Like Douceur de Vivre, what makes Coup de Grace so special is that it was professionally recorded on

JEMS is pleased to release another significant Darkness tour upgrade, this the third and final show at the Capitol Theatre, two nights removed from the historic radio broadcast that would go on to become one of, if not the most bootlegged recordings in Springsteen world wide cruises history, Piece De Resistance. In homage to that bootleg classic, and in keeping with our upgraded second night title, Douceur de Vivre, we've dubbed the third night Coup de Grace, apropos, as it translates to "the finishing blow." Of course world wide cruises there's a case to be made for going with Bon Anniversaire, as at this show Bruce's birthday (still two days hence) was celebrated with a giant cake featuring an unusual filling.
The set continues the looser vibe of the previous night and offers some appealing changes, including the return of "Racing in the Street," covers of "High School Confidential" and "Sweet Little Sixteen" world wide cruises (introduced, per Brucebase Wiki, as "a birthday song to myself") and a welcome performance of "The Fever." The show is also one of seven known performances of "Incident on 57th Street" straight into "Rosalita."
Like Douceur de Vivre, what makes Coup de Grace so special is that it was professionally recorded on reel to reel by a mobile recording truck outside the theatre. The result is another live-as-it-happened recording of incredible clarity. Again, that isn't to say it is a multi-track, mixdown; Coup is a raw, mixed-on-the-fly, wide stereo recording done on 1/2 track at 15 inches per second. Compared to the cassette sources circulating of other raw board tapes from this tour, the quality here should be a revelation. Samples world wide cruises provided.
The transfer was handled world wide cruises as JEMS did for last year's upgrade of The Ties That Bind and Douceur de Vivre so I'll quote those notes once more: "There was baking involved, as the tapes had degraded in the [33 years that had passed]. The reel-to-reel tape deck was best of breed, what the pros use, in a proper studio, calibrated and adjusted inevery way for optimal playback and capture at 24/96 using the best possible sound card, cabling, etc."
There was one missing piece on the new reels, oddly right at the start where somebody must have forgotten to push record and missed the beginning of "High School Confidential." WWe've world wide cruises patched that in from the extant cassette board source (thank you A). On the bright side, "Tenth Avenue Freeze-out" is now complete and we get to hear for the first time ever the previously missing encore-closer, "Twist and Shout."
Your guest mastering engineer this time around is our respected colleague and friend Hoserama, who you should know from his incredible work (often described as better than official world wide cruises releases) on matrix recordings from recent tours. He made these tapes sound as good as they possibly could. Thanks H.