Light of Day's long night of Darkness

Monday, December 04, 2006
BY JAY LUSTIG
Star-Ledger Staff

"I danced till a quarter to three," Bruce Springsteen has often sung on his cover of the Gary U.S. Bonds hit, "Quarter To Three." And Saturday night, he almost did just that.

It was shortly after 2:30 a.m. when he left the stage at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, having reasserted his supremacy in the field of loud, raw rock'n' roll. Those disappointed by his recent acoustic, folk-oriented album with his Seeger Sessions Band (and the subsequent tour) could breathe a sigh of relief. There wasn't a banjo or tuba in sight.

The occasion was the seventh annual Light of Day benefit, which raises money for Parkinson's disease and ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) charities. The Boss' presence wasn't a shock: He has appeared at these shows in five of the previous six years. Still, his performance sometimes felt like a surprise. Springsteen at full intensity, in such an intimate setting, always has that effect.

Performing with the show's headliners, Joe Grushecky & the Houserockers, he brought the evening to its peak with a spellbinding version of longtime favorite "Darkness on the Edge of Town." The brooding majesty of this late-'70s composition was in sharp contrast to the sunny uplift of the Seeger Sessions material.

He also led the band through muscular versions of "Johnny 99" and "Atlantic City," performed "Code of Silence" as a fervent call-and-response duet with Grushecky, and played guitar and sang backing vocals on several Grushecky-led numbers.

He looked a bit disheveled, as if he hadn't bothered to comb his hair. And sometimes there was a slightly glazed look in his eyes -- maybe he's not used to staying up so late. But his singing and guitar playing were consistently sharp.

After a short speech by Light of Day organizer Bob Benjamin -- a Highland Park resident who manages Grushecky and other artists, and suffers from Parkinson's disease -- the evening closed with the seasonally appropriate "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town." Springsteen graciously shared lead vocals with Benjamin, and Grushecky & the Houserockers, along with many of the musicians who had appeared earlier in the night, backed them.

Among those who also took the stage at this concert, which lasted more than eight hours, were Soozie Tyrell, Jeffrey Gaines and Joe D'Urso & Stone Caravan. Other artists, including Pat DiNizio, Willie Nile and John Easdale, presented a relatively low-key evening of "in the round" singing and storytelling on Friday. An assortment of ska and punk acts such as Streetlight Manifesto, MC Lars and Nun the Less were booked for yesterday. Overall, about 40 bands or solo artists volunteered their services.

Springsteen also made an appearance during one of Saturday's other nine main-stage sets. (There was a smaller acoustic stage as well). He joined the band Marah, singing lead on the party anthem "Raise Your Hand" and adding some dazzling guitar riffs to "Reservation Girl."

The latter had an improvisational feel, with lots of long, unpredictable instrumental passages. While it was nice to hear Springsteen venture into uncharted territory, the band pumped up the volume to an absurdly loud level, and wasn't able to curb significant feedback problems (or, perhaps, opted to keep the noise in).

The rest of Marah's set had similar pluses (distinctive songwriting and bold, exuberant performances) and the same big minus (oppressively bad sound).

Light of Day was named after Springsteen's song of that name, which he has performed at all his previous Light of Day appearances. For some reason, he skipped it on Saturday. Still, those who also attended Friday's show were able to hear it then, as the celebratory, Grushecky-led grand finale.

Other highlights from Friday included thoughtful Grushecky originals like "Beauty Fades" and "A Good Life," and Nile's powerful age-of-terror protest song, "Cell Phones Ringing (In the Pockets of the Dead)." DiNizio, best known as a member of the Smithereens, told a funny story about being berated by Ozzy Osbourne before a 1971 Black Sabbath show at Union Catholic High School in Scotch Plains, then drastically reinterpreted Sabbath's heavy-metal landmark "Paranoid," delivering it like a pensive ballad.

The amount of money raised by the shows was not known at press time, but last year's three shows generated about $150,000, so the figure will probably be in that neighborhood.

Jay Lustig writes about popular music for The Star-Ledger.