In a reference to Bruce Springsteen, one can just put “There were sparks flying on Ocean Avenue” on this post to describe what happened inside the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, when Outside The Box launched their summer residency at the club on the corner of 2nd Ave…

Southside Johnny & (OTB producer) Jeff Kazee are always first choice jam-sessionistas, ’cause they know ALL the songbook of any great song ever written – and if they don’t, they are able to make it up in a second… And that’s what did happen just again on last Thursday down at the Jersey Shore.

After OTB’s “regular” set of own songs and playing Elvis Costello’s “My Aim Is True” in it’s entirety (!), they just kept the stage for an amazing run right into the Band’s vault of legend songs.

I strongly recommend you to read my friend Jen’s review of the show on the Jukes Network.

And if you should happen to be around Asbury Park, NJ during the summer this year, go down to the boardwalk and see Outside The Box on every Wednesday night at the Stone Pony.

And please tell ‘em I send you!
You won’t regret!

Visit: Outside The Box
Visit: The Stone Pony

In one of my previous lifes, I was stage-hand for a little band from the neighborhood… They had it all… the most guitars, the heaviest Mesa-Boogie and Marshall amps in town, a drum set three times as big as Max Weinberg’s, and a fine assortment of key’s, among them an original vintage Fender Rhodes Mark 1 piano… I hated that piano! I mean, I LOVED it for it’s unique sound, and Roland, it’s master player knew exactly to create the right ones on it. But I hated it for it’s weight and the time it took to set it up on stage…

Only years later I should have a try at a Hammond B3 with a Leslie Cabinet… against which a Fender Rhodes Mark 1 appears light as a feather in the autumn wind…

You see – Rock’n'Roll is full of stories of love & hate relationships… and this is just one!

These memories all came back when I stumbled over “The Stolen Rhodes”, who claim to be “the hardest working band in the Tri-State-Area” – a title only challenged by the Jukes, I guess…

Like when Kid Rock hangs out with the Boss to play, that’s how the Rhodes come though… energetic pianos, the right beats and guitars all over, with an impressive voice and songs which reflect some great storyteller behind them… and you know, when I see a band playing the Stone Pony, I stay for the show… I love when a band posts such excellently produced videos of a gig to let you re-live the experience…

So I hope you do the same and enjoy these shots of the Stolen Rhodes’ show at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ, just a year ago.

My favorites: “One Day Everyday” and “Idle Ways”

I hope you’ve enjoyed the show as much as I did!

Now, how to I get Matt Pillion (Guitar, Bass, Vocals, Piano), Dan Haase (Bass, Guitar, Vocals), Kevin Cunningham (Guitar, Vocals) and J.T. Dubosky (Drums) on a plane to Europe for next summer’s festivals?

Hej you bookers out there in Deutschland… anybody listening?

Visit the website: The Stolen Rhodes

We just had some punk-rock and a whole lot of New Jersey already on this blog. Now, connecting the storylines, ultimately gets you to the Bouncing Souls, Jersey Shore Veteran Punk Rockers, on the road to international fame since 1987.

It’s the Bouncing Souls who wrote the ultimate hymn to what I love about New Jersey:

Stepping out of a Asbury Lanes in a midnight snow
The skeleton of this old town feels like it’s coming alive
Riots and corruption, beaches and Bruce
These songs were the keys to the engines of our growing up

And we wanna say thanks to the music in our lives
Forgive ourselves for all those lies
Send some love to all the lonely
Don’t forget we’re all one family
Thanks to the music in our lives for helping us to survive
Lost in one lonely dream, born to run and live free

The sun shines brightly on us this afternoon
Walking in our own footsteps, we search for something more

And we can’t turn back
No, we can’t turn back
We can’t turn back

I mean, who – among the readers of this blog – would not join to that chorus immediately?

I totally love this video, because it shows exactly how a show at the Stone Pony is supposed to be…packed, hot, shaken not stirred. There’s no other place, this song belongs to more than to the club at the corner of Ocean and 2nd Avenue.

Here’s another one… a cover from another “obscure” Asbury Park punk-rocker. recorded just one block down on Ocean Ave.:

Now – fasten your seatbelts! – the Bouncing Souls will bring “their” New Jersey to my city of Lüdinghausen – well, not exactly to the “city” but to the airfield Borkenberge just 2 miles outside of town – for the next edition of the Area4 Festival on August 19.-21. 2011.

You’ve heared it here first! And you will be getting more of them later!