BEHIND THE BLOOD BROTHERS (a.k.a. TRAMPS)                21/02/1995

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
Venue: Various

Location: New York City, USA

Nº DVDs: 1

Menu: NO

Chapters: incremental

Video: proshot

Audio: soundboard

 

SET LIST

DVD 1

1- Murder Incorporated (Band Rehearsal)

2- This Hard Land (Band Rehearsal)

3- Prove It All Night (Band Rehearsal)

4- Cadillac Ranch (Band Rehearsal)

5- Murder Incorporated (Patti/Nils Harmony Rehearsal)

6- You Can Look… (Backstage Acoustic Rehearsal)

7- Two Hearts (Backstage Acoustic Rehearsal)

8- Bobby Jean (Backstage Acoustic Rehearsal)

9- Spirit in the Night (Backstage Acoustic Rehearsal)

10- The Promised Land (Backstage Acoustic Rehearsal)

11- Ramrod (Backstage Acoustic Rehearsal)

12- Murder Incorporated

13- Bobby Jean

14- Murder Incorporated

DVD 2

1- Murder Incorporated

2- Cadillac Ranch

3- Two Hearts

4- Murder Incorporated

5- Murder Incorporated (B&W)

6- Badlands

7- Ramrod

8- Thunder Road

9- Backstreets

10- Little Latin Lupe Loop

BONUS TRACKS

11- Murder Incorporated (Sony Studios)

12- This Hard Land (Sony Studios)

13- Secret Garden (Sony Studios)

14- Streets of Philadelphia (Sony Studios)

15- Two Hearts (Sony Studios)

16- Thunder Road (Sony Studios)

COMMENTS

When Bruce and the E Street Band reunited in 1995 to go back in the recording studio and shoot a promo video for the 'Greatest Hits' album, film maker Ernie Fritz was there to capture the event for posterity. Some of his film was seen in the 80 minute documentary 'Blood Brothers', but raw footage of the 'Murder Incorporated' promo shoot at Tramps in New York has finally escaped the clutches of the Ãœbertraders and made its way into general circulation. It has been released on DVD 'silvers' under the title 'Behind the Blood Brothers'. The two DVD set combines Fritz's candid backstage footage with outtakes from Jonathan Demme's promo shoot to provide complete coverage of the day at Tramps. We get to see the band's on-stage afternoon rehearsals, backstage acoustic rehearsals, makeup sessions, chats with fans inside and outside the club and even Clarence doing the Striptease in his dressing room! Several run-throughs of 'Murder Incorporated' for the promo video are included, together with parts of the concert that followed. There are also scenes of the backstage self-congratulation after the show and an interview with Demme. Finally, there are some transitional shots of the Tramps sign and the view out of an aircraft window.

The set contains some wonderful moments, ranging from the intimate backstage renditions of songs like 'You Can Look', Bruce talking to a fan about his guitar with great pride, through to the spirited show finale of 'Little Latin Lupe Loop'. However, it should be understood that this is a copy of the unedited raw film and has been assembled in an extremely rough fashion. It consists of a series of relatively short single camera clips, ranging from just a few seconds to a couple of minutes in length. Consequently, virtually all of the performances are incomplete. There are lots of technical problems throughout, including tape speedup, freeze frames, blank screens and audio drop-out. Thankfully though, these glitches are largely confined to the beginning or end of the various clips. The audio is also very uneven, with Bruce's vocal often back in the mix. Despite the problems, this is clearly a very low generation source and so the picture quality is extremely good.

The DVDs have been created using a standalone recorder and so there is no authoring or indexing. Disc 1 of the version shown here has also been duplicated a second time on a standalone recorder, resulting in double menus, a loss of picture quality and a minor offset in the audio/video sync. Disc 2 has been padded out with the TV broadcast version of the April'95 Sony Studios show in excellent quality.

'Behind the Blood Brothers' (a.k.a. 'Tramps'95) offers a fascinating glimpse of a landmark event in Bruceâ's career. It forms an essential part of any self-respecting Springsteen DVD collection.

SNAPSHOTS