You And Me And Lady Luck (Godfatherecords G.R. 889/890/891)
AWD-Arena, Hanover, Germany – 28 May, 2013
Disc 1: Intro, Land Of Hope And Dreams, No Surrender, We Take Care Of Our Own, Wrecking Ball, My Love Will Not Let You Down, Death To My Hometown, Hungry Heart, Spirit In the Night, Drift Away, The E Street Shuffle
Disc 2: Atlantic City, Jack Of All Trades, The River, Because The Night, Murder Incorporated, The River, Johnny 99, Open All Night[/Chicken Shack Boogie/Don’t You Just Know It], Shackled And Drawn, Waitin’ On A Sunny Day
Disc 3: Radio Nowhere, The Rising, Badlands, Light Of Day[/Land Of A Thousand Dances], Roll Of The Dice, Born in The U.S.A., Born To Run, Seven Nights To Rock, Dancing In The Dark, Tenth-Avenue Freeze-Out, American Land
You And Me And Lady Luck brings us a recording of Springsteen’s first show at the AWD-Arena in Hanover, since renamed the HDI-Arena and the home of football club Hannover 96. The “30-song set opens,” as Brucebase tells us, “with the 400th live performance of ‘Land Of Hope And Dreams,'” which culminates with the customary snippet of People Get Ready. This is followed by the anthemic No Surrender, and two songs from Wrecking Ball, We Take Care Of Our Own and the title track. A third, Death To My Hometown, follows a vibrant rendition of My Love Will Not Let You Down, played in response to a sign request. Hungry Heart affords the audience its customary early-song vocal slot and then comes a version of Spirit In the Night which Ralf Dissman, writing on the Backstreets website, rightly reckons to be, “one of the loosest and wildest I’ve seen.”
An unexpected high point of the show was a performance of Dobie Gray’s 1973 hit, Drift Away. The song receives its second performance of the tour, the first having been in Foxboro, MA and it had only been played on two previous occasions, both in 1984. It is played in response to a sign reading, “I would give my right testicle to hear Drift Away.” Dissmann writes that:
“Bruce mentioned that he wants him to keep both of them but will try it anyway. He started it by himself on an acoustic guitar, with the singers joining him for the chorus and the band joining in only at the end. A great version – one of the many highlights on a dry but overcast evening in an almost sold-out stadium.”
He then sums up the next few songs as follows:
“After a joyful ‘E Street Shuffle,’ a beautiful version of ‘The River’ was highlighted by exceptionally good falsetto singing. ‘Atlantic City’ was the first of three Nebraska songs, followed by the next request sign: it is rare that songs from the new album are requested, but Bruce granted one for ‘Jack of All Trades.’
‘Because the Night’ was simply amazing and pushed the energy level very high. Nils had already done a great solo, with his trademark spins, when Bruce offered him another one after the final chorus so that he could also play with his teeth. From here on, the E Street Band was firing on all cylinders, and they found some extra turbo-charged power. ‘Murder Incorporated’ rocked hard and finished with the guitar duel between Bruce and Steve; ‘Johnny 99’ kept things rocking until ‘Open All Night’ would have blown the roof of the building, had there been one.”
Shackled And Drawn and Waitin’ On A Sunny Day contain their usual vocal slots for, respectively, Cindy Mizelle and a child plucked form the audience and then Radio Nowhere, The Rising and Badlands lead to set closer, Light Of Day, complete with the “na, na, na” hook lifted from Land Of A Thousand Dances.
The encore begins with the tour premiere of Roll Of The Dice, from the Human Touch album, from which this release draws its title. The song was last performed in Hollywood, FL on 19 November 2005. However, here we are able to experience the first-ever solo acoustic guitar rendition of the song, played in response to two sign requests. The remainder of the show entered more obvious encore territory, providing what Liselotte Schüren, writing on Springsteen’s official website, calls “a rollercoaster ride,” and it is described by Dissmann as follows:
“‘Born in the U.S.A.’ started the non-stop homerun finale, which included a very intense ‘Seven Nights to Rock’ with a trumpet solo by Barry Danielian as well as Bruce playing piano with his nose, via light slaps from Roy on the back of Bruce’s head. For ‘Dancing in the Dark,’ there was one audience member to dance with Bruce on stage, and another to play acoustic guitar.”
This is a very fine show which has an enjoyable setlist including three songs from Nebraska and an usually high seven from Wrecking Ball (if you include American Land from the expanded edition of the album). Dissmann states that, “we got 30 songs from 11 different studio albums (or 16, counting live albums and compilations as well).” Mando, posting on the Stone Pony London message board, considers it:
“one of the best setlists on this leg so far…with a perfect balance of tour staples, crowd pleasers, WB songs and a couple of rare songs. This to me is what helps make a Springsteen show special – a setlist that should please the cross section of concert attendees from casual goers to the obsessed and which has a degree of unpredictability.”
Fellow poster frisia2010 agrees, arguing that, “Hannover had an amazing setlist.” Doubtless this helped to make the show, in Dissmann’s estimation, “perhaps the best E Street Band concert ever in Germany.”
Overall, I was extremely impressed with the full, clear and dynamic sound of You And Me And Lady Luck, though there are some fluctuations in the level and quality of the sound. On the Jungleland website hobbes4444 refers to the source as, “an audience [recording], and a good one,” olli66 notes that, “dynamics are intact,” KeVnWo reveals that, “I really like this recording a lot,” and BlueHusky77 writes, “wow, excellent sound.” The discs are housed in the label’s customary and attractive tri-fold sleeve, adorned with a variety of onstage photographs of Springsteen and the band. There is also a very nice eight-page booklet with further photos and an account of the show credited to Franky Williams. This is another fine release from Godfather and it is well worth acquiring.
