JOHN CAVANAUGH
From left, James Maddock, Jake Thistle, Vini Lopez, Gordon Brown, Pat Roddy and Pat Guadagno perform at The Pollak Theatre at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, Sept. 3.
“If it wasn’t for this record,” said Gordon Brown of Williams Honor at The Pollak Theatre at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, Sept. 3, regarding Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run album, “who knows if we’d all be here or not.”
As I took it, he didn’t mean that he didn’t know if this event — titled “Born to Run: A Jersey Shore Celebration Concert” — would be happening. Of course it wouldn’t be happening: Its main purpose was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the release of the album, on Aug. 25, 1975. Brown meant that he didn’t know if the Jersey Shore rock scene would now exist, as it does in its present form. And it’s a valid point.
JOHN CAVANAUGH
From left, Gordon Brown, Reagan Richards, James Maddock, Vini Lopez and Pat Guadagno at The Pollak Theatre.
The reasons for that — and plenty of other things related to Born to Run — will be explored in a symposium on the album, and an academic conference, that The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music will present at Monmouth University on Sept. 6 and Sept. 7, respectively. But this show — just added recently to what basically amounts to a week-long Born to Run festival at Monmouth U. — was about music, not discussion.
The basic idea was for current members of the Shore music scene to play the songs from Born to Run. But as Archives curator Melissa Ziobro noted between songs, since Born to Run is only 40 minutes or so, it had to be more than just that. Ziobro said they considered talking about each song, but instead decided to ask each artist to do one more number, apiece.
It was a good decision, expanding what the concert was all about. And it’s not like organizers had to worry about anything overshadowing Born to Run. That’s just not possible.
The Pat Roddy Band served as house band, with Brown playing guitar with them and helping to organize everything. But the show started with a duo, singer-guitarist Pat Guadagno and percussionist Richard Blackwell (who contributed to Springsteen’s The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle album); they played a graceful version of one of the many Born to Run masterpieces, “Thunder Road,” and then Guadagno’s own nostalgic, Jersey Shore-themed “That Summer Night.”
Jake Thistle — possibly the only member of the show’s lineup who was not alive when Born to Run was released — brought some appropriate youthful exuberance to “Night.” James Maddock did a good job delving into the dark mystery of “Backstreets,” as did Williams Honor’s Reagan Richards, with the raw passion of “She’s the One.”
But the show’s biggest surprise came when original E Street Band drummer Vini Lopez took the stage for a half-spoken interpretation of “Meeting Across the River.” He almost seemed more like an actor reciting a monologue, than a singer, but it was very dramatic, and it worked. (Lopez didn’t play drums at this show, and while his former E Street Band rhythm section partner, Garry Tallent, was in the audience, Tallent didn’t perform at all.)
JOHN CAVANAUGH
Vini Lopez at The Pollak Theatre.
Lopez than sang Warren Zevon’s haunting “Keep Me in Your Heart,” adding a verse to pay tribute to the late E Street Band members Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici, and to Zevon himself (who wrote and recorded the song after being diagnosed with inoperable cancer).
After singing Zevon’s reference to death as “a train leavin’ nightly,” Lopez added a new verse:
My friends Danny Federici and Clarence Clemons left on that train
So keep them in your heart for a while.
The fellow that wrote this song, he left on that train too
So keep him in your heart for a while.
Tackling the epic “Jungleland” is a daunting task for any band, but The Pat Roddy Band, with Roddy on commanding lead vocals and saxophonist Dan Hutchinson nailing the solo, handled it well. (Hutchinson also earned MVP honors for not just playing Clemons’ parts on this and other songs, but switching to trumpet to play that instrument’s crucial, atmospheric part on “Meeting Across the River,” and reproducing the introductory violin part on “Jungleland” via a wind synthesizer).
The show was capped with loose, joyous, all-hands-on-deck versions of “Tenth Avenue Freeze-out” and “Born to Run” (the setlist did not stick to the Born to Run running order, so that these songs could come last), and then an encore of the non-Born to Run Springsteen classic, “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight).”
Lead vocalists changed from verse to verse on these three songs. On “Tenth Avenue Freeze-out,” for instance, it was Roddy first, then Lopez, then Thistle. And for the record, Lopez took the “Someday we’ll look back on this, and it will all seem funny” line, on “Rosalita.”
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In his brief remarks before the concert began, Springsteen Archives executive director Bob Santelli made a bit of news. “We have recently signed a deal with Rutgers University Press, so we will now be publishing books, not only on Bruce, but on American music in general,” he said. One of the books that will be coming out, he added, will be a collection of the best papers to be presented at the Sept. 7 academic conference on Born to Run.
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JOHN CAVANAUGH
From left, Dan Hutchinson, Pat Guadagno and Gordon Brown at The Pollak Theatre.
Here is the show’s setlist (Born to Run songs are in bold), with some videos, and a photo gallery under it.
“Thunder Road,” Pat Guadagno and Richard Blackwell
“That Summer Night,” Pat Guadagno and Richard Blackwell
“Night,” Jake Thistle with The Pat Roddy Band and Gordon Brown
“The City Whispers,” Jake Thistle with The Pat Roddy Band and Gordon Brown
“Backstreets,” James Maddock with The Pat Roddy Band and Gordon Brown
“Runaway,” James Maddock with Williams Honor and Jake Thistle
“She’s the One,” Williams Honor with The Pat Roddy Band
“Send It to Me” Williams Honor with Jake Thistle
“Meeting Across the River,” Vini Lopez with members of The Pat Roddy Band
“Keep Me in Your Heart,” Vini Lopez with Pat Guadagno, James Maddock, Jake Thistle, Gordon Brown and members of The Pat Roddy Band
“Jungleland,” The Pat Roddy Band
“American Irishman (for Joe Finn),” The Pat Roddy Band
“Tenth Avenue Freeze-out,” Ensemble
“Born to Run,” Ensemble
Encore:
“Rosalita (Come Out Tonight),” Ensemble
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Here is a gallery of photos from the event, taken by John Cavanaugh:
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