Give Your Soul a Stir

Posted by Joe Schmidt on September 14th 2011 | 0 Comments

Tags: Performing Arts, Rock and Roll, Southside Johnny

Live music….better yet, live rock and roll. Is there anything that can stir emotions so strongly?

Case in point, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, live at the Stanley  8 p.m. Saturday, presented by the Great Artists Series.

For the uninitiated, Southside Johnny came from the same early 1970s working class Jersey Shore music scene as his buddy Bruce Springsteen. While he never achieved the uber-stardom of The Boss, he has carved a legendary status among his legions of loyal fans, touring relentlessly and giving it all and then some onstage.

As a lifelong Jukes fan, I find it hard to speak objectively about this concert, but I have attended performances by the top spectacle bands like KISS, been awed by the grand theatrical rock of Alice Cooper, marveled at the cohesive musicianship of jam bands like the Allman Brothers, been in the audience while laser lights turned the auditorium into something out of Star Wars, experienced psychedelic light shows, explosions and skull-crushing volume, punk, metal, blues, vintage rock and roll, and none of these can compare to the straight-ahead performances of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. They perform music the old-fashioned way—they play it—night after night, city after city and have been doing so for more than 35 years.

Working class fury, Memphis soul-driven originals and covers, solid musicianship and enough onstage energy to power the town—that’s a Jukes concert.

Find out for yourself Saturday night. You’ll leave exhausted by a show that you won’t just see and hear, but you’ll feel.