Search - Bruce Springsteen with the Sessions Band :: Live In Dublin (2CD/DVD)

Bringing the Celebration Back Home

Soulboogiealex | Netherlands | 06/05/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Roughly a year ago Springsteen surprised a lot of people when he released We Shall Overcome: the Seeger Sessions. A record that was not so much a tribute to Pete Seeger but more a celebration of American musical history. The record was uncommonly loose for Springsteen's standards, the song basically being the result of impromptu sessions. Musically the album mixed damn near every style in American folk music between New Orleans Gumbo & Blue Grass. A highly unorthodox style that would raise the eyebrows of purists but sounded catchy as hell. The song selection on the record went back hundreds of years but had a strong connection with today and Bruce's own catalogue.



Even before the album went on sale, concerts were announced and tickets were sold in Europe. Again, nobody quite knew what to expect from this evening of gospel, folk and blues performed by Bruce Springsteen & his 17 piece Seeger Sessions Band. Nobody knew what to expect but the shows in Europe sold out in minutes. I think few who went were disappointed.



Live in Dublin is a registration of what this tour was about, not necessarily a registration of the concert experience. The DVD clocks in at a mighty two hours, the shows were often pushing the two and a half. Some concessions seem to have been made to make the show fit on one disc. Concessions that'll no doubt bother a lot of fans. Two tour staples were cut from the set. John Henry and You Can Look were played every night, yet didn't make the DVD. A totally redundant track as Love of the Common People did, as a bonus. Springsteen has always made strange choices when it comes to releasing his live material and this is certainly one of them.



Despite those odd choices the Live in Dublin DVD gives you a pretty good sense off how good these shows were. The tour was in part a explicit political rally with anti-war songs as Ms McGrath or the New Orleans tribute How Can a Poor Man (stand such times and live). Yet most of the time its message was more subtle. Songs as Eyes on the Prize, a recast to the civil rights movement, or When the Saints Come Marchin' In served the same function, but in a more subdued manner.



The political issues that the tour tried to get back on the agenda weren't its greatest achievement by no means. The celebration of music was. Springsteen's own material fitted in seamlessly adapted to the style of the tour. Open All Night became a stomper in the style of Louis Jordan, Highway Patrolman revoked the images of Hank Williams, Louis Armstrong was omni present in the horn section and if you didn't know any better Jesse James felt like it had been in Bruce's catalogue since mid eighties.



The DVD captures all the musicians on stage in all there glory. Seldom did Springsteen give his band so much of the lime light. And during no tour he did before did the audience play such a crucial role. The band sung, danced and played with the audience. Pay Me My Money Down was sung minutes after the band left the stage, until they came back for the encores and even the most convinced atheist would belt out the words to Jacob's Ladder. The Seeger Sessions Tour was a celebration and this DVD brings it all back.

"

Swing Out , Brothers and Sisters, Swing Out

prisrob | New EnglandUSA | 06/24/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

""The fact is when Bruce kicked off at 20.30 pm on that Friday night in The Point Theatre, he played non-stop right to the very end very few performers can sustain such intensity and carry a gig off that would be to us punters unforgettable those night were UNFORGETTABLE!!!!!!!I thought Bruce was never gonna stop and the highlight of the night Bruce lying exhausted over the top of the piano as if he had not a breath left in the world. Dublin was a case of the time the music and the performer - A MOMEMT IN TRUE HISTORY FOR DUBLIN TOWN." IrishJohnny



"Live In Dublin' was one of those once in a lifetime events that we all wish we had attended. Every reviewer sings praise for this CD and DVD. Veteran concert goers and reviewers say this was the best concert they had ever attended. That is all well and good, but in the end Bruce Springsteen and the Sessions Band care about their fans. You can hear the fans singing along, 'Pay Me My Money Down ', 'Further On Up The Road', 'Erie Canal' and then there is 'Mrs McGrath' an obvious Irish favorite. Just when you think this CD could not get any better, the Boss kicks it up a notch. In fact I was singing along with the rest of'em. The ambience that the live audience gives to this CD is palpable. Springsteen and the audience must have shared the energy and the vibes from the Irish. You can feel the excitement in the air. I thought the Seeger CD was one of the Boss's best CD's, but the 'Live In Dublin' is undoubtabley the best. As my best friend has said, "This is one of the top five CD's ever".



Bruce Springsteen's manager Jon Landau said, "'Live in Dublin' charts the development of a band from an informal gathering in Bruce's living room to an onstage powerhouse. It also documents the growth in Bruce's vision of American music; it includes folk music, blues, Dixieland, country, swing, gospel, rock, down to and including his own writing. It's all performed with Bruce's classic energy and focus. I think it's some of the finest music he's ever made." The 23 songs on this CD are the best of the best. Included are many from his Seegers CD. They all belong in Springsteen's chest of dreams.



This CD and DVD are memorial for the emotions that are so evident in every song. Songs like the antiwar "Mrs. McGrath" and "O Mary Don't You Weep" benefit from these in-concert performances, "and a 17-piece band allows Springsteen to freewheel onto back roads" said Marty Lance. "If I Should Fall Behind" becomes a lovely waltz, "Open All Night" swings like Bob Wills, and "Growin' Up" and "Blinded by the Light" are new arrangements. "The high point, however, just might be "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live," the 1929 Blind Alfred Reed song that Springsteen has retrofitted with new lyrics about the government's bungling of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath. Bruce's connection to folk protest deepens, on the rewrite of "How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live". A Depression era classic that Springsteen found on a Ry Cooder album and then amended with his own brilliantly Bush-baiting verse is perhaps the most politically extreme and, as hammered home here, exultant performance of his career." Even more wonderful is "Eyes On The Prize", sung with Mark Anthony Thompson. "If I Should Fall Behind", a duet with Patty Sciafla, is one of my favorites, and "When The Saints Go Marching In" and "This Little Light Of Mine" rock free and easy. "In short, it's everything Springsteen's big-hearted thoughtfully impassioned take on Americana ever set out to be. Swing out sisters and brothers, swing out."

GAVIN MARTIN



Columbia Records released 'Bruce Springsteen With The Sessions Band Live in Dublin' a concert DVD, Blu-ray Disc, and separate two-CD set release, as well as a combination DVD/CD package. The two-CD set, DVD and Blu-ray Disc each feature 23 songs drawn from the band's performances in Dublin, Ireland at The Point on November 17, 18 and 19, 2006. The DVD can be seen on selected PBS stations and a glorious DVD it is;. PBS shouold reel in the cash after viewing this marvelous DVD.



There are not enough superlatives in my repetoire to register the delight of this CD. I have played it many times and will soon listen again.

The New Boss Lives On.



Highly Heartily Recommended. prisrob 06-05-07



Bruce Springsteen with the Sessions Band: Live In Dublin DVD



We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions





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This music makes life better.

warzoo | 06/07/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you loved The Seeger Sessions, you will love this, too. It definitely captures the amazing energy of the tour. The most exciting part for me are the new arrangements for two of my all time favorite songs, "Atlantic City" and "Open All Night". They blew my mind when I saw him perform them at the show and they still blow my mind in the privacy of my home a year later. The revamped "Further On (Up The Road) and especially "If I Should Fall Behind" are simply lovely.



But of course, what really matters here are the folk and gospel songs from The Seeger Sessions. I am an unabashed devotee to this music. I don't care how old they are or if I did learn some of them in grade school music class, these songs are just as exciting, clever, touching, relevant and memorable as anything Springsteen ever wrote. As much as I love Springsteen's entire catalog (I am a full-fledged addict), I have to admit I don't think I have ever listened to one of his album's more than I have listened to The Seeger Sessions. I have been listening to it practically non-stop for a year and I still have as much enthusiasm for it as I did when I first put it in the stereo. I was worried that I wouldn't really care much for this CD, but the songs that appear on "Live In Dublin" are tweaked just enough to keep it interesting and there is just the right amount of the audience sing-a-longs to give the live experience vibe but to keep from being annoying. For me, the highlights include, but are not limited to: "Jesse James", "My Oklahoma Home" and the big bang which comes on the second disc during "When The Saints Go Marching In", "This Little Light Of Mine" and "American Land". And it's simply a matter of fact that "How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live" is one of the greatest songs that Springsteen has ever performed.



The DVD looks wonderful and the show itself is a great representation of what I experienced when I saw the tour here in the states. Watching Springsteen armed with an acoustic guitar that he wields like a shotgun is always going to be worth your time---the energy he delivers doesn't change just because his band does. (For those of you who need him strapped to his Telecaster along side The Big Man and Little Steven, I beg you to get over it!)



Any complaints? I wish "Live In Dublin" could have included a performance of "Long Black Veil". I wish it was four discs instead of three.





Sadly, there now seems to be two kinds of Springsteen fans: Those who accept and adore Springsteen as a folk troubadour and those who can only handle him as the Almighty Leader of The E Street Band. For all those who fall in the latter category, I pity you. To close yourself of from the pure and total joy that these songs can stir is nothing short of tragic. Your soul must be calloused; your heart must be made of lead."