For TV Band, Jet-Lag Is Part Of The Job

The New York TimesYou can get a Juke out of New Jersey, but you can’t get New Jersey out of a Juke! It’s been proved again! The New York Times features Max Weinberg and the Tonight Show Band on it’s TV Feature:

When Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at the Izod Center in the New Jersey Meadowlands on May 21, there was one musician conspicuously absent: Max Weinberg, the group’s drummer for more than three decades.

As Mr. Springsteen tore into his opening number, “Badlands,” Mr. Weinberg was on another stage 3,000 miles away, pounding his drum kit through a dress rehearsal of “The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien,” in advance of its debut last Monday on NBC.The following night Mr. Weinberg boarded a red eye for the East Coast so he could rejoin his E Street band mates, however temporarily, for the second show of that New Jersey stand, which fell on a rare night off from his new duties.

For Mr. Weinberg and the seven other East Coast musicians who have relocated to California along with Mr. O’Brien — including all the founding members of the Max Weinberg 7, the house band on Mr. O’Brien’s “Late Night” for 16 years — the turnover in hosts (and bands) on “Tonight” has proved to be both exhilarating and disruptive.

Visit the NYT to read the full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/06/arts/television/06max.html?_r=1

A Bar Band takes it to the road

The New York TimesTHE NEW YORK TIMES – BY E.KYLE MINOR – JUNE 18, 2000

NEW JERSEY’S most famous R & B band, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, has been conspicuously missing from the concert stage for over two years. In typical blue-collar fashion, Southside Johnny Lyon had no euphemistic excuse for his band’s absence.

“It wasn’t fun anymore,” said Mr. Lyon, 51, from his home not in New Jersey but in Nashville. “I’m not a schmoozer, I didn’t feel up to the business part of it. Besides, I don’t think I was any good the last couple of years.” While he was at it, he dispelled rumors of throat problems, which may have arisen because he failed to complete a performance during his last tour.

That was then. Today Mr. Lyon and his Jukes are touring full force, making three appearances in Connecticut, starting with a 6:30 p.m. concert Thursday on the Fleet Stage in Stamford. The show is part of the International Festival of Arts and Ideas. The band next performs on July 7 at City Center Danbury, then the following day at Taste of Enfield.

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