Weekly Live Stash Vol. XCIX, March 15, 2024

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Bruce Springsteen, Billy Strings, Eggy, and more.

Nugs subscribers can visit their account page to check their eligibility for four months of SiriusXM All Access. Offer details apply. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app.

  1. Jungleland
    Bruce Springsteen
    9/21/78 Passaic, NJ
  2. The Road
    moe.
    3/9/24 Park City, UT
  3. Pickin’ Up The Pieces
    Billy Strings
    2/25/24 Nashville, TN
  4. We Like To Party
    The Disco Biscuits (w/ Eli Winderman – Dopapod)
    3/9/24 Pittsburgh, PA
  5. Time Escaping
    Eggy
    2/29/24 Miami, FL
  6. One Way Out
    Greensky Bluegrass
    3/7/24 Louisville, KY
  7. Divisions
    Umphrey’s McGee
    3/9/24 Aspen, CO
  8. Wild Bill Jones
    Billy Strings
    2/16/24 Asheville, NC

Bruce Springsteen, Passaic, NJ, September 21, 1978

Before The Jukebox Blow The Fuse

ARCHIVE RELEASE: Bruce Springsteen, Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ, September 21, 1978

By Erik Flannigan

Imagine that years after your favorite television series had ended (be it Seinfeld, The Sopranos, Stath Lets Flats, Twin Peaks or any other), you learned that additional episodes had been shot during the show’s best years and were about to be released in pristine quality. Would it matter that you had already watched dozens of episodes from the same season?

No, you would be thrilled that more of the show you love–a sublime artistic creation for which your fandom had become part of your self identity–was newly available. Let’s say you even had a lower-quality video tape or a pirated download of one of those lost episodes. Would it diminish your interest in an HD version of the lost show, looking even better than the original series ever did?

It’s with that framing we welcome another Darkness tour show to the Live Archive series and complete the Capitol Theatre trifecta with the release of Passaic 9/21/78. It’s the final show of a three-night stand that would be the last small-theatre residency Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band would ever play in the Northeast. Let’s not forget these shows were something of an anomaly at the time, coming after a trio of gigs at the Palladium and the statement-making, three-night stand at iconic Madison Square Garden in New York City, both just a New Jersey Transit ride away.

Bruce was already many times bigger than the Capitol Theatre capacity, but his home state of New Jersey lacked an arena-sized venue until Brendan Byrne opened in 1981. The Passaic shows were a gift to those who lived across the Hudson River and especially fans on the Shore. When Bruce asks during the 9/21 show how many folks in the house are from Asbury Park, the roar is considerable.

The first night of the Passaic run was the legendary September 19 radio broadcast which spiked sales of blank tape in the tri-state area (presumably). That show and the more relaxed second night on September 20, are both essential titles in the Live Archive series. Now, the equally enthralling final concert joins them.

Comparing or ranking masterpieces is a pointless exercise; instead we should be grateful that we can now hear all three Capitol Theatre performances in outstanding, multi-track mix quality. That being said, the three Passaic shows are distinct. 

Night three strikes an appealing balance of intensity and looseness, some of which can be attributed to its proximity to Springsteen’s 29th birthday, which would take place in two days’ time. The fans want to celebrate it and Springsteen lets them: he plays to the crowd and the crowd gives it right back in what might be the most interactive Darkness tour performance to be professionally recorded.

Amidst all the hand-wringing about setlist variations in recent times, some trainspotters have pointed out that for all the adoration showered upon it, the Darkness tour largely stuck to its core set and didn’t offer a great number of changes from show to show. That ignores the fact that when there were multi-night stands like Passaic, Bruce not only made surprise additions (usually covers, see below), but in the days leading up he prepped special material for the run. At the Capitol Theatre this included the return of deep cuts like “Meeting Across The River,” “Incident on 57th Street,” “Kitty’s Back,” and even “The Fever.” 

Those older songs were clearly a nod to longtime fans from the area, but the key setlist-change feature of the Darkness tour was its rock ‘n’ roll jukebox covers: the exceptionally capable E Street Band regularly performed foundational rock songs like “Rave On,” “Heartbreak Hotel,” and “Summertime Blues.” With rollicking reverence, it’s obvious how much pleasure Springsteen got from taking each golden nugget for a ride.

September 21, 1978 was a hot day in New Jersey and the Capitol Theatre was surely warm and sticky when Springsteen kicked off the evening with Jerry Lee Lewis’ “High School Confidential.” This is one of nine performances of the song that year, and marks its first appearance in the Live Archive series.

Later in the first set, we get another Archive series debut cover, Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen,” featuring great baritone saxophone from Clarence Clemons and a spirited vocal from Springsteen that includes the fitting lyrical rewrite, “deep in the heart of Passaic.”

Those are but two highlights in a sterling opening set that also includes the work-in-progress “Independence Day” and an interesting “Prove It All Night.” Max Weinberg drops the beat at the 1:07 mark, and in Jon Altschiller’s detailed mix we hear just how important Clemons’ triangle playing is to the rhythm and tone of the song’s enchanting prelude. Mix inspectors will also likely be pleased with the placement of Danny Federici’s fader throughout the show compared to other ’78 releases.

Set one ends with the perfect pairing of “Meeting Across the River” into “Jungleland.” If we needed further confirmation of Springsteen’s commitment to his performance, we get it in two signature, heightened “Jungleland” vocal lines, as he reaches to his upper range to punctuate “dress in the latest rage” and “desperate as the night moves on.” 

Given how well it worked the night before, the second set opens with a very early “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” again complete with fake snowfall and Springsteen doing his best Darlene Love imitation at the end. Clemons’ fine percussion playing and some impressive flying cymbal work from Weinberg mark an excellent “Because the Night,” one of five unreleased original songs featured in the 9/21/78 set along with the aforementioned “Independence Day,” “Fire,” “Point Blank” (in a version with great glockenspiel from Federici and piano from Roy Bittan) and “The Fever.” While our familiarity with those songs means we take their inclusion for granted in a 1978 show, if five unreleased originals were to appear in 2024 sets, we’d be soiling ourselves with glee.

The second set features epics, too, including a long “Kitty’s Back,” in which Bittan turns in a solo that’s among his modern-jazziest ever, accented by more cymbal shimmering from Weinberg. Bruce eventually presents the audience with a choice between “The Fever” and “Incident on 57th Street,” but lucky them, he plays both. 

“The Fever” brings another memorable vocal moment, when Springsteen goes on an epic, Van Morrisonesque run through “But I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I — I’M GONNA BE ALRIGHT” at 6:15. Brilliant. As nature intended, “Incident” flows directly into “Rosalita,” and after vamping on the Village People’s “Macho Man” following the introduction of The Big Man, this deeply satisfying second set comes to a close.

The encore is a victory lap and maintains the energy of the main set with more vocal gems like Springsteen putting an exclamation point on his first utterance of “Baby we were BORN TO RUH-UH-UH-UN.” He elects to close the three-show homecoming with the night’s fourth cover, perhaps the most beloved encore song yet to be played in Passaic, Gary U.S. Bonds’ “Quarter To Three.” Led by Clemons’ wailing saxophone, the version runs some ten minutes before Springsteen and the band finally wave goodbye. 

After they leave the stage, someone (promoter John Scher perhaps?) takes to the microphone to say, “It’s been a wonderful three nights. A great way to help Bruce celebrate his birthday.” True, but the real gift of Passaic is the recordings the Record Plant Mobile Truck made of all three nights.


Enjoy unlimited access to all the exclusive Bruce Springsteen archival releases and more from your favorite artists by subscribing to nugs now.

Weekly Live Stash, Vol. XCVIII, March 8, 2024

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from moe., Eggy, Spafford, Goose, and more.

Nugs subscribers can visit their account page to check their eligibility for four months of SiriusXM All Access. Offer details apply. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app.

  1. Mexico
    moe. (w/ Daniel Donato)
    2/25/24 Jam Cruise 20
  2. Coming Up
    Eggy
    2/25/24 Jam  Cruise  20
  3. Can’t Stop Now
    Greensky Bluegrass
    3/3/24 Madison, WI
  4. Walls
    Spafford
    3/3/24 Crested Butte, CO
  5. Seven Devils
    Kitchen Dwellers
    3/2/24 Steamboat Springs, CO
  6. Snow Day
    Dogs In A Pile
    3/2/24 Woodstock, NY
  7. Wysteria Lane
    Goose
    Chateau Sessions pt I

Weekly Live Stash Vol. XCVII, March 1, 2024

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Phish, Spafford, My Morning Jacket, and more.

Nugs subscribers can visit their account page to check their eligibility for four months of SiriusXM All Access. Offer details apply. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app.

Please note: The Phish track is only available in the LivePhish app.

  1. Chalk Dust Torture
    Phish
    2/22/24 Riviera  Maya,Mexico
  2. Anyone
    Spafford
    2/25/24 Steamboat Springs, CO
  3. Dreams
    Gov’t Mule (w/ Duane Trucks & Gordie Johnson)
    2/23/24 Austin, TX
  4. Daffodils
    Big Something (w/ Kanika Moore)
    2/17/24 Charleston, SC
  5. Spring (Among The Living)
    My Morning Jacket
    8/14/22 Palo Alto, CA

KPFA Grateful Dead Marathon

This Saturday, March 2nd, everyone is invited to join us in the nugs app for the annual KPFA Grateful Dead Marathon! From 9AM-midnight PT, David Gans and Tim Lynch spin rare, unreleased Grateful Dead recordings, interviews, and more. Enjoy 15 hours of Grateful Dead and Grateful Dead related material,
“putting the FUN in fundraising for KPFA”

The stream is free for everyone. To listen…

  • nugs subscribers: Listen here. If on the web player, click the ‘nugs radio’ icon in the upper right hand corner.
  • non-subscribers: Get the app now for iOS or Android. It’s free to use, and in addition to the 24/7 radio player you also get access to all live audio streams and select shows curated from the archives.

KPFA was the first community-supported radio station in the United States, so as you listen, please consider donating to support their cause and keeping public radio free and righteous. Contributors will have a chance to receive a number of prize packages, including free nugs subscriptions, Dead & Company CD box sets, and more.

Weekly Live Stash Vol. XCVI, February 16, 2024

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Gov’t Mule, Orebolo, Leftover Salmon, Lotus, and more. Paid nugs subscribers may be eligible for 4-months of SiriusXM All Access (App Only), see your account page to take advantage of this offer. Offer Details apply. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app.

  1. Lively Up Yourself
    Gov’t Mule
    2/11/24 Portland, OR
  2. Small Axe
    Leftover Salmon
    2/4/24 Park City, UT
  3. All I Need
    Orebolo
    2/10/24 Port Chester, NY
  4. Light Up or Leave Me Alone
    Greensky Bluegrass
    2/10/24 Washington, DC
  5. Warhead Boogie
    Railroad Earth
    2/10/24 Madison, WI
  6. Strawberry Letter 23
    Lotus
    2/5/24 Bellingham, WA
  7. Plunger
    Umphrey’s McGee
    2/10/24 St. Louis, MO
  8. Trunk Rum
    Dogs In A Pile
    2/10/24 Kansas City, MO

The White Stripes: January 2004 London, UK and Paris, FR

An exclusive archive from The White Stripes is now available for streaming in the nugs.net app, featuring one night in London and one night in Paris from early 2004. From long time White Stripes fan Mike on this month’s ‘Third Man Thursday’ releases:

Staring down one of the longest breaks they would have since first taking the stage at the Gold Dollar on Bastille Day 6 years earlier, Jack and Meg return to their “home away from home” in London, before heading to Paris to close out this phase of the Elephant tour at the appropriately named “Zenith”.

Having just completed the filming at Blackpool, rather than rest on their laurels for these final two shows, the band were still pulling out surprises and making each one unique right to the end, with London getting impromptu quotes from George M. Cohan’s The Yankee Doodle Boy and Leadbelly’s Red Bird, and Paris getting a performance of The Kills’ Superstition along with an uber-rare update of Diddy Wah Diddy – a song not performed live since 1999, when the band opened for the great Wayne Kramer.

The London performance would coincide with another milestone, as earlier in the day Jack would sit down for what would end up being the final interview with DJ John Peel, who would pass away later that year.  The two spent the time playing records for each other, chatting about movies, and of course discussing the Stripes’ success – of which Peel certainly played a role in, having hosted the band on his show during their first visit to the UK back in 2001. When asked “So, where do you go next?”, Jack’s response was a mix of relief and closure: “We’re done with ‘Elephant’ and we’re not touring any more on that album. So, I just need a break. We’ve toured the world on it, and I’ve gotta get inspired again.” True to that feeling, the session ends with Jack performing songs solo on the acoustic – including covers of songs by Blanche, Loretta Lynn, and a song that he had written for Cold Mountain which the producers had declined to use.  As if bringing the cycle with Peel full circle, Jack also performed Jack the Ripper, a callback to that first session in 2001, here a stripped-down version played at the DJ’s request.

In a way, the period between that first Peel appearance in July 2001 and the final one in February 2004 was like a 2 ½ year trek up a mountain, where Jack and Meg had gone from being the small band that few had heard about, to an internationally known live act who were days away from completing a successful world tour. Having enjoyed the kind of 360 degree view one would get from the top of a peak by traveling across the globe, it’s fitting that the final show of the tour would be at a venue named The Zenith.  And while the performance in London happened to coincide with a final visit with Peel, who had helped kick off a sort of reverse Beatlemania for the band (the final interview also taking place on the 35th anniversary of the Beatles final live performance on the Apple rooftop), the performance in Paris just so happened to take place on the eve of La Chandeleur, the French observation of Candlemas, which marks the end of the Christmas period.  One last day on tour, before the decorations finally get taken down.

And just as soon as they finished in Paris, they would fly to Los Angeles for the Grammys on February 8th, exactly 1 year and a day after the first live preview of Elephant at London’s Electric Cinema. Putting on the red and black trousers one last time, the band tore through an epic Seven Nation Army, complete with a surprise version of Death Letter included within it.  A watershed moment, capped off by Seven Nation Army winning “Best Rock Song”, and Elephant winning “Best Alternative Music Album”.

The significance of the Grammys performance mirrors that of the first Peel broadcast. Where one was like a secret transmission audible only to those in the know, the other was a takeover of every channel on the dial, an instant conversion of the masses. It’s a funny thing when a band spends a year touring, and then has a moment like that, right as they go off the road.  As if they should get right back out there and do it all again, to capitalize on that momentum.  How many times have you seen a band suddenly become that visible (just days later, SNL would even make a sketch about them), only to look up their touring schedule and find out that they had already come around months, if not a year earlier?  And for the fans who were there from the beginning, it’s as if now suddenly the entire world sees what you knew all along. Random co-workers ask if you’ve heard of this band. Relatives and friends tell you that they saw that group you like on TV.  It’s one thing to reach a peak when only a few people know about it.  When now everyone knows about it, that’s the true zenith.  

1/30/04 London
Brixton Academy

Listen to the show here.

Returning to the city where Elephant was recorded, Brixton Academy joins the Masonic in Detroit and the Aragon in Chicago as one of the three venues to get a repeat visit on the Elephant tour. Having previously broadcast a performance at the Academy when they last visited in April 2003, the release here closes the gap of 2004 being the only year when they played in the UK not to have some kind of “Live in London” out there.  Like the December 2001 broadcast, where the band had also played London earlier in that tour and then came back for a closing show, this show feels a lot like a radio broadcast that never was, a perfect encore performance capturing the band putting on a near-flawless set. After the openers of Black Math and Dead Leaves, Jack greets the crowd with “London! Our home away from home!” and it’s right into When I Hear My Name, which features an impromptu verse from George M. Cohan’s The Yankee Doodle Boy, complete with Jack modifying the lyrics to reference his own birthday “A real life nephew of my Uncle Sam, Born on the 9th of July!”.  While the UK had adopted them as family, an unabashed reminder of their American roots. The ending of the song features a frantic run of soloing with the whammy, which like the inclusion of Leadbelly’s Redbird in I Think I Smell A Rat, is proof of just how much they still had left in the tank, even as they prepared to close out the tour.  Listen for Jack singing along to the end of In the Cold Cold Night, and Meg returning the favor by again singing along during This Protector, where you can just about hear a pin drop in the venue. The main set goes out heavy with Ball and Biscuit, with amateur video of the performance showing Jack close the song by thrashing around next to Meg’s kit, even knocking a stand over, before going to the floor and letting the feedback ring out as he leaves the stage.  Before Seven Nation Army, Jack asks “Is everybody friends with the person next to them? You make sure of that now. Cuz Meg and I aren’t leaving until every one of you get a friend on either side of you, okay?”  The version of Seven Nation Army here features the opening line of “I’m gonna kiss ’em off” which was unique to the three London shows. Before closing with Boll Weevil, Jack introduces it as “an old song”, as if now officially able to refer to the days before Elephant as being from another time in the band’s history.  Even though this is the end of the tour, they leave the stage letting the crowd know that they won’t be gone too long: “We’ll see you guys at Reading and Leeds festivals in August, all right?”

2/1/04 Paris
Le Zenith

Listen to the show here.

With a 6 month break just days away, it’s fitting that the final show of the tour opens with the line “When I hear my name, I want to disappear” and closes with “I just don’t know what to do with myself”.  Having ended their first show in Paris back in 2001 with Jack proclaiming “Lafayette, we have returned!”, he couldn’t have predicted just how far the band would rise since then, as he tells the audience at the Zenith, “Good Lord, there’s so many of you!”.  No doubt happy to be closing out the tour, there is a feeling of movement in this show, as the band confidently go from song to song.  Listen as Meg enters early in Love Sick, with Jack giving an audible “Yeah!” in approval.  There’s another moment like this during Ball and Biscuit, with Jack heard asking for “just one now” and Meg responding with a single hit on the drums, right on time.  Perfect reminders of just how tightly connected the two were on stage.  While many of the familiar songs in the set would carry over into the band’s eventual return in August, In the Cold Cold Night would get its final performance of the year, not to be performed again until the Get Behind Me Satan tour in 2005.  And even though the set is mostly filled with songs that they had played dozens of times on the tour, many of the performances feel as if updated for the occasion of this being the last show. During I Fought Piranhas, the line “Who puts up a fight walking out of hell?” never sounded so appropriate, and the version of The Same Boy You’ve Always Known is played as if having been written for that moment when it’s time to say goodbye.  Never ones to go quietly, Cannon gets a rare inclusion of Diddy Wah Diddy, a song only played one other time back in 1999, and gets followed by The Big Three Killed My Baby with Jack riffing on everything from George Bush, the auto companies, and a declaration that “America’s mind is lazy!” before going into a chant of “I’m about to tell the news Meg!” – thoroughly getting it all in for this final performance.  After Jack the Ripper they also slot in an impromptu cover of the song Superstition by The Kills. Unlike the quote of the song at LA on 9/22/03, here it gets played complete with the original riff.  In the encores, Lafayette Blues serves as the perfect setup before they close the show with I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself, with Jack thanking France for being “the country that produced Michel Gondry”.  Having now wrapped a year’s worth of touring going out on a high at the Zenith, the farewell of “My sister thanks you, and I thank you! Good night Paris!” is delivered as if literally shouted from the top of a mountain. 


Stream these three new shows and all other exclusive archive releases from Third Man Records with a 7-day free trial. Explore The White Stripes catalog and start your free trial here.

Straight From the Fans: January 2024

Welcome to the inaugural edition of ‘Straight From the Fans’! We love reading about fans’ experiences about both attending and listening to shows – and it’s those transcendent moments of joy and revelation shared that keeps the music discovery going! Each month we’ll curate a list of ten of our favorite fan reviews left in the nugs app, showcasing the best of recent shows and archival releases from the month.

Want to be featured in the future? You’ve got the mic. Share your show-going and listening experiences with us on any live recording in the nugs.net catalog when you subscribe or purchase a download. From any show page in the app or the web player, just hit that “+ Add Review” button and drop your thoughts.

Without further ado…Straight From the Fans: January 2024!

Click on each image to listen to the show.

Weekly Live Stash Vol. XCV, February 9, 2024

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Goose, Carlos Santana, Railroad Earth, Umphrey’s McGee, and more. Paid nugs subscribers may be eligible for 4-months of SiriusXM All Access (App Only), see your account page to take advantage of this offer. Offer Details apply. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app.

  1. Apollo
    Goose
    Ted Tapes 2024
  2. Seven Story Mountain
    Railroad Earth
    2/2/24 St Louis, MO
  3. Samba Pa Ti
    Santana
    1/28/24 Las Vegas, NV
  4. Couldn’t We All
    Pigeons Playing Ping Pong
    2/3/24 Port Chester, NY
  5. Breakin’ Thru
    Leftover Salmon
    1/19/24 Victor, ID
  6. All For Money
    Greensky Bluegrass
    2/4/24 Huntington, NY
  7. Morning Song
    Umphrey’s McGee
    2/3/24 Detroit, MI
  8. Giants in the Light
    Spafford
    2/2/24 Tucson, AZ

Bruce Springsteen, Akron, Ohio September 25th, 1996

A One-Way Ticket To The Promised Land

ARCHIVE RELEASE: Bruce Springsteen, E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Center, Akron, OH, September 25, 1996

By Erik Flannigan

Those of us who like to discuss Bruce Springsteen’s touring history often focus on a show’s narrative arc. Through his setlist choices and order, what story is he telling?

Tours tied to his new studio albums often start as showcases for that particular work and its ideas, but after several months on the road song selections turn wide ranging, at times drifting far from the shore to which they were originally docked.

The Ghost of Tom Joad tour is Springsteen’s purest in terms of holding onto its vision and telling its story night after night. That the tour eventually spanned three calendar years stands as a testament to how satisfying Springsteen found solo work and the songs he was performing. 

The tour launched in late 1995 and those early sets offered a heaping helping of tracks from the album. By the time he reached Akron ten months later–a point at which deviation from the norm would be underway on most tours–Springsteen was digging even deeper into this music’s wellspring.

Akron begins with a staggering debut performance that immediately validates the inclusion of the show in the Live Archive series. Springsteen had been invited to appear at a special Woody Guthrie tribute concert in Cleveland on September 29, in preparation for which he performed the folk legend’s “Tom Joad” to open the Akron set.

With command and focus, Springsteen breathes new life into Guthrie’s murder ballad about the plight of the poor heading west in the Dust Bowl era. The song is a darker, spiritual companion to Springsteen’s own “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” and the two share key words and phrases in their final verses. While the film adaption of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath was a major reference for Springsteen’s “Joad” lyrics, the inspiration and influence of Guthrie’s “Tom Joad” is there too, and not just in the title track but across the album, and even as far back as Nebraska, where its style and shape inform compositions like “Johnny 99” and “Reason to Believe.”

From that unprecedented start, Springsteen moves purposefully through the weighty Joad tour set, which offers little in the way of fan service but remains unquestionable in its musical artistry. The seventh song, “Nebraska,” starts with a high-vocal musical prelude that drifts into the somber harmonica line, setting the dark scene that’s about to unfold. It’s a stark, intimate reading that ends with Springsteen subtly shifting into a character voice for the harrowing final line: “I guess there’s just a meanness in this world.”

The first half of the set includes “It’s the Little Things That Count” and “Red Headed Woman,” which bring welcome levity, before the fitting pairing of “Shut Out the Light” and “Born in the U.S.A.” Springsteen performs the b-side with feeling and fragility, while the A-side rides bluesy guitar slides in a swaggering reading that plays more as a cautionary tale than ever before.

A second high-vocal intro comes ahead of another Nebraska track, “Reason to Believe,” missing its original and thematically contrasting musical lilt, replaced here by a somber tone that’s chilling in spots. No one will misread the meaning of this version.

The main set heads towards conclusion on the back of five stellar performances from Joad starting with “Youngstown” (just 50 miles from Akron), “Sinaloa Cowboys,” “The Line,” the rarely performed “The New Timer” and finally a glimmer of hope from “Across The Border.” 

After delivering the set’s central themes completely on his own terms, Springsteen acknowledges the Akron audience’s patience and respect with the rousing return of “Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?” The song dates back to his own time as a Greenwich Village troubadour and is a fitting inclusion in an evening of folk music. A sweet “This Hard Land” further rewards fan faith, and the good vibes continue on a quick rip through “No Surrender,” a song about the bonds of friendship and what matters in the face of hardship.

“I appreciate coming out here and having the room to play like this,” Springsteen says sincerely in the encore. However one feels today about the music he was performing circa 1995-97, it meant everything to Springsteen. In early 1995 he was at a crossroads, having effectively finished a solo album in the vein of “Streets of Philadelphia,” only to pivot suddenly and reconvene the E Street Band to record new music and promote Greatest Hits. But that year, Springsteen ultimately rediscovered himself as a solo artist through The Ghost of Tom Joad album and tour.

If we support the idea that he had to make Nebraska before he entered the inevitable superstar spotlight with Born in the U.S.A., Springsteen needed to write, record and perform Tom Joad songs on his own before he could reunite with the E Street Band. This Akron recording is a compelling chronicle of that journey, including one key piece of the original source material. 

Addio alla tua cara mamma
Adele Springsteen 1925-2024


Enjoy unlimited access to all the exclusive Bruce Springsteen archival releases, and more from your favorite artists by subscribing to nugs now.

Weekly Live Stash Vol. XCIV, February 2, 2024

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Orebolo, Jim James, The Disco Biscuits, Gov’t Mule, and more. Paid nugs subscribers may be eligible for 4-months of SiriusXM All Access (App Only), see your account page to take advantage of this offer. Offer Details apply. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app.

  1. California Magic
    Orebolo
    1/12/24 Riviera Maya, MX
  2. Bermuda Highway
    Jim James
    1/29/19 London, GB
  3. No Recollection
    The Disco Biscuits
    1/26/24 Crystal Bay, NV
  4. Padgett’s Profile
    Umphrey’s McGee
    1/31/24 Cleveland, OH
  5. Plush
    Spafford
    1/26/24 Whitestown, IN
  6. After Midnight
    Gov’t Mule (w/ Ron Holloway)
    1/14/24 Runaway Bay, JM
  7. Get Out My Life Woman
    Gov’t Mule (w/ Ron Holloway)
    1/14/24 Runaway Bay, JM
  8. St. Augustine
    moe.
    1/26/24 Portland, OR

Weekly Live Stash Vol. XCIII, January 26, 2024

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros., Gov’t Mule, Greensky Bluegrass, moe., and more. Paid nugs subscribers may be eligible for 4-months of SiriusXM All Access (App Only), see your account page to take advantage of this offer. Offer Details apply. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app.

  1. Midnight Rider
    Greensky Bluegrass
    1/20/24 Atlanta, GA
  2. Nebraska
    moe.
    1/19/24 Los Angeles, CA
  3. He’s Gone
    Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros (w/ Derek Trucks)
    1/12/24 Riviera Maya, MX
  4. Give Me Love
    Warren Haynes
    1/16/24 Runaway Bay, JM
  5. Ballerina
    Warren Haynes
    1/16/24 Runaway Bay, JM
  6. I Am A Mess
    Railroad Earth
    1/12/24 Frisco, CO
  7. River Run
    Raw Oyster Cult
    1/14/24 New Orleans, LA
  8. John The Revelator
    Gov’t Mule (w/ Robert Randolph)
    1/15/24 Runaway Bay, JM
  9. Rebubula
    moe.
    1/20/24 San Francisco, CA

Weekly Live Stash Vol. XCII, January 19, 2024

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from The White Stripes, Eggy, Spafford, The String Cheese Incident, and more. Paid nugs subscribers may be eligible for 4-months of SiriusXM All Access (App Only), see your account page to take advantage of this offer. Offer Details apply. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app.

  1. Lovely Day
    Neal Francis & Nigel Hall
    5/5/23 New Orleans, LA
  2. Love Sick
    The White Stripes
    1/24/04 Glasgow, SCO
  3. Boom or Bust
    Eggy
    1/6/24 Deerfield, MA
  4. Six Underground
    Spafford
    1/14/24 Pembroke, MA
  5. Ebenezer’s Winter
    Kitchen Dwellers
    1/16/24 Aspen, CO
  6. Land of the Navajo
    The String Cheese Incident (w/ Peter Rowan)
    12/30/23 Oakland, CA
  7. Stress Dreams
    Greensky Bluegrass
    1/14/24 Orlando, FL
  8. Attachments
    Umphrey’s McGee
    1/14/24 Richmond, VA

The White Stripes: January 2004 Glasgow, Scotland

An exclusive archive from The White Stripes is now available for streaming in the nugs.net app, featuring a two night stand in Glasgow from January 2004. From long time White Stripes fan Mike on this month’s ‘Third Man Thursday’ releases:

January 2004: Glasgow, Scotland

Scottish Nation Army

Just weeks after the New Years Eve show in Chicago, the band were back across the pond once more, to perform a final run of concerts in the UK and France.  These shows in Glasgow took place at the midpoint of the tour, and were the last stop before they’d be under the lights and the cameras at Blackpool.  Being of Scottish descent, Jack and Meg were back in “the homeland”, playing to audiences of 5,000 fellow Scots in the aptly-named Hall 3 of the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre.  On a tour where each show was a consistently excellent performance, what makes the Glasgow concerts special is that together they represent the moment when Seven Nation Army officially became an anthem.

While already on a steady path through the stadiums of Europe, the now ubiquitous “Seven Nation Army” riff had already been chanted by audiences at the band’s live shows pretty much right from the first time it was performed live. Having been released to radio just weeks before the start of the Elephant tour in February 2003, crowds quickly went from clapping in time to the riff at the opening show in Wolverhampton, to singing along to the riff at Manchester the very next night. Nearly a year later, and it’s at the first night in Glasgow where the participation from the audience would reach a kind of critical mass.  With so many versions played at the shows before this, the ones at Glasgow are different.  On the recording from the first night, you can even hear Jack’s reaction as he starts the song and the crowd of 5,000 immediately begin chanting the riff in unison, causing him to delay his entry into the first verse. The very next night, the crowd would do it again. Where other audiences may have chanted the riff or sung the lyrics to the first line before respectfully getting out of the way so as to enjoy the rest of the song, Glasgow is the moment when the audience didn’t get out of the way.  Like a Scottish war cry, the audiences here aren’t just singing along, the band and the crowd are performing the song together.  

As if the universe couldn’t possibly let this kind of moment happen without also letting its polar opposite exist within the same time and space, the triumph of the Seven Nation Army chant at Glasgow is met with an equally unique moment from the crowd, as it’s at the first show where a member of the audience throws a shoe which hits Jack square in the face during the encore of “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself.” Rather than let it ruin the evening, Jack responds by immediately launching into a defiant Astro and Jack the Ripper, with the audience roaring in approval in the background.  Having completely erased any impact from the incident, he then closes the show by restarting “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself,” not missing a beat, with the audience again right there and singing along to every word.

After that first show, in an almost too-good-to-be-true coincidence, the second performance in Glasgow just happened to take place on Burns Night, the annual celebration of the birth of Scottish poet Robert Burns, the author of Auld Lang Syne. One of the most recognized songs in the world, the poem that Burns wrote was originally put to a different melody, but as it spread it eventually evolved into the song now known the world over, which gets sung every year on New Year’s Eve.  As eloquent as the lyrics to that song are, many only get as far as the opening line of “Should auld acquaintance be forgot” before losing track of the words that follow, while the melody has a more permanent place in our collective consciousness, instantly recognizable from the very first notes.  At some point, after a song reaches that level of popularity, it becomes a kind of folk music, where the people singing it, or chanting it, get to decide what the song means, or how it should be sung.  Once that happens, it doesn’t really matter what the words are.  Sound familiar?

1/24/04 GlasgowScottish Exhibition and Conference CentreLISTEN NOW

Kicking off the only two-night stand of the tour to take place entirely on a weekend, the band return to Scotland with an epic show. As much as this one is all about the band’s excellent performance, it’s perhaps the audience who steal the show.  You can hear them in full force from the very beginning, singing along to lines in “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground,” “Hotel Yorba,” and even singing along to the melodies of “In the Cold, Cold Night and I Think I Smell a Rat.”  No surprise that they turn “Seven Nation Army” into a definitive moment where the sound of the crowd chanting is nearly as powerful as the sound of the band playing the song. The setlist also features multiple rarities, with “Stop Breaking Down” getting the first airing since the Livid Festival performance at Melbourne, complete with the adlib of Stones “In My Passway” by Robert Johnson. This night also gets an even more rare outing of “You’ve Got Her In Your Pocket,” followed by the final live performance of “Hypnotize.”  Reflecting the intimacy and connection so present at this show, “We’re Going to Be Friends” gets dedicated to the red headed women and soccer players with long black hair in the crowd, which elicits an audible laugh from Meg.  While a shoe-throwing attendee could have otherwise spoiled such a special show by hitting Jack in the face during the encore of “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself,” the band respond defiantly with a fantastic “Astro” and “Jack the Ripper,” before calmly returning to the song to close the show, again to full audience singalong.  

1/25/04 GlasgowScottish Exhibition and Conference CentreLISTEN NOW

Night 2, and the band put the jukebox on shuffle. The fantastic run starting with “When I Hear My Name” goes all the way through a cover of Dylan’s “Outlaw Blues,” with the line “I might look like Jacky White, but I feel like Jesse James”, into “Cannon,” which includes the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Man,” “St James Infirmary,” “I Think I Smell a Rat,” and “Take a Whiff On Me” before returning to the “Cannon” solo and closing out with a single riff from “Ball and Biscuit.”  The rarities continue at this show, as an excellent “Suzy Lee” gets followed by a funny moment where Jack briefly forgets the name of the song after it, “This one is called….uh, what is this called?…Truth Doesn’t Make a Noise!” “The Hardest Button to Button” gets the always welcome “brain that felt like peanut butter” line, and just as the audience singalongs were the highlight of the first night, here it’s the singalong that Jack and Meg do together on “This Protector,” making it perhaps the very best version of this understated song that you’re likely to hear. As the band plow through the rest of the excellent set, “Offend In Every Way” jump-cuts into “You’re Pretty Good Looking,” just as the beginning of “Union Forever” cuts to “Baby Blue,” which in turn gives way to “Ball and Biscuit” and “Screwdriver” to close the main set.  Before “Seven Nation Army,” Jack declares the Scottish crowd the best in the world, with the song again featuring the now mandatory chanting from the crowd, before the band close the show with “Boll Weevil.”  Next stop, Blackpool Lights.  


Stream these three new shows and all other exclusive archive releases from Third Man Records with a 7-day free trial. Explore The White Stripes catalog and start your free trial here.

Weekly Live Stash Vol. XCI, January 12, 2024

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Billy Strings, The String Cheese Incident, Gov’t Mule, and more. Paid nugs subscribers may be eligible for 4-months of SiriusXM All Access (App Only), see your account page to take advantage of this offer. Offer Details apply. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app.

  1. Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)
    Gov’t Mule
    12/31/23 New York, NY
  2. Head
    Railroad Earth
    12/31/23 Bend, OR
  3. Nearly Always Late
    Eggy
    1/5/24 Deerfield, MA
  4. Richard Petty
    Billy Strings
    12/31/23 New Orleans, LA
  5. Love And Regret
    Billy Strings
    12/31/23 New Orleans, LA
  6. Electric Avenue
    The Disco Biscuits
    12/31/23 Philadelphia, PA
  7. Living Over
    Greensky Bluegrass
    12/31/23 Kalamazoo, MI
  8. Whatever Gets You Thru the Night
    The Infamous Stringdusters
    12/31/23 Asheville, NC
  9. Sirens
    The String Cheese Incident
    12/31/23 Oakland, CA
  10. Desert Dawn
    The String Cheese Incident
    12/31/23 Oakland, CA

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Cardiff, Wales July 23, 2013

Prime Time First Run

ARCHIVE RELEASE: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Wales, July 23, 2013

By Erik Flannigan

There comes a point in every Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band tour when caution is thrown to the wind in terms of the setlist. While the spine of the show can remain intact, the number of changes from night to night goes up and the choices veer towards the daring.

The Wrecking Ball tour was the peak of the sign-request era, when fans in the audience asked for specific songs to be played by holding up signs that Bruce would see, collect, and from which he would typically grant wishes.

Sporadic sign requests go back decades at Springsteen concerts and have been acknowledged occasionally through the years. But on the Magic tour the practice became part of the fabric of the show, with Bruce acknowledging and de facto encouraging the practice. As soon as he threw down the gauntlet, “try to stump the E Street Band,” the audience upped its game.

The aforementioned point was in the rear view mirror when Springsteen rolled into Cardiff, Wales for a July 23, 2003 show at Millenium Stadium. This second European loop behind Wrecking Ball kept the spotlight on the album: these versions of “Death to My Hometown,” “We Take Care of Our Own,” “Pay Me My Money Down,” “Shackled and Drawn” and the title track still bristle with energy and purpose. Springsteen’s commitment to the Wrecking Ball album was undeniable every night.

But beyond set-closing and encore staples, everything else in 2013 sets was  for grabs, duly illustrated by the contrast between Cardiff and the previously Archive Series-released Leeds July 24 set, just 24 hours apart.

Bruce swaps 16 tunes from Cardiff to Leeds, playing 49 different tracks across the two nights. The first 11 slots in each set share only two tracks in common, one of which is the not-exactly-ordinary “Roulette,” aired just 16 times in the Reunion era.

That sense of “anything can happen” at a Springsteen show is thrilling to experience, both for the chance to hear long-lost favorites and to witness extraordinary musicians tap their collective history and muscle memory as they rise to each sign challenge. Sure, they nail some more squarely than others, but on a night like they had in Cardiff, ragged but right prevails.

Before we get to the true chestnuts, Cardiff commences with “This Little Light of Mine ” from the Seeger Sessions (it is also reprised in the encore), lending a spiritual revival vibe to what was a warm and balmy day in the Wales capital. “Long Walk Home” keeps the rejuvenating spirit flowing and works great this early in the set. How nice would it be to see this underappreciated song return to 2024 sets?

The band (and especially the horn section) get cooking on a stomping “Adam Raised a Cain” that goes to extra time as sign requests are collated. “We’ll do an easy one first,” says Springsteen before another Darkness classic, “Prove It All Night,” performed straight down the line.

The requests then move from easy to unimaginable. “This has never been played… partly because it’s ridiculous. Completely ridiculous. It’s a very silly song,” Springsteen says as he flips a sign that says “Seaside Bar Song” on one side to reveal “TV Movie” on the other. The Born in the U.S.A. outtake had been rumored for years and was even namechecked by Max Weinberg as a memorable leftover before being released on Tracks in 1998. It’s one in a long line of sell-deprecating tales like “Local Hero” that take shots at what stardom gets reduced to.

ARCHIVE RELEASE: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Wales, July 23, 2013

Springsteen holds a few moments to try the song out and find the key, then says, “The Professor’s very important on this” (only to say the opposite during the song) before gamely launching into the roots rocker. After a wobble or two Springsteen and the band get it to ride pretty smoothly, though he does say at the end, “You heard it first. You heard it last.”

Whether your response to “TV Movie” is “That was fun!” or “WTF?,” that Springsteen and the band are confident enough to play a song on the spur of the moment that they recorded in just a few takes 30 years prior is pretty fucking awesome in the grand scheme of things. A triple-shot of Tracks ensues with “TV Movie” followed by the charming “Cynthia,” another BIUSA outtake, and River holdover “Roulette.”

After a mid-set pass through Wrecking Ball material, “Spirit in the Night,” “Hungry Heart” and “My City of Ruins,” another surprise. “I have a friend who’s going to sit in tonight,” Springsteen says. “When I was trying to get that guitar out of Western Auto, it was because I wanted to play and sing like this guy.”

His heartfelt words were for Eric Burdon, leader of The Animals, who takes the stage to sing “We Gotta Get Out of This Place.” Back in 1975-77, Springsteen’s cover of The Animals’ “It’s My Life” (written by the late Carl D’Errico) was a centerpiece of his live shows. In November 1976 at the Palladium in New York City, “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” became another classic Animals cover in the E Street repertoire. At the special 2012 SXSW performance in Austin that helped usher in the Wrecking Ball era, Burdon joined Springsteen and the band to sing his classic. In Wales they did one more time with aplomb.

Inspired by the moment, Springsteen calls for another sixties blues banger, John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom,” best known on E Street from its Tunnel of Love tour appearances which also featured a horn section. Energy from an excellent reading lingers and “Cadillac Ranch” keeps the engine chugging on a warm summer night, riding some especially hot guitar work from Stevie Van Zandt and solo turns from Soozie Tyrell and Jake Clemons.

Now in the zone, Springsteen moves seamlessly from “Cadillac Ranch” to “Summertime Blues,” with Stevie deputizing admirably on backing vocals for the late Clarence Clemons. There’s more good Van Zandt business on “You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch),” which keeps up the breakneck pace for the fourth straight song before the gas pedal is eased for “Pay Me My Money Down” and “Shackled and Drawn.” The set returns to previously scheduled programming through “Badlands” to close the main set.

A compelling 10-song encore opens with a rare-for-the-tour “Tougher Than the Rest,” played only six times circa 2012-’13. With Patti Scialfa away, interestingly it’s Van Zandt who fills the essential backing vocal with support from Tyrell, creating a distinct version of the song that’s well worth a listen. The evening’s fifth and final River song (not counting “Roulette”) features another unusual switcheroo as Roy Bittan plays the customary organ solo in “I’m a Rocker” on piano.

Following a lively reprise of “This Little Light of Mine” that feels like the last song of the night, Springsteen returns to the stage to close with a solo acoustic version of yet another Born in the U.S.A. outtake, “Janey, Don’t You Lose Heart,” rearranged with tender melancholy and used as a prelude to “Thunder Road” into which it melts. The Born to Run opener is performed beautifully unaffected and the result is an especially poignant and lovely cap to a night of welcome surprises.


For a limited time, save on a year of live music streaming! Enjoy unlimited access to all the exclusive Bruce Springsteen archival releases, and more from your favorite artists.

Top Streamed Shows of 2023

2023 was a banner year of touring for many of our artists, with the app boasting nearly 3,000 shows from 2023 available for streaming. Among the myriad of standout moments, we’ve gathered the most-listened-to shows as determined by you, the fans!

From the last bow on Dead & Company’s Final Tour to Goosemas, Metallica’s M72 World Tour kick off and Bruce Springsteen’s New Jersey homecoming, there’s something for all tastes in this list. Dig into each artist’s catalog and discover new favorites with these as a jumping-off point. There’s so much to uncover from the year in live music!

The official and professionally-mixed audio from all these concerts are available to stream in the nugs app. Sign up for a free trial to listen, or for a limited time, save on a year of streaming with our Year End Sale!


2023’s Top Streamed Shows:

(In order of most listens in 2023, including shows from 2023 and New Year’s 2022. Inclusions are capped at one show per artist.)

#1. Dead and Company: Jul 16, 2023

Oracle Park, San Francisco, CA

LISTEN NOW


#2. Billy Strings: Dec 31, 2022

UNO Lakefront Arena, New Orleans, LA

LISTEN NOW


#3. Widespread Panic: Oct 28, 2023

Enmarket Arena, Savannah, GA

LISTEN NOW


#4. Goose: Dec 9, 2023

Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, VA

LISTEN NOW


#5. Billy & The Kids: Apr 27, 2023

Saenger Theatre, New Orleans, LA

LISTEN NOW


#6. Orebolo: Jun 10, 2023

Chautauqua Auditorium, Boulder, CO

LISTEN NOW


#7. Bruce Springsteen: Sep 3, 2023

MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ

LISTEN NOW


#8. Joe Russo’s Almost Dead: Jan 29, 2023

Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY

LISTEN NOW


#9. The String Cheese Incident: Oct 28, 2023

Suwannee Hulaween, Live Oak, FL

LISTEN NOW


#10. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: Jun 11, 2023

The Salt Shed, Chicago, IL

LISTEN NOW


#11. Gov’t Mule: Aug 7, 2023

Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO

LISTEN NOW


#12. The Disco Biscuits: Oct 28, 2023

Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY

LISTEN NOW


#13. Pearl Jam: Aug 31, 2023

Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN

LISTEN NOW


#14. My Morning Jacket: Nov 11, 2023

Chciago Theatre, Chicago, IL

LISTEN NOW


#15. Greensky Bluegrass: Dec 31, 2022

The Tabernacle, Atlanta, GA

LISTEN NOW


#16. Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros: Sep 28, 2023

Pier Six Pavilion, Baltimore, MD

LISTEN NOW


#17. Umphrey’s McGee: Dec 31, 2022

Coca-Cola Roxy, Atlanta, GA

LISTEN NOW


#18. Metallica: Apr 27, 2023

Johan Cruijff Arena, Amsterdam, NLD

LISTEN NOW


#19. Twiddle: Nov 26, 2023

Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY

LISTEN NOW


#20. Kitchen Dwellers: Aug 26, 2023

Bridger Brewing, Three Forks, MT

LISTEN NOW


#21. Daniel Donato: Jul 23, 2023

The Double E Performance Center, Essex Junction, VT

LISTEN NOW


Stream all these shows and more with a free 7-day trial, or jump on our Year End Sale – offer ends January 17th.

Weekly Live Stash Vol. LXXXIX, Top 10 Live Tracks of 2023, December 22, 2023

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Bruce Springsteen, Goose, and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and more. Paid nugs subscribers may be eligible for 4-months of SiriusXM All Access (App Only), see your account page to take advantage of this offer. Offer Details apply. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app. The Phish track is only available in the LivePhish app.

  1. Jungleland
    Bruce Springsteen
    4/1/23 New York, NY
  2. Peggy-O
    Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros (w/ Rick Mitarotonda – Goose)
    2/11/23 Port Chester, NY
  3. Basis For A Day
    The Disco Biscuits
    3/25/23 Port Chester, NY
  4. Mars For The Rich
    King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
    6/11/23 Chicago, IL
  5. Driving Song>Disco>Driving Song
    Widespread Panic
    7/30/23 Huntsville, AL
  6. Nutshell
    Billy Strings
    3/18/23 Cincinnati , OH
  7. All Along The Watchtower
    Dead and Company (w/ Dave Matthews)
    7/3/23 Boulder, CO
  8. Tweezer>Guy Forget>Tweezer
    Phish
    8/5/23 New York, NY
  9. I Would Die 4 U
    Goose
    10/6/23 Morrison, CO
  10. Althea
    Dead and Company
    7/16/23 San Francisco, CA

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, E. Rutherford, NJ, July 15, 1999

I Hear The Guitars Ringin’ Out Again

ARCHIVE RELEASE: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Continental Airlines Arena, E. Rutherford, NJ, July 15, 1999

By Erik Flannigan

When news first emerged in late 1989 that the E Street Band had been dismissed indefinitely by Bruce Springsteen, it began nine years of uncertainty and speculation as to when, if ever, they would join forces again. They did come back together to record new material for Greatest Hits in 1995 and undertook a small series of promotional appearances in support of it, but the fact that they parted ways again without touring only made the odds of a full return feel even longer.

It was the release of Tracks box set in 1998 that would ultimately serve as the catalyst for what Shore Fire Media’s December 8, 1998 press release deemed was indeed a “reunion tour.” Our long, cold E Street winter was finally coming to an end, but not before Bruce and the band took the unprecedented step of starting a tour in Europe, which meant U.S. audiences would have to wait until summer to see their heroes.

This is the backdrop to July 15, 1999, the first U.S. arena show of the Reunion era and the earliest professional recording of the tour. Having been fortunate enough to attend the show, I can attest to the heightened anticipation in the building before the house lights went down, excitement you can hear just before Springsteen says, “Good evening, New Jersey. We’re gonna bring it to you.”

What follows is an exemplary and evolving performance that finds the men and women of E Street road-tested and ready for action, playing a 26-song set that follows the structural blueprint that would underpin the entire Reunion tour.

ARCHIVE RELEASE: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Continental Airlines Arena, E. Rutherford, NJ, July 15, 1999

Born in the U.S.A. outtake and Tracks-essential “My Love Will Not Let You Down” opens the show, captured in an appealingly guitar-soaked mix by Jon Altschiller. For those of us seeing the Reunion tour for the first time, a triple whammy was in play: the E Street Band was back on stage for the first time since 1988; Stevie Van Zandt was standing stage left, officially rejoined after a 17-year absence, and Springsteen was playing outtakes many of us never dreamed would feature in a setlist, let alone open a show.  

It wasn’t just Van Zandt who “might have been right all these years” about Springsteen’s treasure trove of previously unreleased material: here was “My Love Will Not Let You Down” (which, like other songs here, had circulated in mediocre sound among collectors on cassette in the mid-1980s) serving as the show’s storming start. 

The first six songs of the set are sharp and provide endearing showcase moments to members of the band: Clarence Clemons blasting a big solo on “The Promised Land,” Stevie sharing vocals on “Two Hearts,” Nils Lofgren doing the same on “Darlington County,” Roy Bittan leading “Darkness on the Edge of Town” while Max Weinberg pounds away on drums, and Phantom Dan Federici pulling out the accordion for the first time in decades on a rearranged “Mansion on the Hill” which spotlights Miss Patti Scialfa on backing vocals.

Reunion needed to strike a balance between familiar and fresh and Springsteen largely got it right. Eight songs had never featured in an E Street Band show before 1999, including wonderful Tracks-liberated outtakes “My Love Won’t Let You Down” and “Where The Bands Are,” which was arguably even a bigger jaw-dropper to hear live having been cut for The River. Another BIUSA outtake, “Murder Incorporated,” had already become a showstopper in Europe; with nine-cylinder E Street power, it crushes here.

An electrified “Youngstown,” a faithful “The Ghost of Tom Joad” and a stately reading of the Oscar-winning “Streets of Philadelphia” (with solemn backing vocals from Van Zandt) brought Springsteen’s recent solo work into the fold, while vocal turns from Nils, Steve, Patti and Clarence recast “If I Should Fall Behind” from 1992’s Lucky Town as an E Street spiritual.

The encore features two other newcomers: the Joad-tour bred “Freehold,” Springsteen’s hilarious and poignant hometown confessional, and the first new E Street Band original of the Reunion era, “Land of Hope and Dreams,” which doubled as a mission statement for the entire tour and resurrection of the band.

The rest of the set is composed of classics and album cuts, some substantially rearranged like “The River,” while others offered nifty, subtle changes like the intros to “Darkness on the Edge of Town” and “Working on the Highway.” A feeling of renewed commitment even comes across in every-nighters like “Out in the Street,” “Born to Run” and “Bobby Jean” which are played reverently at this point in the tour. 

This recording’s hot guitar mix and a strong lead vocal give “Backstreets” a charge of vitality and the fiery performance make this one of the night’s standouts. Similarly, “Badlands” is buzzed by electric guitars, reinvigorated to the point where you sense the joy that the E Street Band is feeling to play it together again.

Because it stands as the start of Springsteen’s modern era, our perception of the Reunion tour is well established 24 years later. But listening to this earliest U.S. performance, the rebirth of the E Street Band is more thrilling to hear than you may remember.


For a limited time, save on a year of live music streaming! Enjoy unlimited access to all the exclusive Bruce Springsteen archival releases, and more from your favorite artists.

The White Stripes: Chicago, IL, New Years Eve, 2003

An exclusive archive from The White Stripes is now available for streaming in the nugs.net app, featuring a New Years Eve performances from Chicago, IL. From long time White Stripes fan Mike on this month’s ‘Third Man Thursday’ releases:

New Years Eve 2003: A Finale With Friends

To close out the 20th anniversary of the 2003 Elephant tour, it’s only fitting to go out big, just as the band did. For the final Third Man Thursday of 2023, here is the White Stripes New Year’s Eve concert from 2003, back at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago.  A special performance to finish the year, featuring a little help from some friends, and artwork from longtime Stripes-collaborator Rob Jones.

12/31/03 Chicago: Aragon Ballroom – LISTEN NOW

What to say about 2003?  Over 100 days of shows played across 5 continents. In clubs, theaters, sports arenas. At festivals, on the radio, on TV, at a primary school.  A music video showing a girl with a broken wrist. A music video showing a boy with a broken finger.  A record that turned from Gold into Platinum (and went double platinum earlier this year).  Planes, trains, and automobiles. Interviews, interviews, interviews.  And still, no two performances or setlists ever alike.

Here is the final show of the year, with the White Stripes bringing the Elephant back into the room at the Aragon. With parts of this show broadcast live on CNN, the return to Chicago was a party on a grand stage to close out a grand year, shared with a global audience of millions.

For this special occasion, the band had brought along two groups of friends. The first opening act on this night was the band Blanche, who’s members shared a history with Jack going all the way back to Goober & The Peas and Two Star Tabernacle. A cover of Blanche’s song “Who’s to Say” was featured on the single for “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself”, and they would be joining the band on the upcoming January tour of the UK.

The second openers on the bill were the Flaming Lips, a group who also had a connection with the band. While the Stripes had spent 2003 unleashing Elephant on the world, the Flaming Lips were also on the road, helping Yoshimi battle those Pink Robots.  It would be at a show in Detroit the year before, where the Lips were playing as both opener and backing band for Beck (just as they would at this show for the Stripes), where Jack would present frontman Wayne Coyne with a gift that would be memorialized in the song “Thank You Jack White (For The Fiber-Optic Jesus That You Gave Me)”.  After Jack had injured his finger in the car accident in July, the first concert that the Stripes would have to cancel would be the T In the Park festival in Scotland. It would be the Flaming Lips who would fill in for the band, taking to the stage dressed in red and white and opening with a reworked cover of “Seven Nation Army”, featuring lyrics that included bits from the Butthole Surfers’ “Moving to Florida”, which you can just make out on the performance of the song here, with Jack sharing the verses with Coyne, who can be heard singing through a megaphone, complete with air-raid siren.

The New Year’s Eve show is a wonderful capture of lightning in the bottle for both the White Stripes and the Flaming Lips. While the Stripes and their minimalism would be on their way to the UK to immortalize the power of simplicity on film, the Lips would soon be bound for Coachella, with animal costumes, floodlights, fake blood, and a space bubble in tow.

From the very start of the Stripes performance on this New Year’s Eve, there’s an audible sense of joy, with the band no doubt refreshed after having had a month off since the end of the November leg.  Perhaps not surprising that the set here leans heavily on pre-Elephant tracks, including a few callbacks to the last time they played the Aragon on 7/2, by opening with “When I Hear My Name” in place of “Black Math”, and featuring adlibs of “Aluminum” and “Cool Drink of Water Blues.” The setlist is a perfect summary to close the year, featuring a little bit from every era of the band’s history, with a song like “The Big Three Killed My Baby” brought current with an adlib commenting on the ever-present political climate of the time.

The version of “We’re Going To Be Friends” is simply beautiful, with the Flaming Lips providing gentle backup on guitar and bass, while frontman Coyne can be seen in the footage from the show giving Jack a hug mid-song, smearing fake blood on his shirt.  And of course that Stripes/Lips Seven Nation Army mashup, kicking off the New Year as a shower of red, white, and black balloons were dropped from the ceiling onto the crowd.  This show is a fitting celebration to close out 2003, complete with party favors, as attendees were given a small viewfinder which showed a message of “Happy New Year 2004 from the White Stripes”.  

While it was the end of an incredible year, the Elephant tour wasn’t quite at the finish line just yet, with more shows to come in January.  As Jack would say after “Seven Nation Army”, now officially in 2004, “Well, we can’t stop now, right?”


For a limited time, save on a year of live music streaming! Enjoy unlimited access to all the exclusive Third Man Thursday archives, Jack White shows, and more from your favorite artists.

Weekly Live Stash Vol. LXXXVIII, December 15, 2023

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Bruce Springsteen, Goose, Greensky Bluegrass with Lindsay Lou and more. Paid nugs subscribers may be eligible for 4-months of SiriusXM All Access (App Only), see your account page to take advantage of this offer. Offer Details apply. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app.

  1. 99 Red Balloons
    Goose
    12/9/23 Hampton, VA
  2. Pancakes
    Goose
    12/9/23 Hampton, VA
  3. She Knows What I’m Thinkin’
    Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros
    12/12/23 Port Chester, NY
  4. Thundercrack
    Bruce Springsteen
    10/14/09 Philadelphia, PA
  5. Lucky Man
    Spafford
    12/9/23 Ardmore, PA
  6. Grow Together
    Greensky Bluegrass (w/ Lindsay Lou)
    12/6/23 Puerto Morelos, MX
  7. Midnight Blues
    The Infamous Stringdusters (w/ Drew Emmitt)
    12/8/23 Puerto Morales, MX
  8. Sex On Fire
    Goose
    12/8/23 Hampton, VA
  9. Recreational Chemistry
    moe. (w/ Lyle Brewer – Neighbor)
    12/8/23 Port Chester, NY

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Philadelphia, 10/14/2009

In The Darkness I Hear Somebody Call My Name

ARCHIVE RELEASE: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Wachovia Center, Philadelphia, PA, October 14, 2009

By Erik Flannigan

The third and final leg of the Working On a Dream tour wrapped 25 months of near-continuous touring for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. The run started in support of 2007’s Magic, while 2009 was in service of its aforenamed follow-up.

With so many gigs already under their belts and multiple passes through key markets, Springsteen was looking for a way to shake things up. “We were trying to [do] some things that would make these last series of shows special for our fans,” he tells the Philly faithful gathered in what was once simply called The Spectrum — and home to some of the band’s greatest arena shows.

The idea they settled on was to perform his classic albums in full. On this night the selection is Darkness on the Edge of Town, “a record that means a great, great deal to me,” Springsteen says. “I think it summarized a lot of things that were going on in the world that I was in at the time. When it came out…it wasn’t greeted right away with the kind of affection that it’s gained over the years. People didn’t initially know quite what to make of it.”

While he has alluded to it before, Springsteen’s point of view that the album took time to resonate is fascinating to reconsider. In hindsight, it feels like Darkness on the Edge of Town was a seminal album from the start, but its status was earned over time, due in no small part to the songs, “being in our setlist…night after night for [33] years.”

A full performance of Darkness on the Edge of Town is the centerpiece of this fine October 14, 2009 set, part of a four-show stand that would mark Springsteen’s farewell performances at the legendary Spectrum.

As Springsteen notes, Darkness songs have been a persistent force in his setlists for decades, but this in-sequence reading resets our perspective on the material. “Badlands” is returned to a starting role opening the album, and there’s still bite in the old warhorse, aided by an exuberant audience reaction and singalong.

Sonic sharpness continues through a seamless transition to “Adam Raised a Cain.” The guitar tone is spot on, especially the solo, and Springsteen sings with conviction that belies the years that have passed since the song was written. From the angst of “Adam Raised a Cain” is the majestic “Something in the Night,” led by Roy Bittan’s emotional piano part. 

Next, “Candy’s Room” combines the prettiness of “Something” and the edge of “Adam” into one of Springsteen’s most dynamic and appealing arrangements. Stevie Van Zandt’s backing vocals provide an extra jolt of urgency. Bittan takes center stage again for “Racing in the Street,” as he carries the unforgettable melody on piano, while Springsteen’s vocal cadence and phrasing have shifted in modern performances to emphasize weariness over wistfulness. The “Factory” whistle blows earnestly in Philly with fine pedal-steel guitar from Nils Lofgren and intriguingly angular fretwork from Van Zandt.

The stunner of the Darkness set is “Streets of Fire,” easily the least-played song from the album since 1978 in only its ninth appearance since the Darkness tour. Springsteen gets up for it, hitting the heightened vocal line “I heard somebody call my name” like you want him to and turning in scorching guitar throughout.

ARCHIVE RELEASE: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Wachovia Center, Philadelphia, PA, October 14, 2009

The spark of “Streets of Fire” helps ignite the final two songs of the album sequence. “Prove It All Night,” often played early in live sets, serves as more of a sizzling denouement with all three guitarists contributing meaningfully, including Lofgren’s Theremin-like solo. The title track also serves as the album closer, and the reading here is full-blooded and flawless, as again Springsteen reaches for and reaches his most emotive vocal range on lines like “I lost my faith when I lost my wife,” “I’ll be on the hill ‘cause I can’t stop,” and the song’s final, held “towwwwwwn.” It feels wholly appropriate that the expanded 2009 band line-up stood down to let the core E Streeters and Charlie Giordano perform Darkness On the Edge of Town as authentically as it could be in 2009.

While a child singing “Waitin’ on a Sunday Day” does shatter the spell woven by the full Darkness, the rest of the show that surrounds the album suite has its share of special moments. The first half of the show includes the only airing to date of “What Love Can Do” from Working On a Dream. It’s a shame the song has been slept on by the merits of this excellent performance in which the band is firmly locked into the arrangement and Springsteen and Van Zandt sing with gripping intensity. Fun fact: the song also gives this concert two different biblical references to Cain.

The second part of the show boasts the welcome inclusion of “Human Touch,” which, after ten previous attempts, crosses the line fully into E Street Band territory and declares its citizenship. This lively take offers plenty of guitar, lilting vocals from Patti Scialfa and a superb ending.

“Long Walk Home” follows, and doubles as a good title for this final stretch of the 2009 tour, when Springsteen gave the people what they wanted, full performances of his most beloved works, without it coming off as nostalgia.


Stream this show, along with hundreds more archival Bruce Springsteen shows with a 7-day free trial. Explore the Bruce Springsteen catalog and start your free trial here.

Weekly Live Stash Vol. LXXXVII, December 8, 2023

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Umphrey’s McGee, Goose, Daniel Donato and more. Paid nugs subscribers may be eligible for 4-months of SiriusXM Streaming, see your account page to take advantage of this offer. Offer Details apply. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app.

  1. Pleas
    Umphrey’s McGee
    12/2/23 Athens, GA
  2. Bridgeless
    Umphrey’s McGee
    12/2/23 Athens, GA
  3. Get Back > South Woodridge > Black Mountain Rag
    The Mountain Grass Unit
    11/11/23 Denver, CO
  4. Sweaters For Strawmen
    Eggy
    11/30/23 Macon, GA
  5. Got My Mojo Workin’
    Daniel Donato
    12/5/23 Gainesville, FL
  6. Wayside / Back In Time
    Kitchen Dwellers
    12/2/23 Des Moines, IA
  7. America
    Spafford
    11/30/23 Charlotte, NC
  8. Look Johnny
    Dogs In A Pile
    12/1/23 Columbus, OH
  9. Tumble
    Goose
    10/3/20 Swanzey, NH

Weekly Live Stash Vol. LXXXVI, December 1, 2023

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Billy and The Kids, Eggy, Goose and more. Paid nugs subscribers may be eligible for 4-months of SiriusXM Streaming, see your account page to take advantage of this offer. Offer Details apply. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app. The Phish track is only available in the LivePhish app.

  1. Twist
    Phish
    11/14/97 West Valley City, UT
  2. Spanish Moon
    Billy and The Kids
    10/31/23 Saratoga, CA
  3. Drifter’s Escape
    Billy Strings
    11/19/23 Birmingham, GB
  4. Time Escaping
    Eggy
    11/18/23 Brooklyn, NY
  5. Madhuvan
    Goose
    11/20/23 London, UK

Weekly Live Stash Vol. LXXXV, November 24, 2023

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Greensky Bluegrass, Goose, My Morning Jacket and more. Paid nugs subscribers may be eligible for 4-months of SiriusXM Streaming, see your account page to take advantage of this offer. Offer Details apply. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app.

  1. Gumboots
    Greensky Bluegrass
    11/16/23 Memphis, TN
  2. Ten Feet Of Rope
    Daniel Donato
    11/11/23 Charleston, SC
  3. Way to Be
    Dogs In A Pile
    11/19/23 Tempe, AZ
  4. I’m A Ram
    Gov’t Mule
    11/15/23 Neu-Isenburg, DE
  5. Minds Unchained
    Spafford
    11/15/23 Charleston, SC
  6. All I Need
    Goose
    11/18/23 Bristol, UK
  7. I Would Die 4 U
    Goose
    11/16/23 Manchester, UK
  8. State Of The Art (A.E.I.O.U.)
    My Morning Jacket
    11/9/23 Chicago, IL

Weekly Live Stash Vol. LXXXIV, November 17, 2023

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Goose, The White Stripes, Billy Strings and more. Paid nugs subscribers may be eligible for 4-months of SiriusXM Streaming, see your account page to take advantage of this offer. Offer Details apply. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app.

  1. Thatch
    Goose
    11/7/23 Amsterdam, NLD
  2. Love Sick
    The White Stripes
    10/27/03 Osaka, Japan
  3. Pickin’ Up The Pieces
    Billy Strings
    11/6/23 Amsterdam, NLD
  4. Missin’ Me
    The String Cheese Incident
    11/4/23 Austin, TX
  5. All In
    Spafford
    11/14/23 Mills River, NC
  6. Like a Buddha
    Railroad Earth
    10/8/23 Eureka Springs, AR

The White Stripes: Milwaukee, Indianapolis and Columbus, 2003

Two exclusive archives from The White Stripes are now available for streaming in the nugs.net app, featuring performances from Milwaukee, Indianapolis and Columbus. From long time White Stripes fan Mike on this month’s ‘Third Man Thursday’ releases:

November 2003 – Looking for a Home

Back in the US for a fourth round, the November leg would begin the journey to close out the year, and close out the tour. Kicking off with a trio of shows in Milwaukee, Indianapolis, and Columbus – they start the run by playing in the three states that border Michigan, as if deliberately making a point of playing everywhere but home. Detroit would have to wait until the end of the month, and even then they had already signed up for a New Year’s Eve show in Chicago. As they would look back on this leg, Meg would recall “We were like a moth right next to the flame. It’s like, do any more and you go down. We were so tired. One final lap, and then have a rest.”

Like the three shows in Scandinavia that kicked off the European tour six months earlier, these first shows of the November run are a complementary snapshot in time. Where those shows in May saw the band experimenting with the new songs and pushing the setlists and arrangements outward, by November the new songs were now long established in the set, and yet somehow the band were still able to keep the performances continuously evolving. Notice that each of the shows here opens with the same three songs (Black Math > Dead Leaves > I Think I Smell a Rat), and even with those otherwise familiar ingredients to work with, each performance is still very much a unique serving – even at this late stage in the tour. From the debut of Bob Dylan’s Outlaw Blues at Milwaukee, to an impromptu version of Sister Do You Know My Name? played as an intro to Death Letter at Indianapolis, to Jack singing into the guitar pickup on his Airline during Hello Operator at Columbus. Still finding ways to pull new rabbits out of old hats, night after night.

11/10/03 Milwaukee: Eagles Ballroom – LISTEN

Having had to reschedule this concert twice (once earlier in the year due to scheduling conflicts, and again after Jack’s car accident), they finally make it to Milwaukee. Coming so soon after the October tour of NZ/AU/JP wrapped, this show nicely consolidates many of the highlights from that run, all within the same show. Why Can’t You Be Nicer To Me? gets included within I’m Finding It Harder to be a Gentleman, and Loretta Lynn’s God Makes No Mistakes is performed here within Screwdriver, both having been debuted at Adelaide 10/15. Girl You Have No Faith In Medicine features the adlib from the Beatles’ Boys at the end – the first since Hiroshima 10/26, and the Hardest Button to Button gets the Melbourne 10/14 “brain that felt like Pea-nut Butter” line. Milwaukee also features the debut of Bob Dylan’s Outlaw Blues, which follows after a blistering version of Ball and Biscuit. Out of the handful of times they would do this cover, the version here just might be the best one. “I might look like Robert Ford, but I feel like Jesse-Fucking-James!”

Other highlights include a funny play on words during Cannon, “I saw Guns! Tanks!…..Tanks, You’re Welcome!” The Death Letter/Little Bird combo is also excellent here, and during the intro you can just make out a tease of the slide riff from Sister Do You Know My Name? The next night in Indianapolis he would perform an impromptu version of the song in this spot. Later in the song, Jack ramps up the ending of Little Bird with a fantastic adlib of “Can’t you hear me knocking Meg?!” while he taps his slide on the fretboard. Listen for the shoutout to the local crowd before Boll Weevil, a throwback to their performances in town from earlier years: “Are we at the Cactus Club? My memory’s not so good. Hi Milwaukee, I forgot to say hello to you!” And later in the song, an acknowledgement of how the band were feeling by this point in the tour, so close to home, and yet still so far away: “See it’s funny, because you all have a home, I guess. But my sister and I, no such luck. Y’all here, you got Milwaukee, Green Bay, Oconomowoc. We used to have Detroit, but that was a long, long, long time ago.”

11/11/03 Indianapolis: Egyptian Room at the Murat – LISTEN

Where Milwaukee the night before saw the band seamlessly cutting in the latest additions from the October run, the crowd at Indianapolis got treated to a longer and more experimental set. There’s an abundance of one-off and unique performances here. Shine on Harvest Moon gets an airing in Cannon, having last been performed at Los Angeles on 9/22, and Mr Cellophane makes a return to the set – the second to last performance. This Protector gets performed complete with the off-mic spoken word intro, and Folk Singer by Brendan Benson gets the first airing since the debut in Madrid on 5/25. An epic 7 minute Ball and Biscuit features Jack singing lyrics from Howlin Wolf’s Smokestack Lightning, the only known time he actually sings along to the riff, which had been debuted back at Stockholm on 5/13. Seven Nation Army gets a one-off adlib of “make the sweat drip…drip”. I Fought Piranhas here is one of the longest known versions, hitting the 6 minute mark and ending in a wail of whammy and feedback.

The biggest surprise of the night is the impromptu version of Sister Do You Know My Name?, which gets played during the intro to Death Letter. Having been hinted at the night before, and one of only two performances on the Elephant tour, the version here is unique, as the Kay guitar is in a different tuning than the one the song is normally played in. As a result, Jack ends up doing a bit of on-the-fly improvising with the vocal melody and the guitar parts. A completely inspired and unexpected surprise. Later in Death Letter he does the quick version of the Motherless Children lines, like he did at Melbourne 10/14. For a bit of comedy, listen for the sound of a local radio station being picked up by Jack’s amp after Seven Nation Army and again after The Hardest Button to Button. Continuing the theme from the night before, there is yet another reference to not knowing where “home” is during Boll Weevil, with Jack making a joke to the Indiana audience saying “We love being here in Houston Texas!”. This show also features a unique milestone, as it’s the first one where Jack closes the show by stepping on the Big Muff pedal and letting the guitar feedback ring out as the band exits the stage.

11/12/03 Columbus: PromoWest Pavilion – LISTEN

Similar to the previous night in Indianapolis, where the show ended with Jack thanking the city of Houston, he takes the joke a step further in Columbus, referring to different cities throughout the show (Boise, Des Moines, Akron). Given the band’s long history of playing in Ohio, it’s safe to say that they’re clearly glad to be back and are in good spirits, as this is an excellent performance, with energy to spare. Many of the songs get an extra dose of enthusiasm, particularly in the vocals. While they were surely looking forward to the end of the tour, and pushing back against the fatigue of touring, there’s certainly no sign of it here. Listen to the version of I Think I Smell a Rat, where Jack throws in the line “Video Games! Tattoos! Body Piercings! I think I smell a rat!” – a comment on some of the distractions of the day. He’d insert this line again at New York on 11/18. During Let’s Shake Hands he adds in the line “Well you can do what you wanna do Meg….we’ve been playing this song for 6 years! So say my name!” As if in amazement of how long they had been together and how long they had been on tour by this point.

Or listen to the must hear version of Hello Operator, where Jack sings one of the verses through the guitar pickup in his Airline. Or Little Bird, where he sings the “When I get you home” lines while toggling the pickup selector on the Kay to cut the sound in and out, mimic’ing the stutter effect with his voice. This show also features a rare outing of Now Mary, the second of only two performances on the Elephant tour (the other was at Sydney 10/10), which in turn segues into a welcome appearance of Sugar Never Tasted So Good. After the encores of Little Room, the Joss Stone version of Fell In Love With a Girl, Apple Blossom, and I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself, where they’ve kept the energy they had at the beginning of the show all the way through to the end, they break the pattern of ending the show with Boll Weevil and instead close with Seven Nation Army, with the intro “Okay Akron, you’ve been very nice to us. My sister is very pleased, and I’m very happy too!”. Like the night before, the show closes with a wail feedback ringing out as the band leave the stage, the now official “ending” to each show that would follow on the tour from here.


Stream these three new shows, and all other exclusive archive releases from Third Man Records with a 7-day free trial. Explore The White Stripes catalog and start your free trial here.

Bruce Springsteen Contest

Now up for grabs on the nugs.net subscriber contest’s portal is the Born In The U.S.A. collectors-edition CD box set! The 18-CD factory-pressed set contains six of the finest recordings from the 1984-1985 Born In The U.S.A. Tour, including five shows in East Rutherford, NJ. In addition to the box set, the winner will also get MP3 downloads of every show. One runner up will get all six FLAC downloads.

Don’t miss your chance to own this piece of music history, nugs subscribers can enter to win today! If you’re new to nugs.net, start a free trial now to unlock unlimited streaming of the Live Bruce Springsteen archives, then come back to enter tomorrow. Good luck, this contest ends on November 21st.

Enter To Win

Treats from Halloweens Past

Bust-outs, covers, costumes, guest sit-ins, tricks and treats…a Halloween show just hits a bit different. Explore some of our favorite Halloween concerts from years past, all available to stream with a nugs.net free trial. There’s a lot more out there too, so do some discovery and find the show that’s sure to shake your bones.


  • Billy Strings2021/10/31 in Asheville, NC
    • The Wizard of Oz themed three-night run concluded with debut covers of the Rolling Stones, The Doors, Elton John, and more. Billy was dressed as the Scarecrow.

  • Billy Strings2022/10/31 in Asheville, NC
    • ‘Away from the Shire’ was a three night celebration of The Lord Of The Rings, culminating with special-guest drummer Duane Trucks of Widespread Panic and tributes to Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, and Black Sabbath.

  • Billy Strings2023/10/31 in Grand Rapids, MI
    • Oh yeah! Filled with guests and smack downs, the ‘Van Andel Scramble’ took the Halloween themed show to a whole new level, with a wrestling ring and guests ranging from Duane Trucks to Bill Nershi, Sierra Hull, Molly Tuttle and more.

  • Big Something2021/10/31 in Wilmington, NC
    • Night three of their 2021 Halloween run billed as “Talking Something”, a tribute to the Talking Heads

  • Dave Matthews Band1998/10/31 in Oakland, CA
    • From one of the most well-regarded tours in the band’s history, and their last Halloween concert to-date, this show has long been hailed a classic and every performance is a highlight.

  • Eggy2022/10/31 in Charleston, SC
    • Dressed as different eras of Elton John, Eggy went undercover and performed nine songs by Elton John, while welcoming special guests from Doom Flamingo to join on keytar and vocals.

  • Dead & Company2019/10/31 in New York, NY
    • This was the first show Dead & Company played together after the passing of lyricist Robert Hunter, and the first two sets featured songs that Hunter had co-written. The show began with the four original Grateful Dead members performing an emotional rendition of “Ripple,” one of Hunter’s many masterpieces.

  • The Disco Biscuits2015/10/31 in Syracuse, NY
    • Their first Halloween show in 5 years, a disco and funk extravaganza with debut covers and guests the Philly Stray Horns plus singer Alita Moses.

  • Frank Zappa1977/10/31 in New York, NY
    • By 1977, Frank Zappa’s Halloween shows were already the stuff of legends, and this special night capped off six historic shows over a course of four nights

  • Goose2021/10/31 in Worcester, MA
    • The Austin Powers’ themed evening consisted of rare covers like the “Dr. Evil Rap”, “My Generation”, “I’m A Believer” and more.

  • Gov’t Mule2013/10/31 in Oakland, CA
    • One of the many special Mule-O-Ween’s, this 2013 show featured Robby Krieger of The Doors for all of set 2, with a setlist focused on The Doors catalog reimagined.

  • Gov’t Mule2022/10/29 in New Orleans, LA
    • The band returned from set break in full costume, inspired by the 1984 rockumentary Spinal Tap. Warren Haynes and co. then ran through tunes from the classic film, with seven debuts and help from The Levee Horns.

  • Grateful Dead1971/10/31 in Columbus, OH
    • There were friendly spirits indeed at play on this Halloween night, a gem of a show from early in Keith Godchaux’s tenure with the Dead.”

  • Greensky Bluegrass2022/10/29 in San Francisco, CA
    • In a venue where the Grateful Dead spent many nights, Greensky Bluegrass went with a Dead themed Halloween set at The Warfield, dressing as the band had in white garb for their 1980 album cover of Go To Heaven.

  • Jerry Garcia Band1992/10/31 in Oakland, CA
    • After three months off the road due to health issues, Jerry Garcia was welcomed by a crowd of 17,000 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena in Oakland, CA. He greeted the crowd with a heart-felt “How Sweet It Is” as his first song back on stage.

  • Leftover Salmon2013/10/31 in Atlanta, GA
    • “Basically Frightened” through “Right Now” with Col. Bruce Hampton. Count M’butu plays congas and percussion the whole show.

  • Lotus2009/10/31 in Baltimore, MD
    • Dubbed “Protein Pills in the Labyrinth”, members dressed up as several David Bowie characters including Ziggy Stardust, Thin White Duke, and Jareth. The band performed 8 Bowie songs that night.

  • moe.2015/10/31 in Philadelphia, PA
    • A “Halloween Star Wars rock fest” with the band members dressed as the movie characters and the show was comprised of Star Wars songs, altered themed lyrics, puns on moe. originals, and never before played covers.

  • Pearl Jam2009/10/31 in Philadelphia, PA
    • The final night of a four-show run at the Spectrum, a massive double encore where in the final set the band came out dressed as Devo and performed live debuts of “Whip It” and “Sweet Lew”.

  • Phish1994/10/31 in Glens Falls, NY
    • Where it all began, a three-set, late-night marathon, with a full-album debut of The Beatles’ The White Album.

  • Pigeons Playing Ping Pong2021/10/31 in Columbus, OH
    • A “Daft Side of the Moon” Halloween featuring mashups of Daft Punk and Pink Floyd songs throughout the night.

  • Pigeons Playing Ping Pong2023/10/31 in Austin, TX
    • The “Talking Radioheads” show featured mashup of originals weaved in and out of songs by the Talking Heads and Radiohead. Members of Dogs In A Pile joined throughout the night to add to the fun(k).

  • The String Cheese Incident2004/10/31 in Madison, WI
    • First Time Played: Peace Train (Cat Stevens), Rock The Casbah (The Clash), I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag (Country Joe), Rockin’ in The Free World (Neil Young), Revolution (The Beatles) & Take The Power Back (RATM)

  • Umphrey’s McGee2012/10/31 in Silver Spring, MD
    • Dressed as Presidents, a VP, and a First Lady, Umphrey’s McGee threw down in Maryland for a Halloween show for the ages where UM fans got to vote on a full set of covers for an ‘All Night Wrong’ set II.

  • Umphrey’s McGee2014/10/31 in Boston, MA
    • Massive mashups including “Sweet Emotion” x “Walk This Way” x “Funk 49”, “She’s A Bad Mama Jama” x “Give It To Me Baby” and more.

  • Widespread Panic2015/10/31 in Asheville, NC
    • The band debuted 4 covers including “Dooley”, “The Fishin’ Hole”, “Have A Cigar” and “Young Lust”. Fiddle Player Nicki Sanders joined the band on stage for several songs.

  • Widespread Panic 2022/10/29 in Savannah, GA
    • A ‘dream’ themed set and production, featuring ‘sleeper’ covers of The Allman Brothers Band, Tom Petty, Metallica, and more.

  • Widespread Panic2023/10/29 in Savannah, GA
    • Donned in Wizard of Oz costumes, the show pulled from the film’s storyline with a heavy dose of Ozzy and Black Sabbath covers intertwined. In total we heard seven debuts, ranging from Ozzy tracks to Pink Floyd, Grateful Dead, Neil Young, Talking Heads and more.

Weekly Live Stash Vol. LXXXIII, November 3, 2023

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Widespread Panic, The String Cheese Incident featuring Goose, Kitchen Dwellers and more. Paid nugs subscribers may be eligible for 4-months of SiriusXM Streaming, see your account page to take advantage of this offer. Offer Details apply. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app.

  1. The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)
    Widespread Panic
    10/28/23 Savannah, GA
  2. Crazy Train
    Widespread Panic
    10/28/23 Savannah, GA
  3. Animal
    The String Cheese Incident (w/ Goose)
    10/27/23 Live Oak, FL
  4. SOS
    Goose
    10/27/23 Live Oak, FL
  5. Compound Fracture
    My Morning Jacket
    10/30/23 Birmingham, AL
  6. Rewind
    ALO
    10/20/23 Grass Valley, CA
  7. No More To Leave Behind
    Kitchen Dwellers
    10/29/23 Charlotte, NC
  8. Be Strange
    Spafford
    10/24/23 Spokane, WA
  9. Three Pigs Have A Cigar
    Pigeons Playing Ping Pong
    10/28/23 Live Oak, FL

Weekly Live Stash Vol. LXXXII, October 27, 2023

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Widespread Panic, My Morning Jacket, The Disco Biscuits and more. Paid nugs subscribers may be eligible for 4-months of SiriusXM Streaming, see your account page to take advantage of this offer. Offer Details apply. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app.

  1. Shakedown Street
    Twiddle
    9/15/23 Philadelphia, PA
  2. Barstools and Dreamers
    Widespread Panic
    10/22/23 Milwaukee, WI
  3. I’m Amazed
    My Morning Jacket
    10/20/23 New York, NY
  4. Evil Urges
    My Morning Jacket
    10/24/23 Boston, MA
  5. Todd’s Tots
    Spafford
    10/21/23 Bozeman, MT
  6. Kentucky Mandolin
    Kitchen Dwellers
    10/22/23 High Point, NC
  7. Captain America
    moe.
    10/21/23 Denver, CO
  8. The Great Abyss
    The Disco Biscuits
    10/24/23 South Burlington, VT

Weekly Live Stash Vol. LXXXI, October 20, 2023

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Billy Strings, Gov’t Mule, Pearl Jam and more. Paid nugs subscribers may be eligible for 4-months of SiriusXM Streaming, see your account page to take advantage of this offer. Offer Details apply. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app. The Phish track is only available in the LivePhish app.

  1. Us and Them
    Gov’t Mule
    10/14/23 St. Augustine, FL
  2. Seek and Destroy
    Metallica
    10/8/23 Indio, CA
  3. Meet Me at the Creek
    Billy Strings
    10/14/23 Independence, MO
  4. Jamflowman
    Twiddle
    10/7/23 Burlington, VT
  5. Porch
    Pearl Jam
    9/18/23 Austin, TX
  6. All Wheels Turnin’
    Eggy
    9/30/23 Denver, CO
  7. Sand
    Phish
    10/13/23 Chicago, IL

The White Stripes: Wellington and Osaka, 2003

Two exclusive archives from The White Stripes are now available for streaming in the nugs.net app, featuring performances from Wellington, New Zealand and Osaka, Japan. From long time White Stripes fan Mike on this month’s ‘Third Man Thursday’ releases:


After the success of the September US tour, the band were off to New Zealand, Australia, and Japan, repeating the journey of the “Three Island Tour” from 2000. With the excellent Melbourne, Australia show released back in March as part of Third Man Thursday, here are the closing shows from the other two “islands” to complete the trio.

Wellington may be the most relaxed show of the entire Elephant tour. There is a pacing and vibe to this show that sits in a comfortable sweet spot, with the band no doubt buzzing off of the performances the day before in Auckland, where they had performed at the Freemans Bay Primary School to a crowd of schoolchildren, and then delivered an excellent performance later that evening at the St James Theatre. There is just something to the Wellington show that makes it feel both unrushed, while yet still delivering all the right amount of energy.  You can hear it in the set, which has a great flow from start to finish. From the “Everybody well in Wellington?” greeting to the audience, to the relaxed version of “Look Me Over Closely”, to a flawless “Truth Doesn’t Make a Noise”, and Jack’s introduction to “We’re Going to Be Friends”, complete with the mid-song aside “This is the important part…we don’t notice any time pass” – an almost Freudian acknowledgement of the pace of this show.  Or how about the version of “You’re Pretty Good Looking”, which gets a nearly half-minute pause midway through for no apparent reason, before kicking back in with the “swing” version to finish the song off.  Instead of going into “Hello Operator” per the normal pairing, they instead throw in “When I Hear My Name”, featuring a cappella lines from “The Object of My Affection”, the first known appearance since the Bowery show in 2002, and the last known time they’d perform it.  Also unique at this show is that Jack stays on guitar for the last verses of “I’m Finding It Harder to be a Gentlemen”, instead of returning to the keyboards.  By the next performance of the song in Adelaide on 10/15, he’ll take advantage of that section to include an updated version of “Why Can’t You Be Nicer to Me.”  “Girl,You Have No Faith in Medicine” also gets a change from the typical delivery, starting with a low-key intro and gradually ramping up to the familiar frenzy. The encores further highlight the sense of balance at this show, with “Astro” and “Jack the Ripper” getting followed by another appearance of the “Joss Stone” slow version of “Fell In Love With A Girl” (that Stone album had only just been released a few weeks earlier).  The soloing in “Ball and Biscuit” similarly features excellent slow blues lines right alongside the guitar hero style runs with the whammy.  Closing out with “I’m going to Wellington” in “Seven Nation Army” and the line “We’re gonna be o-kay when this song is through…that is my promise to you!” in “Boll Weevil”, it’s a satisfying close to a laid-back show.    

LISTEN: The White Stripes live at Town Hall in Wellington, New Zealand

On the other side of the equator, Osaka is a confident power set to close out the Japan run.  While New Zealand and Australia largely went off without a hitch, Japan was not without a few challenges – likely owing to the near-constant jumping across timezones as they moved from city to city, and country to country.  Fast forward a bit and you’ll find this exchange from an interview the band gave on MuchMusic TV in Toronto on 11/13/03, looking back on this leg of the tour:

Jack: We just played Japan, Australia and New Zealand, and it was…I think we had 21 airplane rides in like 2 ½ weeks or something like that. That starts to get, you know…you start to get really messed up. Because you don’t know what time it is, you don’t know when you’re supposed to be asleep and when you’re supposed to be awake, and you’re just expected to play every night, you know? It’s very difficult to keep that up, you know?

Having kicked off the Japan tour with the pair of shows in Tokyo on 10/21 and 10/22, it would be the Nagoya show on 10/23 where fatigue would catch up with the band, with that show getting cut-short due to illness.  The band would quickly get back on their feet at Fukuoka 10/25 and Hiroshima 10/26, with the show in Osaka on 10/27 being the confident return-to-form to close out the tour.

For a band that never used a setlist, there’s an almost clinical precision to the setlist here. A proper kicking out of the jams, one after another.  From the rush of “Let’s Shake Hands” into “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground”, to that transition at the end of “I Think I Smell a Rat”, with the final chord hanging there for a second before slingshotting into “Black Math.” The set is loaded with tight run-throughs. “Love Sick”, “Death Letter” – “Grinning In Your Face”, “The Hardest Button to Button”, “We’re Going to Be Friends”, “Ball And Biscuit”. An almost “greatest hits” set for the Elephant tour right down to the closer of “Seven Nation Army” (“Boll Weevil” was skipped for the Japan tour, but would be played on the return visit in 2006).

LISTEN: The White Stripes live at Namba Hatch in Osaka, Japan

As if this wasn’t enough, what really puts Osaka into must-hear territory is that it features an ultra-rare performance of “Little Acorns”, the second of only two known performances.  The Adelaide show in Australia on 10/15 would be the first, but that show was sadly not captured by RADAR.  So, for “Little Acorns”, Osaka is it.  And while it’s a brief version, much like the debut of lines from “There’s No Home For You Here” at Los Angeles the previous month, there’s no doubt of the power the song had in a live setting.  A fitting surprise for the last night on the tour, like a bonus track on those Japan-only releases from back in the day.

While they were officially back to health by the time of the Osaka show, the relentless touring schedule would continue, almost comically so, with the band going from Japan to Brazil for a one-off show on 10/31, and then back to the US for the Voodoo Festival in New Orleans on 11/2, and then off to Scotland for the MTV Europe Awards on 11/6, before returning to the US to kickoff the next leg of the tour in Milwaukee on 11/10.  


Stream these two new shows, and all other exclusive archive releases from Third Man Records with a 7-day free trial. Explore The White Stripes catalog and start your free trial here.

Weekly Live Stash Vol. LXXX, October 13, 2023

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from My Morning Jacket, Goose, Billy Strings and more. Paid nugs subscribers may be eligible for 4-months of SiriusXM Streaming, see your account page to take advantage of this offer. Offer Details apply. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app. The Phish track is only available in the LivePhish app.

  1. Touch Me I’m Going To Scream Pt. 2
    My Morning Jacket
    8/19/23 Berkeley, CA
  2. Everything Must Go
    Goose
    10/6/23 Morrison, CO
  3. Haze
    moe.
    10/1/23 Des Moines, IA
  4. Stress Dreams
    Greensky Bluegrass
    10/8/23 Charleston, SC
  5. Island Afterlife
    Eggy
    9/29/23 Fort Collins, CO
  6. Hide And Seek
    Billy Strings
    10/8/23 Stateline, NV
  7. Ruby Waves
    Phish
    10/11/23 Dayton, OH

Weekly Live Stash Vol. LXXIX, October 6, 2023

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Billy & The Kids, Pearl Jam, Billy Strings, Goose, Gov’t Mule, Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros and more. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app.

  1. Foolish Heart
    Billy and The Kids
    8/16/23 Baltimore, MD
  2. Corrina
    Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros
    9/27/23 Philadelphia, PA
  3. I Asked For Water (She Gave Me Gasoline)
    Gov’t Mule
    10/1/23 North Charleston, SC
  4. Solid Ground
    Eggy
    9/23/23 Redmond, OR
  5. The Faker
    moe.
    9/23/23 Louisville, KY
  6. Wargasm
    Billy Strings
    10/1/23 Seattle, WA
  7. Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town
    Pearl Jam
    9/13/23 Fort Worth, TX
  8. Mr. Action
    Goose
    9/29/23 Santa Barbara, CA
  9. Ain’t That Wrong
    Spafford
    9/22/23 Athens, GA

Weekly Live Stash Vol. LXXVIII, September 29, 2023

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Pearl Jam, Goose, Widespread Panic, Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros, Khruangbin and more. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app.

  1. Faithfull
    Pearl Jam
    9/5/23 Chicago, IL
  2. I’m So Glad
    Widespread Panic
    9/16/23 Wilmington, NC
  3. Catfish John
    Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros
    9/20/23 Bridgeport, CT
  4. Salamander Song
    Spafford
    9/15/23 Milwaukee, WI
  5. Dance In The Desert
    Daniel Donato
    9/17/23 Asbury Park, NJ
  6. Codeine
    Trampled By Turtles
    8/7/23 Grand Rapids, MI
  7. Time Escaping
    Eggy
    9/17/23 Navarro, CA
  8. August Twelve
    Khruangbin
    5/7/22 Miami Beach, FL
  9. Dripfield
    Goose
    9/26/23 Oakland, CA

Weekly Live Stash Vol. LXXVII, September 22, 2023

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Pearl Jam, Eric Clapton, Goose, moe., Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros and more. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app.

  1. Have You Ever Loved A Woman
    Eric Clapton
    The Definitive 24 Nights
  2. Freeway Jam
    Gov’t Mule
    9/13/23 Toronto, ON
  3. Rebubula
    moe.
    9/17/23 East Aurora, NY
  4. Four
    moe.
    9/17/23 East Aurora, NY
  5. Rebubula
    moe.
    9/17/23 East Aurora, NY
  6. Playing in the Band
    Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros
    9/16/23 Mansfield, MA
  7. Rollover
    The String Cheese Incident
    9/16/23 Mansfield, MA
  8. Indifference
    Pearl Jam
    8/31/23 St. Paul, MN
  9. Have You Ever Loved A Woman
    Goose
    9/15/23 East Aurora, NY

The White Stripes Live at The Greek Theatre, September 13, 2003

An exclusive archive from The White Stripes are now available for streaming in the nugs.net app, featuring a performance from 2003 at The Greek Theatre in Berkeley, CA. From The White Stripes’ archivist Ben Blackwell on this month’s ‘Third Man Thursday’ release:

The return from the finger injury. While a shorter set overall (about 1 hour and 13 minutes from start to finish), there is excellent enthusiasm here, and even a few debuts as well. This is the first show to feature the “That’s what I’m gonna do” adlib in “Seven Nation Army”, the first to feature a quote from the song Evil by Howlin Wolf, and the first to feature a cover of “Man” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who would be joining the tour a few days later in Seattle on 9/16.  This show also features an acapella performance of the song “I Got Stripes” by Johnny Cash, who had passed away the day before, as the lead-in to “Death Letter.”  While it had only been 9 weeks since Jack’s finger was broken, the only real sign of the injury here is the abrupt aborting of “Offend In Every Way”, which itself isn’t all that unusual, as they were known to jump from one song to another all the time. While there’s no reason given for the pivot away from the song here, a week later in Las Vegas on 9/20 Jack would again abort the song, revealing the inability to play the D minor chord as the reason.  This would also explain why “Jolene” (which also relies on D minor) would be absent for most of the September tour, not returning to the set until San Diego on 9/25.  As the setlists would show, the September leg would be a progressive return to the stage, with each performance getting additional songs from the earlier Elephant live set added back in.

LISTEN: The White Stripes at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, CA, 9/13/2003

Having been off the road for 2 months, if there is any rustiness here it’s mainly heard in some of the missed lyrics throughout the set, as opposed to anything instrumental or anything in the vocals. Jack hits all the right notes here, just misses a lyric here and there and adlibs through it where needed. The pivot away from “Offend In Every Way” results in a similarly abbreviated quote from “Isis”, which stops after a few rushed/hybrid verses, including the rarely performed verse 7 (“Pyramids embedded in ice”).  In the encores, Jack starts “Truth Doesn’t Make a Noise” on the keyboards, similar to the versions from Pomona/Chicago/Detroit Jun-Aug 2002, where he starts on the Rhodes and goes to the guitar midway through. Here, he does a verse, but then goes silent while he continues on the keys before finding his way back into the next verse.  But while the finger may have been injured and some of the lyrics missed, his vocals and the energy are in great form here. A highlight at this show is the run starting with “Cannon”, which goes through the usual “John the Revelator” interlude and ends on the familiar last line of “Evil!” before going into an unheard riff where he debuts lines from the song Evil by Howlin Wolf.  So, the word “Evil!” sets up the song “Evil.” Nice. This then segues into “Cool Drink Of Water Blues” (another Howlin’ Wolf quote) and transitions seamlessly into an excellent “Ball and Biscuit”, which features soloing played as effortlessly as any version you’d have heard pre-injury.  A few songs later and that “Offend”/”Isis” attempt gets more than made up for by Jack launching into “Let’s Shake Hands”, which includes the debut of the YYYs “Man” and a unique version of “Pick a Bale of Cotton”, with Jack doing what can be described as a low-end “burp” sound into the mic as a counterpoint on the lines “Me and *burp* pick a bale of cotton”, before some nice whammy soloing to close out the song and the main set.  The encores kick off with “Seven Nation Army”, featuring the first appearance of the “that’s what I’m gonna do” adlib. While the band had been off the road, the popularity of the song had of course continued to rise, with the Berkeley crowd heard going nuts in the background the moment the first note is played. While “Little Room”/”Union Forever” are a familiar duo here – “Little Room” gets a heavy delivery here and “Union” gets a clean intro – a flip-flop of the way the songs were usually paired up, with “Little Room” typically serving as the quieter set up for a bombastic entrance into “Union.” And “Truth Doesn’t Make a Noise” is a nice addition to the set, even with the missed lyrics, being the first performance since 2002. All tied up with a sincere shoutout to San Francisco as “the first city to like us” setting up “Boll Weevil” to close out the show.

A great start to the September leg, likely played short to make sure they didn’t overdo it on the first night back.  Even though the finger may have still been injured, the vocals and energy were in great shape, and the band would be quick to ramp back up.  

Hotel Yorba, I Think I Smell a Rat, Screwdriver, Love Sick, I Fought Piranhas, Astro, Jack the Ripper, I’m Finding It Harder To Be A Gentleman, St James Infirmary, Lord Send Me An Angel, and Hello Operator would all return to the set for the next performance on 9/15 in Vancouver. 

Little Bird, Let’s Build a Home, Goin’ Back to Memphis, Fell In Love With a Girl, Lafayette Blues, and Sugar Never Tasted So Good would be added at Seattle 9/16.  

Wasting My Time, Look Me Over Closely, Take A Whiff On Me and Small Faces would signal the “return to normal” at Portland 9/17, along with Motherless Children at Denver 9/19, setting up the Las Vegas and Los Angeles shows.  

The return of Jolene and Same Boy You’ve Always Known at San Diego on 9/25 would complete the recovery, and with a closeout show in Mesa on 9/26, they’d be off to New Zealand and Australia, where the setlists would be taken a few steps further.


Stream this new show, and all other exclusive archive releases from Third Man Records with a 7-day free trial. Explore The White Stripes catalog and start your free trial here.

Weekly Live Stash Vol. LXXVI, September 15, 2023

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Goose, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Umphrey’s McGee and more. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app. The Trey Anastasio track is only available in the LivePhish app.

  1. Jive II
    Goose
    9/13/23 Boston, MA
  2. Salt Lake City
    Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros
    9/8/23 Park City, UT
  3. The River
    King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
    6/11/23 Chicago, IL
  4. Stop That Train
    The String Cheese Incident (w/ Lukas Nelson)
    9/9/23 Charlotte, NC
  5. Not Fade Away
    Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros (w/ Lukas Nelson)
    9/10/23 Franklin, TN
  6. The Ocean>No Quarter
    Umphrey’s McGee
    9/10/23 Indianapolis, IN
  7. First Tube
    Trey Anastasio & Classic TAB
    9/10/23 Indianapolis, IN

Weekly Live Stash Vol. LXXV, September 8, 2023

Every Friday at 5 pm ET, nugs.net founder Brad Serling hosts “The Weekly Live Stash” on nugs.net radio, nugs.net radio – SiriusXM channel 716. Tune in to hear his selections of the best new live music, and check out this week’s playlist below featuring professionally mixed recordings from Jimmy Buffet, moe., Greensky Bluegrass, Billy Strings and more. Subscribers can stream this week’s tracks from the #WeeklyLiveStash, only in the mobile app. The Phish track is only available in the LivePhish app.

  1. A Pirate Looks At Forty
    Jimmy Buffett
    6/26/92 Noblesville, IN
  2. Silver Sun
    moe.
    9/3/23 Lake George, NY
  3. The Curse of Julia Brown
    Big Something
    8/12/23 Wilmington, NC
  4. Can You Get To That
    Kitchen Dwellers
    9/2/23 Manteno, IL
  5. Can’t Stop Now
    Greensky Bluegrass
    9/2/23 Mill Spring, NC
  6. Heartbeat Of America
    Billy Strings
    8/26/23 Huntsville, AL
  7. Salamander Song
    Spafford
    8/30/23 Avon, CO
  8. Piper
    Phish
    9/3/23 Denver, CO