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 ...

Bruce Springsteen and Trombone Shorty. June 4, 2026. Photo: Matthew Orel Music America: The Songs That Shaped Us is a two-part concert event aligned to the grand opening of the Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music on the campus of Monmouth University. Tonight was the first show, featuring Valerie June, Shemekia Copeland, Dropkick Murphys, Keb'Mo', Rosanne Cash, Trombone Shorty, Tony Trischka, Kenny Chesney, Brian Fallon, and Bruce Springsteen. Bruce Springsteen and Ken Case in the Second Line. June 4, 2026. Photo: Matthew Orel The event was essentially a 3-hour music education event, a "curated concert," as Bob Santelli -- the show's primary mover called it -- and surely it helps to have first rate stars to help give the lessons. The focus tonight was essentially on what I'd describe as "roots" music, starting with indigenous music (a reprise of an event last night) and quickly moving on to gospel, folk, blues, country, jazz, bluegrass, and a ...

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: Long Walk Home. Washington, DC, May 27, 2026. Photo: Matthew Orel You know that flag flying over the courthouse It means certain things are set in stone Who we are, what we'll do and what we won't --Bruce Springsteen, Long Walk Home Bruce Springsteen has performed in front of the American flag before. Most famously, the "Born in the U.S.A" tour stadium shows opened with Bruce and the E Street Band in front of a giant flag ; after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001m Bruce played benefit shows in New Jersey in front of a giant flag as well. It's not subtle. This is my country and this is my flag. Bruce Springsteen, Max Weinberg Land of Hope and Dreams. Washington, DC, May 27, 2026. Photo: Matthew Orel On Wednesday, Bruce took his case to the nation's capital city, in the only stadium show of the Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour. It'd be easy enough to interpret - or, arguably, misinterpret - that flag as an ass...

Bruce Springsteen, Pittsburgh, May 19, 2026 Bruce Springsteen brought his "No Kings" / Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour to Pittsburgh Tuesday evening. As nearly everyone paying attention knows by now, Bruce has stopped varying the setlist: He's chosen a core 27 songs and, except for a single song at a single show, hasn't changed a single selection for the past 13 shows. Given that as a backdrop, it may be fair to ask -- at least somewhere in the recesses of my mind -- why I'm making a full day trek and an overnight, etc., to see a show that I already traveled across the country to see less than 5 weeks ago . So, a few things here: It's the same setlist every night, but it's a hell of a focused setlist. Would I tweak it? Sure. Some of the song pairings have been around for decades, and there are  some other entries that would work. The passion that Bruce is bringing to this set, night after night, is off the charts. Lori said this show was better than...

Bruce Springsteen, Phoenix, April 16, 2026. All pictures and video by Matthew Orel. Bruce Springsteen is angry. And boy, oh, boy, is he holding on to his anger. Last night, through a bit of clever planning with a family trip, I managed to be in Phoenix for the "Land of Hope and Dreams - No Kings" tour.  It's also, for the most part,  a "no surprises" tour. Last night was the third consecutive show with the same setlist. To some fans, setlist variation still matters. To them, I'd say this: Get over it. Going in, even those of us in "blackout" mode basically knew what to expect. Bruce has been very vocal about his rage over the current administration, culminating in his sudden January release of "Streets of Minneapolis"  and the subsequent announcement of this 20-date E Street Band tour. The show is positioned as a rhetorical call to arms, with Bruce directly stating the purpose multiple times during the show: "This American tragedy ca...

This past Saturday, I returned home from services -- as a mourner I go every day now to say kaddish -- to relax, check my phone, and so forth. Lori wasn't feeling well and was sleeping, so I went to another room. The first thing I saw on my phone was a post from a friend who doesn't post very much, quoting the famous Martin Niemöller poem, along with a video appearing to show an ICE encounter. My friend is in Philadelphia. I wondered, "is something going on in Philly?" But then I saw the word "Nicollet" in the background of the video and realized he hadn't shot the video, it was from Minneapolis. As I watched a little more carefully, I realized I was watching a murder. I turned on the TV. For the next several hours, more numb than I could have foreseen, I watched as the news came in, More videos. Totally predictable preposterous statements from DHS head Greg Bovino and later DHS head Kristy Noem defending the actions of their agents, and labeling the vic...

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...

2025 has presented an almost embarrassing haul of new released material by Bruce Springsteen. In June, Bruce released a 7-album set, "Tracks 2," focusing largely on unreleased material from the 1990s. And now... an item that seemed to many fans the holy grail of vault items, "Nebraska 1982," featuring most prominently the oft-rumored but never heard "Electric Nebraska" as well as 4 other discs. Bruce said many times over the years since "Nebraska" came out that he had tried out the tracks with The E Street Band and that everything he tried to do with the band just made the songs worse. So he ended up releasing the cassette tape he'd carried around in his pocket, of his original bedroom demos. But did we fans believe him? Uhhhh... maybe.  Anyway, now we have the evidence. Due to production delays, the official release won't make it out until October 24th, but the songs have started circulating. So... let's get to it! Was Bruce right? ...

The Q&A for Deliver Me From Nowhere: September 29, 2025 The new Springsteen biopic "Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere" has started making the rounds of major film festivals before wider release in October. Yesterday I saw one of the previews at the New York Film Festival , at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center. Yes, there is something special about seeing a film in a state of the art theater with a packed house of more than 1,000 people in New York City, especially when many -- most -- of the attendees are fans of the biopic's subject. There have been many recent biopics focusing on pop icons of the past 60 years. Typically, they fudge the history in the service of mythologizing the subject, leading to some crowning achievement. Think of "Bohemian Rhapsody" and Queen's triumphant performance at "Live Aid," circumstantial facts be damned. Or "A Complete Unknown" and its version of Bob Dylan surviving a violently booing and project...

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, September 6, 2025. Pollak Theater. West Long Branch, NJ. Photo courtesy of John Cavanaugh A DAY AT THE BEACH On the Beach in Asbury Park. September 5, 2025 We headed out on the road at 10am Thursday, determine to prove out that I could drive cross country in an EV, and pointed in the direction of my native land, New Jersey. I'll get back to the EV adventures hopefully soon. Pulling in to my mother's house at 10pm, it wasn't all that much slower than a gas-powered trip. My main objective for the trip was a series of events surrounding the 50th anniversary of "Born to Run." First things first: Aaron wanted a day at the beach. He wouldn't be able to go to any of the organized events due to his job, but he came up from Baltimore and for a few hours on Friday we were a family of 4 for a perfect beach day in Asbury Park. Being a few days after Labor Day, the beach was mostly empty. The undertow was too strong to go more than ...