Unlike a few tribute groups in town who are busy all-year-’round, Asbury Park’s built for a single show a year. As the name might suggest, the band comes together for the sole purpose of translating Bruce Springsteen’s songs, which they do annually. To prep for their annual gig, they fit in rehearsals around the packed schedules of each player, a process they’ve been busily undertaking in recent weeks.
The group will play the Highway 61 Roadhouse & Kitchen in Webster Groves, on Friday, January 3, with two sets of nearly two hours each, between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. A $5 cover applies.
This year’s model of the band includes Steve Leftridge, vocals, guitar; Justin Burch, lead guitar; Spencer Marquart, drums; Jake Elking, piano/keys; Bob Bennett, saxophone; and Mark Manary, bass, who’s returning after a three-year hiatus. We caught up with Leftridge, who gives us a sense of the group’s background and their ability to properly translate the songs of a man with a large, fervent and knowledgeable fan base.
Talk a bit about how one goes about constructing a tribute project. What types of players do you need? How steeped in the artist's music need they be? What qualities did you look for as Asbury Park came together, initially?
I had played with Justin, Mark, and Spencer in various projects in which we'd play an occasional Springsteen song. Spencer and I were big Bruce fans, and would pitch each other ideas for Bruce covers until we eventually decided it would be fun to do a whole night of nothing but Springsteen songs. The four of us were on board with the idea, but we knew we needed a saxophonist and pianist to make it really work. It took us a while, but through some connections, we found Bob Bennett, who happened to already have every Clarence Clemons solo memorized, and Jake Elking, an incredible young piano and keyboard player, who couldn't name three Springsteen songs. I called him out of the blue, having never met him, and said, "Yeah, we're wondering if you'd like to learn 50 complex Bruce Springsteen songs and join a band of guys you've never met; we have no shows booked, and you won't make any money." He replied, "I'm in."
Fans of these acts can be a demanding lot, wanting both the hits and the b-sides and everything in between. With an artist sporting a large, deep, decades-old catalog, how do you go about building out your set? And do your fans lean in any era's direction, when it comes to Springsteen songs?
Yeah, what makes being in a Springsteen band particularly fun is that Bruce’s fans are obsessively devoted to him, so we sort of have a built-in audience that appreciates being able to come out and sing along to these songs. We’ve been really ambitious in trying to dig deep into the catalog and play different shows every time out. We’ve played full-album shows of Born to Run, Darkness of the Edge of Town, The River, and Born in the USA. We once played three of those albums start-to-finish in one night. We’ve played over 100 different Bruce songs during this band’s run. Of course, some songs we play at every show—it’s not like we’re going to leave out “Born to Run” or “Thunder Road”—but we’re not a typical tribute act in that we’ll play some obscure, unreleased songs that even some of the diehards in the crowd don’t recognize. So we try to appeal both to casual Bruce fans and to the big Springsteen devotees who want us to surprise them.
With this project, I believe you're only playing sporadic dates. This isn't a weekly, or monthly gig. What goes into putting together a set, in terms of rehearsal, lyric memorization, establishing that "feel" between everyone? Are there specific things about Springsteen's music that allows a quick or painstaking reboot of Asbury Park?
We do this about once a year. Jake is in, like, five bands - he’s the keyboard player for El Monstero, the Pink Floyd tribute, for example - and Spencer is one of the busiest, most sought-after drummers in St. Louis. So because Asbury Park is only an annual get-together, it makes shows like this one special for us and for folks who like the idea of a four-hour Bruce bash. But it’s definitely a challenge. We’ll play 40 or more tunes, and Bruce’s songs have a lot of moving parts to them, so there’s an edge to performing material we haven’t played in a year or more. Fortunately, these guys are great musicians, so it all comes together.
What's your own history with the man's music? Any interesting back stories from your band mates, as well? For example, is anyone from the Jersey shore? Or has anyone seen him in concert a surprising amount of times?
I don’t think any of us has a personal connection to Bruce or New Jersey or anything beyond loving the way the music feels. In fact, three of our guys weren’t really Springsteen fans going into this project although once we started digging into the material, they became believers pretty fast. The only time I’ve been to New Jersey, I went on a bit of a pilgrimage to the Stone Pony in Asbury Park. My wife and I went there during the day when no one was there, and when we walked in, we found out that Bruce had just been there doing an interview with Matt Lauer and that we’d missed him by a half-hour. Maybe it’s just as well that I didn’t meet him since I probably would have agonized over saying just the right thing to him for the rest of my life.
Lastly, when playing an Asbury Park gig, what are the ingredients that go into a good night? Lucking into all the right requests? Personal performance? Seeing a lot of old friends through the holidays? What make the night a hit for you?
From the beginning, we were very clear on the fact that we weren’t trying to look like the band - dressing up like Bruce or otherwise doing impressions of the band members was always out of the question. But we do want to try to deliver the feeling of a night with Bruce and the E Street Band, which means a fun, passionate, diverse, well-played rock and roll show featuring one Springsteen classic after another for four hours.
For more info, see the band’s Facebook invite here.
