Springsteen's London Calling: Live in Hyde Park DVD out Tues

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band headlined the Hard Rock Calling Festival last June in Hyde Park, London, a festival which also included Dave Matthews and Gaslight Anthem. Springsteen's set was recorded and come Tuesday, it comes out on DVD titled London Calling: Live in Hyde Park. Bonus tracks include "The River," from the Glastonbury Festival performance that same year, and "Wrecking Ball," from the last show at Giant's Stadium in October.

A really cool part of the show was when Bruce called fellow New Jerseyite, Brian Fallon, lead singer of Gaslight Anthem, out to sing "No Surrender" with him and the band. The obviously genuine excitement on Fallon's face is goosebump-inducing for sure. Says Fallon about it, "...he [Springsteen] asked me if I wanted to sing with him during their set. I was just like, “Yeah!” We did “No Surrender.” The second day, he came out and did “The ’59 Sound” with us, and I did “No Surrender” again. It was unreal. I was in front of a hundred thousand people. It’s so weird, because you look and you see nothing but dots. I looked around and was like, “I can’t believe this is happening.”



Give a Listen: London Calling-Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band (Hyde Park, 4-28-09)/Buy London Calling-Live in Hyde Park DVD, out 6/21

From Me to You: The Hold Steady "Positive Rage" DVD/CD Giveaway

Recently the nice people at Vagrant Records sent me a copy of A Positive Rage, the new Hold Steady live CD/DVD from the "Boys and Girls in America" tour that comes out tomorrow. And I love it but I've decided to give it to one of my fair readers instead.

Call it paying back karma if you will...a very sweet woman I talked with for about 20 seconds on the plane to SXSW this year was the only reason I made it into the Rachel Ray day party (she and her friend gave me and my friend her badges as they left). The Rachel Ray day party is where I got to see and photograph The Hold Steady at a ridiculously close range (I was catching the sweat of bassist Galen Polivka. Bad thing? Hell no, I mean, have you seen the man? :)) And that ridiculously close range is what garnered me some of the best photographs I think I've ever taken.

I'll go more into the details of this show and the other show I saw/shot them at, the Quack Media day party at Red 7 with my forthcoming SXSW wrap ups, but the long and short of it? I see a lot of music, and saw a lot by this point since arriving in Austin. But The Hold Steady live reminded me that seeing music live can be, and should be, a joyous event. And that's a feeling I think you'll get with this DVD. "Rock and roll salvation coming to a city near you," indeed.

Contest
If you'd like to win this DVD, send us an email (here) and we'll pick one entry at random. Deadline will be this Friday, April 10...call it a celebration of the last fasting day of Lent (woot!)

"A Positive Rage" trailer