1975-02-05 Main Point (The), Bryn Mawr, PA

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

Info & Setlist | Venue

One show, held as a benefit for the ~270-seat coffeehouse, with Springsteen & The E Street Band the sole act on the bill. The show was emceed by DJ Ed Sciaky and began just after 9.00pm. It was broadcast by WMMR-FM, but not as a true simulcast, rather it was broadcast on about a two-hour delay the same night. Interestingly, Springsteen almost backed out of his promise to allow the show to be broadcast. He wanted to play new songs that were still unfinished - songs that may not be ready for a large radio audience. It took a concentrated effort by Sciaky on the day of the concert to talk Bruce around. An attendee review of the show from 1975 by critic David Fricke states the show took place on February 3, but this appears to be an error by Fricke given detailed interview comments by Sciaky and the recollections of other attendees. Press reports suggest that Springsteen raised over $1,000 for the Main Point. The complete show was broadcast and the listed 18-song setlist represents the entire concert. Not only is it one of the longest (160 minutes) single-show gigs up to this point but it's one of the most compelling performances of Springsteen's entire career. There are spellbinding renditions of "Incident On 57th Street", "New York City Serenade" and "For You" (in the solo piano arrangement), the earliest known performances of "Mountain Of Love" and "Thunder Road" (with work-in-progress "Wings For Wheels" title/lyrics) plus a wild, majestic version of Chuck Berry's "Back In The U.S.A.". "The E Street Shuffle" includes "Having A Party". "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" includes a snippet of "Theme From Shaft" in the midsection. "A Love So Fine" includes an interlude of "Shout". Contrary to myth the police siren heard at the conclusion of "Incident On 57th Street" is an audio prop that had been utilized at a few of Bruce's shows just prior to this one, i.e. it was not a real vehicle.

This famous show circulated on vinyl boots and tapes from the mid-'70s onwards, but rarely the entire show (early vinyl boots were missing the final six songs in the setlist) and always in variable quality. The entire performance was first issued in 1990 in good sound quality on the CD 'The Saint, The Incident & The Main Point Shuffle' by the Italian label Great Dane. Soon after, an incomplete pre-FM reel of the first ninety minutes was discovered and the show was issued in improved quality on CD 'The Saint, The Incident & The Main Point Shuffle - Masters Plus' (also Great Dane), 'You Can Trust Your Car To The Man Who Wears The Star' (Labor of Love) and CDR 'Prodigal Son At The Main Point' (a remaster of the Great Dane 'Masters Plus' release by Prodigal Son) and CD 'Main Point Night' (Crystal Cat).

Part of the concert was legally released to retail in the UK in 2005 by American Legends Limited as 'Live On Air', reissued in 2007 by Storming as 'Transmissions', reissued again in 2010 by Southworld as 'Live On Air', and reissued again in 2011 by Facerock as 'The Best "Live On Air" Of Bruce Springsteen'. The complete show was released in 2011 by Left Field Media as a two-CD set titled 'Live At The Main Point, 1975', by Let Them Eat Vinyl (under exclusive agreement with Left Field Media) as a four-LP box set titled 'Live At The Main Point 1975', and in 2014 by Parallel Lines as part of a three-CD set titled 'The Spirit Of The Radio: Legendary Broadcasts From The Early 1970s' that also includes a CD containing the January 9, 1973 WBCN-FM and April 24, 1973 WMMR-FM radio broadcasts. A number of other releases have been issued since 2014. None of these releases are officially issued by Sony, rather by enterprising record labels taking advantage of a legal loophole which allows the commercial release of pre-1992 radio broadcasts that emanate from non-signatories of the 1992 EU Copyright Convention.

As to why the audio quality of the final 63 minutes of this show (from around eight minutes into "Kitty's Back" onwards) are inferior to the first 90 minutes, it seems that the early part of the show was sourced from pre-broadcast reels (or copies of them), while the latter part of the show is sourced from a recording of the broadcast itself. In an interview in Backstreets magazine #82 Ed Sciaky offers some important information, "We didn't have a phone line from the Main Point, so they had to tape the show in hour-long segments and then drive them (actually via bicycle messenger) to the station and put them on the air… and after the final reel had played, Bruce's lighting guy Marc Brickman (lighting director) took all of the tapes. So we (WMMR) never got a good copy of the show". The concert broadcast was also likely to have been subjected to some kind of auto-limiter, designed to limit the volume difference between loud and quiet segments. Unfortunately, the effect (variations in volume) is audible throughout the FM broadcast segment.

In July 2011 the final 63 minutes emerged in improved quality. A home-taping enthusiast from Philadelphia recorded the concert on reel at 3-3/4 IPS (inches per second), and the result is a significant upgrade. The quality may not quite match the pre-FM segment since it still suffers from the issues inherent in the broadcast, but it is the best we can expect unless a pre-FM source of the last hour should be found. This new source was issued via JEMS. An additional upgrade followed in the form of 'The Prodigal Son meets JEMS at the Main Pt. M+' (JEMS/Band of Brothers), which combines 'Prodigal Son At The Main Point' with the JEMS FM broadcast from 2011 to form the complete show. This set also has three bonus tracks from a CBS Studio Demo tape included for historical interest, since they are not audio upgrades. In early 2022 a single track from the FM broadcast segment of the show, "A Love So Fine", surfaced on a four-track 'Upgrades EP'. This recording is a notable upgrade over the best currently circulating source, and indicates that there are upgrades to this classic show that are yet to emerge into collector circles.

A promotion-only 7" flexidisc issued to subscribers of Austrian pop magazine Rennbahn Express in June 1981 contains Sciaky's introduction from this show, albeit edited to avoid references to WMMR and The Main Point.

Brucebase Wiki

Site Navigation