March 8, 2025
The recently resumed Springsteen/Nugs "First Friday" series continues with yesterday's release of Omaha, NE Nov 15, 2012. As was the case last month, this month's official concert recording drops with no official press release or social-media announcements from Springsteen's own camp. (Last month's First Friday release didn't get any kind of acknowledgment from "Bruce, Inc." until the month was almost over, on February 25.) Very odd.
Speaking of odd, the November 15, 2012 Wrecking Ball Tour show featured one of the tour's most unique setlists, during which Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band ended up performing six of the ten tracks from Nebraska throughout the evening. (A seventh Nebraska song, "My Father's House," was rehearsed during soundcheck but didn't make the cut for the show itself.) The night included a rare performance of the album's side-one closer, "State Trooper," in its last public performance to date:
Presumably this was a specially designed setlist for the band's only 2012 gig in Nebraska at what was then known as the Centurylink Center (now known as CHI Health Center Omaha.) But just to keep the oddness going, the show didn't include a performance of Nebraska's title track, which is the only song on the album that's actually set specifically in "The Cornhusker State."
Another emotional highlight of the evening: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's first public performance of "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town" without Clarence Clemons onstage with them. And as usual, Nugs utilizes the sonic expertise of mixers/masterers Jon Altschiller, Danielle Warman, et. al. to allow us lucky listeners to experience house-engineer John Cooper's complete professional recording of this show in the best possible sound quality.
Click here to order/stream Omaha, NE Nov 15, 2012. You also may want to consider Nugs' current streaming-subscription promotion, especially now that monthly First Friday releases have resumed and regular releases of shows from the 2025 Springsteen tour are on the horizon. For $14.99 before taxes, which is the price of purchasing a single mp3 in the monthly Springsteen/Nugs archival-releases series, you can get access to a month of streaming everything available in the Nugs audio archives, not just all of Springsteen's recordings but everything from all other artists associated with Nugs: The Grateful Dead, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Phish, The Rolling Stones, Santana, Umphrey's McGee, Jack White/The White Stripes, etc. Not bad for $14.99/mo (plus any applicable taxes.) Click here for details.