Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
featuring the Miami Horns
Milwaukee Auditorium
Milwaukee, WI
February 22, 1977
"Official Audience Recording"
Nothing to Lose: The 1977 Tour Revisited Vol. Three
JEMS Archive

Lineage: low-gen cassettes (likely second generation) > DAT (circa 1993-94 16/48 transfer)

JEMS 2014 Transfer: 1994 DAT > Fostex D-5 > Sound Devices UBSPre2 > iZtotope RX > pitch correction > iZotope Ozone and MBIT+ convert to 16/44.1 .wav > Peak Pro XT (volume smoothing / edit / index) > xACT 2.21 > FLAC

01 Night
02 Rendezvous
03 Spirit in the Night
04 It's My Life
05 Thunder Road
06 Mona > She's the One
07 Tenth Avenue Freeze-out (w/ Miami Horns)
08 Action in the Streets (w/ Miami Horns)
09 Backstreets
10 Jungleland
11 Rosalita (w/Miami Horns)
12 Born to Run
13 Quarter to Three (w/ Miami Horns)

Known Faults:
-She's the One: splice
-Rosalita: splice

Welcome back to the third round of JEMS' Nothing to Lose series revisiting Bruce's remarkable 1977 tour. For the full history of our obsession with this era and the back story on these "Official Audience Tapes," please refer to the notes in Vol. One found here:

http://jungleland.dnsalias.com/torrents-details.php?id=38539

Installment No. 3 takes Springsteen back to Milwaukee for the first time since the infamous bomb scare show in October 1975. In his intro to "Thunder Road," Bruce invokes his memorable, oft-repeated line from that night, "Are you loose?" and recounts that, because of the scare, "I went home and came back," with "home" seemingly a euphemism for "to the bar." 

The set list here is identical to our last volume, St. Louis, February 28, 1977, but we don't think you'll mind. The highlights are much the same, with strong and long versions of "Mona > She's the One" and "Backstreets." Like St. Louis, the latter and "Tenth Avenue Freeze-out" are taken at a slower pace. The show ends with particularly committed version of "Quarter to Three."

Of the so-called "official audience tapes," Milwaukee is the most widely known, thanks to a mid-90s bootleg CD Action in the Streets. More commonly circulated these days is a version called The Return to Bombscare Arena, which is remastered from the aforementioned bootleg. We think you'll find this new transfer a significant improvement, sounding more natural, without any exaggerated high end or noisy artifacts. Samples provided.

That isn't to say it is perfect. Like St. Louis, there are moments here when things seem to go out of balance ("Rosalita"), but there are many more where the mix locks in appealingly ("Rendezvous"). Taken as whole, I find this a very satisfying listen and one of the better quality tapes from the tour when the recording is at its best.

Special thanks to: M and J from JEMS for pulling out our many versions of these DATs and helping make new transfers; the folks on Stone Pony whose thread sparked this series; and to mjk5510 who continues to support our efforts and bring his critical ears to bear to help make the finished product just a little bit better.

There's many more '77 shows to come so stay tuned. Until then, let us know what you think of Milwaukee.

BK for JEMS