Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
So Dark Tonight
Music Hall 
Houston, TX
September 13, 1975 
ER Archives Vol. 9 via JEMS

Soundboard Recording (equipment unknown) 

JEMS 2014 Transfer: very likely 2nd generation reel to reel tapes > Otari 5050mkII azimuth-adjusted transfer > Sound Devices USBPre 2 > Audacity 2.0 (24/96) capture > iZotope RX click repair > Peak 6.0 with iZotope Ozone 5.0 (speed correction) > resample 16/44.1 > Peak Pro XT (volume smoothing / manual click removal / edit / indexing) > xACT > FLAC

01 Incident on 57th Street
02 Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
03 Spirit in the Night
04 Pretty Flamingo
05 Growin' Up
06 Saint in the City
07 The E Street Shuffle (splice)
08 She's the One
09 Born to Run
201 Thunder Road
202 Kitty's Back (splice)
203 Jungleland
204 Rosalita
205 Sandy
15 Quarter to Three
16 Carol > Lucille
17 Twist and Shout

Welcome back to the ninth in a series of releases from the ER Archives, the collection of an active '70s taper and trader who stepped away from collecting, leaving his tapes dormant until now. ER's collection contains previously uncirculated shows as well as upgrades to circulating tapes, both audience and soundboard. He used high-end tape decks and good tape, so his copies of even well-known shows have proven to be improvements. 

Installment 9 is an upgrade to another soundboard classic: the Music Hall in Houston, September 13, 1975. As explained in detail here (http://jungleland.dnsalias.com/torrents-details.php?id=36408), the ER Archive tapes of this show were copied from Ed Sciaky's reels in the late '70s. And like previous soundboard transfers in this series, to our ears it is a clear upgrade. Samples provided.

In preparing Houston for release, I found myself asking, "Why isn't this show more beloved?" It is the first extant soundboard recording after Atlanta 8/23/75 (ER Archive Vol. 8), and the three weeks that followed included the tour's first two-week break. As such, the band is both recharged and rehearsed. Comparing sets between ATL and HOU we see the addition of three songs from Born to Run--"Tenth Avenue Freeze-out," "Thunder Road" and "Jungleland"--putting more emphasis on the new album, though the show opens in the past with a lovely "Incident on 57th Street," as good as any we have from board sources on the '75 tour. Perhaps its the quality of ER's reels, but I had never previously noted that someone sings along with Springsteen for several lines in "Incident," starting with the lyric "With bruised arms and broken rhythm." But who?

The show ends as appealingly as it begins, as a raucous crowd is clearly lifting Bruce's spirits, leading to a rollicking version of "Carol" straight into "Lucille." The band is them summoned back for "Twist and Shout." In between those sublime bookends is the first known performance of Manfred Mann's "Pretty Flamingo," complete with the story of the girl walking by Bruce's porch that would be retold all the way through The River tour, when it was part of "I Wanna Merry You", "Jungleland" is strong; "Kitty" too.

This is one of the clearer '75 board tapes, and though it is wanting for more guitar in the mix at times, the rest of the band could not sound closer.

Once again carrying this tape over the finish line is our comrade MJK5510. Thanks to him for final polish and prepping.

And of course, thanks once again to the ER Archive for opening up the vault doors and sharing this recording with the fans. Feel free to let him know how you feel in the comments.

BK for JEMS