Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
Uptown Theatre
Chicago, Illinois
October 11, 1980

01 Prove It All Night
02 Badlands
03 Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
04 For You
05 Darkness On The Edge Of Town
06 Wreck On The Highway
07 Factory
08 Jackson Cage
09 Out In The Street
10 The Promised Land
11 The River
12 Racing In The Street
13 Thunder Road
14 Jungleland
15 Good Rockiní Tonight
16 Cadillac Ranch
17 Fire
18 Sherry Darling
19 Here She Comes > I Wanna Marry You
20 The Ties That Bind
21 Point Blank
22 Crush On You
23 Ramrod
24 You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)
25 Because The Night
26 Stolen Car
27 Backstreets
28 Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
29 Born To Run
30 Detroit Medley
31 Raise Your Hand

(1st Generation via the DS Archives)
Transfer: 1st Generation Tape > Nakamichi DR-1 (azimuth adjusted) > MacBook Pro > Audacity > Peak Pro XT (volume smoothing / tweak / edit / index) > xACT 2.21 > FLAC

From the original uploader:
This is the first in a series of potential upgrades from longtime taper/trader, Dan Scripsema. First, a little history behind Dan and his archives, Dan began taping & trading in the mid 1970ís after noticing a taper at a Bob Seger show in 1976. He decided heíd purchase a deck himself and give it a go but the cheap deck he bought at the time did not give him the desired results. So, in 1978 , he upgraded to an Aiwa deck with an external mic which improved his quality, however, this rig was short lived after being caught in Kalamazoo, MI and the deck was damaged in the ensuing, as Dan describes it ìconfrontationî. Around this same time he began making contact with other traders and amassing a collection.

In 1979 he invested in a Sony D5 with a shotgun mic but with Bruce off the road at that time it wasnít until 1980 he was really able to put the new rig to use. It was during this time that he and some of his fellow trading buddies organized a national tape traders directory, he obtained vital information from fellow tapers/traders, categorized it and an early version of the tape traders tree was born. This set the group up for the early October start of the River tour. As the River tour took off, Dan covered most of the shows within driving distance of his home in West Michigan. The band of tapers which included such legendary tapers well known here, think Persic, Kivak, JEMS, etc., continued into the summer of 1981.

Before the Detroit shows in July of 1981 there was a gathering of the group at Danís house. From a personal aspect this was a very important gathering for Dan, the group bussed down to Detroit for the shows and it was on this bus trip that Dan met his wife of 33 years. Incidentally, Danís friend and fellow taper Lou Hill met his future wife on this same bus trip.

The collaboration continued for the Born In The USA Tour but as Tunnel Of Love hit the stores the responsibilities of family and fatherhood took over so everything was packed up and put away.

We fast forward to 2005 with things unchanged until a water pipe burst in Danís basement and much of his collection was lost. Luckily for us though, most of the Bruce archives were stored separately and survived.

That brings us to the second night in Chicago 1980, having to miss the first night due to work responsibilities a friend in Chicago hooked him up with tickets for the second night. He decided due to the venue size, not knowing where his seats were located and the fact he already had a friend taping that he would not be taping this show. The friend taping is the source of this 1st generation tape.

The two sold out October Chicago shows in the 4800 seat Uptown Theatre were part of a handful of early River tour theatre shows. These two shows prompted the addition of an arena show on November 20th due to the large number of fans who werenít able to get in to either show.

The early River shows donít seem to suffer from the same sound issues as the early Darkness shows, Clair Brothers Audio didnít appear to have any problems going from arenas to theatres and the sound is dialed in pretty quickly on this night, being the second night in the same venue couldnít have hurt either.
The show itself follows the basic set list for the first leg of the tour and is heavy in River material, the LP having just been released the day before. One slight addition to this show was an early set tour debut of ëFor Youí followed by a songs of despair mini set of ëDarkness On The Edge Of Towní, ëWreck On The Highwayí and ëFactoryí. Two nights later ëWreck On The Highwayí would be moved to its’ permanent place in the second set. Another tour premiere opens the second set in the high energy ëGood Rockiní Tonightí. Any personal recollections of the show have faded with the years.

Not only is this a nice material upgrade in sound, though far from perfect and should not be considered a top tier River show quality wise, but the between song edits found on the circulating versions are completely in tack here making for a much more pleasant and accurate listening experience. This in combination with the theatre setting gives this one a real ìyou are thereî feel absent from the previous releases of this show. The richness of Bruceís vocals comes through nicely, particularly on the slower songs. Samples provided.

At this point there are a handful of people we need to give some thanks to for helping to bring this show to you. First, earlmv for making the initial contact with Dan through Jungleland in regards to this specific show, earlmv put the word out that Dan wanted to get his archives into general circulation but someone was needed in the states to cut down on the cost. Next, oats1jvo picked up the ball with a follow up contact with Dan on how the best way to proceed would be. Oats1jvo put Dan and I in contact with each other and we are off and running. As with all my non JEMS postings, a huge thanks to E from JEMS for the lending of his backup DR-1 so more shows can continue to get into circulation.

And lastly, the biggest thanks to Dan for hanging onto his archives for all those years and his generosity in wanting to share it with us all. Please show your appreciation to all these folks in your comments.

Iím not sure whatís in store down the road but this is a worthy addition and upgrade to Bruceís River Tour legacy.