Since it was announced Bruce Springsteen would be issuing
live recordings of his tour – after decades of pleading from fans and those in
the music industry for such releases – the reaction has been fairly mixed.
The live shows for this writer have become the ultimate goal
in enjoying Springsteen & The E Street Band’s music. If you were to offer
me the chance of a 60-second meet-and-greet, signed memorabilia and a photo in
a hotel lobby with the man, OR tickets to just one concert, I would take the
concert every time.
So when the option to take home a live recording of the
latest shows on the tour appeared, I went overboard. I ordered a dozen
wristbands online – one for each of the Australian shows, including two I would
miss, and one for a friend.
Then of course they announced you wouldn’t need a USB
wristband, and could download straight from the net for a fraction of the cost.
And I’d just spent more than $500. Bastards.
When the wristbands finally arrived I immediately returned
half of them to Live Nation for a refund. I figured I’d keep a few and use
them, and get some cash back for the rest. Not to mention the packaging was so
bad that one of the tidy little black boxes they come in had in fact been
destroyed in transit.
Now, after going to nine of the 11 Australian shows and
making a last minute trip to New Zealand where I stood on a broken foot for twobrilliant shows (no, I won’t shut up about it. It still fucking hurts…) I’ve
got round to using one of the USB wristbands to download a show.
The Wristband
I will admit to really liking the look and practicality of
it. I don’t wear any jewellery other than a watch and this has become the male
accessory I’ve been looking for to wear on the other wrist. It looks good, and
it’s practical for carrying around important files, transferring stuff between
computers at work, and everything else. It was a good buy regardless of the
music.
Downloads
The first show I chose was Brisbane. The full album of Wild and Innocent… and plenty of Greetings… magic left me dying to hear
it again.
But after plugging the USB in my laptop, opening the
relevant files, launching the software and clicking the relevant show, nothing
happened. There was just no response.
I tried it again a few times, but nothing was downloading,
the screen didn’t even change.
Then after a few attempts a message popped up to warn me
that despite not downloading a single beat of opening track Stayin’ Alive, I had used up the
download limit for this USB.
Luckily the website where you can purchase downloads had an
email address and within 48 hours of asking them for help I was given a code to
enter on a specific link, and this I was told, would let me download my album.
So, following the link and instructions I successfully
downloaded the Brisbane show in the higher quality FLAC file.
Of course I wanted to put this show in my iTunes or at least
on some music player on my iPhone. Checking out various sites, conversion
software and a few apps on playing FLAC files, I found myself with an album I
couldn’t use, unless I wanted to lose the quality I had wanted or just play
tracks from the laptop.
But before plugging in another of my remaining wristbands, I
noticed I had left the web page I downloaded the tracks from open, so figured I’d
try and download the Brisbane show in MP3 format too, without having to use up
the wristband’s limit, which purchasers had been told would allow just one show
to be downloaded.
It worked. I had the Brisbane show on a format I could use.
Of course then I remembered how great the Born To Run album had sounded in Auckland.
So yeah, I clicked download on that one too.
Again, it worked. No new code, no new wristband. It seems
maybe some glitch in the system had just allowed me to get three recordings of
two shows. Brilliant.
Of course I couldn’t have a Born To Run album show, without also
having Sydney’s Darkness On The Edge ofTown. That would just be ridiculous.
And again, without leaving the
webpage which I had entered a specific code to enter, the MP3 files downloaded.
Within 24 hours I had downloaded
all available shows from the Australia and New Zealand tour in MP3 format to my
computer – that’s 12 because Melbourne 2 was never released – all from one
wristband without having to pay any more fees.
I’ve even gone so far as to raid
my iPhone for photos and create album covers with an image of every show now in
the iTunes artwork.
So this all means I really didn’t
need to spend a load of cash on buying the wristbands for every show. I could
have bought one – and used it to get all of them. Those brilliant bastards.
Sound quality
Despite expecting a low quality sound
with the MP3 files, so far I have been nothing but impressed. And I say so far
because I’ve only got through Brisbane and night two in Auckland.
The vocals are clear, the strings
in Brisbane are still sensational, and both Curt Ramm’s trumpet solo on Meeting Across The River and Jake Clemons’
Jungleland solo sound incredible from
the Auckland recordings.
Obviously it’s a lot to ask for
the recordings to sound as good as Live
1975-1985 or Live In New York City¸
but for a three-hour live album, the MP3 download is incredible value for
money.
USB Wristband refunds
I returned the six – five unwanted,
one damaged – wristbands to retailers Live Nation on February 14. That was a
month ago. I still have not heard anything about them, or had anything
refunded. I will be contacting them shortly about the $250+ I expect to be
refunded.
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