Customer Reviews

Live In Dublin

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'll echo the other reviewers and say that this is undoubtedly the best live CD I've ever heard, a testament to a combination of the music, lyrics, players, and timeliness of the message.

Springsteen is almost impossible to review, but I'll just say that, as much as I loved the Rising, Live in Barcelona, and Devils and Dust, the Seeger Sessions and this live album have taken him into a musical stratosphere that maybe only Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson can touch -- pure Americana.

Most of the other reviewers have adequately pointed out the highlights, but I'll say that the mournful dirge that the band transformed "When the Saints Come Marching In" to made tears stream down my face when I first heard this version, especially as it comes in the set after "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live". Folk music is as relevant as it ever was.

If you like any strain of Americana roots music -- blues, folk, jazz, gospel, Western swing, roots country, mountain/Scots/Irish music -- this concert will blow you away and make you sing with the crowd.

Watched the DVD last night and I am just blown away by how great this is. The band is amazing, and they are enjoying the music as much as I have ever seen any band enjoy themselves. Bruce is in great form and this CD/DVD proves once again how versitile and talented he is. It is rare for a artist to sucessfully create a project that is outside what made him or her famous, but Bruce knocks it out of the park on this one.
Another great thing about this music (Bruce's as well as the folk classics) is that it appeals to a huge range of people. This is the first music ever that I can think of that my parents, my wife and my young kids enjoy.
Another great thing about this CD/DVD is the Irish crowd. They are top notch as usual.
Rumor has it that Bruce's next project is with the E Street band. I can't wait to see what that brings, but at the same time, I hope Bruce works with the Sessions Band again soon.
Buy this CD/DVD, you will not be disappointed.

"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

I saw Bruce Springsteen's Seeger Sessions concert last year at the PNC Bank Arts Center in NJ and it was an interesting, uplifting show. This live collection perfectly captures that feeling. While I prefer Mr. Springsteen's straight rock concerts, the show was raucous and big departure from his other solo work which are intimate acoustic settings. The cd from which the concerts emanated from was an excellent recreation of the turn of the century musically stylings, but the live show bring out the songs true heart and soul. Mr. Springsteen really cuts loose and you can hear and feel the fun he is having. Backing by a seventeen-piece band, the songs have a carnival, music hall sound. There are some songs from Mr. Springsteen's own catalog that get reworkings, most notably "Open All Night" which is a radical departure from the original Nebraska version. All in all, this two-disk set (there's a deluxe edition which includes a dvd of the show) is great way to experience this different Springsteen concert.

Springsteen has a knack with live albums; you always feel his energy, his passion, his character. True, his voice isn't the best, and his songwriting is more simple than elegant, but nobody really cares--Bruce Springsteen is a performer, a rock and roll icon with a true love of music. No Springsteen album showcases this love better than LIVE IN DUBLIN.

It is a bit egotistical of Springsteen to include his own songs among these traditionals, but to his credit, they fit right in (and the audience loves them just as much; in fact, the audience helps make this record so amazing, as they clap and sing and clearly have as good a time as the band). Springsteen manages a feat that few artists ever achieve--he manages to reinvent songs he has already reinvented. From standards such as "Old Dan Tucker" and "This Little Light of Mine," to almost unrecognizable versions of his own tunes ("Further On Up the Road" and "Open All Night" especially) that are still purely enjoyable. He tackles acoustic rock, country, gospel, bluegrass, and simple layman balladry. He tells tales of outlaws and victims, of people down on their luck and people realizing what they are made of. Basically, though he only wrote a handful of these tunes (and recorded them all previously), this album reads like any other Bruce Springsteen album, going all the way back to GREETINGS FROM ASBURY PARK, N.J. And the Sessions Band is a collection of some of the finest musicians you will ever hear; they aren't the E Street Band, but damned if they aren't good. Springsteen is still in fine form, and LIVE IN DUBLIN ranks with some of his best efforts yet. True rock 'n roll never dies, it just evolves, and Bruce Springsteen keeps evolving right along with it.

While many musicians become more narrow and stereotyped as they get older, Bruce Springsteen has constantly worked to reinvent himself again and again over his 40 years of performing. I loved Bruce and the E Street Band. Although it may be blasphemy to some, I believe this incarnation of the Sessions band is every bit their equal. The growth and integration since the Seeger Sessions CD is fascinating. "Live In Dublin" is a fabulous performance by a virtuoso band who play with infectious enthusiasm. My only regret is that this performance documents the end of the tour. On the other hand, I can't wait to see where Bruce will go next.

The Boss doesn't make bad CDs or bad concerts, I am told. I've wanted to hear him in concert since I heard his first songs. I actually was getting tickets to one of the shows that got cancelled due to a band member's illness and he's come to two cities--after I've left them. If I never make it, this CD is better than a lot of the live shows that I have been lucky enough to see.

I miss the E Street Band, but the Sessions Band he's gathered for this effort is excellent. His backup singers are soulful and the 17 piece band can handle anything from swing to Irish without missing a beat.

"Varied" is a mild description for this CD. Anyone else did this kind of concert, you'd have mixed reviews. Bruce can put folk next to swing next to gospel and then turn around and rock the house without ticking people off. He's also going international, doing American music right next to Irish traditional ballads and it appears the Dublin audience is eating it up.

Bruce breathes new life into the music here. I grew up hearing "Jesse James" but it wasn't like this. And "Jacob's Ladder" sure isn't what I heard in church.

He's also taken "Blinded by the Light" which was one of the first Bruce songs I heard and breathed new life into the live version.

"How can a poor man stand such times and live?" is one of the most heartwrenching protest songs I've heard. He really took the comments about the Dixie Chicks "Shut up and sing" to heart.

I don't like usually live CDs most of the time. Hate the staticky sussurus of the applause in the background and some idiot has got to yell the performer's name at least once per song. "Live in Dublin" is beautifully engineered. You get the 'feel' of the hall and the voices of the audience joining Bruce in song, yet the really annoying audience noise is minimized.

Last fall when Bruce Springsteen released a deluxe edition of his "Seger Sessions" "experiment" from the previous spring, I praised that album for adding a DVD that gave fans even just a taste of the tremendous, rollicking live show that he had put together with his Sessions Band and adding at least three terrific songs that Springsteen "crafted" as the tour rolled along and expanded, but were not recorded at the time of the original album's release. Yes, grateful I was for extras, but I noted at the time that even the original version of the "Seger Sessions" felt like a warm up to the asskicking live show that hadn't happened yet. And after I caught the tour when it plowed through my town, I was floored and all the more convinced that a live album was necessary to truly capture what Springsteen was trying to do and show us with this detour from his rock career. When the "American Land" edition was released, like I said, grateful as I was for the bonuses, I wrote in my Amazon review that they should have just foregone that release and gone the full-nine giving fans a true, mammoth live CD and DVD.

Well, too bad it took them a few false starts to get it right, but finally we have a definitive version and document of just how terrific an experiment this album and tour turned out to be. In fairness, it is possible that the record company, management, fans and even Bruce never expected a fluke gathering of musicians at his farmhouse studio playing traditional folk music to evolve into THIS.

Indeed, the tour itself evolved from what was already an emotional highpoint when it began at last year's New Orleans Jazz Fest into a big sweeping rock show that just happened to have more horns, fiddles and banjos than the average rock concert - and a truckload more emotion and pure joy too. Anyone who feared some weird, moonshine-swiggin' hoedown or a grumpy acoustic lament on our times from Bruce and this band... well, let's just say you missed a whale of a show. It is difficult to put in to words just how great a time was had by all at these shows - even being a huge Springsteen fan, I had my doubts going in - but from the moment he took the stage... well, he TOOK the stage. Everyone in the room realized immediately they needn't worry, and they may just experience something more (and better) than they ever had from a live concert. Just goes to show, I guess, we should never doubt Bruce when he has a passionate idea; he will take it all the way and turn it into something jaw-dropping.

So if you missed it, or you have just been waiting to relive it, here comes "Live in Dublin," a DVD and 2-CD document of the tour from its finale in Ireland last fall. Now I could gripe that these live albums and DVDs never quite capture just what it is truly like to be at the actual show, there are a handful of songs the band played throughout the tour that are inexplicably absent here (the phenomenal take on "Rag Mama Rag" and the encore staple hard-driving swing-meets-ragtime version of Bruce's "You Can Look But You Can't Touch" are obvious, glairing omissions, and "John Henry" is absent here despite being played every show), or say things like the DVD relies too heavily on close-ups rather than presenting the concert as the spacious, wide-open and lose jam session it was, or there are too many quick camera cuts, but why bother?! I only mention it because no doubt someone will. And I mention it so I can simply dismiss it. No, it is not like being there, but one would be hard pressed to find a better next-best to the real thing than these releases. And kudos to Columbia for releasing the concert on both the CD and DVD. I am always buying concert DVDs and wishing I could burn them just to have the audio. I hope this is a beginning of trend: Release a live DVD, make sure there is an accompanying live album.

Highlights, IMO, include the rousing opener "Atlantic City," the always passionate "O Mary Don't You Weep," "If I Should Fall Behind" is transformed into bar-closing waltz and becomes an emotional promise of love in its husband and wife duet, "Highway Patrolman" finally gets an actual melody behind it, making its lyrics all the more beautifully heartbreaking, "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?" may be the best thing to come out of this tour, as it is one of Bruce's best songs, "Mrs. McGrath" predictably resonates well in Dublin, and "Open All Night" has been the show stopper of the tour. Here it is still a blast - ragtime, swing, jazz and blues, and Bruce's rapid-fire vocals all crash into one another and result in this exhilarating amalgam - but this is not the tightest or best take on this song I have heard. It's a minor quibble, but a shame since, personally, this was the song I was most excited to have. But with the DVD, being able to view the performance of the song, rather than just listen to it, the experience is made better. Ditto the whole show. Bruce's - and the band's - energy is such a pleasure to behold you won't be able to resist the urge to get out of your seat. "Long Time Comin'," a terrifically well-written, country-tinged track from "Devils and Dust," feels even more at home here and "Blinded by the Light" is reworked into something so curious, you will listen to it over and over again. "This Little Light of Mine," "American Land" and "Love of the Common People" all transform Bruce into that rock and roll preacher fans know and love and point to as rhe reason why he is perhaps the best live performer on the planet. Each of these tunes, as performed, are so joyous they are almost religious in their musical-redemptive energy.

Anyone who has been listening to their non-Bruce-fan friends scoff since this admittedly curious departure for Springsteen was announced just over a year ago and have yet to give it a chance may want to throw this release at them and tell them to be ready to eat their words. It's hard to imagine anyone who would take this in and not be able to appreciate the vibrant artistry and talent on display here, regardless of their feeling towards Bruce or this type of music.

Sometimes true greatness is simply undeniable.

We watched this concert on PBS and my two and half year old son who LOVES music (he's a huge Dan Zanes fan) went wild when he heard the folky set.
We bought the cd and we pretty much listen to it everyday. He loves "Pay Me My Money Down" and "This Little Light of Mine". This is an excellent compilation and believe me, I have listened to it many, many times :)

I have to say, one of the many reasons I love this album is because Bruce finally features Patti. I think she's incredibly talented. Aside from that, this really is Bruce's masterpiece. What an incredible album and show. You can tell the band is having a blast and they're all phenomenal musicians.