30 years a music fan & it's still a good time
In the News
MARK ROSMAN
One of the things I enjoy most in life is watching and listening to bands play live. Having limited (my family would say I have zero) musical skills myself, I can only imagine what it would be like to be up on stage entertaining others.

Since turning 18 - the legal age in New Jersey in 1978 - I have had many opportunities to listen to live music in various clubs and venues.

Among the notable performers I have seen in clubs have been John Eddie, George Theiss, Twisted Sister, the Good Rats, Crystal Ship, The Cruisers, Fatal Dose, Jim Carroll, Sonny Kenn, Ian Hunter, Dick Dale and Wanda Jackson.

The clubs I visited included Emmett's Inn in Monroe Township (we thought we were in Jamesburg), Zaffy's in Piscataway, the Fast Lane in Asbury Park, Sgt. Pepper's in Hazlet (the scene of an amazing Twisted Sister show with the band members atop a bar), the Brighton Bar in Long Branch, Close Encounters in Sayreville and the Colonel's Garter, also in Sayreville.

I had the good fortune to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band open the "Born in the USA" Tour at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park. You didn't know that's where the tour opened, did you?

Well, it did, with a concert featuring the "Born in the USA" album on June 8, 1984 - just days after it had been released.

The E Street Band played, in order, "Thunder Road," "Out in the Street," "Prove It All Night," "Glory Days," "The River," "Darlington County," "Dancing in the Dark" (no Courtney Cox jumping up on stage as she did in the subsequent music video), "The Promised Land," "My Hometown," "Born in the USA," "Badlands" and "Born to Run."

Springsteen dedicated "The River" to The Cruisers, a local band which was supposed to open for John Eddie that night but gave up its place on the bill so that John Eddie could open the show for Springsteen.

Every inch of the Stone Pony was packed and the temperature inside the place must have been 100 degrees by the time the E Streeters took the stage.

I watched from an excellent perch on a bar at the back of the main room as Springsteen and the band performed songs that have since become staples of American music: "Glory Days," "My Hometown" and "Born in the USA."

This is the kind of night you can happen upon if the stars are aligned and the rock gods are smiling on you. And while you do not get Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band every time out, you do get people who put themselves on the line, musically speaking.

Unfortunately, residents of western Monmouth County generally have to leave this area to get their fix of live music.

We don't have a real rock club or music bar to call our own, although The Cabin in Howell comes close and Moore's Inn in Freehold Township has recently added live music, too.

Asbury Park is one of the destinations I head for when it is time to hear live music. I did just that on June 22 to catch some of the performances at an event dubbed the Wave Gathering. The Wonder Bar provided an excellent showcase for the music.

I was joined by my son, Nate, 13, and we saw three bands - Cool Days End, Exit 105 and Steel Mill. Nate was disappointed only by the sad (for him) reality that none of the three bands we saw that afternoon was a Led Zeppelin tribute band, and that Led Zeppelin itself had not shown up at the Wonder Bar to blow the doors off the place.

However, each band we did see had something to offer the appreciative audience and all of the musicians performed with emotion, intensity and an attitude of caring about what they were doing. When you can say that about a band, I think it's a real compliment.

While each group we saw no doubt has a story to tell, Steel Mill is a compelling band. The drummer is Vini "Maddog" Lopez, who played with the original Steel Mill more than 35 years ago before the lineup even included Bruce Springsteen.

Lopez eventually joined what became the E Street Band and played on Springsteen's first two albums. The man has got some musical history in his back pocket.

Lopez, who sings with passion, introduced Steel Mill's music by noting that all of the songs that would be performed had been written by Springsteen in the days before everybody knew his name.

I'm no music critic, but I've been listening to live music long enough to know when something special is happening. I can only describe the songs that Steel Mill plays as mini-operas, full of changing tempos and waves of sound.

The songs that Steel Mill performs are a glimpse into the earliest works of a songwriter who would go on to take the music industry by storm with albums such as "Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J." "The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle," "Born to Run," "Darkness on the Edge of Town," "The River" and many more.

I have been enjoying the central New Jersey music scene for 30 years and I am not ready to let it go just yet. It's just too much fun. I only wish that someone would open the Stone Pony West so that the trip home after an evening of rock and roll was a bit quicker for "my generation."

Mark Rosman is the managing editor of the News Transcript.