‘No Nukes’ footage bypasses Springsteen’s aversion to film

If there’s one thing Bruce Springsteen’s fans can find fault with in their hero, it’s his early aversion to film cameras.

Because of that, there is very little onscreen documentation of Springsteen onstage in the mid- to late-1970s, when the power and majesty of the E Street Band combined with youthful exuberance for some truly epic concert experiences. Without a ticket and a good memory, they passed you by.

That makes this week’s release of a 90-minute film that shows them performing at the “No Nukes” benefit concerts in September 1979 significant for fans and music historians. It’s found money.

Before a friendly crowd at New York’s Madison Square Garden, Springsteen and his gang of Jersey toughs crackle with pent-up energy. They’d been off the road in 1979, recording “The River,” and are thrilled to be before an audience again. Their typical four-hour show was condensed into 90 minutes. Sharing a bill with artists like Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, and Bonnie Raitt, they burned to show peers what they could do.

Little wonder, then, to see them burst onto the stage with a roaring version of “Prove it All Night.” That’s exactly what they intended to do.

When filmmaker Thom Zimny first reviewed the footage, it was without sound, and he could still tell something special was happening.

“You see them explode onscreen,” he said. “The sheer force of E Street at this point was amazing to see.”

A couple of Springsteen’s performances appeared on the “No Nukes” documentary and album. Mostly, the footage remained locked away in a vault until Zimny was given access.

He turned it into the film that is being released now partly as a pandemic project.

“It was something that I did because I missed the band so much,” Zimny said.

Greg Allen / Associated Press Despite Bruce Springsteen’s longtime aversion to having his concerts filmed, a new DVD offers a relatively rare look at him and his E Street Band during a peak period in the late 1970s.