ASBURYJUKES.NET – BY SILVIA STEINER – MAY 3, 1999

It’s 8 PM and we’re standing at the bar in the New Morning Club in Paris, a small Jazz Club fitting not more than 500 people. That’s exactly the atmosphere we were expecting for this SSJ acoustic tour. While waiting for the show, Southside Johnny just walks through the club followed a few minutes later by Bobby and Kevin. Unbelievable, they can just walk through the crowed (‘¦well at that time not many people were there yet’¦), but still, it feels like you want to start talking to them.

At 8:40 SSJ, Bobby, Kevin and Rick are coming on stage. The audience is still a little reserved, but this will hopefully change during the concert. Before the first song, Johnny reminds us: ‘˜As you know, this tour is strictly acoustic, so I expect that you will be quiet all evening’¦..’. Well, what follows is for sure not ‘˜strictly acoustic’, what a power (unfortunate we did not know the song), Kevin on guitar, Bobby, unusual picture, on bass, Rick on drums and of course harmonica and vocals of SSJ.

This seems to become a real party, small and cozy. Johnny is in his best mood and so it is not surprising to see them teasing each other, like, whenever Bobby needed to change the guitar, Johnny complained that he is too slow. It really ended in a game between them, once Johnny even left the stage, went through the audience straight to the bar, waiting there until Bobby calls him back on stage with the words: ‘˜Hey Johnny, I’m ready now you can come back on stage’

Johnny on bass, well, we’ve never seen that before, but he really did well, while Kevin was singing one of his own songs.

One of the highlight for me was for sure Bobby, solo with his acoustic guitar and his great voice. We were not sure of the song title, but we believe it was one of Roy Orbison’s songs ‘“ ‘˜All My Love’. It’s not the first time Bobby’s voice is compared to Roy Orbison’s, this evening he proofed again.

This was the 2nd time we were in a concert in France and we have to believe that the French audience is kind of reserved (totally different from a Swiss audience). There was a party going on, but only very few people were dancing. After about 1-ý ¨ours, Johnny tries to wake up the people with the words: ‘˜I don’t mind at all if you dance!’. By the time they played ‘˜Having A Party’ (second last song) the people were awake.

The concert was going for more than 2 hours! What a party, what a concert! After the show I thought I may have a chance to get my ticket signed by them ‘“ and I was one of the lucky ones.

Thanks Johnny, Bobby, Kevin and Rick ‘“ this time we had to travel half Europe to see you, but we sure would also travel to the US for another party with you guys! Hope to see you again soon.

Silvia and Markus from Switzerland

Copyright (c) Silvia Steiner, 1999