Bruce Springsteen
The Palladium
New York, NY
September 16, 1978
MJ Archive Master Tape via JEMS
Recorder 3

Recording Gear: unknown stereo mics > stereo cassette recorder

JEMS 2018 Transfer: TDK SA90 master cassettes > > Nakamichi CR-7A azimuth-adjusted playback > Sound Devices USBPre2 > Audacity 2.0 > Peak Pro 6 (post production) > xACT 2.39 > FLAC

01 Badlands
02 Streets Of Fire
03 Spirit In The Night
04 Darkness On The Edge Of Town
05 Independence Day
06 The Promised Land
07 Prove It All Night
08 Racing In The Street
09 Thunder Road
10 Meeting Across The River
11 Jungleland
12 Kitty's Back
13 Fire
14 Candy's Room
15 Because The Night
16 Point Blank
17 Mona > Not Fade Away > She's The One
18 Incident On 57th Street
19 Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
20 Born To Run
21 Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
22 Detroit Medley
23 You Can't Sit Down

Known Faults:
-Prove It All Night: 4 seconds at start patched with Recorder 1
-Jungleland: 4 seconds patched at start with Recorder 1
-Set One Dialogue Outro: 57 seconds of aud and dialogue patched with Recorder 1

JEMS is pleased to present what we believe to be a high-quality, previously uncirculated stereo audience recording from yet another legendary show on the Darkness tour. Longtime JEMS ally MJ loaned us these tapes, which were part of the collection of late ‘70s and early ‘80s masters he purchased as a collection. This taper definitely had good gear and while this was the only Springsteen recording in the collection, he picked a mighty fine show to capture.

The three-show stand at the Palladium is overshadowed by the Capitol Theatre run that follows with its radio broadcast, officially released download, pro-shot video and more. But the second night Palladium set is truly special, including the first versions of “Point Blank” and “Independence Day” since the Roxy broadcast in July, the latter in its full-band premiere. “You Can’t Sit Down” also makes its return after a three-month absence, and if that isn’t enough, we get the tour premiere of “Incident on 57th Street,” “Kitty’s Back,” “Fire” and “Because the Night.” Nothing to sneeze at.

The recording is impressive, perhaps just a little distant, but clear, rich and better than many Darkness audies. 

Its rare to stumble across fresh Darkness tour recordings, so for that we are extremely grateful to MJ for loaning us the tapes. As is only fitting, mjk5510 handles the post-production on this gem. As the king of alternate recordings, he should weigh in on its merits.

BK for JEMS

This previously uncirculated and unknown third source for the penultimate Palladium Darkness show was an absolute joy to work on but, is it an upgrade?

In comparing to the two other circulating recordings, the recording released as part of the DS Archives Volume 27 (Recorder 2) is the weakest of the three.
Though a very good capture, requiring two music patches (28 seconds total) to make it complete, it's fairly clear and clean but on the flat side lacking punch.

The Recorder 1 source has a closer to the stage feel, it sounds like it was possibly recorded underneath an overhang as there is a touch of boominess to the bass and the audience noise feels confined in a more closed space, if that makes sense. 
Overall, it's an excellent capture that puts you "in" the audience, however, at times that is the issue as the audience around the taper can get a bit noisy. I do not know what cuts or faults there are in Recorder 1.

Which brings us to this Recorder 3, accessed directly from the master tapes, it does have some distance away from the stage and sounds like a balcony capture.
It was, however, captured by a taper with high end gear that knew what they were doing and only required 8 total seconds of patched music . Clean and clear with a nice full sound, not too boomy, not to trebly with almost no audience noise. Recorder 1 puts you in the audience this capture puts you outside of the audience with a stronger sense of the atmosphere of the three night stand....see "Prove It All Night" and "Jungleland" sample provided.

Is it an upgrade? It may come down to preference and how you like to consume your live captures but one thing is for sure, this capture gives this show a different feel and perspective and one I throughly enjoyed consuming and will do so again and again.

Now where are those additional captures for nights 1 and 3?

mjk5510 for JEMS