Orel Family

Bruce Springsteen. June 5, 2026 Why, on all other Bruce shows, do we E Street Band or other bands, but on this night we have only Disciples of Soul?  Why, on all other Bruce shows, do we have mostly Bruce songs, but on this night we have a curated concert?  Why, on all other Bruce shows, does Bruce not even change his shirt once, but on this night he changes it twice? Why, on all other Bruce shows, do we either sit or stand, but on this night we listen standing to symbolize inspiration? ok, well... some  of us, on that last question, but for the answers, we must be delivered from the days of old. Last night was the second installment of "Music America: The Songs that Shaped Us" at OceanFirst Bank Center on the campus of Monmouth University. The first installment took American music from its origins up through around World War II, and last night's show picked things up from there. An obvious question is how, in the space of a pair of 3 hour shows, would it be possible to ...

December 14, 2025. The Stone Pony, Asbury Park, NJ I wasn't even supposed to be here. I was just laying low in Michigan. Oh I was planning to come visit until Saturday anyway, to see my ailing mother at the hospital, and then things got bad and things got worse and I was on a 6am Monday flight out here with no immediate plans to go home. When I got to Overlook, words were gone. Food intake gone. Responses to prompts were gone. This is how it was, all week. A gerontologist called it "delirium" and I learned what "decompensation" means. I wasn't sure she'd last the week. I started making the calls - funeral home, cemetery, spiritual leaders. But... she didn't die. Eddie Manion's facebook post, 11/13/25 On Saturday, I happened to see a facebook post from Eddie Manion ,  "Rehearsing for the show at t he Stone Pony tomorrow!" My immediate reaction was, "this... is possible... if mom stays with us." I asked some friends about the s...

Sab Siro isn't like other locations where I've seen Brue Springsteen play. Here, the attitude is, "he's one of ours. " People came from around town, from around Italy, from around Europe, and from the United States as well, to take it in. Walking around Milan Monday afternoon, I spotted Springsteen shirts of all sorts. Then Bruce came on and smashed any expectations. There are a few differences in setup between San Siro and the typical US experience: For one thing, there's an extensive midway outside the stadium with food sellers, mostly selling variations of the same wretched sandwiches as if to prove that yes, you can  get bad food in Italy. Also, smoking -- at least tobacco smoking -- was permitted inside the stadium. The crowd mostly got to their seats early, and by 15 minutes to showtime, a loud singalong to the familiar "Badlands" theme was going through the stadium. The E Street Band took the stage 5 minutes before the scheduled start time o...

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band was originally scheduled to play Camden Yard s in Baltimore on September 9th, 2023. The show was postponed for a year due to Bruce's peptic ulcer disease. Friday night, he and the band made up for it. Springsteen has a big show coming up Sunday evening on the beach in Asbury Park as the headliner of the SeaHearNow Music Festival . For this sweltering Friday evening, though, he gave full attention to Baltimore. The band came on stage almost exactly at the stated show time of 7:30. Given that Bruce's first top ten single "Hungry Heart " mentioned Baltimore in the first line, it was no surprise that Bruce opened with it, followed by another River fan favorite, "Sherry Darling." The audience took the first line of "Hungry Heart," and Bruce was down to the front of the stage and in to the crowd even before beginning his own singing. The two openers also gave opportunities for members of the band to shine, in par...

There's an old saying, "sometimes you don't know what you had until it's gone." There's a corollary, I think: "sometimes you don't know what you need  until it shows up." Bruce Springsteen's next album, "Letter To You", won't be officially released for another 8 days, but in the finest internet tradition it leaked today. And, just a few seconds in, I realized just how much I needed  this record. From the opening notes of the first track, "One Minute You're Here," I could feel the world melting away with all its stresses and turmoil. The very first line in "Big black train comin' down the track." This is not a mystery ride; we've been around long enough to know exactly where the train is going. The track is melancholy; someone has disappeared, maybe forever. The singer may be next. Bruce is singing in his lower register, first with guitar, then the arrangement builds, and I'm immersed. And calm...

Who would combine the best rock show in ages, with a lesson plan? There is only one person I can think of: Little Steven. Last night, Stevie brought The Disciples of Soul Teacher Appreciation Tour to the Detroit Music Hall. Promising to "leave all politics aside," the show, according to Steve, "took a little trip down my influences, which also happens to be the history of Rock and Roll" The Disciples of Soul  total 15 musicians. Some go way back with Steve: Eddie Manion and Stan Harrison were not only part of the original Disciples of Soul, they were part of the great  Asbury Jukes  recordings and shows before that. Many of the other players weren't born until long after those records had been made. Before the show, there was a TeachRock workshop  on how teachers could use music to engage their students. Not being a teacher myself, I wasn't eligible. But Aaron was; he's primarily still a college student, but he has also been involved on the teac...

I was a college freshman when  The River  was released. It was the first record I remember buying for my own turntable, to play through my own receiver, and to hear on my own speakers. I still have that turntable, that receiver, and those speakers, too, and I still use them regularly. Felt like the best $150 I ever spent… until tonight's show in Cleveland, more or less. The ticket I bought to my first show on the original River tour was $12.50, tax included. I still have the stub, too. That first show, Bruce played "Independence Day" and introduced its meaning to him, about talking to his dad late at night: "I never once asked him what he was thinking about... and later I realized that what he was doing every night was, he was sitting there dreaming... but what happened to him was... he didn't have the strength any more, or the power to begin to make any of the things that he was dreaming about real." And  that  felt so real to me.  Now I know the thi...

How many of the first tier rock bands from the '60's are still rocking around? With all members alive, and able to perform? And of those, how many actually are  performing? And of those, how many are bringing  it, in major halls with first rate production? I'm pretty sure there's only one: The Rascals . Felix Cavaliere Gene Cornish and Eddie Brigati That's not the only reason to see their show, Once Upon a Dream ,  but it's a good place to start. The Rascals weren't simply any  band, though; they were a substantial portion of my childhood soundtrack. Their hits played on the AM radio on my way to day camp, and can still be heard regularly on various radio outlets including XM/Sirius Radio's Underground Garage .  Their biggest hit, Good Lovin',  remains one of the most instantly identifiable -- and urgently danceable -- songs of the rock era. And, of course, they were from New Jersey. Not down the shore, where I never went, but in Garfi...

As my friend Karen and I sat in the seemingly interminable delay on the Blue Water Bridge in to Canada yesterday, I realized that we'd miss the start of last night's concert. We still had 3 and a half hours to drive -- if there wasn't another delay crossing back in the United States to get to Buffalo. We hadn't been set on tickets until 3pm, so it was the best we could do. Karen and I went through the openings we'd like for last night's concert, so long as we wouldn't be there: "Glory Days!! Yes, he should open with Glory Days! And then, maybe something from Devils and Dust." My foot turned to lead as I imagined the horror of my mission to see the final show turning in to witnessing only the encores. We screamed through Niagara Falls at 90 (and I don't mean kph), and then a miracle happened: no line at the bridge. As I walked in to HSBC Arena last night, Bruce was building a house. I could check the setlist later, but at least I hadn...