Or: The band who played one song the whole show

Before the Bruce show marathon starts in September I was invited to see one of his fellow musicians friends, Southside Johnny, at the NYBC Theatre at Westbury. According to other distances in the US,  the NYBC at Westbury is a stones throw away from Capitol Manor. Built in 1966, the tent-like venue has room for approximately 3.000 spectators and follows the concept “theatre in the round”. Like the Velodrom in Berlin the stage is on the ground of the tent and the seats are around the stage. It’s an interesting concept, but yesterday during the Sothside Johnny show, the stage was divided in half by a curtain. Nevertheless the show, the audience, and the performance was awesome. It felt as if the band was playing in my living room. A very private atmosphere.

SSJ & The Asbury Jukes played a lot of old and great songs.  “Love on the Wrong Side of Town“, “I Don’t Want to go Home“, a very intensive “The Fever” (written by Bruce Springsteen), “Talk to me” (also written by Bruce) … are just a few highlights to be named. Unfortunately we sorely missed “Heart of Stone” and “Havin’ a Party“. Again. Geez … it’s hard to be a fan of such good music and not miss some old songs we grow up with.

The most interesting part of the whole evening was the announcement of an intermission. Intermission? Was he so old he needed an intermission? I mean he’s just a few years older than me, and that’s nothing. All wrong … the intermission was the end of the SSJ show and after a short pause Little Feat entered the stage. Little Feat. Never heard? Me neither. It was a mix of rhythm & blues with some Grateful Dead based rock parts mixed in and every song took at least 10-15 minutes. No joke. Later I read that the founder of the band, Lowell George, was a member of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invasion, some (many) years ago when I was much much younger. Good ol’ times. Ah, ok, stay focused. The story tells us that Frank Zappa fired Lowell George from his band because he played a 15 minute guitar solo. It seems that Lowell George and Little Feat still stick to 15 minute guitar solos. Again and nevertheless a good show with an awesome horn part at the second part of the one and a half hour song. I will not become a die-hard fan of Little Feat but overall the show was good.