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Moira's Collection

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band   03/11/2003

Blue Cross Arena, Rochester, NY
Source Format: NTSC Video: Stage Audio: Dubbed
Media DVD   2 discs
Notes Blue Cross Boss
By the time the ?Rising? tour hit Rochester, Bruce was really starting to mix up the set list. This terrific show was full of surprises, with ?No Surrender? as the opener, ?Blinded By the Light? and ?Nothing Man? in the main set and ?Fire? by request in the encores. Patti Scialfa was out sick for the second night in a row (so Bruce smooches with her mike stand instead during ?Mary?s Place?).
The superb ?Blue Cross Boss? from Cheesesteak Productions takes the previously circulated video of the show as its source. The majority is stage shot, although it switches to the screen for ?Empty Sky? and most of the final encore.

The most striking thing about the footage is the location of the filmer. He/she is at the back of the arena and so is able to get a great head-on shot of the stage. The zoom is used for some good close-ups without any apparent loss of picture definition. In fact, the image is razor sharp with great colour balance. The show is nicely filmed from a tripod with steady pans to the appropriate band members during their solos. There is a regular stream of bodies passing across the field of view, but they appear as a brief flicker and are only a minor distraction. The audio, while not outstanding, is good enough to compliment the superb video. Most importantly, there are no synchronisation problems like those present on the previous dubbed version.

Disc 2 starts with a nice slide show of still pictures of the city and the band over the intro to ?Backstreets? (there is no image on the source video at this point). Hidden away as a Bonus Feature at the end of Disc 2 are four and a half minutes of multi-cam pro shot footage from the beginning of the show. We get the band?s stage entrance, together with incomplete clips of ?The Rising? and ?Lonesome Day?. This was presumably filmed for local TV news coverage and quality is close to perfect.

The disc menus stay with the ?Blue Cross? theme, with the Song Selection sub-menus cleverly mimicking a medical bill. Artwork isn?t normally discussed here, but an exception is required in this case. The DVD cover design by Gchord is simply stunning.

If you have the previous DVD from the show then this is definitely a worthwhile upgrade. If you don?t, then this should be high on your ?Wants? list.
Trades Allowed Yes   Traded from: mezorn/silviovanzandt/BTX
Owned by Moira · Last Updated May 23, 2023