CAPITOL THEATRE
Passaic, NJ 9/19/78


photo courtesy: thelightinDarkness.com

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND THE E STREET BAND in its longest running version, have never been better, on a pure musical level, than they were during their 1978 Darkness on the Edge of Town tour. Sure, there have been larger shows, "grander" shows, shows with more spectacle; but for maximum rock and roll, those Darkness shows can't be beat. And of those shows, the September 19th concert at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, in Bruce's home state of New Jersey, is arguably Bruce Springsteen's single greatest live performance.


SIRIUS XM - E Street Radio
will present a special two hour roundtable discussion on the 1978 tour, focusing on this historic concert and it's re-creation by the band Tramps Like Us

LISTEN HERE FOR FREE

BROADCAST DATES:

WED., JAN. 27
• 4pm est

THURSDAY, JAN. 28
• 12am est
• 8am est

WED., FEB. 3
• 4pm est

Notable guests to include:

RICHARD NEER
DJ who anchored the live broadcast from backstage at the Capitol Theater on WNEW 102.7, NY. Long time radio personality, currently working at WFAN, 660, in NY. Author of an insightful book, "FM - Rise and Fall of Rock Radio".

KID LEO
A longtime DJ from WMMS in Cleveland and currently a DJ Little Steven's Underground Garage. Long time friend and fan of The Boss. His introduction from the live radio broadcast from the Agora Ballroon in Cleveland on 8/9/1978 is now part of Springsteen Folklore.

STAN GOLDSTEIN
Longtime Bruce Springsteen historian and co-author of "Rock & Roll Tour of the Jersey Shore" along with his friend Jean Mikle, is a lifelong New Jersey resident who has witnessed much of the Jersey Shore's rock 'n' roll history over the past 30--plus years. Stan and Jean have given walking tours of Springsteen sites to thousands of fans since 1999. Stan has been a Springsteen fan since 1976 and has seen more than 300 shows. Stan also currently writes a Springsteen blog for nj.com

MIKE GRENIER
A longtime sports-writer at the Salem News (Mass) since the 1970s and a devoted Bruce fan since seeing Springsteen for the first time on March 25, 1977 at the Music Hall in Boston. Since then he has been fortunate to have attended an amazing 186 Springsteen concerts. Mike has followed every tour extensively for the last 32 years, catching shows in Europe, Canada and throughout the U.S. Grenier lives in Lawrence, Mass.

MARK SALORE
Founder and frontman of what former Springsteen producer and manager Mike Appel has called "The GREATEST Bruce Springsteen Tribute Band In The LAND!" -Tramps Like Us



The Light In Darkness.
By Lawrence Kirsch.
photo courtesy: thelightinDarkness.com

Over 200 Photos
The Light in Darkness features stunning photography from the Darkness tour. With over 200 photos taken by dozens of photographers, many of them never before published, this is a book you'll come back to time and time again.


photo courtesy: thelightinDarkness.com

Many notable Springsteen-era photographers contributed to the volume, including:

James Shive
P. Jay Plutzer
Lynn Goldsmith
Peter Howes
Anastasia Pantsios
Mark Wyville
Cliff Breining
Lawrence Kirsch

About the book:
Limited Collector's Edition.
This 208 page, large format, 9.25" x 12" full-color book is printed on Premium Gloss 200m paper stock and contains more than 200 photographs reproduced from the original negatives and slides.

The book is only available online for purchase at: www.thelightindarkness.com
or at BB King for a meet and greet & book signing by publisher Lawrence Kirsch
on February 11, 2010.


Reviews on Tramps Like Us:

"Tramps Like Us is The GREATEST Bruce Springsteen Tribute Band In The LAND! I've witnessed them on several occasions and their performances are SECOND TO NONE!"
- Mike Appel
Former Springsteen
Producer & Manager

"Up close, Mark Salore doesn't look much like Bruce Springsteen. Except, perhaps, for the stud in his left ear and a wispy bit of beard. But an astonishing transformation takes place, though, when he gets onstage with his tribute band, Tramps Like Us. He punches out the opening riff to "Cadillac Ranch," the group kicks in behind him, the crowd erupts in war cries and air guitar riffs, and it suddenly seems as if Bruce and the E Street Band have commandeered the Vintage Bar in White Plains."
- by Peter Gerstenzang
- Writer - NY Times
- Rolling Stone Magazine

Most tribute bands boast that they look and act like the bands they cover, and there are more than a few Bruce Springsteen tribute bands that do just that. But for Tramps Like Us, paying tribute to the Boss and the "E" Street Band has nothing to do with appearances - it's all about the music. Luckily for modern-day Springsteen fans, Tramps Like Us captures some of that magic and energy in its own performances.
- By Jess Kamen
- Philadelphia Inquirer

"You would have to be completely allergic to Springsteen to not be won over by the rambunctious atmosphere. Even this reporter, usually impervious to the 'E' Street band's particular brand of magic, started humming along. Tramps Like Us brought Springsteen back to a human scale"
- Elizabeth Vicentelli
- NY Newsday

Tramps Like Us, who Bruce Springsteen's former producer & manager Mike Appel has recently called: "The GREATEST Bruce Springsteen Tribute Band In The LAND!" is set to re-create what has been called by many of Springsteen's historians, the single greatest live performance of his career... The September 19th, 1978 concert at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ. This concert is set to take place at NYC's legendary music venue BB King in Times Square of New York City. Additional Springsteen tracks to be preformed as well after the 9/19/1978 show.
Advance tickets & info HERE.

With the original songs and versions performed in order, as on that historic night, this is the first time ever an entire Springsteen concert has been recreated. Some of the many highlights of the show include "Prove It All Night" with its amazing, extended, not-played-anymore piano and guitar solo intro, "She's the One" with the equally definitive prelude/cover of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away," and the extended "Backstreets" with its rare "Sad Eyes" interlude and much more.
See actual videos from that concert below.

About Tramps Like Us:
Formed in 1990, with a repertoire of more than 90 songs, Tramps Like Us has been dedicated to enjoying and sharing Bruce's music in a live setting. The group captures the classic Springsteen sound, and remains true to the spirit and energy of the music, while delivering them with the passion and conviction of the Boss. In keeping with the tradition of a typical Springsteen concert, Tramps prides itself on long and intense concerts, often playing 3.5 to 4 hour shows and at times without a break. Tramps has been able to cover up to 36 songs on any given night. "For almost 3 and a half hours, like a Springsteen concert from years ago, some of the Boss's best was delivered with raw energy and exceptional talent - The 3rd song of the evening was a version of Radio Nowhere that was so good if you closed your eyes you would have thought Bruce himself was in Phoenixville."
- Phoenixville News
MORE ON TRAMPS LIKE US HERE


The September 19th concert at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, in Bruce's home state of New Jersey, is arguably Bruce Springsteen's single greatest live performance.
Excerpt taken from the new book "The Light In Darkness"

Why this particular show? Because first, it was Bruce's single largest audience in his career up to that point: it was broadcast up and down the entire East Coast, Bruce's original fan base. This show was therefore not only a concert 'thank you' to those loyal fans, but a de facto live album in the making, with Bruce's engineer on Born To Run and Darkness - and future Interscope Records head - Jimmy Iovine, mixing live. Though the entire Darkness tour was brilliant, and the band always played at an impossibly tighter level for the radio; there was something about this show that puts it above and beyond even the legendary Bob Dylan Royal Albert Hall '66 show as the greatest single rock and roll show ever. Perhaps it was the fact that Bruce had something to prove that night, certainly not to his old fans, but to the larger rock world listening in that had been suspect of "The Boss" ever since the Born To Run hype of 1975, when he made it on the covers of both Time and Newsweek as an unknown rocker from New Jersey. And when Bruce seemed to fade from view during a subsequent lawsuit with his first manager, the hype seemed justified. But not to Bruce.

The Re-Birth of the 1978 Legend

IF I WERE GIVEN A TIME MACHINE, TIME TRAVEL would definitely be wasted on me. Instead of picking events of huge political and historical significance, I would choose to go to one show, any show, on the 1978 Darkness Tour. I wasn’t able to enjoy any of these legendary shows in person since I was born right in the middle of the tour. And when I started to become a Springsteen fan in the early '90s, I picked up the September 19, 1978, Piece de Resistance bootleg recording, only because it shared the same date as my birthday. I soon realized that this was one of the definitive concert recordings for Springsteen and in all of rock and roll history. I was now a die-hard fan and literally wore out the first hour of the cassette tape in my old Walkman, becoming my first reason to upgrade to a CD player. In repeatedly listening to the glory, power, and pure rock of this concert, however, I grew increasingly frustrated and disappointed that I was never able to see this performance in person...
Brian DeCloux, bdecloux@hotmail.com


ACTUAL VIDEOS FROM THE
CAPITOL THEATRE, PASSAIC NJ
September 19, 1978


Prove It All Night (Piano & Guitar Intro) - 9/19/1978


Not Fade Away - 9/19/1978


Sad Eyes (Backstreets interlude) - 9/19/1978


THE LIGHT IN DARKNESS:
A New Book About Bruce Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town Tour. Publisher Lawrence Kirsch will be selling and signing Limited Collector's Edition at BB King on 2/11/2010.

Bruce Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town broke new ground for The Boss in 1978. A counterpoint to the operatic elegance of Born to Run, the album was an angry, raw record that burst forth after a three-year hiatus.

Because of its darker tones, some might call Darkness a difficult album, but despite this, it's a cherished gem for many.

Collecting stories and photos from hundreds of fans, The Light in Darkness celebrates this classic record, allowing readers to revisit the excitement of that moment when the needle found the grooves in that first cut and the thundering power of "Badlands" shook across the hi-fi for the very first time. Or the uninitiated, but soon-to-be-converted teenager, brought along by friends and finding salvation at one of the legendary three-plus hour concerts - shows that embodied all the manic fury of a revival meeting.


Don't miss this one time special concert event on February, 11, 2010. Tickets will be going fast, so we suggest that tickets are purchased in advance. Tickets can be bought on-line HERE.

Copies of the special limited edition "The Light In Darkness" book can be bought on-line HERE or at BB Kings on February 11 with a special book signing by publisher Lawrence Kirsch.