Boot Tracker; April 8th 2008, Anaheim Ca

The second Anaheim boot quickly followed the other. If it does anything at all it confirms that Bruce was on a roll those two nights. Two hard rocking shows back to back that hardly left any room to breathe. Though I know it is still early, I won't be surprised if this two stand will go into history as the high lights of the tour. Hell, I already called them legendary in the review of the first night. Anaheim did after all feature one of the best guest spots I've ever heard with "Ghost Of Tom Joad". Tom Morello's performance can easily compete with the best guest appearances of Bruce's career, if not with the best performances in his career period. But maybe that's just the fan boy in me doing the talking. "Thunder Road" opening the show was a nice surprise, the song's been a rarity this tour, but as Springsteen himself said in the "Wings For Wheels" film, the song works as an invitation. As you'll hear on this mess of a recording, it works splendidly. After a blazing middle of the set, Springsteen toned things down a bit in the encores with the much coveted "Meeting Across The River/Jungleland" double punch. As far as I can tell the band nailed it.

Sadly, just as the first night, the recording is disappointing, maybe even a little more so. But to every down side is an upside. In the description the taper is pretty straight forward about the quality of the tape.

A scalped GA ticket from the parking lot put me dead center on the floor, about ten feet in front of the soundboard, where the mix sounded spectacular. I was surrounded by some very good but fairly loud folks who you’ll be getting to know rather intimately as you listen. Playing the tape back, I do wish they’d have kept it down a little, but who can blame them? They were smack dab in the middle of what you could feel was going to be a legendary show, and naturally they were having the time of their lives.

While all his effort doesn't make for a good bootleg, it does make for an excellent taste of the show courtesy of a few very present fans. Sometimes a bad recording is simply nice to hear because you can feel the enthusiasm of the crowd allowing you a good sense on how the show came across. The taper apologized for how the recording came out, totally unnecessary if you ask me. Every effort to get the shows on tape is appreciated and tapers simply do not control the circumstances under which they have to tape as much as they would often like. Tapes aren't professional recordings and how experienced a taper may be, sometimes the chips are down. Still this mess of sound makes for great entertainment for those who were there and freaks like me who want to hear everything at least once.

"Candy's Room"
Download the full show in mp3 here

Sound: 2,5 out of 5
Show: 5 out of 5
Artwork: None

Note:

There was the Ev2 master of the second Anaheim show. The show itself wasn't much of an upgrade unfortunately, but it did come with a killer third bonus disc, filled with goodies from this second American leg. You can download that CD here to hold you over till Flynn does a full tour compilation again.