Here's what people are
saying...
WOW!
Flawless performance, you capture the vintage Bruce look,
style and performance perfectly. I thought it was a
fantastic performance and that sax solo was spot on!
Well done guys!
* * * * *
Michael Miller - LA
Times/Daily Pilot - 8/26/08
When “Bru-u-u-u-uce!” becomes “Jo-o-o-o-o-osh!”
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but
it takes a special gift to pull off a great imitation.
There’s the old story, for example, about Charlie Chaplin
entering a Charlie Chaplin lookalike contest on a whim and
finishing fourth. Those top three winners must have been
remarkably convincing.
As Josh Tanner and
SPRINGSTEEN! rocked Woodbridge Park Sunday evening, they
just might have passed for the real thing. SPRINGSTEEN!
headlined the Orange County Fair two nights this year, but
since I wasn’t able to make either show, I made it a point
to see them the next time they were in town. As one who has
seen the real Bruce in concert and knows all his studio
albums by heart, I was duly amazed. For one thing, not only
does Tanner give a dead-on impersonation of his hero, but
he’s even assembled a carbon copy of the E Street Band — a
hulking black man as saxophonist Clarence Clemons, a
frail-looking guy in a bandanna as guitarist Steve Van
Zandt. (Unfortunately, since the show was meant as a
reenactment of the band’s mid-1970s shows, there was no
lookalike for Patti Scialfa, Springsteen’s cute-as-a-button
redheaded wife who joined the band a decade later. But I
suppose you can’t have everything.)
Not only did the band
onstage look like the spitting image of the E Streeters,
but they also had the music down pat. Tanner sounds enough
like the real Bruce to pass for him at a small distance,
and he completely nailed the spirit of the Boss’
between-song patter: sly, mischievous, self-effacing, the
sound of a wide-eyed kid who still can’t believe that he
got to play an arena show and that people actually bought
tickets. At one point, introducing his parents in the
audience, Tanner said, “I wouldn’t be here tonight if my
mom and dad hadn’t…” The crowd laughed uneasily, waiting
for the next word, and then Tanner finished: “…taken my
flier all over town! They hit every venue they could find!”
Pure Bruce.
As for the show, it
was a rousing one, as the band tore through most of the
Born to Run album, tossed in a few favorites from
Springsteen’s first two LPs and even added some of Bruce’s
favorite covers — the last encore was Gary U. S. Bonds’
“Quarter to Three.” The crowd gave Tanner and company a
warm response, and in doing so, created a misunderstanding
that happens at nearly every Springsteen concert. After
some of the faster numbers, many people in the crowd
clapped their hands and emitted throaty cries of
“Bru-u-u-u-u-u-u-uce!” At one point, a woman a few rows in
front of me turned to her companion and asked, “Are they
booing?”