Borough Council Approves Live From Freehold Music Series

Mark Costanzo’s home concert series has been the stuff of local legend. For six years, Costanzo has brought such artists as Fountains of Wayne, John Doe and Exene Cervenka from the band X, Graham Parker, and many others to his home studio for intimate concerts for 60 people.

Costanzo’s music series will expand to larger venues after the Freehold Borough Council unanimously approved a resolution during Monday’s workshop meeting.

“This is not like some other town starting a concert series. This is a town that is the home of the greatest singer-songwriter in the last fifty years. And [singer-songwriters] are the type of artists Mark gets,” said Kevin Coyne, who joined Costanzo in presenting the concept before the governing body. “It’s a natural fit for the town. Artists want to come here because it’s Bruce Springsteen’s hometown.”

The borough’s Neighborhood Pride Committee will sell tickets for the newly christened Live From Freehold music series. Costanzo said the cost of booking musicians, reserving venues and promoting the events will be covered in the ticket price. In addition, a 10 to 15 percent profit margin would be included in the price.

Potential venues for the series include Freehold High School, the Knights of Columbus and the Freehold Jewish Center, Costanzo said.

“There would be between 20 to 25 concerts a year. It would be in various venues throughout the town,” Costanzo said. “The benefits to the town would be numerous. The obvious would be the influx of visitors on any given show night. The other may not be so obvious but of equal importance and that is a rich musical identity a series of this focus and magnitude would give our community.”

Councilman John Newman questioned why the Live From Freehold music series would need to go through the municipality rather than through a private organization.

“People are going to identify it with the borough because of the name and because the events are in Freehold. No one is going to identify it with Freehold Borough because the backing is coming from the government,” Newman said.

Councilman Kevin Kane said Freehold Borough should look to be involved with something as potentially successful as the Live From Freehold series.

“If we all feel it’s going to be successful, why wouldn’t we want to be a part of something like this? It’s going to be tremendous for the town. I think we should be behind it 100 percent and involved with it,” Kane said.

For more information about the Live From Freehold concert series, visit its Web site.