Like last May, another Nugs archival-series release from the FIRST "Land of Hope and Dreams" tour...
- Letters To You
- 1 hour ago
- 2 min read
March 9, 2026
By this time next month, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's Land of Hope & Dreams American Tour is expected to be in full swing, with three shows under its belt already. Therefore, last Friday's archival Nugs live-recording release is probably the last "First Friday" release we'll see in the series for at least a couple of months. It's fitting, then, that just as was the case with the last monthly release in the series before last year's European version of The Land of Hope & Dreams Tour launched, the Nugs archival series has issued another show from the tour on which Springsteen fans all over the world first got to hear the song from which each Land of Hope & Dreams Tour has derived its name.
Madison Square Garden, New York 06/22/2000 is the third Nugs archival live recording to be derived from the ten-nights-in-The-Big-Apple stand that closed the 1999-2000 Reunion Tour. Coincidentally connecting to the anticipated political themes of the upcoming Land of Hope & Dreams American Tour, this great show opened with the debut performance of "Another Thin Line," the strongly politically-themed song that Bruce co-wrote with Joe Grushecky. Like the studio version that finally saw the light of day on last year's Tracks II: The Lost Albums, this version features the same scorching guitar lines which were performed by Tom Morello on the studio version. Of course, with three adept lead-guitar players onstage for The Reunion Tour, Morello's absence here isn't felt at all. Meanwhile, Clarence Clemons' and Danny Federici's cases serve as the exact opposite of Morello's; both Big Man and The Phantom can be heard performing solos on this debut live version, but neither of those late, great musicians are featured on the studio version released last year. Clarence delivers a sax-solo part that doesn't exist at all on the Tracks II version, and Danny's organ solo is given a different, much more prominent spot than the organ parts played by Ron Aniello and Bruce Springsteen on the studio version. Both versions still close with the same guitar-part that interpolates the familiar riff from "Then (S)he Kissed Me." (The live version opens with it, too.)
Other highlights of this show included the only Reunion Tour performance of the rarely performed "Secret Garden," Soozie Tyrell's stellar-as-expected guest spots on "Youngstown" and the Reunion Tour's final performance of "The Ghost Of Tom Joad," final Reunion-Tour appearances of "Something In The Night," "Incident On 57th Street," and "Sherry Darling" (which also marked the only performance of that song in 2000.) "Light Of Day" included a bit of "I've Been Everywhere," and Max Weinberg's daughter (and now PBS journalist) Ali Rogin joined Roy Bittan and Danny Federici on the keys for "Ramrod".