Review by BARRY LEVINE
Asbury Park, N.J. — Madam Marie, the boardwalk fortune teller whom Bruce Springsteen immortalized in his 1973 hit “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy),” is long gone from this once crime-ridden oceanfront carnival town. Marie Castello died at age 93 in 2008.
She had once recalled meeting a then 17-year-old Springsteen back in the mid-1960s, wanting his fortune told. “‘All I got is 50 cents,’” she remembered him telling her. “I told him, ‘You don’t have to give me your 50 cents,’” adding that she advised him to continue with his love of music.
So as I excitedly walked the weathered boards en route to the entrance of the “Sea. Hear. Now.” music festival Sept. 15, I was thrilled to learn that Marie’s granddaughters were keeping her spirit alive, still telling fortunes inside her little concrete Temple of Knowledge and Psychic Booth.
It was wonderful to be back with the memories of my youth “down at the Jersey shore,” as they say if you grew up like me in the Philadelphia area. And for Bruce, who closed out the festival, in front of 35,000 of us Springsteen diehards, lining both the beach and boardwalk, the three hours-plus trip he took us on down memory lane was indeed epic; not only for us, but most certainly for him, a week before his 75th birthday.
“Greetings, Asbury Park!” were his first words to us and we couldn’t have been more thrilled. On a stage set up only 500 yards south from Marie’s old storefront, Bruce closed out (what is for now) his final U.S. concert of this long tour, which began in 2023, following a six-year hiatus, and was interrupted by his treatment for peptic ulcer disease along with the illness of E Street band members due to COVID.
Bruce, born some six miles away in Long Branch, always considered Asbury Park to be his spiritual home and anointed it as such in his first album. And he has been called its global ambassador for the shore town’s renaissance over these last 25 years.
But Bruce and the E Street Band hadn’t performed here together since 2010, and that was a small invite-only show, so this reunion was long overdue. Hence, as an inside joke, many of the locals here were sporting t-shirts that read: “Bruce might show up.”
For this special night, Bruce was decked out in a vest, dress shirt and tie. And in the first third of the show, he threw out his standard setlist and dug deep into his E Street songbook.
After opening with “Lonesome Day” from 2002’s The Rising, we were treated to “Blinded by the Light” and “Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?” — both tour debuts and songs he hadn’t performed since 2017. He then added “Growin’ Up,” a third consecutive song from the Greetings album. Introducing “Blinded,” he told us: “I wrote this a long time ago about 500 yards north of here on Loch Arbour beach. We haven’t played it in a long fuckin’ time. We got a lot of stuff we haven’t played in a long fuckin’ time for you tonight. Let’s see how we do.”
A few songs later, he set up his rarely-performed “Thundercrack,” which clocked in at eight minutes long, by pointing out, “I wrote this when I was 20 in a surfboard factory in Wanamassa,” a town a few minutes away. It was only the third time he’s played it since 2013.
Bruce kind of seemed amazed, again and again, telling us that he’s lived long enough to see his old adopted town come full circle.
“There I was, driving down Kingsley, streets were empty, buildings were empty, nobody on Ocean Avenue, nobody anywhere,” he remembered. “And then, I fell into a dreamy sleep, and when I woke up, I said, ‘Where did all these fucking people come from?’”
He was having such a good time. During “Spirit in the Night,” he commanded us to “wolf howl” at the moon! And there was more humor when he introduced “Local Hero,” telling a story about once seeing some black velvet paintings in a five-and-dime store window from his hometown of Freehold, a half an hour away.
Bruce said: “I look in the window and I see this black velvet painting of a Doberman Pinscher; and I look on the other side, and I see a black velvet painting of Bruce Lee. And I look in the middle, and I see a black velvet painting of myself. And I went home and wrote this song.”
It was only his fourth performance since 1993 of the Lucky Town deep track. On this night, what made the oldies even more special was the fact that the band’s horn and choir sections coalesced into E Street’s core sound. In addition to vets Max Weinberg (drums), Steven Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren (guitars), Garry Tallent (bass), Roy Bittan (keyboard) and Jake Clemons (saxophone), this tour has had the additional talents of Charlie Gioradano (keyboard), Soozie Tyrell (fiddle and vocals), Curt Ramm and Barry Danielian (trumpets), Eddie Manion (sax), Ozzie Melendez (trombone) — and Anthony Almonte, Curtis King, Michelle Moore, Lisa Lowell and Ada Dyer (choir). But even with the additional help, the original E-Streeters shined: Max during “She’s the One”; Nils’ solo on “Because the Night”; and Roy on “82nd Street” and “Racing in the Street.”
The night continued to ramp up the emotions of not only his fans, but of Bruce, too. Playing “Sandy” for the first time in concert since 2016, Bruce dedicated it to longtime organist Danny Federici, who died in 2008. (According to Rolling Stone, Bruce recalled during his funeral eulogy for Danny how the two would “revisit the (Asbury) boardwalk of our youth during the summer nights when we’d walk along the boards with all the time in the world.”)
In another heartfelt moment, Bruce brought up his “beautiful wife” and band member Patti Scialfa for a surprise duet on “Tougher Than the Rest” from 1987’s Tunnel of Love. This was her first appearance since the recent announcement that she had secretly been battling multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, since 2018.
After sharing the microphone and swaying together to the song, the couple lovingly embraced in a tender moment. Bruce began his encore with “Meeting Across the River,” the seventh track on 1975’s Born to Run.
This was another tour debut which hadn’t been performed since 2016. And as it has been in the past, it was paired with a rare performance of “Jungleland,” the closing track on Born. It seemed only fitting to see Jake’s “Jungleland” sax solo take place in Asbury Park because the very last time his uncle Clarence had performed with Bruce was a year prior to his 2011 death at age 69, and that intimate performance was just down the boardwalk in front of 60 fans at the Carousel House for “Songs from the Promise” video. I also loved Bruce’s rousing rendition of “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” following a “Born to Run.”
And there was no better way for Bruce than to end the night with a fitting fan favorite, a cover of Tom Waits’ “Jersey Girl,” which he first released in 1984 as the B-side to the single “Cover Me.” Before beginning his encore, Bruce once again dredged up old memories of Asbury Park. “I feel fucking old tonight, in a good way,” he said. “I never thought I’d live to see this sight in my lifetime. The band, we were here on that little street corner when nobody was here, and I didn’t know when I’d see folks in this good town again.”
And before ending his 30-song marathon, Bruce added: “I just want to take a moment to thank all the people who have invested themselves to bring Asbury Park back to life. “On the East Side, on the West Side — I want to thank the LGBTQ plus community for all they did for Asbury Park for the last 25 years. Danny Clinch, I want to thank you for this wonderful event, and most of all I want to thank all of you for being here tonight. God bless Asbury Park,” he added.
Somewhere, Madam Marie was smiling.
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FESTIVAL NOTES: Earlier in the day before his show, Bruce took the stage to support two other acts. With Trey Anastasio’s band he performed “Kitty’s Back” for the Phish star. After Bruce left his stage, Trey said: “I never thought I’d have to follow Bruce Springsteen on a beach in Asbury Park.”
Bruce also joined Jersey alt-rockers Gaslight Anthem for the songs “History Books” and “American Slang.”… In addition, Bruce made a surprise appearance the night before his show at the Stone Pony to perform with Tangiers Blues Band, festival founder Danny Clinch (a photographer who had shot many Bruce album covers) and Jake Clemons.
Among the tunes Bruce did was Little Richard’s “Lucille.”… The festival featured two dozen acts over two days, including first-night headliner Noah Kahan, who was nominated last year for Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards. His young fans sang to “Dial Drunk,” “Everywhere, Everything” and “Northern Attitude.”…Kool & The Gang and their “Celebration” are still going strong since being founded in 1964, and they will be inducted into the Rock Hall Oct. 19. Said keyboardist Curtis Williams: “We just love to do the thing and do it with all the party and funk and fun and joy.”… Rap-rockers 311 performed “All Mixed Up” and “Come Original” among others.
Listen to the Best of Bruce Springsteen here:
