" Asbury Park Holiday Show "
Again, our sincere thanks to estjukes@aol.com for posting his review in Candysroom. He attended three of the shows and has been kind enough to share his comments here!
Subject: 12/8 Holiday Show
From: estjukes@aol.com (ESTJUKES)
Date: 12/09/2001 2:20 AM
Holy cow!!! (or can we say sh*t here?) What an amazing concert. Nearly 3.5 hours of solid music. I'm still shaking my head at what I saw... purely amazing. Unfortunately Roy and Steve were not there again.
When the choir came out to open the show (like they did on Thursday) I said to myself "my prediction came true - the shows I'm at someone else opens or he opens with a cover, the nights I'm not there he plays the originals and set myself up for disappointment. Man was I wrong.
The gospel choir did tremendous versions of He's Got the Whole World in His Hands and Everything's Going to be Allright. Bruce was getting into the second song, pumping his fist in the air to Max's drumming and grinning.
After the choir left the stage, the horns steppedto Clarence's mike and played DECK THE HALLS (sort of like they did with Jingle Bells last year)... after that many noticed Bruce at the piano and only Soozie with the fiddle, Patti and Lisa on stage. When Bruce started the opening notes the place errupted when they realized it was INCIDENT ON 57th STREET and I nearly died, thinking I had missed my only chance to see it in this arrangement.
I was stunned.. it was so beautiful. Bruce playing by himself, the crowd joining in on the "good night it's allright Jane" lines, and then Patti, Soozi and Lisa joining in on those lines. Unlike the Main Point '75 version, Soozie didn't fiddle at the start. Only some fiddling near the end as sort of an outtro before Bruce played the closing piano notes that set up rosalita on the album.
Then it was time for JINGLE BELL ROCK. ..... after Jingle Bell Rock Bruce said "We've got a big, big, big, big, show tonight. Hope your legs hold out and that you don't have to go home early." and then turned things over to the Max Weinberg 7 for their nightly jam/rave-up.
Then Jimmy Vivino did most of the lead vocals on CHRISTMAS DAY before Bruce came out halfwaythrough to trade guitar licks and vocals. Before the next song, Bruce said "Good evening, we're going to have some fun tonight, but there's one ground rule - No 'Bruuuucing' during anybody's set or else I'll have to kill ya or give you your money back for having a short attention span and Southside Johnny hates when that happens" and that lead into THUNDERCRACK.
In addition to his nightly dedication to Dominic, he added a quick dedication to everyone at The Saint, T-Birds and (another bar I didn't catch the name of ) for continuing to bring great original music to Asbury Park and then launched into a wild and loose version of SEASIDE BAR SONG (side note: after the show I asked one of the roadies on stage for a copy of the setlist and he gives me a paper showing who has what harmonies on this song plus when to do them and when to do the oooos and when to do the whoaaas.. for the curious Patti gets the high harmony, Lisa the mid harmony and Sooz the low harmony)
Then it was time to "introduce my lovely wife" and Patti played LOVE (STAND UP) and SPANISH DANCER with Nils filling in for the absent Bobby Bandiera. Bruce brought out Garland Jeffries next and the crowd gave him a slightly warmer reception than past nights and he and Bruce did what I'll call the "reader's digest" version of the "I met my wife at the Pony 21 years ago" act (by that I mean they condensed it greatly).. and Garland did the best versions yet of his two songs - WELCOME TO THE WORLD and NEW YORK SKYLINE..Garland was once again backed by the "Alliance Singers"
After Garland left Bruce said"This next fellow tore the place up last night and got dozens of phone calls about it, including one from Middlesex County Playgirl, so he can have a new career. But you're going to get Double Bruced again" and with that Bruce Hornsby came out. Hornsby played a 3-4 SONG CHRISTMAS MEDLEY ON THE PIANO... singing bits of songs I didn't recognize inbetween instrumental versions of The Christmas Song, a song I'm not sure of, and Jingle Bells.
After that Bruce Hornsby said "We're going to do something completely different, by my good friend from Texas, Don Henley" and started to play THE END OF THE INNOCENCE... The two Bruces traded vocals on verses and harmonized on the choruses..Clarence also took a small sax part or two.
Then Bruce S. talked about how there's something sexy about a tall man wearing an accordian and they played the Hot Chocolate song YOU SEXY THING. The way Bruce S. was doing his goofy dance and clowning around on this while doing some rave-up lead vocals you could tell he was having a blast... the Alliance Singers and Garland Jeffries provided some backing vocals on this number as well.
After Bruce Hornsby left the stage, ourBruce said "Good news, Elvis is in the building, come on up.." and with that Elvis Costello comes on stage with an acoustic guitar. He plays a great version of ALISON with Bruce joining in doing harmony vocals on the chorus and at the end they went right into a portion of Smokey Robinson's TRACKS OF MY TEARS before seguing back into a reprise of ALLISON. Simply amazing to see Bruce and Elvis together.
After Elvis left the stage it was Southside's turn and they blasted through THIS TIME IT'S FOR REAL, LOVE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF TOWN (intro'd by Southside as a Steve Van Zandt song written about Asbury Park), and IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME (Bruce dedicated it to Steve "we miss you man").
"Now it's time for my good friend, Nils Lofgren" and Bruce gave a plug to Nils' new disc. Nils came out and said "maybe I should make Bruce my new manager" and then played SHINE SILENTLY. Then he thanked Bruce for inviting him to play at the shows and opted to play a song he "found inspirtational that doesn't get played often enough" and dueted with Bruce on a rock version of IF I SHOULD FALL BEHIND (identical to the one played Thrusday and presumably Friday).
Then it was time for all the E Streeters in attendance to come out on stage and join in a wild version of MERRY CHRISTMAS BABY.. during the final two "Merry Christmas Baby" lines Bruce changed them to "Happy Hannukah" and "Happy Holidays". and closed by saying "here comes Santa Claus"
After getting his guitar while the horns "tuned up" it was time for "conductor" Bruce to use his pencil and lead the horns into the E STREET SHUFFLE, including the MOVE ON UP portion on the end, which was followed by an insane version of KITTY'S BACK, featuring some of the wildest guitar work I've seen Bruce do on it.
At this point it was time to "introduce the ghost of Christmas past, Jon Landau on guitar" before playing CHRISTMAS (BABY PLEASE COME HOME) which featured the "Alliance Singers" and Elvis Costello on backing vocals.
To open the encores Bruce thanked everyone for coming down to the shows and supporting the businesses in Asbury, talked about the night's two charties and named a ton of business downtown including Michael's Deli ("If I did endorsements, I'd endorse Michael's Deli, great sandwiches") and the pawn shop ("It's like viagra, you hope you don't need it, but it's there if you do").. and his speech led into THE most powerful version of MY CITY OF RUINS I've ever heard.
Since Bobby Bandiera wasn't there, Bruce turned things over to Nils Lofgren to do the other half of the prayer for the city and Nils did a beautiful solo acoustic HERE COMES THE SUN that the majority of the crowd was singing along with.
"Now it's time to bring out a great, great man Southside Johnny!!" and they launched into a great version of I DON'T WANT TO GO HOME. that Bruce simply nailed and that Southside messed with the words to like he does at his own shows. After Southside left the stage Bruce said "Only in..." and held the mike to the crowd to finish the line, for which the crowd shouted "Asbury Park" and Bruce launched into a wild and loose version of ROSALITA, at one point forgetting what point of the song he was at... after he finished he said "That does feel good"Christmas, 2000
Then the stage was overrun with kids (elementary school age) in pajamas, women in santa-style skirts, including his mom and his aunt, a snowman, Santa himself, and the list goes on and on.. every musician was on stage as well.. Bruce Hornsby on accordian, plus Southside, Elvis, Garland and the Alliance Singers on vocals for the choruses. During the course of the song Bruce introduced every musician and singer on stage.
I'm still blown away by this show...hopefully the discs do it justice and that I don't come out too loud on the recording of the taper who was standing in front of me.
Joe
2001 Asbury Holiday Shows
