On the Road//3 minute read
Asbury Park Press
The legend of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at Sea Hear Now in Asbury Park is growing.
It's a Top 5 moment.
“We just played on the beach in Asbury Park, one of our Top 5 shows of all time,” said Bruce Springsteen last month on the UK's Greatest Hits Radio about the E Street Band's Sept. 15 Sea Hear Now headlining set.
The Boss echoed the sentiment on the Oct. 23 broadcast of Howard Stern's radio show.
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The three hour-plus performance rocked, enchanted and transfixed the 35,000 who were on the beach, and those who were in the boats off-shore in a choppy Atlantic ocean. The show has grown in stature in the last two months.
The magnitude of the moment was not lost to new band members on stage that night.
“Playing the beach was a sea of people next to the sea of the ocean,” said E Street trombonist Ozzie Melendez. “Amazing. We rehearsed, we did a lot more tunes than normal. It was nothing but making the people happy — that’s where he’s from so you got to make it special.”
It was a setlist tailored for Asbury Park, heavy on early classics presented with short bios of where and how they were created.
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“I wrote this a long time ago about 500 yards north of here in Loch Arbour,” said Springsteen of “Blinded by the Light.”
“I wrote this when I was 20 in a surfboard factory in Wanamassa,” said Springsteen of the ultra-rare oldie “Thundercrack.”
“4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” was dedicated to late band member Danny Federici. The Boss amplified the famous line about Madam Marie. Her granddaughters are still telling fortunes in the Temple of Knowledge, which is about 500 yards south on the boardwalk from the stage where Springsteen was singing.
They were listening to the show, which was heard clearly down on the boardwalk from the North Beach as the doors of Convention Hall were opened to let the sound flow freely into the night when the E Street Band took the stage.
The setlist told an Asbury Park story. There was the wild abandonment of youth in the early rockers and ballads like “Racing in the Street”; the Springsteen profile in the area as reflected by the self-deprecating “Local Hero”; the tragic allure of big city lights in “Meeting Across the River” and “Jungleland”; and “Born to Run,” a rock ’n’ roll rapture written about life on the Circuit, a former car loop steps away from the festival's Surf Stage where E Street played.
“Feeling the love from the audience,” said percussionist Anthony Almonte. “It was a completely different show.”
Sea Hear Now was founded in 2018 by locals Danny Clinch, a noted Springsteen photographer, and Tim Donnelly with HM Wollman and Tim Sweetwood. Springsteen, though he made a surprise appearance in 2018 with Social Distortion, did not want to headline the fest in the early years, as he feared he would turn the burgeoning festival into an E Street Band show.
Since then, Sea Hear Now has presented Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Dave Matthews Band, Smashing Pumpkins, Stevie Nicks, Green Day and more to bolster its rising profile.
“If this were in year one or two, I think it would have completely been a Bruce Springsteen show,” said Sweetwood on the eve of this year's Sea Hear Now. “But now we’re lucky enough to say it’s the Sea Hear Now headlined by the legendary act Bruce Springsteen because the festival’s been around so long and been established.”
Springsteen and E Street were all in. Bassist Garry Tallent, a native of Neptune City, wore a tie for the occasion, and Springsteen discussed with Clinch the idea of bringing the whole E Street Band to the Stone Pony on Saturday for a festival after-party show there. The band didn't make it, but the Boss played for half an hour with the Tangiers Blues Band, Robert Randolph, E Streeter Jake Clemons and more.
Before Sunday's headlining performance, Springsteen jumped on stage with Gaslight Anthem and the Trey Anastasio Band. After the show, Springsteen hit a party at the Wonder Bar on Sunday night.
“He comes strolling in like fresh as a daisy,” said Clinch at his Transparent Clinch Galley in Asbury Park on Nov. 18, talking about the legendary performance. “The guy is 75 years old. He just wore everybody out.”
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Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. Contact him at [email protected]