Boot Tracker; April 28th 2008, Greensboro NC

Why is it that sometime a mediocre to bad recording gets me more exiting than a clear recording. Greensboro is by far from being the clearest tape of the tour, the sound is jumbled and muddy and there's more than a bit audience noise, yet I'm loving every second of this one. Its not just the show, though undoubtedly a killer performance, the Boss is quite habitual in giving those. I think its the audience on them. There are few people yapping on this tape, but lots of folks hollering, blaring along, screaming from the top of their lungs, making it easy to see them stomping their feet and punching their fist. This is one audience the band can't drown out. Even though that takes your some of the pleasure of the performance away, it does an excellent job of getting the exitement of a Springsteen show across. This tape is sort of the "Live in Barcelona" of bootlegs if you will. Loud, but it puts you straight in the heart of the pit! Judging from the title of this tape, "It's Hard to Be a Saint in the Greensboro Pit", that's exactly where our taper was.

At the tail end of the second leg, this was one of the most exiting shows of the tour yet. If only because it opened with a blistering version of "Roulette". Again one of those songs that fits the theme of the tour like a glove. I'm surprised that it took Springsteen this long to haul it out. "Promised Land" has found its place early in the set. As a classic it does the trick of goosing spirits up early in the show. Even though this audience sound like they didn't need the encouragement. "Saint in the City" is an absolute highlight on this tape, a blistering guitar duel that gives the "Gypsy Biker" a run for his money. Mary seems to be back in her place sort of permanently, if I'm not mistaken this is the third show in a row she gave a party, TURN IT UP!! Bobby Jean is revisiting the encores again, not everybody's favorite I know, but who cares, Greensboro went ramrodding forever more after that. An absolute knock out show! I'll leave it up to you if you want to go partying along with the Greensboro crowd.

"It's Hard to be a Saint in the City"

MP3 File

Download the full show in mp3 here
A small request, only burn mp3s for personal use, but never use an mp3 based CD in a trade. The Quality of mp3s deteriorate rapidly every time a CD is ripped. Using high quality music files such as FLACs is essential in keeping the trading pool healthy.

Recording: 2,5 out of 5
Show: 4,5 out of 5
Artwork: 3 out of 5