The legendary 1990 solo acoustic performances in support of The Christic Institute are among the most emotional and revealing of Bruce Springsteen’s career. The 2 night stand featured premieres of 6 new songs, stunning rearrangements of classics and guest appearances by Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne covering Bob Dylan in the encore. Both shows are available to download together as one release ranging from MP3 to 24 Bit HD and Audiophile DSD versions. The 3 CD set of both concerts is shipping now.
OFFICIAL CHRISTIC RELEASE: BOTH 1990 SHOWS AVAILABLE NOW
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 16th-17th, 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.
these two incredible performances Springsteen delivered,
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 Springsteen brought forth striking new arrangements to (“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 16th & 17th, 1990, the latest live release from the Thrill Hill vault.
The Christic Shows 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. The Christic Shows set will be made available in multiple formats:
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 toThe 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.”
THE CHRISTIC SHOWS AT THE SHRINE
LOS ANGELES, CA
- Complete recordings of both Bruce Springsteen solo acoustic sets from The Christic Institute Benefit on November 16 & 17, 1990 at The Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA
- Bruce Springsteen – guitar, vocals, piano, harmonica
- Highway 61 with Jackson Browne – Vocal and Guitar; Bonnie Raitt – Vocal and Tambourine
- Across The Borderline with Jackson Browne – Vocal and Piano; Bonnie Raitt – Vocal and Slide Guitar
- Recording and front of house mix: Bruce Jackson
- Technical support for Bruce Springsteen: Kevin Buell
- Project supervisor: Toby Scott
- Audio transfer engineer at Thrill Hill Studio, NJ: Rob Lebret
- Sourced from DAT (16 bit / 44.1kHz); Mastered to DSD; Output to PCM at 24 bit / 192 kHz. DSD files are DSD64.
- Mastered at Gateway Mastering, Maine: Adam Ayan
- Post-Production at nugs.net: Brad Serling, Micah Gordon
- Art Direction: Michelle Holme
- Jon Landau Management: Jon Landau, Barbara Carr, Jan Stabile, Allison Oscar
- Special thanks to Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt for permission to use their performance
You can download the full Christic ten year retrospective from the pages of sold-out Backstreets #68/69 as a PDF here.
Order The Christic Shows, November 16 & 17, 1990, atlive.brucespringsteen.net.
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