Rocio Mateos
On Saturday night (May 27), Bruce Springsteen stopped by the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey, to make a surprise appearance at a Steven Van Zandt show.
Van Zandt brought his current solo project, Little Steven & The Disciples of Soul to his spiritual hometown New Jersey. The E Street Band member – who has released ‘Soulfire,’ his first solo LP in 18 years, earlier this month, – sold out the Red Bank show. And during the encore, he called a very special friend to stage.
Introducing the surprise guest as “a friend who’s out of work,” the crowd went nuts when they realized he was talking about no one else but The Boss, Bruce Springsteen. The two have been playing together in the E Street Band for over 40 years.
Count Basie Theatre executive, Jon Vena said on Monday that the crowd “erupted” as soon as they saw Springsteen emerging on stage.
The Jersey rockers played four songs as part of the encore. Including hometown favorite “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” from Springsteen’s ‘Born to Run’ LP. “It’s Been a Long Time,” the classic Bruce/Southside Johnny duet and “I Don’t Want to Go Home,” from Southside Johnny. A track that gets revisited by Van Zandt in his new album. For the closure of the epic concert, they played a cover of Marvin Gaye’s “Can I Get a Witness.”
In the fan-shot footage, Springsteen is seen swinging his arms and huddling nose-to-nose over the microphone with Van Zandt.
After nearly 20 years of absence, Van Zandt made an incendiary solo comeback
The last time Van Zandt was seen in the studio was back in 1999 when he recorded the album ‘Born Again Savage.’ Ever since, he has been away from his solo project, but only because he has been way too busy with other things. Like playing guitar in the E Street Band all over the world and presiding his Sirius XM radio channel, Underground Garage.
He has also been building a solid actor career. Playing two different gangsters – with two memorable hairstyles: Silvio Dante, Tony Soprano’s personal consigliere, in David Chase’s HBO series ‘The Sopranos’ from 1999 to 2007. And more recently Frank “The Fixer” Tagliano, a New York mobster in Netflix series ‘Lilyhammer.’
Now, he’s back to focus on his music solo career with his new album ‘Soulfire.’ “I’ve always been very thematic with my work, very conceptual,” he said of the album. He insisted that he can’t just make a record with a collection of songs. He needs a concept that embraces all songs. In the case of his latest album, the concept became himself. “Who am I? I tried to pick material that when you added it all up, really represented me,” he said.
The record is a compilation of a couple of covers, a couple of new songs, and what he considers the best songs he’s written and co-written. “This record is me doing me,” he concluded.
The resulting album is a throwback to his ‘60s -style rock and soul from his classic first solo album ‘Men Without Women’ and its gritty, greasy sound.
