A True American Rock Hero
by: peter naldrett - uk correspondent

A true American rock hero, Bruce Springsteen rarely releases new material these days but has a great catalogue of past material to fall back on. His reputation in the US is huge, and while the fan club members over here may have dived since his peak of success in the mid 80s, there will be plenty of fans wanting to get their hands on the new double CD live recording that has just been released.

Together with the E Street Band, Springsteen is captured performing to a sell out audience at Madison Square Gardens on the world tour from 2000. Far from a greatest hits live recording for Springsteen (There is no "Philadelphia" or "Born To Run," for example), there are plenty of songs to recognise with "The River," "American Skin (41 Shots)," "Badlands" and an acoustic "Born in the USA."

A true performer of the kind rarely coming onto the scene these days, Springsteen gets involved in the concert with gusto, handing out a strong and memorable performance to his fans at the venue and those listening at home. And as a perfect complement to him, The E Street Band are in fine form, making this as strong an album musically as lyrically.

In all, there are 20 songs to be enjoyed here, on a CD that is being released to coincide with a TV broadcast of the concert in the US, a concert from New York that will be aired in the UK later on in the year.

Although suffering from the roughness that most live albums do compared to studio releases, this is still a good CD that will add to the collection of Springfield fans, with 14 of the songs being the first ever release of the live performance.