The Best of Springsteen’s 2014 High Hopes Tour, Part 2: April to May

Before okaying the Archive Series, the first step in this direction was to test the waters through the releasing of live shows from an ongoing tour. With the release of High Hopes in early 2014, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band – who had been on tour since March 2012 – continued with shows in South Africa, Australia/New Zealand and the United States to conclude their two year revival and one of their greatest eras. These shows were professionally recorded and fans at the shows were given the chance to purchase them courtesy of a USB wristband. Now they’re available for all fans to listen to on live.brucespringsteen.net.

IF YOU MISSED PART 1 WHERE I’VE TALKED ABOUT THE FIRST LEG OF THE TOUR

In this second part of my guide to the shows available from the 2014 High Hopes tour, I’ll be looking at the best shows performed on the North American leg that took place from April to May. As I mentioned in part one, it’s important to know going into listening to these shows that the audio quality is quite inferior to the 2016-17 shows and recent Archive releases. That being said, these 2014 shows are still listenable and there’s a lot of positives to them that can outweigh this negative.

19th April, 2014 – Charlotte, NC

I mentioned in the fourth part of my River Tour 2016-17 guide that this show is worth checking out for the really good cover of Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl”. For as good as that performance is, the best thing about this show is that there’s so much more to it. It’s one of those Springsteen and The E Street Band setlists that is all over the place, but in a good way. The first ever “Iceman” with The E Street Band to open the show sounds good. I don’t think it’s better than the outstanding version of the song in Paris in July 2016, but that’s not to say this should be ignored. Jake and the rest of The E Street Horns sound good on “Cadillac Ranch” and it’s a good sign that The E Street Band in general are playing well here without Little Stevie who’d took a leave of absence to film the third (and hopefully not the last) season of Lilyhammer. I think this is show is solid evidence of how Tom Morello was a strong point, being able to fill in more than efficiently for Steve and also add some outstanding guitar work throughout. Covers of The Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie” and Wilson Picket’s “Mustang Sally” are fun and something different, though the highlight of this sequence is Bruce’s comment about playing “Mustang” for over 50 years. What I like most about this show is while there’s the aforementioned “Brown Eyed Girl”, a sublime “Racing in the Street” and a rousing “Darkness on the Edge of Town” to open the encore, everything is overshadowed by the stunning and definitive version of “The Wall”. It’s dedicated to war veterans, those lost in the Vietnam war and all other wars, and in particular, friends and inspirations of Bruce in his youth: Ray and Walter Cichon of The Motifs, and Bart Haynes, Bruce’s drummer in The Castiles. “The Wall” is a beautiful song in general, but added with Bruce’s incredible storytelling here to provide the context of its background, it adds so much more to the song. It also shows the talent of Springsteen as a songwriter, in that not all songs written with the purpose of being anti-war have to be scathing like “Roulette” or “Born in the U.S.A.”. These songs can be slow and they can be emotionally driven, because that helps to drive the point across even more. Curt Ramm’s trumpet playing combined with the rest of The E Street Band add towards making this must hear and making this the best of a really strong show.

You can read my full review of this show here.

Rating: 8.25/10

22nd April, 2014 – Pittsburgh, PA

This is another good one, so good that, much like the second Hunter Valley show, I think in hindsight could’ve been in the Best of guide. Yeah, a lot of the very good material on here such as “Clampdown” and “Frankie Fell in Love” can be found on other 2014 shows and obviously the likes of “The Promised Land” and “Youngstown” appear on a healthy percentage of Archive releases, but if repetition was a problem for us Springsteen fans I wouldn’t be writing and you wouldn’t be reading “Rest of” guides. Anyway, what’s really great about this show is how upbeat it is for the majority of it, with the first eleven songs just being crowd pleaser after crowd pleaser. It’s a blend of diehard and casual favourites too, as “Badlands”, “Johnny 99” and “Hungry Heart” are combined with “Stand On It”, “Seven Nights to Rock” and one of my favourites from Tracks, “I Wanna Be With You”. And when the show finally slows down, it does so with another Tracks delight, “Back in Your Arms”. Only twelve songs in and there’s something for everyone on this night in Pittsburgh. The nineteen performances that follow aren’t too bad either, with more outings for “Mary’s Place”, “The Wall” and the sheer delicacy that is Bruce playing “The Promise” solo on piano. If there’s one show that you’re checking out after reading this guide, my shout is to make it this one.

You can read about the complete show here.

Rating: 8/10

26th April, 2014 – Atlanta, GA

Another good one filled with plenty of quality back-catalogue tracks, and standing out in particular are the seven songs from The River that are all played to their full potential. What I love most about the seven as well, is that unlike certain Euro shows in 2016, there’s no usual River suspects in the form of “Two Hearts”, “Crush on You” or “I Wanna Marry You” as might be expected, but instead heavy hitters including “The Ties That Bind”, “Jackson Cage”, “Independence Day”, “Cadillac Ranch” and “Drive All Night”. Bruce said in 2016 how the purpose of The River album was to give that feeling of a live show, and all of those elements he was talking about are featured here. And if that doesn’t get you interested in this show there’s another twenty-one songs played, including live powerhouses “She’s The One”, “Adam Raised a Cain”, “Seeds” and another emphatic cover of “Highway to Hell” to close the show out. This is really one for the rockers.

You can read my full review of this hot night in Atlanta here.

Rating: 8/10

29th April, 2014 – Sunrise, FL

I love this cover of The Clash’s “Clampdown” that kicks this one off because Bruce and Tom really work well together sharing vocals, especially on fiery guitar driven anthems like this and “Joad” – of which there’s another very good version later in the show. Alongside the show opener for the next night, there’s not many songs that transport me back to the time and place of first hearing it played like this one does. It’s a real nostalgia trip. After hearing so many stupendous versions of “High Hopes” in these shows, I’m really starting to hope it returns to E Street setlists one day, and am very thankful there’s a chance to hear them on the live.brucespringsteen.net website. The solo acoustic “I Wanna Marry You” is an incredibly soulful Bruce effort, and is a refreshing listen after hearing so many of the extended “Here She Comes” intros on the 2016 shows. Bruce’s comment before the first ever “Linda Let Me Be The One” that both songs might be the same written twenty years apart is funny, however it’s gutting to listen to this performance because “Linda” is a great song that is being played so well here before a communication error leads to a brief stoppage. While it goes smoothly afterwards, it’s a bit pointless going back to this one in its only live version. There’s always the risk of error with live music and there’s a few instances in E Street live shows that are quickly resolved, but this one is a real shame. That mistake doesn’t diminish this show completely however, as the good material prior is followed by some really good material afterwards. I like the two-pack of “Hearts of Stone” and “Talk to Me” on this one as much as I do in the 1st Uncasville show further down the page. Jake sounds excellent in “Hearts”, while “Talk to Me” is very rousing. There’s also a good “Shackled and Drawn” and another awesome “Highway to Hell” that I can’t go without mentioning, albeit briefly.
The performance of “Linda” brings this show down a bit, but there’s more than enough to make up for it.

You can read my full review of this Live Downloads release here.

Rating: 7.8/10

1st May, 2014 – Tampa, FL

As I mentioned above when talking about “Clampdown”, “Joe Hill” is one of my favourite performances from this tour because it really takes me back to this time in 2014. The fact it’s followed by “Clampdown” is an added bonus. There’s very much a workingman theme in this show – apt as this was played on International Worker’s Day – and that’s evident in the three Seeger Sessions tracks played: “Jesse James”, “Pay Me My Money Down” and “O Mary Don’t You Weep”. It’s to be expected that they don’t sound as good as on the Jazzfest 2006 archive release, but it’s still nice to be able to listen to these in an E Street Band show amongst other Springsteen classics. “Brothers Under The Bridge” is really unique played with The E Street Band backing Bruce’s acoustic guitar. Tom Morello adds an outstanding electric guitar solo at the ending sequence of this one, further showing his worth as part of the band, and the outro of the song gifts some stunning work from The E Street Horns. There’s also a funny moment before and during “From Small Things” afterwards where Bruce comments how it’s his only song to mention Tampa and that when he sings the name of the city, he wants some “cheap applause” from the audience to let him know where he is, to which they oblige.
This is a solid show with a lot of rare performances to complement Springsteen’s live staples. It’s not the best show of the tour, but it’s definitely worth a listen.

You can read my full review of night two in Florida here.

Rating: 8/10

13th May, 2014 – Albany, NY

There’s an amazing guitar driven opening here with INXS’ “Don’t Change”, “My Love Will Not Let You Down” and “No Surrender”. Bruce, Tom and Nils are a tremendous trio on guitar and the start of the show highlights how well they worked together in the absence of Little Stevie.
What stands out in this one is the eight song sequence starting with “Treat Her Right”. The highlight is the cover of The Drifters’ “Save the Last Dance For Me”, which is really well sung by Bruce, though the quality of the song may be a little bit emphasised by the added context provided from the video of the song on YouTube. Alongside this there’s great versions of “Better Days”, “Mary’s Place” and “Seaside Bar Song” and another one of the excellent covers played by Springsteen and The E Street Band in Oceania, “Stayin’ Alive”, gets an outing. I prefer the version in Brisbane when comparing the two, but this one is still a great listen. A solo acoustic “Kingdom of Days”, with some amazing high notes hit by Bruce, ends this sequence and is one of those performances that has you asking why it hasn’t been played more over the years. There’s a lot of great solo Bruce songs on this tour and this is the summit of them all.
Similarly to the above-mentioned show in Tampa, there’s a lot of rare tracks in this one, and the quality of the likes of “Don’t Change”, “Kingdom of Days” and even common setlist features such as the full band “Thunder Road” to end the show makes this is the better of the two.

You can read my thoughts on the entire show here.

Rating: 8.3/10

17th May, 2014 – Uncasville, CT

The penultimate show of the tour and with that this era in E Street history. Little Steven’s back for this one and his presence is made clear with performances of “Two Hearts” and “Frankie Fell in Love.” I’ve mentioned in these two guides about the sound quality of these shows and how despite it these shows are still listenable, but it does bother me how the power of “Racing in the Street ’78” is diminished due to this. Of the hundreds of songs played in these thirty-five shows, this is the only song where I’ve felt the quality of the recording has done a massive disservice. Bruce’s vocals aren’t the best either, but it’s evident how he’s putting a lot of effort and emotion into this one, and The E Street Band are playing perfectly as well. I think it’s great, but it’s not as good as it could be. There’s a lot to this show to indicate it’s a special night, such as performances of “Raise Your Hand” and “Quarter to Three” very early in the set. Bruce sings better on the latter and Eddie sounds great in his sax solo. It’s also worth mentioning how this show features the fourth performance of “The Price You Pay”, meaning that all but one version (Cork 2013 is that one version) since its outing in Brighton in 1981 is available on live.brucespringsteen.net. Out of everything on this show, my favourite is “Growin’ Up”, which Bruce precedes with an excellent monologue talking about the song’s likability with all demographics of his audiences, a retro story and a brilliant and funny tease of starting the song. This has become one of my favourite versions of “Growin’ Up”, and I’d advise everyone to check it out.

You can read more about the penultimate night of the tour – and the final tour show to be available on Bruce’s Live site – here.

Rating: 8.5/10

18th May, 2014 – Uncasville, CT

As of writing, this one isn’t available to download from the Live Bruce Springsteen website, but I feel it’s very important to mention it due to its significance as not only a show closer, but as an end to this era for Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band. As a fan, one of my favourite aspects of Bruce’s live shows is the spontaneity and the fact that anything at all can be played. As the Wrecking Ball World Tour came to a close, and as evident in these reviews of what I believe to be the best shows of the High Hopes Tour, during this timeframe Springsteen and The E Street Band truly gave the fans the epitome of spontaneity and unpredictability. This show is the culmination of all of this.
While there is a downside in how tired Bruce sounds here, albeit expected after two years on the road, the opening forty minutes of this show are truly astonishing. The opening four pack of “Roll of the Dice”, “Leap of Faith”, Van Halen’s “Jump” and “Frankie” is brilliant. Not only are these four premieres on this leg, but it’s such a joyous and fun way to start a show. In classic Springsteen fashion, “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” is the next song played – that’s right, in May – and then there’s the first ever live performance of “Seven Angels” from Tracks, where Garry Tallent really shines on bass. Next thing you know they’re playing another Tracks rarity, “Don’t Look Back”. Bruce sums it up perfectly: “breaking out all the oddities.“
The best thing about this show is that while there’s a distinct lack of these oddities played after “Don’t Look Back”, Bruce and The E Street Band continue playing with the same amount of passion and energy for the next two hours and ten minutes. The likes of “Cadillac Ranch” and “I’m a Rocker” continue the joyful vibe, while also adding the heavy guitar driven theme of the show evident in “Adam Raised a Cain”, “Youngstown”, “Johnny 99″ and The Ghost of Tom Joad.” As joyful as this is for the majority, the ending is incredibly emotional and respective of the last two years. “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” isn’t the best of performances, but there’s an importance to it in how it’s followed by “Jungleland” and “Dream Baby Dream”, where Bruce pours out the little energy left in him from the beginning of this era in March 2012.
Honestly, I’d say this show would serve as a fantastic introduction for a relatively newer fan into Springsteen’s live music, as it combines the perfect amount of random, rare and setlist mainstays to make that fan understand what makes E Street shows such a special occasion.

You can read about the last dance of the High Hopes Tour in full here.

Rating: 9.25/10

While this is the last of my Springsteen guides for the meantime, I’d advise you to stay tuned for related content coming up in the future. I’m planning on continuing my reviews of Archive Series releases every first Friday of the month. I’m also hoping to release more E Street Reviews of random shows from Springsteen’s career, including a review of Netflix’s Springsteen on Broadway coming up on December 15th.

To read about Springsteen’s Archive Series [Part 1]

To read about The 2016/17 River Tour [Part 1]