This latest Nugs/Live Archive "First Friday" drop is definitely MUCH more than "good enough" for us!

December 6, 2025

Yesterday's "First Friday" release from the monthly Nugs/Live Archive series is another great show from The Wrecking Ball Tour: HK Areena, Turku, FIN - May 8, 2013. It's one of the best examples of how varied and full of surprises the shows on that tour could be, with Bruce Springsteen & the (newly expanded) E Street Band taking on nightly sign-requests and major setlist changes. Most important, they did all of that while maintaining their well-known musical excellence, consistently delivering excellent, moving, and powerful shows that continued to connect and resonate with their international, multi-generational audiences.

Among Turku 2013 Night 2's highlights: the only live performance to date of "Wages of Sin," the rarely performed "I'll Work For Your Love" in a solo-acoustic version to open the night, followed by "Long Walk Home" as the evening's first full-band performance (a rare placement of that song so early in the set,) a Greetings... two-fer with "Blinded by the Light" and "Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?" back-to-back, the debut addition of a bit of Huey "Piano" Smith & The Clowns' great "Don't You Just Know It" to "Open All Night," Everett Bradley's outro percussion work adding some unique flavor to a beautiful ten-minutes-plus version of "Racing in the Street," and as if all of that weren't "good enough," one of only five public performances to date of "Ain't Good Enough for You," the fun Darkness... outtake that also would later provide the musical bedrock for the Springsteen-written Gary "U.S." Bonds hit "This Little Girl:"

Click here to order/stream HK Areena, Turku, FIN - May 8, 2013. While there, also be sure to click the "SHOW MORE" button where it reads, "Show Notes," to read Columbia/Nugs archivist Erik Flannigan's essay on this recording, entitled "I’ve Tried So Hard, So Hard In Every Way." It's insightful and informative, despite a misleading implication that The Wrecking Ball Tour was the first Springsteen/E Street Band tour without the late, great "Phantom" Dan Federici present onstage. (That actually was The Working On A Dream Tour.)

And here's hoping that the long-standing tradition of TWO new Nugs/Live Archive releases in December will continue this year. We'll just have to wait and see what the Fates will allow, as we draw closer to Christmas...