2011: Hope Concert in New Jersey by Xmas

During Christmas 2011 I had the chance to visit New York City for one week and just like in the movies I was overwhelmed by the spirit of the city. All its shinny lights, Christmas trees and ice skating rings provide the perfect atmosphere for the season. Wherever you go, there’s always a Christmas classic playing and even if the streets are filled with people rushing to buy all the presents, it is impossible to ignore the countless Christmas street decorations and smiling faces, who warm the low temperatures.

Whether in Central Park with its ice skating ring, cozy zoo or epic urban nature landscape; Times Square where it is impossible not to stumble upon hundreds, if not thousands, of locals and tourists under the most concentrated area of neons in the world or Rockerfellar Center with the Worlds most famous Christmas tree, ice skating ring and zillion tourists trying to capture the place’s magic; it is impossible to avoid the grandiosity of the city and the season. It is like the whole world is concentrated in a couple of squares and dozen of streets that connect mid town New York!

From the busy city where everything is rushed and there’s no time to waste, we took a train and headed South, passed through the industrial Newark, its international airport, and as we were going on and on, more and more familiar names started to show up in the signs. First Perth Amboy, then Woodbrigde and just a few minutes from our final destination there was Middletown. The trip only took hour and a half, but the difference between big city New York and the small town Red Bank is one of the United States most signature wonders!

Red Bank is a very small town, but one filled with charm and sophistication. Impeccably adorned for the Christmas season, Broad street overwhelms its visitors with cosy shop fronts. Either in Starbuks, Jack Music shop, in one of its of fancy restaurants or cool dinners, the little town is a fairy tale wonder land of brick and stone.

After a sunny day, the centenary theater named after the famous Jazz legend Count Basie, lightened for a sold out night. Local legends and young generations shared the same stage to raise money for a good cause. The musical production was under the direction of Bobby Bandiera, a long time Jersey shore veteran who is more familiar to the theater than anybody else. Tim McLoone and the Shirleys kicked off with a 3 song set, warming up the crowd, before the theater’s CEO and city’s mayor introduced the show with humorous and yet eloquent speeches. It was time for the main act to go up, so Bobby B. himself took the microphone and immediately melted the ice. His 8 piece band included Hugh McDonnald, who we were very familiar with since he’s been touring and recording with Bon Jovi and Jon for the last 15 years. He then introduced Layonne Holmes and shortly there after Nicole Atkins. Each main act was given between 2 to 5 songs leading the professional band conducted by Bandiera to harmonious renditions of either old time classics or their catalog’s hits. Bryan Fallon folllowed Nicole Atkins, counting with the helpful hand of Southside Johnny, the Jersey Coast local legend. Gary Bonds took her own bass player, switching sides with Hugh, delivering a soulful performance. Once again SSJ jumped in towards the girl’s final song, staying for the performance of one of his most memorable songs: “This Time is for real” and an excellent duet with the night’s host Bobby during “Broke down piece of man”.

It was then time for the show’s most iconic artist to appear and it was easy to realise why the 49 year old Jon Bon Jovi still rocks millions of faces to this day. The crowd couldn’t stay on their feet and the fuzz of countless cameras shooting at the stage was impossible to ignore. The Pearl Harbour native conducted the band, taking over the stage’s spotlights. He came up quietly with “the letter”, but couldn’t help himelf not to rock, before “Having a Party” and his band’s classic “Wanted Dead or Alive”. He also had time to joke on the fact that a gossip had spread all over the internet just a few hours before that he had been found dead. He made it a funny moment before kicking with another hit: “Who says you cant’ go home”. It’s funny to see how cheered the song is in the man’s home State, while in so many stadiums around the world it gets such an average response. The feeling of belonging the sing along chorus carries is unmistakably from the Garden State that embraces it and echoes heart felt “It’s Alrights” over and over again. The main set was closed by Bon Jovi’s latest hit single “We weren’t born to follow”, getting also a warm response from the small theater’s attendees. The 3 song encore included the Season’s favourite tunes with JBJ making the harmonies for “Blue Christmas” along Southside and commanding the troops for “Run Run Rudolph” with all the artists sharing the stage. A handful of Sesame’s street characters made an appearance and even Santa showed up on stage. For the show’s grand finale, “All you need is love”, JBJ left, avoiding rush hour, leaving a joyful town singing along in a Christmas evening.

The warmth faded silently into the Jersey night, but the spirit can never be forgotten by those who were present in such a cosy evening.

For the following day we had time to make a stop in JBJ’s brand new Soul Kitchen, a “pay what you want” stylish restaurant, that is the latest of his philantropic initiatives, before waving Broad street, Navesink river and our very familiy oriented hotel fair well.

Heading to the big city lights we experienced an entertaining evening watching Broadway’s Musical “Rock of Ages”, which is a pleasant narrative unified by the 80’s Hair Metal classics including songs of artists such as White Snake, Poison, Twisted Sister, Journey and even Bon Jovi. Hilarious, but still cohesive, the story has all the glamour and professionalism of a Broadway production.It should have been named Rock of the 80s though.

With nothing more than 24 hours left, there was only time to go back to Mid Town’s hot spots and try to capture a little more of the city’s season spirit. New York city is definitely worth visiting during this time of the year since despite the low temperatures and yet lack of snow, it has a pulse impossible to describe in words, sounds, pictures or videos. The atmosphere is simply overwhelming and one cannot help but to feel such an almost tangible magic. Although decided last minute, and with basically no preparation, this trip will always be remembered as the one that showed me Christmas can merge both materialistic and spiritual worlds in a single season.