Live in Barcelona

1. 01[program start]0
2. 01Night0
3. 02Ramrod0
4. 02The Rising0
5. 03Born to Run0
6. 03Lonesome Day0
7. 04Prove It All Night0
8. 0

Live in Barcelona appeared in 2003, the latest in a body of Bruce Springsteen official concert and video releases, and even this nonfanatical Springsteen listener has to concede the sheer, raw power and seductiveness of the show at hand. From the opening bars of "The Rising," this is an amazingly powerful -- indeed, almost overpowering -- performance across all 180 minutes of screen time, and that's saying a lot for a rock performer in his fourth decade; once in a while you get a guy like, say, Bo Diddley, who was doing amazing shows in the 1980s, but many rock stars get by on style more than energy -- not here, though; watching Live in Barcelona, and adding the absorption of Springsteen's energy output to one's own appreciation of the songs and overall performance, it's possible to feel out-of-breath sitting at home, so intense is the experience. One of the big surprises from the very start of the two-disc set is the volume level at which the audio is set -- it's good and high, so that the roar of the crowd and the sound of the band when they launch into, say, "Born to Run," is rafter-shaking. The performance is perhaps the best ever captured on video of this artist, among lots of…