Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Fox Theater, Atlanta, GA, October 1, 1978
"This is our 86th show, so one more time for the last time!"
Setlist: THE LAST TIME / BADLANDS / SPIRIT IN THE NIGHT / DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN / HEARTBREAK HOTEL / FACTORY / THE PROMISED LAND / PROVE IT ALL NIGHT / IT'S MY LIFE / THUNDER ROAD / MEETING ACROSS THE RIVER / JUNGLELAND / FOR YOU / FIRE / CANDY'S ROOM / BECAUSE THE NIGHT / POINT BLANK / KITTY'S BACK / INCIDENT ON 57TH STREET / ROSALITA (COME OUT TONIGHT) / BORN TO RUN / TENTH AVENUE FREEZE-OUT / DETROIT MEDLEY / QUARTER TO THREE
Capacity: 3,900
This show is a request from subscriber Holden O. As a reminder, any Yearly or Founding subscriber can make a request that I write about a show.
“All right, Atlanta, let me see you out there. How you doing? This is the last night of our tour tonight, this is our 86th show, so one more time for the last time!”
A lot of words have been written about Bruce Springsteen’s fandom of soul and rhythm and blues, he has memorialized the impact of seeing Elvis on Ed Sullivan, told stories of watching Sam & Dave at the Satellite Lounge or his mom taking him to Atlantic City to see Chubby Checker. But what gets less coverage is the depth of Bruce’s Rolling Stones fandom, which comes to the forefront tonight in Atlanta, which he opens with a sonically perfect rendition of “The Last Time.” The Bruce/Steve Van Zandt harmonies are exquisite replicas of Mick and Keith doing the same. You can absolutely imagine them doing exactly this back when they’d be playing gigs at a Hullaballoo club somewhere down the shore.
This is the last of the rock 'n' roll bands. Combine that with the most underrated songbook in rock history and the Stones have always stood heads about their competition. Still do. - Born To Run, Chapter 76
Of course, this wasn’t the last show of the 1978 tour, but Bruce did not know this at the time he stepped onstage in Atlanta. So we get the benefits of a loose, happy tour finale show from every single member of the band. “The Last Time” rolls right into “Badlands,” just the smoothest little bit of upshift, running like a brand new Cadillac with new tires riding on a road that’s just been repaved, that’s how smooth it is.
(Yes, I absolutely am using a car metaphor to describe a Bruce Springsteen concert.)
You can envision Bruce stalking the edge of the stage during “Spirit In The Night,” slapping hands and bringing every single member of the audience down to Greasy Lake with him. But he didn’t need to, they were already there, you can hear the delight and pleasure in his voice when the audience responds with a loud and perfect “ALL NIGHT!” exactly on cue. You can also hear how delighted the audience is with themselves – Wait, we all know this?! How cool!
This is such an underrated show because it is in the shadow of the previous evening’s FM broadcast and because you wouldn’t have heard it unless you’d specifically hunted down the recording. There is just so much polish to the band’s performance and that is not a bad thing, it is the sound of a group of musicians who have played 86 shows in one year and everyone is entitled to benefit from that, everyone is entitled to enjoy every single minute of it, and you can hear it in every second of this show.
