Bang the Drum Slowly, uh… I Mean Fast and Loudly

Max Weinberg came rolling into town with his Jukebox show.  Members of the Weeklings, a Jersey based rock band were with him.  Together, they put on one helluva rock and roll show.

Max is the drummer who provides the backbone beat for the E Street Band behind Bruce Springsteen. He has also been the leader of Conan O’Brien’s band when Conan was a late night talk show host and then took over for Jay Leno (for a short period of time in Leno’s 1^st “retirement”).  All the members of E Street have other gigs in between touring.  We caught Steve Van Zandt and the Disciples of Soul back in May at The Playstation on Broadway.

Max’s Jukebox show was awesome.  The venue was City Winery in Soho.  It has been one the premier music venues in Manhattan for quite some time, but its days are numbered.  The site has been purchased by Disney for their New York City home and the building will be torn down in 2019.  City Winery has got to go and the locals are not happy about it.

It’s a beautiful building.  There is a successful restaurant and active winery on location with the music venue.  The wine produced here brings from $45 to $385 a bottle.  I don’t know if the wine is good, but by the end of the show, the ladies eyes were glazed over, they were giggling and taking little mini steps in their stiletto heels.

But back to the show.

The Weeklings can play virtually any classic rock and roll song.  And if you can scream out loud enough for the band to hear you, the band will play your request.  Here is how Jukebox worked.

Large screens on either side of the stage had a rolling list of over 300 song titles.  Max would come out onto the floor chat with the audience and take 3 or 4 requests.  He would return to his perch behind the drums, have the audience count off and the band would tear into the requests.

It was almost 2 hours of a cavalcade of Casey Kasem’s Top 40 hits.  At the end of Jukebox, JAM and many other ladies from the audience, stormed the stage and with arms swayin’ and booties shakin ‘ danced the night away.  It was an old school rock ‘n roll night, enjoyed by all, especially this old timey rocker.  But the evening didn’t end here.

We were fortunate enough to arrange to attend a meet and greet with Max.  For almost an hour, we sat with about 8 others around a conference table with Max.  We asked questions, he sipped wine and answered and just generally visited.  Everyone took pictures and Max signed anything placed in front of him.

I have watched and listened to Max bang on the drums for the past 40 years.  We have seen him countless times in concert, always in arenas or stadiums.  And now, here he was sitting across the table talking to me, asking questions about the guitar my nephew, Chris, had personalized for me.

It was a perfect way to end an excellent evening.