Max Weinberg Jukebox: Late Night Snips stretched to Primetime Gem

You won’t have to stay up late to hear Rock and Roll Hall of Fame drummer Max Weinberg @EStreetMax. You won’t have to mortgage your house for E Street Band tickets. Instead, it is possible to catch Weinberg and three first class musicians playing favorite rock and roll classics in a comfortable local venue.

There has been much discussion in these pages (and elsewhere, see footnote below) about the power that familiarity holds over music preferences and enjoyment. Whether that’s a good or a bad thing – and it’s a worthwhile discussion -- the band calling itself Max Weinberg’s Jukebox proves its truth – at least for an audience of a certain age and music taste.

“I know that song!”

Two hours of familiar, mostly 60’s to 80’s rock and pop tunes after it began, the partly on-demand, partly improvised playlist of the Jukebox produced the half-affirmation, half-glee that likely matched if not exceeded the LP and FM introductions of those tunes.

Check out this partial playlist from the evening, which included a few tunes not on the official band catalog:

Saw Her Standing There

Highway to Hell

Thunder Road

Doctor my Eyes

American Girl

Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out

What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace Love and Understanding

Me and Julio

Paperback Writer

Midnight Hour

I want you to want me

Another Girl

The kids are Alright

Rocky Mountain Way

Blackbird

Take it Easy

Sympathy for the Devil nailed Keith Richards timbre Strat

Born to be Wild

If I Fell

She's the One (Springsteen)

Drift Away (Dobie Gray)

Glory Days (Springsteen)

Missed (a few that would have been fun)

Fire (Springsteen)

For your Love

Good Lovin'

Hungry

Solitary Man

White Room

I'm a Believer

Rebel Rebel

Last train to Clarksville

Fortunate One

Jukebox Power Cord

The Max Weinberg “Jukebox” is hardly a karaoke machine. Three very talented musicians supplemented the ever-steady, tasteful percussion work of the band’s namesake:

• Glen Burtnik @GlenBurtnik (bass, vocals)
• Bob Burger @BobBurgerMusic (guitar,vocals)
• and P K Lavengood @PKLavengood (guitar, vocals).

Lavengood delivered spot-on coverage of guitar solos in “Sympathy for the Devil” (Stones), “Rocky Mountain Way” (Joe Walsh) and “I Want you to Want me” (Cheap Trick). Burtnik made fluid bass parts syrup-smooth, which somehow seem to stand out more in this earlier era of rock & roll. He covered vocal harmonies that work well in the tenth studio take, but are much more challenging to do live. And Burger redefined the notion of studio musicianship stamina: he covered most of the vocals along with guitar, seemingly effortlessly, no matter how high the note or how demanding the melody line.

A Bob Burger Sidebar

Max Weinberg's career is well-covered elsewhere, including his family law pedigree and his own flirtation with the profession. But let's take a sideways glance at Bob Burger, who handled most of the vocal duties for Jukebox. Mr. Burger graduated as valedictorian from Penn State (electrical engineering), obtained a JD in intellectual property law from Rutgers. Bob Burger Esq [sic] is a software licensing specialist at McCarter and English LLP.

Landmark on Main Street: Still Evolving

Perhaps the beloved local venue is morphing from its early beginnings as a quiet venue for folk artists into . . . something else. At the least, Landmark on Main Street is capable now and then of slipping into dancing shoes. On this occasion, for instance, exuberant audience members responded with gusto to their favorite Springsteen or Steppenwolf tune. They responded to the careful Max Weinberg Jukebox re-creations by taking to the floor in front of a hand-slapping, swaying audience.

It’s now possible to enhance that experience with an ounce or two of legalized firewater, so little wonder that deeper into a Landmark evening the tempo can seem to pick up considerably.

For this Landmark “skin,” the Max Weinberg Jukebox was the perfect Coke to a Landmark rum.

REFERENCE C. S. Pereira, J. Teixeira, P. Figueiredo, J. Xavier, S. L. Castro, and E. Brattico, "Music and emotions in the brain: Familiarity matters," PLOS ONE, vol. 6, no. 11, pp. 1-9, Nov. 2011. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1371/journa...