1974-10-04 Avery Fisher Hall, New York City, NY

Scheduled: 20:00 Local Start Time ??:?? / End Time ??:??

Info & Setlist | Venue

One show, with Springsteen & The E Street Band the sole artist on the bill. First confirmed performance of "She's The One", an early version containing some lyrics that would end up in "Backstreets". This is the E Street Band debut of violinist Suki Lahav, who has stated that her performance this night was originally intended to be a one-off except that it was so well received by the audience that Bruce asked her to continue. Suki didn't perform at the following two gigs at Albright and Clark but thereafter was a fixture in every show until the end of the tour. "The E Street Shuffle" includes "Having A Party". "Lost In The Flood" features an extended piano and clarinet introduction that is highly reminiscent of the instrumental later found between late 1975 and March 1977 at the beginning of "It's My Life". "A Love So Fine" includes a snippet of "Shout"; this is the first known performance with the "a love so fine" chorus. Chaos reigned near the end of this show and a Brucebase reader who attended explains why: "My wife and I were in front of the stage during "Quarter To Three" when the first two rows of seats next to us just disappeared, the left side of the stage and first couple of rows fell about six feet. A couple of monitors fell in where the people were seated but it didn't appear that anyone got hurt. The encore was abruptly ended however". For this concert we are fortunate to have two unique items; handwritten setlists penned not by Bruce, but by Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici. Prior to every show Bruce would compose his setlist in the green room, just as he does today. Rather than make copies, the band would then copy his setlist in order to have it in their own handwriting. Usually these setlist copies would be made on a small memo pad and disappear by the end of the show, however Avery Fisher Hall had their own music stands, and so the setlists were written on larger sheets of paper. These two pages were picked up in the green room after the show by Art Reilly, a member of Springsteen's lighting crew. Several interesting nuggets of information can be gleaned from these setlists. First of all, Springsteen seemed to be just as likely to keep to his list in 1974 as he does today: "The E Street Shuffle" was listed after "It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City" and "Born To Run" was dropped from it's slot after "She's The One". According to the setlist, "Night" follows "Jungleland". Written in shorthand, this actually refers to "A Night Like This", the earlier/alternate title for "A Love So Fine". See the listings from Kean College and The Main Point for more detail. The most notable song however is the listed closer, The Cookies' "On Broadway", which Springsteen intended to play after "Quarter To Three" - hardly surprising given Avery Fisher Hall's close proximity to Broadway. Unfortunately the front section of the stage collapsed before he got a chance. We have no record of Springsteen ever playing "On Broadway".



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