Sat 8/18 @ 8PM
Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes released their debut album I Don’t Want to Go Home in 1976 with a show at the Stone Pony in their native Asbury Park, New Jersey. Packed to four or five times the small club’s capacity, the event featured a guest appearance by Bruce Springsteen whose guitarist Miami Steve Van Zandt co-founded the Jukes along with “Southside” Johnny Lyon, and wrote much of their early repertoire. That included the album’s title tune, which became and remains the band’s anthem.
The band’s electrifying, no-holds-barred, horn-driven R&B never became a national smash but there was one market where they headlined 20,000-seat venues: Cleveland. At their peak in the late 70s and early-mid 80s, they might as well have been the Michael Stanley Band for their huge draw here.
Only Lyon remains now from the original lineup but the music hasn’t changed much (except for that ill-fated foray into slick dance/pop with 1983’s Nile Rogers-produced Trash It Up). Lyon, who looked 50 when he was in his 20s, still looks just the same; his voice, sounding weathered and ravaged back then, sounds the same now. And one more thing is the same: he can always count on an audience in Cleveland. He’s playing at the Rocksino. Tickets are $29.50-$57.50.
Northfield, OH 44067