It was hardly a shock to me that Bruce Springsteen was there to talk for five minutes, but it was nice nonetheless. Although I never became a big fan, in no small part due to the non-garage style production on his records, I do respect his work and his legacy. Fortunately he stuck to music, I didn’t really want to hear anything about politics—and with precious few exceptions, nobody really talked about politics at all. There were a few mentions that people should register to vote, but only two or three times over the course of the day did anyone say anything political at all, which was nice. It would’ve been inappropriate…this was a garage rock festival, not a rally. I was glad they mostly left the typical left-wing griping out. Who did Bruce introduce? The Boss Martians, of course.

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The other big surprise on the day was Chuck Barris. The guest speakers included the aforementioned classic rock DJs (including Carole Miller, Ken Dashow & Jim Kerr, long NYC classic rock staples…um, fixtures…er, fossils), and Tony Sirico & Vincent Pastore--Paulie Walnuts & Big Pussy, respectively, from the Sopranos…a program I am not a fan of. Sirico made no secret of the fact that he wasn’t really into the music, and his presence was frankly kind of a mystery, outside of his being a quasi-celeb pal of Little Steven’s from the show. Pastore is a guy I kinda like…between Stern show shots & an appearance on the ‘Triumph The Insult Comic Dog’ DVD, I’ve long liked him for his sense of humor. And he made it clear he is into the music. He’s involved somehow with some of the programming on Little Steven’s garage rock stations on Sirius & spoke as if he actually knew something about the music in general (though he wasn’t specific). But then there was Chuck Barris, who of course wrote ‘Palisades Park.’ Boy, did I used to love this guy’s schtick. Anyone see ‘Confessions Of a Dangerous Mind?’ Maybe not a great movie, but if you were ever a fan of the Gong Show, it’s a must-see. He offered up just a bit of Gong Show-speak: “This next act…” And the next act was pretty darned good, too—Mooney Suzuki, local favorites, who I’ve never seen or heard, but always heard good things about. And they were pretty good.

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