See Bruce Springsteen Surprise Crowd at Steven Van Zandt’s Jersey Show
Bruce Springsteen joined longtime E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt for four songs during a Memorial Day Weekend show at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey, according to Variety. Van Zandt is touring his first solo album in 18 years, Soulfire.
In fan-shot footage, Springsteen swung his arms joyously, trading off verses with Van Zandt and huddling nose-to-nose over the microphone stand. Van Zandt played clipped, ringing chords on his guitar as a massive horn section blasted away behind him.
The two Jersey rockers played hometown favorite “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” from Springsteen’s Born to Run LP, “It’s Been a Long Time” from Southside Johnny’s Better Days album and “I Don’t Want to Go Home,” the title track to Southside Johnny’s eponymous debut (which Van Zandt revisits on Soulfire). They closed the show with a cover of Marvin Gaye’s “Can I Get a Witness.”
Before releasing Soulfire on May 19th, Van Zandt thought long and hard about what kind of return he wanted to make after an 18-year absence. “I was thinking, ‘Who do I want to be?'” he told Rolling Stone. “‘Who am I really?’ And the thing most identified with me, and the thing that is most unique, is that soul-meets-rock thing. So I went back to that.”
“This record is me doing me.”
Video courtesy of Mitch Slater