the Miami Horns that caps off with an incredible cover of Higher and Higher, this really is a show for the ages. As if that weren’t though, like the three prior shows, the sound quality on this recording is outstanding, done by the great Steve Hopkins. All of this adds up to maybe THE single best non-official release/non-soundboard listen out there. This is also one to treasure, since it seems quite unlikely the archive series will bring us much more from the Lawsuit Tour. If you’re a Bruce fan, this is an essential listen.

Seriously, this show is an absolute MUST HEAR. It’s pretty much everything we love about Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band from this era. Enjoy!

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