Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen & Tangiers Blues Band at Asbury Lanes - 6/18/18 (photo via Liz Leavitt)

watch Bruce Springsteen play Asbury Lanes' re-opening party

Asbury Lanes has been Bossified.

Bruce Springsteen joined the Tangiers Blues Band for four raucous blues and rock classics at the Lanes’ reopening party Monday, June 18, in Asbury Park.

Starting with “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu,” Springsteen and the band had the crowd at the new Lanes twisting and shouting — especially when they played a set-closing “Twist and Shout.”

The guys also played “I Just Want to Make Love to You” and “Down the Road Apiece.”

“This goes out to all the folks from the old Asbury Lanes,” said Springsteen before playing “Down the Road Apiece.” [Asbury Park Press]

After closing for renovations in 2015, Asbury Park music venue Asbury Lanes is now reopened and booked by Bowery Presents. They had a soft reopening last month, and a few proper shows have taken place, but the official reopening party was last night (6/18) with none other than hometown hero Bruce Springsteen. He was a special guest with opening band Tangiers Blues Band, and as the review quoted above points out, he played four songs with them. Here’s a quote he said on stage, from that same Asbury Park Press article:

Good evening, welcome to Asbury Park. Welcome to the Asbury Lanes. Back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, I’m speaking as an old home boy tonight, we didn’t know if we’d ever see Asbury come back in our lifetimes, so it’s been a joy watching what’s been happening in town in the past 10, 15, 20 years. And a shout out to all the people who were here when nobody else was. All the people on Cookman (Avenue), the gay LGBTQ community … Jay and his gang.

I walk down the boardwalk and I feel like the ghost of Christmas past. But that’s OK because it’s fun to watch Asbury and its future unfold in front of me.

You can watch an archived stream of Bruce’s full performance here and you can also watch a bunch of videos below.

The headliners for the night were Portugal. The Man, who reportedly faced some technical difficulties at first, and who later on brought out Tangiers Blues Band harmonica player (and famed NJ rock photographer) Danny Clinch to jam during “Holy Roller (Hallelujah).” Questlove also DJed at the adjacent Asbury Hotel in conjunction with the show at the Lanes.

Meanwhile, Bruce is doing his Springsteen on Broadway run through December 15.

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