Boot Tracker, June 29th 2008, Copenhagen

After those two excellent Moerie tapes, it's hard switching back to 'regular' stadium recordings. Copenhagen is more in the mold I've grown accustomed to during this leg of the tour, distant and muddy. Though this one isn't half bad, the Copenhagen tape gives us a decent impression of a stellar show, if you turn up your stereo loud enough that is. Though that will turn up the intrusive talkers at the start of "For You" as well of course. I must admit though, I'm stunned with how little talking I hear during this supreme rendition of the song, again delivered solo on piano. Few artists have the ability to silence a Stadium enough. Funnily enough, where Max's drums sound thin and muddled, Charlie's organ comes through quite nicely. On this tape you're able to hear the excellent job he's doing stepping into those impossible shoes to fill. Charlie's organ howls and growls its way through "Gypsy Biker" and provides the necessary groove for "Living in the Future". As the taper notes the sound picks up through the second half of the tape, which helps to pull this recording away from mediocrity just a bit and adds to the enjoyment of those tremendous encores Copenhagen got. Just listen to the Big Man honk on "Seven Nights to Rock" just before Charlie tears into a few ass kicking licks on the organ.

Even though there were no premiers, Copenhagen is exemplary for this second half of the European stadium leg when it comes to the set. Springsteen is throwing the band and the audience increasingly more curve balls, digging deeper and deeper into his back catalog. A striking difference with the Rising tour is how the songs of the new album are slowly starting to fade out. Copenhagen got a meek five songs from Magic. The Magic tour show piece "Reason to Believe" dropped out many shows before. The Boss is looking back, maybe for the first time in his career. You could argue that the Reunion tour was the big 'looking back' tour, but with all the different arrangements on old songs he did during that tour, I always felt that was the tour where he explored the possibility of taking the E-Street Band to a new and next level. With the Magic tour Springsteen elects to stay closer to the classic arrangements on most of the songs. However you want to interpreted this shift in the set however, Springsteen does seem to guard against the Magic tour turning into a greatest hits tour. For every big hit there seems to be a 'forgotten' album track to balance the set out. For every "Dancing in the Dark" there is a "Downbound Train". The 'looking back' nature of this leg is in sync with the rumor that this might be the last tour for the band. If that rumor would prove to be true, the band is going out with a bang. Against all odds, these Magic shows are on par with the best of his career.

"Downbound Train"

MP3 File

Download the full show in mp3 here
A small request, use mp3s for personal use only. Keep them in your iPod or on your computer 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.

Recording: 3- out of 5
Show: 5 out of 5
Artwork: none