Nils Lofgren Rocks Woodbridge on Independence Day

Associates of The Boss are making Woodbridge a regular tour stop these days.

Nils Lofgren, guitarist for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band as well as an accomplished solo artist, played the Parker Press Park Monday evening, less than a week after Willie Nile - who's both opened for and performed with Springsteen - played the same stage.

Lofgren, best known for his work with Springsteen and Neil Young, performed a variety of songs spanning his more-than-40-year career in the stripped-down setting, accompanied only by Greg Varlotta on keyboards, guitar, trumpet, and even tap dancing shoes.

Opening the show with a beautiful harp solo, Lofgren then donned his guitar and ripped into the blues-y "Too Many Miles," before greeting the crowd of about 150 assembled at the park.

"Welcome Woodbridge, how y'all doing tonight? Happy fourth of July," Lofgren said from the stage in introducing the next song. "This is one of my favorites from the Cry Tough album, we haven't done it in awhile," he said, leading into "Share a Little," before dedicating a rousing rendition of the Star Spangled Banner to "all the veterans, current soldiers, friends, and families."

Lofgren, who joined Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band in 1984, dedicated his song "Miss You Ray," originally written following the death of Ray Charles, to a fallen E Street Band legend who died of a stroke last week.

"Tonight goes out to my dear beloved friend Clarence Clemons," Lofgren said. "God bless you, Clarence, I know you're looking down on us."

The location of the show, outdoors and tucked between Woodbridge Station and the Parker Press building, provided one of the more serendipitous moments of the evening. During Lofgren's solo performance of "Girl In Motion" (Varlotta had left the stage two songs prior before returning for the next song), a train pulled into the station just as Lofgren sang the line "I know a girl with a train ticket and her suitcase packed/I know a girl in motion."

"Mud In Your Eye" followed shortly thereafter and featured one of the more unusual methods of providing percussion one's bound to see in concert: Verlotta donning tap shoes to pound out the beat while Lofgren rocked out on guitar. Verlotta even got a tap dancing solo, much to the delight of the crowd inside and the various cyclists and passers-by slowly gathering between Parker Press Park and the train station.

The end of "Mud In Your Eye" would not be the end of the evening's tap dancing, however. Trading in his guitar for a wireless microphone and cane, Lofgren tapped out a beat to the song "Dream Big" with his shoes and the cane, while singing and using his free hand to pluck the harp used in the opening song. One of the most entertaining songs of a very entertaining evening, "Dream Big" saw Lofgren, with his cane and black hat, looking like an eccentric protagonist from an 80s movie, imploring the audience to "dream big and dance a lot."

Lofgren closed the main set with an impassioned rendition of the Patti Smith hit “Because The Night” (written by Smith and Springsteen), getting the biggest reaction yet out of the gathered crowd, who joined along in singing and clapping. After a brief respite, Lofgren closed out the show with “Shine Silently,” drawing even more cheers with the line “just another room/just another town/same old crazy people hanging around.”