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Bruce Springsteen made the Stone Pony in Asbury Park famous
Bruce Springsteen has played at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park more than 100 times.
Who comes – and spends money – in Asbury Park?
Fans of Bruce Springsteen.
“I come to town about three times a year,” said Jennifer Lyon-Weisman of Columbus, Ohio. “If I didn’t love Bruce Springsteen so much, I wouldn’t come.”
Lyon-Weisman attends the annual Springsteen-themed Light of Day festival in the city each January, coming for shows at the Stone Pony and other venues around town. She has stayed at the Asbury Hotel and the Berkeley Oceanfront Hotel and eaten at restaurants on Cookman Avenue, as well as Tim McLoone’s Supper Club, Stella Marina and the Break on the city’s boardwalk.
More: “My Hometown”: Visit the Jersey Shore spots that made Bruce Springsteen famous
“Every single person I visit, I met through Bruce Springsteen and my love for Bruce Springsteen,” Lyon-Weisman added. “I wouldn’t come to Asbury Park without the connection to Bruce. It’s very deep.”
Fans come from near and far to Asbury Park
Asbury Park’s big summer season was fueled by many Springsteen fans, said Eileen Chapman, an Asbury Park City Council member and director of the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music at Monmouth University.
“When we ask people why they’re here, half of them say they’re Springsteen fans and they came to see the clubs Bruce played at, or the boardwalk he writes about, and Madam Marie and other sights you might hear about in a Springsteen song,” Chapman said. “So these places have a certain magic for Springsteen fans.”
The city’s businesses are also excited.
“If we put a Bruce Springsteen T-shirt in the window, we get hordes of people all day long,” said Tyler Spears of Rebel Supply on Cookman Avenue. “Every other sale, whether it’s a T-shirt, a hat, a magnet … other transactions, he seems to have somehow gotten shoehorned in. I’ve never seen anything like it. He has the craziest following and it blew my mind. He’s the backbone of this city. It’s unbelievable.”
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Fans come to Asbury Park from near and far. Stacey Peace, Tap Room Manager at Asbury Park Brewery, was contacted by a fan from Sweden.
“He said it was a dream to finally hang out in Bruceland,” Peace said. “He said he’s going to stay in the area and stop by the brewery because he knows we’re a big part of the Asbury Park scene.”
The bosses’ money is distributed.
“I feel like a lot of (Springsteen fans) stay in Asbury Park, which leads me to believe they eat at our restaurants, spend money at our stores, go out to hear music and entertainment, go to the art galleries,” Chapman said. “When fans come, it has an economic impact on this town.”
Springsteen fans want to make a connection
More: Springsteen’s connection to Freehold is still strong 40 years after the release of “My Hometown”
The city doesn’t keep specific numbers on Springsteen’s economic impact on Asbury Park businesses, but the numbers are clear. City developer Starfield Companies, formerly iStar, has invested more than $500 million in the city, largely because of the appeal of Springsteen and the city’s music scene, said Brian Cheripka, head of city developer Starfield.
The average property value increased from $524,426 in 2023 to $589,290 in 2024, and the city’s revenue from parking and beach fees is increasing.
Fans book more than 800 hotel rooms for the Springsteen-centered Light of Day festival during the off-season in January, said LOD director Tony Pallagrosi.
They want to connect with Springsteen’s Asbury Park and maybe even catch a glimpse of the Boss.
“Bruce is still as comfortable there as he ever was, returning often to the boardwalk or other places in Asbury Park,” Chapman said. “He still visits our town for many different reasons.”
Holding up the banner for Asbury Park
Twenty-five years ago, the city’s beaches were empty, the boardwalk bare and the shops closed after more than 30 years of decline, including riots in the summer of 1970. By the 1990s, there were signs of revival. A few nightclubs were still playing music, artists were beginning to open galleries downtown and the LGBTQ community was growing. Shep Pettibone’s Paradise Club at the Empress Hotel was attracting residents from the area.
Springsteen, meanwhile, continued to fly the city’s flag. The E Street Band rehearsed for its record-breaking reunion tour at the city’s Convention Hall in 1999 and often played Christmas concerts there in the 2000s.
“He always listed the names of businesses in town that could use support, and he called out those businesses and asked the crowd to support local businesses,” Chapman said.
Springsteen and the E Street Band promoted their 2002 comeback album, “The Rising,” on NBC’s “Today” show with a performance at Convention Hall. As part of the show, he toured the city’s businesses with host Matt Laurer.
“You can see the construction going on and the boards falling off the windows,” said Springsteen, who then stopped at the then-new Georgie’s Bar. “It’s a new place, the Fifth Avenue Tavern used to be here, and it sounds like they’re expecting us.”
Springsteen spoke about the city’s resurgence in 2018 when he performed at the reopening of Asbury Lanes.
“Back in the ’70s and ’80s, and I’m speaking tonight as an old boy next door, we didn’t know if we’d ever see Asbury again in our lifetime. So it’s been a joy to see what’s happened in the town over the last 10, 15, 20 years,” Springsteen said. “And a shout out to all the people who were here when nobody else was. The arts scene down on Cookman (Avenue), the gay LGBTQ community … and Jay and his gang.”
This is Jay Sugarman, chairman and CEO of the city’s port developer iStar. In the audience were actors Hugh Jackman, Adrian Grenier and Governor Phil Murphy.
“There’s no doubt that Bruce Springsteen cared about the community, whether it was through his donations to organizations like the Boys and Girls Club over the years or even more recently in 2018 when he helped us reopen Asbury Lanes,” said Cheripka, whose Starfield Companies now oversees iStar projects in the city. “One of the reasons people come back to this community is because of Bruce Springsteen and the fact that Bruce started here and is where he is today. It’s such a wonderful story and I think so many people can relate to it.”
Springsteen has always talked about improving all parts of the city, including the West Side. In 2023, Springsteen and his wife, Patti Scialfa, donated $100,000 to the Asbury Park African-American Music Project, also known as Asbury-AMP, for the restoration of the Turf Club, the last remaining venue of Springwood Avenue’s once vibrant arts scene.
Springsteen is headlining Sea Hear Now
Although there have been changes, Asbury Park still looks much as it did when Springsteen first came to town from Freehold over 50 years ago. The building that housed the former Upstage Club on the corner of Cookman Avenue and Bond Street, where Springsteen first met the future members of the E Street Band, still stands (though it now houses apartments).
The Wonder Bar, which opened in the 1960s, and the Stone Pony, which opened in 1974 after Springsteen released “Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ,” are still there. Madam Marie is still open on the boardwalk and is operated by the grandchildren of the original owner.
“Fans see Asbury Park as a mecca and they come here because they are lifelong, diehard Boss fans and they literally go to all the places he sings about,” said Lou Avilleira of the Luxe & Shadows gift and vintage shop in the Shoppes at the Arcade on Cookman. “It’s like a mecca for these old-school rockers.”
They’ll be coming to town in droves for the upcoming Sea Hear Now Festival on Sept. 14 and 15 in North Beach and Bradley Park. Springsteen, who now lives in nearby Colts Neck, and the E Street Band will play on Sunday, Sept. 15.
“Bruce Springsteen shone a light on a very small town here on the New Jersey shore, and that’s one of the reasons people want to come here and be part of this community and help it grow,” Cheripka said. “They want to be part of the art and music and all the things that make this town great.”
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Jersey Shore native Chris Jordan covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. Reach him at [email protected].
