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Scheduled: 20:00 Local Start Time ??:?? / End Time ??:??First of two acoustic concerts to benefit the Christic Institute. The Institute was a public interest law firm, founded in 1980. A stunning performance by Springsteen, including world premieres of "Red Headed Woman", "57 Channels (And Nothin' On)", "When The Lights Go Out" (all on the guitar), and "Real World" on the piano. Furthermore, we get first time acoustic guitar versions of "Brilliant Disguise", "Darkness On The Edge Of Town", "Mansion On The Hill", "Reason To Believe", "My Father's House", "Atlantic City", "Wild Billy's Circus Story" (no tuba from Garry this time), and "Nebraska" (of course to follow "Wild Billy's Circus Story" – "Nebraska's our next stop"). "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" is performed with Bruce alone on the piano for the first time. "Thunder Road" returns to the version last seen on the first leg of the Born To Run Tour (with Bruce, not Roy Bittan on the piano). "My Hometown" gets its second acoustic hearing, this time on the piano, and not on the guitar as in 1988 on the S.O.S. Racism show. Highlight is the magnificent solo piano "Real World" - an inspired performance and one of Bruce's greatest. For the encores, Bonnie Raitt (introduced with a reprised line from "Red Headed Woman") and Jackson Browne join in on "Highway 61 Revisited" (Bruce on harmonica, Jackson on acoustic guitar, and Bonnie on tambourine) and "Across The Borderline" (previously performed on the Tunnel Of Love Tour) – this time with Jackson on the piano and Bonnie on the slide guitar – beautiful as always.
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No Handwritten or Printed Setlist available. |
incl. Rehearsals.
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© All credits to the original photographer. We do not monetize a photo in any way, but if you want your photo to be removed, let us know, and we will remove it.
Official concert recording available for purchase in multiple formats, including CD and high definition audio, from Springsteen's official live download site at nugs.net/bruce (previously live.brucespringsteen.net).
- Running Time: 2:57:27
Note: With 1990-11-17; not available separately.
Audience tape and camcorder video. Five recording sources circulate - the first was originally released on the triple CD set 'Springsteen, Raitt & Browne' (Templar) from the master tapes (RT), many of the spoken parts on this source are edited. A second source is available from the master tapes (Mark Persic) on 'The Christic Nights - Persic Recordings' remastered (Ev2). A third source is available from the slipkid68 master tapes (JEMS). In July 2015, a previously unknown fourth source transferred from a first generation copy, recorded by 'legendary taper' (Mike Millard), was released (JEMS). The same source was also released as 'American Dream' (Red Phantom), 'Thunder Road (Men At Work) and 'Unplugged' (Live Line). The sound quality of this recording is outstanding. A fifth source, slightly distant and similar in sound to the slipkid68 version, is in limited circulation. Also available on 'Acoustic At The Shrine' (Boxer), 'Acoustic Concert' (Sounds Alive), 'Acoustic Jewels Ultra Rare Tracks Vol.2' (Fake-The Swingin' Pig), 'Los Angeles '90' (Real Live), edited to include only songs and 'Acoustic Tales' (The Swingin' Pig), it's not certain which sources these releases use. Audience shot video is available on DVD 'A Little More Of The Real World' (RCR).
16.11.90 Los Angeles, CA, intro to‘Brilliant Disguise’:
”I’d like to thank everyone for coming down tonight…..I’d like to say, it sounds a little funny but it’s been awhile since I did this so if you’re moved to clap along, please don’t….it’s gonna mix me up…..”
16.11.90 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’:
”Thanks….I’d appreciate , uh…..if during the songs I’d get just a little bit quiet so I can concentrate…..”
16.11.90 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘Mansion on the Hill’:
”When I was a little boy…..my daddy’d take me for this ride with him…..”
16.11.90 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘Reason to Believe’:
(someone in the audience yells ‘We love you, Bruce!’) But you don’t really know me (cheers)…..uh….I’m glad to be here tonight for the Christic Institute so (cheers)….over the past decade….our country has been sold an illusion of itself…..and uh…..for me, the Christic Institute…..is in process of trying to make us all grow up…..everybody (cheers)…..and uh……this song is about the price…..that blind faith…..and refusing to give up your illusions…..extracts….from you…..”
16.11.90 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘Red Headed Woman’:
”It’s funny, Jackson and Bonnie and I , we met about, uh….almost 20 years ago, I was playing at Max’s Kansas City (cheers)…..and this fella…..David Blue came….and pulled me off stage….and said ‘Man, you gotta come downtown with me´….Jackson was playing at the Bitter End, Bonnie was playing across the street at the Cafe Au Go Go and I got up and sang a song……and uh…..when we couldn’t get any jobs, Bonnie Raitt used to let me open up for her (chuckles)….she was so nice…..and she´s so good ….and she’s so sexy (cheers)…..yeah, yesterday I came in, you know, I hadn’t seen her in a while, she kissed me right on the lips (cheers)….it was just a little kiss ….it was very, very….knowing…..life’s little thrills (cheers)….anyway I’m gonna dedicate this tonight to, uh…..my two favorite red-heads…..”
16.11.90 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘57 Channels’:
”Yeah….Lord…..(?)….yeah, this is about uh….loneliness….how there can be so much going on and nothing happening……how…..”
16.11.90 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘My Father’s House’:
”Oh, thanks…..yeah, yeah…..I used to, uh…..I used to uh……I had this habit for a long….time, I used to get….in my car and I would drive back thru my old neighbour-hood in the town I grew up in….and uh….I’d always drive past the old house I used to live in…..and I’d do it and sometimes late at night if I was…..when I used to be up at nights (chuckles)….and uh…..and uh…..I got so I would do it really regularly….for two or three, four times a week….for years…..and I eventually got to wondering …..’What the hell am I doing ?’ (chuckles)…..so I went to see a psychiatrist (laughter) ….and uh….this is true (chuckles)….and uh…..and uh….you know, I sat down and I said, you know, ‘Doc, for years I been getting in my car….at night , drive back to my town….. and I pass my houses late at night…..and you know, what am I doing ?’ ….. and he said ‘I want you to tell me what you think you’re doing’ (laughter)…..so I go ‘That’s what I’m paying you for’…..so he says ‘Well…..what you’re doing’, he says, ‘Something bad happened…and you’re going back…..you know, thinking you can make it right again…..something, something went wrong and you keep going back….. to see if you can fix it….or somehow make it right’…..and I sat there and I said…. ’That is what I’m doing’…..and he said ‘Well, you can’t’……”
16.11.90 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘Wild Billy’s Circus Story’:
”Used to have this girlfriend…..ah…..who rode one of those elephants…..in the Ringling Brothers Circus…..nice girl (laughter)…..”
16.11.90 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘Tenth Avenue Freeze Out’:
(chuckles)”(?) any bad notes are intentional in this, so (chuckles)…..”
16.11.90 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘Nebraska’:
”This is a song I wrote….I don’t even know exactly…..why I wrote it….I wrote…. when I did the Nebraska album, I….really…..didn’t think anything about whatever its… political implications were so, uh…..until I read about it in the newspapers (chuckles)… said ‘Oh’….but you know (chuckles)….but something I was feeling moved me to write all these songs at that time…..where people lose their connection to their friends and their families and their jobs…..and their countries and their lives don’t make sense to them no more…..and all the….all the rules go out the window…..”
16.11.90 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘When the Lights Go Out’:
”Wanna dedicate this to, uh……Danny Sheridan who came over my house……got me down here tonight…..”
16.11.90 Los Angeles, CA, middle of ‘Thunder Road’:
(Bruce forgets the lyrics) ”I knew this would happen (chuckles)…..”
16.11.90 Los Angeles, CA, intro to ‘My Hometown’:
”Thank you…..ah…..and I have the words in front of me on this (chuckles)(cheers)….. you know, great…..oh so….I was uh….got my kid, Patti and I (?) (cheers)…..it’s funny….changes , you know, all the cliches, it changes the way you think about everything and all that stuff….and uh…..I remember the night…..Patti had the baby and you know it was like I was a little nervous and she was getting those contractions and….(?) gone through lamaze and all that stuff…..(?) you oughta know…..so uh…..I figured….the situation would get tense so…..I should, it was kinda my responsobility to lighten the things up….I stopped in this drugstore….during the day, I was looking for like a jokebook or something (laughter)…..sounds stupid but it…..seemed like a good idea at the time (laughter)….and uh…..and uh…..I found this book , ‘How to Be an Italian ?’, you know (chuckles)(cheers)…..it’s a very funny book, in a stupid kinda way, you know (chuckles)….so I said ‘Gee, when it gets really….tight, I’ll crack out some Italian jokes’ (laughter)….I didn’t get to it, you know….the baby came, you know, Patti was….beautiful and uh…..uh….bellissimo, that´s the word (chuckles) (cheers)…..anyway, I wanna do this for my kid and for your kids…and…..for daddies and mummies too….”
Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi
| CJ | This show had a unique but cold feeling to it. Someone yelled out to Bruce during a moment of quiet "I love you Bruce" and he responded "But, you don't even know me". He seemed to be caught in a period of his life that he was searching for some answers, hence the time away from the band. Highlight musically was the first time hearing 10th Avenue Freezeout with just Bruce at the piano and hearing a new song, "Real World" on the piano and immediately falling in love with it. I was excited to hear it on the album that came out later but was disappointed it was nothing like the version he played that night. He mentioned writing "My Hometown" while in LA - a big surprise to me (a Philly boy) because that song sounds like a such a Jersey / Philly industrial time. |
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© All credits to the original photographer. We do not monetize a photo in any way, but if you want your photo to be removed, let us know, and we will remove it.
Bruce Springsteen Returns: Joins Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne For Christic Benefit |
When everybody starts believing those big illusions,” said Bruce Springsteen from the stage of the Shrine Auditorium, in Los Angeles, “you end up with a government like the one we’ve had for the past decade.” The occasion was the second of two benefit concerts given by Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne on November 16th and 17th for the Christic Institute, an organization that is pursuing a lawsuit against a group of United States-sponsored covert operatives for allegedly bombing a press conference in Nicaragua in 1984. The song Springsteen was introducing was “Reason to Believe,” from Nebraska, and the specific illusion he referred to was the American government’s belief in its inalienable right to police the world and shape the destiny of other sovereign nations.
Springsteen’s endorsement of the Christic Institute and its conviction that an ongoing conspiracy of government officials and former military and intelligence officers has played a major role in American foreign policy over the past three decades represents a far more radical stance than he has ever before taken. In his characteristic fashion, however, Springsteen managed to put a human face on the array of complex, far-ranging political issues the Christic Institute lawsuit addresses. His two masterful solo acoustic sets – his first live appearances since the close of the Amnesty International Human Rights Now! world tour in October of 1988 – were breathtakingly moving explorations of how self-deceit, romantic illusions and fantasies of control corrupt the bedroom and the boardroom, personal as well as political affairs, and poison human experience. With remarkable emotional sophistication, Springsteen was able to dramatize both the damage such illusions inflict and the difficulty and pain involved in giving them up for a real world that is far from a utopia.
The first evening’s show was more taut and gripping, if less relaxed, than the second. Walking out of the wings to center stage without an introduction, his hair grown long and swept back, Springsteen was clearly tense. Strumming an acoustic guitar, he mentioned not having “done this in a while” and told the audience, “If you’re moved to clap along, don’t – it’ll mess me up.” He then set the tone for the night with a stark, intense – and simply spectacular – reading of “Brilliant Disguise,” a song about the virtual impossibility of understanding your own emotions, let alone another person’s. His singing strong and supple, Springsteen incited howls of excitement with the subtlest gestures, such as sliding his voice into a fragile falsetto on certain line endings. “Is it me, baby, or just a brilliant disguise?” Springsteen nearly whispered to the crowd of 6200 people witnessing his return to the public eye. The question seemed far from innocent a little later when, after a fan screamed, “We love you, Bruce,” Springsteen responded, without a shred of irony, “But you don’t really know me.”
A modified arrangement of “Darkness on the Edge of Town” was somewhat less successful – it would work far more effectively the next night – but a haunted “Mansion on the Hill,” with Springsteen providing a plaintive harmonica solo, proved riveting. The singer bemoaned how “over the past decade the country’s been sold an illusion of itself” and praised the Christic Institute for “trying to make us grow up” by way of leading into “Reason to Believe,” which he souped up with a chilling slide-guitar part.
The set took an amusing turn when Springsteen – obviously in a 2 Live Bruce mood – hauled out a song he’d written the night before called “Redheaded Woman,” which he dedicated to “my two favorite redheads”: Bonnie Raitt and, of course, Patti Scialfa. “Well, now, listen up, stud, your life’s been wasted,” Springsteen wailed over a propulsive rockabilly beat, “till you been down on your knees and tasted a redheaded woman.” In “57 Channels,” another funny new song with a rockabilly feel, Springsteen described shooting out his television Elvis style because “there’s fifty-seven channels, man, and nothing on.”
The fun halted with a heart-stopping version of “My Father’s House,” which Springsteen prefaced with a wrenching description of how, “three or four times a week,” late at night, by himself, he used to drive past the houses in which he grew up with his parents. Concerned, he consulted a psychiatrist, who explained that “something went wrong” in those houses, something broke down, and that Springsteen was driven to return to the scene in a desperate, compulsive effort to “make it right.” “But,” the psychiatrist concluded, “you can’t.” The song ends: “My father’s house shines hard and bright/It stands like a beacon calling me in the night/Calling and calling so cold and alone/Shining across this dark highway where our sins lie unatoned.”
The degree to which Springsteen’s tangled feelings about his parents have been reactivated – possibly by his having a child of his own – was evident the following night, when he replaced “My Father’s House” with “The Wish,” a poignant song about his mother. “If pa’s eyes were windows into a world so deadly and true,” he sang, accompanying himself on guitar. “You couldn’t stop me from looking, but you kept me from crawling through.” While Springsteen’s struggle with his tormented feelings about his father fuels his greatest art – “My Father’s House” is, significantly, a far more compelling song than “The Wish” – his feelings about his mother account for the sweeter, more vulnerable aspects of his personality.
On Friday night, Springsteen moved over to the piano after “My Father’s House” for “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out.” Despite the raw energy of Springsteen’s R&B-flavored rendition, that song – along with the spellbinding, introspective version of “Thunder Road” he performed later, also at the piano – essentially served as an elegy for the E Street Band. Hearing Springsteen belt out a line like “When the change was made uptown/And the Big Man joined the band” as he sat alone on the large, dark stage was a powerful moment. “I’m all alone, I’m on my own,” he sang. “And I can’t find my way home.”
Brilliant, spare versions of “Atlantic City” and “Nebraska” framed Friday night’s biggest surprise: the rarely performed “Wild Billy’s Circus Story,” from The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle. A new song called “When the Lights Go Out” – about deception, corruption of spirit and the darker elements within us – followed “Nebraska.” “Thunder Road” – which Springsteen stopped midsong because he forgot the lyrics, shaking his head and saying, “I knew this would happen” – came next, and a stunning, mournful “My Hometown,” performed on piano, closed the set proper.
For his encore, Springsteen played a new song at the piano, a stirring ballad called “Real World,” which he co-wrote with E Street Band pianist Roy Bittan and dedicated on Saturday night to Patti Scialfa, who was backstage with their new baby, Evan James. A bracing, hymnlike love song, “Real World” is about abandoning fairy-tale fantasies and accepting the limits and delights of the possible. “Ain’t no church bells ringing, ain’t no flags unfurled,” sang the man whose storybook marriage ended bitterly and whose most popular tour became an orgy of flag-waving. “Just me, you and the love we’re bringing into the real world.”
Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt – whose opening sets were strong but, unfortunately, entirely overwhelmed by Springsteen’s performance – then joined Springsteen for a rousing cover of Bob Dylan‘s “Highway 61 Revisited.” The trio alternated lead vocals and harmonized on the choruses. Browne’s driving acoustic rhythm guitar – Springsteen played harmonica and Raitt rattled a tambourine – turned Dylan’s blackly humorous tale of profit frenzy and war fever into an insinuating boogie workout With Browne playing piano, Springsteen playing acoustic guitar and Bonnie Raitt playing slide guitar, the night ended with a feeling rendition of Ry Cooder‘s “Across the Borderline.” A song about Central and South American immigrants who come to Texas to find a “broken promised land,” it provided a touching multicultural complement to the domestic dislocation of Springsteen’s “My Hometown.”
On Saturday night, in addition to substituting “The Wish” for “My Father’s House,” Springsteen deleted “Wild Billy’s Circus Story” and “Atlantic City” and added “State Trooper,” a stately, dignified reading of “Tougher Than the Rest” and a new song called “Soul Driver.” Taken together, the two shows – beginning with a “Brilliant Disguise” and ending in the “Real World” – demonstrated that Springsteen’s ability to seize the moment onstage and make palpable the meaning of potent emotional and social issues has not at all diminished. He continues to look deep inside himself and find a world there, a world we can enter to learn a bit about how a life proceeds, to learn a bit about ourselves and our own world.
“I built a shrine in my heart/It wasn’t pretty to see/Made out of fool’s gold, memory and tears cried,” Springsteen sang in “Real World.” “Well, now I’m heading over the rise.” It’s a necessary trip, and with as much conviction as ever, he’s taking us along with him.
| By Anthony DeCurtis via Rolling Stone. |
OFFICIAL CHRISTIC RELEASE: BOTH 1990 SHOWS |
While the 2016 River tour rolls through Europe, the Bruce Springsteen archival download series returns with what are arguably two of his most significant and distinctive performances: the November 16-17, 1990 solo shows at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
The occasion saw Springsteen follow sets by Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt at a pair of benefit concerts in support of The Christic Institute, a left-leaning legal and public-policy organization focused on domestic social reform and U.S. governmental influence in Latin America. Playing for such a cause in 1990 was certainly news, but that would be overshadowed by many factors.
The Christic shows were Bruce’s first formal public performances not only since the end of the Amnesty tour in 1988, but since he had informed members of the E Street Band that he would not be requiring their services for the foreseeable future.
He was also performing solo acoustic for only the second time (the Bridge School in 1986 being the other) since his pre-E Street Band days. In hindsight, the 1992-93 acoustic pre-shows as well as the Tom Joad and Devils & Dust tours all tie back thematically to these two appearances. On top of that, the Shrine is the smallest proper concert venue Bruce had played since 1981; he was rumored to be armed with new songs; and he had become a father for the first time just four months earlier. Add it all up and you have a recipe for the most anticipated shows of Springsteen’s career.
Before the World Wide Web, social media, and smartphones, some 5,000 people walked into the Shrine that first night with no clue what they were about to experience. I was one of them.
Like most Bruce fans, I’m often asked what’s the greatest show I ever witnessed. And given everything noted above and the two incredible performances Springsteen delivered, my answer has long been the Christic shows.
Over the course of 100 or so minutes each night, Springsteen proceeded to stun a rapt audience with the debut of six new songs, including “57 Channels (and Nothin’ On),” “When the Lights Go Out,” “Real World,” “Red Headed Woman,” “The Wish,” and “Soul Driver.” The first three would go on to appear on Human Touch; “Red Headed Woman” snuck out on In Concert/MTV Plugged; the last two wouldn’t see release until Tracks in 1998.
Imagine hearing those songs for the first time, with no prior context whatsoever: “Soul Driver,” a solemn passion tale with Bruce in the full voice of a gospel preacher; “The Wish,” a deeply personal love letter to his mother; “When the Lights Go Out,” a stark, cautionary tale apropos to the work of the Christic Institute (the people who, in Bruce’s words, “watch what’s going on when the lights go out”); “Red Headed Woman,” easily the bawdiest song Springsteen had ever performed; and “57 Channels,” which offered biting media commentary and a genuine sense of first-person peril.
But the premiere which struck the most resonant chord with the audience was “Real World,” which, in this riveting solo-piano form, carried a depth of emotion and musical dynamics that the studio version wouldn’t capture. In hindsight, it wouldn’t be unfair to say the same of all six songs, which never sounded better than they did these nights.
Beyond debuts, Bruce brought forth striking new arrangements (“Darkness on the Edge of Town”) and inspired juxtapositions (“Wild Billy’s Circus Story” into “Nebraska”), told personal stories (about the birth of his son Evan), and sat on the piano bench for the first time since 1978 to play “Thunder Road,” “Tenth Avenue Freeze-out,” “My Hometown,” “Tougher Than the Rest” and the aforementioned “Real World.”
Happily, we get to hear it all now as, for the first time, complete soundboard recordings of both nights are available as The Christic Shows, November 16 & 17, 1990, the latest live release from the Thrill Hill vault.
Nugs.net’s Brad Serling tells Backstreets the Christic recordings were sourced from direct-to-DAT, two-track masters of the Front of House mix, so, unlike prior archival titles from multi-tracks, there was no mixing involved. Archivist and engineer Toby Scott prepped the DAT transfers for release (battling against diginoise along the way, due to the age of the DAT tapes, but ultimately winning). Adam Ayan at Gateway again handled mastering.
Though the Christic shows were not on the original list of 30 concerts under consideration at the start of the archive series, all involved were well aware of the historic significance of the performances. Collectors have long viewed the Christic shows as essential listening. Multiple audience recordings exist of both nights, and a soundboard tape of the second show surfaced several years ago, albeit with cuts (notably in the beautiful piano version of “Tougher Than the Rest” from night two).
“Listening to this recording for the first time stopped me in my tracks,” Serling says. “I’d heard of the shows, but had never actually listened to them until Gateway sent us the mastered version for this release. I have never heard anything like it. On first listen, it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. On repeated plays, it took me deeper and deeper into the performance, and I am continually amazed with each new listen.”
Serling adds that the new Christic release presents both shows complete, without cuts, sequenced continuously in the order of the performances (on CD, that means they play straight through as two shows across three CDs). “Four CDs would have been needless,” says Serling.
Presenting the complete performances also required getting sign-off from Raitt and Browne, who blessed the release of the encore set featuring all three musicians on covers of Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61” and Ry Cooder’s majestic 1987 songwriting masterwork, “Across the Borderline.”
In 2000, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Christic shows, Backstreets Magazine took a look back, with writer Jonathan Pont putting the shows in historical context based on what followed, from Human Touch/Lucky Town to The Ghost of Tom Joad and its solo tour: “What Springsteen did those two nights in November was to get primal, in essence going back to square one….To this day, the Christic concerts bear the mark of an artist searching for the best way to move forward.”
| By Erik Flannigan via Backstreets.com |
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