The calendar read April 1st … and it certainly seemed that Mother Nature was having the most fun of all on April Fool’s Day. Waking to a mix of rain and snow Friday morning, the only thing brightening the day was the knowledge that come nightfall, I would be traipsing out to (almost) Philadelphia to see Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes.
Content in that knowledge, the day flew by and I skipped (ok … well, not literally) onto the bus and headed to Collingswood, New Jersey. It was the first show in what seemed like forever, though in actuality, it had only been a little over a month since the Wellmont Theatre concert. We Jukesfans are a demanding and spoiled lot. *smile*
I had never been to this venue, but have been to several Masonic Temples over the years as a childhood friend was a member of a Bethel of Job’s Daughters (an organization connected to the Freemasons.) I always loved going to those ceremonies because they are so mystical … of course that led me to think … yay!! the Jukes just HAVE to do “Into the Mystic” (ummm…they did not, by the way.)
Being that it is called the SCOTTISH Rite Auditorium, Jeff Kazee took pleasure in proclaiming how happy was to be “home amongst his people” (what did he call himself in his blog? Oh, right … an Ohioan of Kentuckian of Scots Irish descent. LOL) Cracked me up when he started riffing on everything from Miranda Rights (how does he know those so well?) to the Freemasons to the Illuminati. Okay … does anyone else automatically think of “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” and “National Treasure” when you hear the words Freemason and Illuminati? Or is it just me?
Anyhoo, I was grateful to have nabbed two of the hard-to-get pit tickets for this show for me and my Jukesnewbie friend … and I was happy they were considerably less than pit tickets for that other band I adore so much. Oyy! How great to see so many familiar faces in the front … oh! and at the Collingswood Diner before the show, too! Haha. Jukesfans had certainly descended on South Jersey in force!
The show itself was amazing. Southside was hysterically funny the whole night, improvising even more lines of lyric than usual (including a whole verse of Tango Till They’re Sore.) His ability to string together words the way he does never ceases to amaze me. I wish I had the kind of memory that could capture all that stuff as there have been some simply brilliant moments over the years. Personnel wise, Tony Tino was filling in for John Conte on bass and did a fabulous job. His introduction by Johnny was priceless … calling him to the mic to say hello to the audience, Tony comes up and waves shyly and Johnny says “God, he just talks so much!” Poor guy! And it was great to have Billy Walton back and jamming and flipping his guitar pick.
There were so many great musical moments – the blasting horns on Tango, Chris Anderson’s gorgeous solo on Harbour, Kazee on a whole slew on songs (the Bach intro to Heartache, vocals on the 2nd verse of Girl, “the Fever solo”) and a fantastic cover of Something You Got. But in my opinion, the highlight of the evening was the almost acoustic version of Hearts of Stone. The video of this is already making the rounds so definitely check it out. I have now converted it to mp3 and it’s in heavy rotation on my iPod.
In closing, I would say the show was EXACTLY what you’d expect from a Jukes show … a musical journey filled with laughs, sighs and a whole lotta great songs (ok…maybe not all 40 songs I had requested, but still … LOL)
So, until next time. Keep rocking!
