Little Steven Van Zandt relives Upstage Club memories
(Photo: James J.Connolly)
ASBURY PARK - What was it that made the Upstage Club so important for a generation of young rock 'n' rollers? Little Steven Van Zandt said it was a haven for "the freaks, outcasts and misfits," the musicians who were just a little bit out of the mainstream.
"It was the genius of Tom and Margaret Potter to have a little sanctuary for the freaks," Van Zandt said Wednesday, referring to the husband and wife team who opened the Upstage in 1968. "They were freaks themselves. It was one big, happy, freaky family."
Van Zandt, long-time guitarist with Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, returned to the former site of the Upstage Wednesday for the first time since the club closed down 46 years ago.
He was there to be interviewed by filmmaker Tom Jones, who is making a documentary about the iconic night spot, "Just Before the Dawn: Riot, Redemption, Rock 'n'Roll." The film will premiere Friday, April 21 at the Asbury Park Music and Film Festival.
Van Zandt and the Disciples of Soul will also perform at the festival on Saturday, April 22, in a show at the city’s Paramount Theatre. Tickets, $49 to $249, are on sale 10 a.m. Friday, March 24, through the festival website, apmff.com, or Ticketmaster.
Holding his dog, Edie, Middletown native Van Zandt led Jones and his crew on a tour of the Upstage, where he and musicians including Bruce Springsteen, Southside Johnny Lyon, Danny Federici, David Sancious, Garry Tallent, Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez honed their talents during jam sessions held from 1 to 5 a.m.
"All you had to do is come and plug in," said Van Zandt, who came to the old Upstage Wednesday with his wife, Maureen, disc jockey Rich Russo, host of "Anything, Anything" and "The Jersey Guy does Jersey," and Holly Cara Price, who works for Van Zandt's "Renegade Nation" content creation and distribution company.
Gesturing to the area that once held a bank of speakers that stretched from one end of the club to the other, he said, "it was literally a wall of sound. It was all built in.
"I remember Davey Sancious here on keyboard, Garry Tallent here, Southside on haromica," he said, pointing out the musicians' spots on the stage.
The Upstage was only open from 1968 until 1971, but the building at the corner of Cookman Avenue and Bond Street had an outsized influence on the rock and roll history of Asbury Park. Designed by beauticians and artists Tom and Margaret Potter, the club had a Haight-Ashbury vibe, with its fluorescent paintings and black lighting.
Much of that paint has flaked away, and the stage and speakers have been removed. But the club's influence remains.
"It was essential," Van Zandt, 66, said of the Upstage's importance. "You start to take your craft to the next level, performing in front of a live audience.
"Here's where we met most of the people we know to this day," he said.
Asbury Park NJ, Steven Van Zandt holding his dog "Edie" is filmed in The Upstage Club by The Halo Group multimedia company for a documentary they are working on. (Photo: Photo by James J. Connelly/Correspondent)
Jones has said that "Just Before the Dawn" explores the deeper social context of the Upstage scene. The club was a place were city musicians of all races came together during a period of racial strife in the city.
“When we started shooting ‘Just Before the Dawn,’ we thought it was just going to be on the Upstage, which is interesting in itself," Jones said. “The more we got into it, it turned into a unique story about how everyone got along in there, and I think that’s true of music in general. The musicians set aside their differences.”
“The film has turned out to be more than about music,” James Wark, executive producer of the Asbury Park Music and Film Festival, has said. “It’s how music helped Asbury Park get through adversity.”
Van Zandt said "there was no real prejudice going on" during the Upstage days. African-American and white musicians jammed together and no one gave it much thought, he said.
An ad for the Upstage Club features Steve Van Zandt and Bruce Springsteen (Photo: Billy Smith Collection)
"We were all freaks," he said. "When you are on the fringe of society like that, you all have something in common."
In July 1970, Asbury was rocked by six days of riots which destroyed many businesses on Springwood Avenue, on the city's West Side.
"We had some bikers in the bunch, among the freaks," Van Zandt said of the Upstage regulars. "Guys I used to think were nice, sweet guys were standing on the roof with rifles, like it was hunting season. … It got weird for a moment."
After the riots, "it seemed to scare away the tourists pretty much permanently," he said. After the Upstage closed down in 1971, Van Zandt spent some time on "the oldies circuit," touring with the Dovells before returning to Asbury to form Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes with his old Upstage friend, Southside Johnny Lyon.
The band played three nights a week at a new club, the Stone Pony. Gradually the band developed a following, eventually drawing overflow crowds to the small seaside club.
"Our thing was happening with the Jukes, and we got a little bit of synergy going," Van Zandt remembered. "Bruce's first two albums didn't do much, he couldn't really work that much so he was hanging out, and that brought a little bit more attention to the scene."
He said the Jukes made "bar band music" cool, basing it on soul music, and playing sets laced with obscure blues and soul covers. Van Zandt eventually left the Jukes to join Springsteen's E Street Band.
He laughed when Jones asked if he always thought he could make it in the music business.
"You would have to have been insane to think you could make it," he said. "Everybody who had a choice, took it. They want to college, they went into their father's business, they went into the military. The two freaks who really were not capable of doing anything else were left standing: me and Bruce Springsteen."
Asbury Park NJ, Steven Van Zandt holding his dog "Edie" is filmed in The Upstage Club by The Halo Group multimedia company for a documentary they are working on. (Photo: Photo by James J. Connelly/Correspondent)
The screening of “Just Before the Dawn” at the film festival will be followed by a Q&A and all-star jam featuring Upstage legends.
Three members of the E Street Band – Sancious, Lopez and Ernest "Boom" Carter – will be participating, along with Southside Johnny Lyon, Jeff Kazee, Chris Plunkett, Sonny Kenn, Ricky DeSarno, Joe Petillo, Richie Blackwell, Paul Whistler, Billy Ryan, Gerry Carboy, Albee Tellone, Tommy LaBella and the Lakehouse Jr. Pros.
More participants are expected to be announced. The Asbury Park Press is a sponsor of “Just Before the Dawn.”
Individual tickets for “Just Before the Dawn” are $25 to $145 at apmff.com.
VIP passes for the film fest are on sale now. Platinum festival passes ($1,000 each) include access to all VIP events, exclusive priority entry and the best seats reserved at each venue, designation as a patron sponsor in the event program, a reserved seat at the awards brunch and $50 in APMFF merchandise credit.
Gold passes ($500) include access to select VIP events, exclusive priority entry and best seats reserved at the guest’s selection of half of the main events, and identification as a patron sponsor in the program.
The limited VIP passes can be reserved through apmff.com or (732) 945-1082, and a portion of the purchases will be tax-deductible.
Tom Bernard of Sony Pictures Classics; Danny Clinch, a Grammy-nominated photographer and filmmaker; and Tom Donovan, president and publisher of the Asbury Park Press, are the co-directors of the festival.
RWJ Barnabas Health and the Asbury Park Press return as the founding partners. The fest raises funds for children in Asbury Park, through the Asbury Park Music Foundation. Music programs at the Hope Academy Charter School, the Hip Hop Institute of the Asbury Park branch of the Boys & Girls Club of Monmouth County, and the Asbury Park Summer Recreation Music Camp received more than $125,000 from the fest last year.
APMFF
“Just Before the Dawn,” Q&A and Upstage all-star jam
7:30 p.m. , Friday, April 21
Asbury Park Music and Film Festival
$25 to $145