×

Little Steven’s big band makes disciples, if not money

Men who have stupid money tend to do stupid things with it.

Steve Van Zandt — member of the E Street Band, proprietor of Little Steven’s Underground Garage — is not one of those men.

He decided to use his money to take an 11-piece band plus three backup singers on the road to play songs that, frankly, not a lot of people bought, at least enough to justify taking 14 people on the road plus the crew needed to support them.

From a business standpoint, it’s folly.

Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul played the Hard Rock Rocksino Northfield Park last week. Even with discounted tickets and dozens of freebies given out to teachers who participated in the TeachRock Workshops he’s set up in every city on the tour, the venue was, at best, three quarters full. That’s been the norm in most cities.

You know he has to have a manager, an accountant, someone who tried to talk him out of doing this for two years in a row.

“Steve, do you really need a five-piece horn section?”

“Yes. I hear 20 horns in my head. Five already is a compromise.”

“Can’t you get by with one sax player?”

“Hey, do you know who one of those sax players is? Eddie Manion! You know that sax solo on the Asbury Jukes’ ‘Hearts of Stone,’ the one that makes a big tear well up in the corner of your right eye and makes you think about your first girlfriend? That’s Eddie Manion! If you can have a band with Eddie Manion or one without him, why would anyone pick the latter?”

“The same goes for two keyboard players?”

“Yes. One of those keyboard players is Lowell ‘Banana’ Levinger of The Youngbloods, who did ‘Get Together.’ I owned that record when I was a teenager and now he’s in my band. How cool is that?”

“Fine. Then how ’bout just two backup singers, a soprano and an alto. Three seems excessive.”

“Have you heard those ladies? Have you seen them? Having to get rid of any of them would be a real Sophie’s Choice. Besides, I need one of them to play keyboard when the keyboard players are on mandolin and accordion for ‘Princess of Little Italy.'”

The accountant walks away, shaking his head and thinking, “I’m glad it’s not my money.”

Yeah, it doesn’t make any sense financially. But from an artistic standpoint, Friday’s concert was as good as any show that will play northeast Ohio this year.

If I had stupid money, I would follow him from city to city and fall in love with a different song — and a different backup singer — every night.

I have a weakness for great horn-driven, rock / soul bands. Maybe it’s because I was a lousy marching band trombone player in high school, and I think that if I was listening to Southside Johnny (or Otis Redding with those Stax horns) instead of Rush when I was 16 years old, I’d have stuck with the instrument and been a less lousy trombone player.

Hearing a band this size play the songs Van Zandt wrote for the Jukes — “Love on the Wrong Side of Town,” “Some Things Just Don’t Change,” “I Don’t Want to Go Home” — made those songs soar.

Van Zandt may not have a voice that equals Southside Johnny Lyons or his soul idols, but he’s not bad. Attitude is at least as important as vocal range when it comes to leading a rock band, and Little Steven always has carried himself like a frontman, even when he was backing Bruce Springsteen.

And with those Jukes songs as well as “Forever,” “Out of the Darkness,” “I Saw the Light” and others, Van Zandt has proven he can write songs as well as the artists who inspired him. His songs are steeped in the history of popular music without merely aping his influences.

As a bandleader and arranger, Van Zandt makes use of every player he has on stage, giving each one multiple moments in the spotlight and having them play together as a marvelous, cohesive whole.

Van Zandt found the perfect way to keep himself occupied while Springsteen is busy on Broadway. He may end the year a little poorer, but he didn’t look like a man with any regrets last Friday. And everyone in Northfield definitely was richer for experiencing Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul.

Andy Gray is the entertainment writer for the Tribune Chronicle. Write to him at agray@tribtoday.com

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
     

Starting at $4.85/week.

Subscribe Today