Somewhere between slugging back a shot of tequila and smearing cake icing on his nose, Bruce Springsteen shared a secret with his crowd Saturday night.
“I wrote this song kind of as a joke,” Springsteen deadpanned, to laughs around the Red Bank theater. “That’s why I don’t play it. But we’re gonna play it tonight.”
The song in question was “Pink Cadillac,” a loose and goofy B-side from 1984, and a fine match for Springsteen’s free-wheeling hour on the Count Basie stage — an unbuttoned surprise set that hurtled deep into the Jersey night.
And the “we” who would play “Cadillac” was not the E Street Band, but Joe Grushecky and the House Rockers, mainstays of the annual “Bob’s Birthday Bash” rock bonanza at the Count Basie Center for the Arts — the pinnacle event of the Light of Day Foundation’s WinterFest, where dozens of concerts around New Jersey raise money to fight against Parkinson’s Disease and similar ailments.
Springsteen and Grushecky, the enduring heartland rocker from Pittsburgh, have been friends for half a century, so when The Boss decides to show up and commandeer the party — as he’s now done 13 times in the bash’s 25 years — Grushecky’s six-piece outfit acts as backing band.
“I’m gonna play a verse, then the band comes in on the chorus. DO NOT disappoint me!” he barked, mostly in good fun, but also likely meaning it.
Though it was Bruce himself who would flub the tune, stumbling over the wordy bridge, giggling to himself as he tried to power through it, finally succeeding on his third pass.
Such was the playful tenor of Springsteen’s first Light of Day appearance since 2020, and his first public performance since his arena tour wrapped in November. The 75-year-old rocker was in excellent spirits, reveling in the relatively low stakes — no burden of expectations from a crowd of 20, 40 or 60,000 diehards, who’d paid top dollar to see him specifically.
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