First Live Concert since COVID

The world is starved for news. Especially good news. Especially something with variety.

When local rock star Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes announced their parking lot concert at the Monmouth Racetrack in Oceanport, NJ, it made news. 

Billboard Magazine wrote about this concert before it happened.

NJ.com reviewed it afterwards.

The New York Times wrote about it. As did the Asbury Park Press.

It was the largest concert since Coronovirus. There were about 1,000 cars, each car holding up to four people. The price was per vehicle. Proceeds went to support the Count Basie Theater, just one of many theaters struggling.

Let's backtrack. On Friday morning a friend posted he had tickets to the concert and was looking for someone with a convertible to go with him.

I have a convertible. I really wanted to get out and do something that felt semi-normal. Why not?


Rob is friends with Chris and Melissa and invited them to round out the car. Melissa gave her seat to Hayden.

The concert was a lot of fun. This was my first Southside Johnny concert, but it likely won't be my last. There was a lot of speculation that his "special friend" would make an appearance, but alas the Boss did not join him on stage.

The weather was perfect. We even saw a rainbow without having any rain. We parked in the last row of the VIP section, on the end. They staggered cars in every other space so they were like a checkerboard. Instead of applause, we were encouraged to beep our horns.

The volume was soft, especially considering we were in the 5th row and it was gentle background music volume. There were many, many, many rows  behind us. The concert was also on the radio, but that's not the same. The price difference between the VIP section and the other was nominal (as Rob said, for $12.50 a ticket, why not splurge).  

It was an experiment. A successful one that could still be improved upon.

Southside Johnny commented early on it was hard to get feedback from the audience because we were all in our "air-conditioned cars" while he was sweating on stage.

Looks like he has another concert planned in New York next month. Hopefully he'll learn from the show and improve upon it -- maybe have more speakers and jumbotrons. "We're all guinea pigs on the wheel," said Southside Johnny.

For Rob the "real highlight was when hundreds of cars started honking in rhythm to a horn riff and it evolved into a call and response between the horn section playing it and the car horns playing it - unplanned and without any direction from Johnny. One of those magical moments of connection between band and audience manifesting itself in a brave new way.

"Later in the show Johnny tried to encourage something similar to happen again, and it didn't quite work - which underlined how cool the earlier spontaneous emergence of that interaction had been."

Rob in the zone

Southside Johnny is driven through the parking lot to greet fans before a performance during the Drive-In Live series July 11, 2020, at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, New Jersey.Matt Smith | For NJ Advance Media (I was too slow to take my own picture.)

There are more concerts planned at the race track.

Setlist:

Better Days

I Played the Fool

All I Needed Was You

Spinning

Love on the Wrong Side of Town

Walk Away Renée

Cross That Line

Without Love

Broke Down Piece of Man

The Fever

Angel Eyes

Forever

It Ain’t the Meat (It’s the Motion)

Passion Street

Talk to Me

It’s Been a Long Time

I Don’t Want to Go Home

This Time It’s for Real

Having a Party