Bruce Springsteen Joins Bleachers Onstage in Asbury Park for 'Jersey Girl' and 'Chinatown'

Bruce Springsteen surprised a Friday-night crowd in Asbury Park, New Jersey, by joining Bleachers on stage to perform two songs: 'Jersey Girl' and 'Chinatown'. The appearance took place during the Shadow of the City Festival at the Stone Pony Summer Stage, a venue with deep roots in Springsteen's own performing history. Rolling Stone

The pairing was not entirely out of the blue. 'Chinatown' is a Bleachers track that appears on the band's third studio album, Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night, and features Springsteen as a credited collaborator. The two last performed the song live together in 2020, in a set recorded on the rooftop of Electric Lady Studios in New York City. That session predated the album's release by roughly a year. Rolling Stone

'Jersey Girl' brought a different kind of history to the set. The song was written by Tom Waits and appeared on his 1980 album Heartattack and Vine, inspired by his wife Kathleen Brennan. Springsteen has long been associated with the song through his own live performances, and its Asbury Park delivery on Friday carried a clear local resonance for an audience at a venue blocks from the boardwalk. Rolling Stone

Bleachers is the project of Jack Antonoff, a producer and songwriter whose credits span work with artists including Lana Del Rey, with whom Bleachers collaborated on the song 'Secret Life'. The Shadow of the City festival, which Antonoff founded, has served as a recurring launch point for the band's touring cycles since its first edition. Rolling Stone

For the crowd at the Stone Pony Summer Stage, the combination was a straightforward draw: a local icon turning up on a local stage to sing songs that already connected the two acts. Springsteen walked on, the band played, and the audience got a version of 'Chinatown' that had not been heard live in six years alongside a 'Jersey Girl' delivered in the town the name implies.