Boot Tracker, May 23rd 2008, Dublin

The second European leg takes the Boss and the band outside for a stadium tour. Stadium shows are different animals than the relatively small arenas the band has been playing thus far. Needless to say they are huge and a band usually has to resort to theatrics to be able to get the show across. Aside from enormous video screens, Springsteen still only brings a band to entertain the masses. Quite a few of his songs seem cut and tailored for that. "Born to Run" will have no difficulty filling those big open empty spaces with sound. His more subtle work however is in danger of falling on deaf ears and beer breaks. The summer sun will undoubtedly feed the thirst of more than a few ticket buyers who'll fruitfully try to quench it with that gold liquid flowing from the faucets. So in a way it seems only fitting that the swaggering on their legs, off beat clapping, yapping type fan is the main attraction on this recording. Our drunken Irish friend is quite pronounced, the band rolls on somewhere in the distance.

I'm sure that the Stadium leg will bring many great shows. I quite enjoy Springsteen in those big bath tubs. The man has a knack to bring them down to size. Even in nosebleeds I've often felt like I was in a small club, while at other moments as much in awe of that sea of people as I was with the band's ability to command their attention. Unfortunately not from our drunken Irish friend however. I've read some critique on this show saying the performance was somewhat uninspired. I don't hear that at all I must admit. This second night in Dublin sounds like a pretty standard Magic show. No big surprises in the set, but a mighty fine collection of Stadium rousers none the less. "Glory Days", "Bad Lands" and the "Promised Land" seem quite comfortable in that big bucket they call the RDS arena. As a bootleg I'd say this tape is only for those determined to hear every Magic show, but as a performance I wouldn't have minded being there one bit.

"Night"

MP3 File

Download the full show in mp3 here
A small request, only burn mp3s for personal use, but never use a 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.

Sound: 2 out of 5
Show: 3,5 out of 5
Artwork: none