Music fans on the Boardwalk in Ocean City, NJ walk in the sun towards the historic Ocean City Music Pier this Monday, July 17, 2026 evening for a concert at the Jersey Shore by singer/songwriter Bruce Hornsby and his band, The Noisemakers.
Standing near the theater marquee, Paul from Ventnor relates, “I’ve been a fan of Bruce Hornsby since the 1980s. I first heard him play with his original group, Bruce Hornsby and the Range, and then during my college years I saw him play many times with The Grateful Dead. Altogether, I’ve seen Bruce between ten and fifteen times and I’m really looking forward to his show tonight — I love his songwriting, his singing, and his keyboard playing; he’s a true artist.”
Rene from Lambertville recalls, “I’ve been listening to Bruce since I was in college in the ‘80s and I still have his albums on vinyl even though I no longer have a record player. I’m so excited to be here because this is the first time I’ll ever see him live!” Adds Rene’s husband, Steven, “We enjoy listening to his music on the radio and I love his piano playing so I’m looking forward to his show here on the Boardwalk tonight.”
Inside the Ocean City Music Pier auditorium, the crowd applauds as Bruce Hornsby, 71, makes his way onto the stage along with The Noisemakers — J.V. Collier on bass, Chad Wright on drums, John Mailander on fiddle/mandolin, Gibb Droll on guitar, and J.T. Thomas on keyboards.
Hornsby opens tonight’s show with an improvised piano prelude which leads into “Indigo Park,” the title track from his latest album, where he sings, “Oh let these days be your delight, captured in rhythm and rhyme,” on this pop-rock tune with a funk feel.
Chad Wright creates flurries of percussive rhythms on the drums as Hornsby provides melodic counterpoint on the piano before segueing into “Barren Ground.” Hornsby chants, “Good seed don’t grow/On the barren ground,” on this roots rock tune which features a lyrical Gibb Droll guitar solo and an earnest vocal improvisation on the coda from Hornsby which elicits hoots and hollers from the crowd.
“Thanks so much!” responds Hornsby, prior to announcing, “We’re just gonna keep rolling here!” Here, he and the band leap into “Sunflower Cat” where Hornsby lays down the song’s infectious funky piano part and the band kicks in. Droll and Hornsby trade percussive licks, John Mailander adds the sound of a country fiddle to the mix, and Bruce segues into and out of 2Pac’s “California Love” before the audience cries, “Whoo!” following the song’s appealing “In my dreams I can fly, fly high/Over the fields and across the sky” chorus.
Moving on to a song from his debut Bruce Hornsby and The Range album, The Way It Is, audience members nod their heads and tap their toes to “Every Little Kiss.” Following its appealing “When the day goes down on the water town” refrain, Mailander is featured on a mandolin solo and Hornsby provides a slowed-down piano/vocal version of the arrangement before the band rhythmically jams its way towards the coda.
“That’s the first time we’ve ever played it like that,” acknowledges Bruce, prior to noting, “I’m gonna stay here on that first record which came out 40 years ago and play my favorite song.” Migrating into “The Red Plains,” vocal harmonies ring out on the song’s “Staring out on the red plains” refrain before Hornsby executes a solo filled with intricate piano runs on this anthemic heartland rock tune.
Melancholy piano starts off a Caribbean-inspired arrangement of “Cast Off” where Hornsby sings with feeling, “I’ll be your cast-off/Be your discarded toy,” before vocally riffing on The O’Jays’ 1972 hit “Backstabbers.”
Hornsby acknowledges, “I wrote this next song with Don Henley,” as he renders a melodious piano improvisation which leads into a reimagined R&B rendition of “The End of the Innocence.” After crying, “Offer up your best defense/But this is the end/This is the end of the innocence,” JT Thomas’ swirling organ is featured and Hornsby contributes a baroque-style polyphonic solo on the piano before the band segues into a slow, funky, and bluesy arrangement of the tune.
While the crowd cheers, Hornsby laughs as he explains, “That’s why we learn to play the heck out of our instruments so we can do anything we want at any time!”
Moving on to another cut from Indigo Park, Hornsby and Co. perform “Might As Well Be Me, Florinda” which opens with a flurry of dissonance before morphing into a New Orleans style jazz tune. Bruce and the band follow up with “Never in this House,” a poignant ballad where Hornsby sings with feeling, “Someday, somewhere/In this house, I’ll dream and you will hear/All our problems disappear.”
A fast-moving atonal piano prelude leads into an improvisational version of Hornsby’s 1986 #1 hit, “The Way It Is.” Following the song’s “That’s just the way it is/Some things will never change” refrain, Bruce contributes a contrapuntal keyboard solo and the arrangement shifts to a reggae feel where Thomas adds a whistling organ solo.
Hornsby announces, “We want to play a couple of dulcimer songs,” as he leaves his spot at the piano and takes a seat at the front of the stage where he’s joined by Mailander on mandolin and Wright on washboard for the gospel-like Americana number, “Celestial Railroad.”
They follow up with a tune which Hornsby says he wrote about his “twin sons who had imaginary friends when they were about four or five years old.” On the folk-rocking “Shadowhand,” Hornsby croons, “I’m shaking my shadow hand/As the sun moves round the bend/With an imaginary man,” prior to segueing into a lyrical rendition of Cat Stevens’ “Moonshadow.”
As Hornsby returns to the piano, fans call out requests and Hornsby selects “Walk in the Sun.” After singing the song’s “Someone come, come my someone” refrain on this island-influenced arrangement, Hornsby impresses with a piano solo which features rapid machine-gun-like rhythms on the keyboard.
The crowd stands and cheers and Hornsby signals, “One more song?” Concertgoers react in the affirmative and Hornby ends tonight’s show with a slow and soulful rendition of his 1987 Top 5 Bruce Hornsby and the Range hit, “Mandolin Rain.” The audience reacts with a standing ovation and Hornsby responds, “Thank you so much, you’ve been a great audience!”
As fans make their way out of the auditorium, several comment on tonight’s performance by Bruce Hornsby. Remarks Paul from Williamstown, “I’ve been listening to Bruce since the ‘80s. I’ve seen him several times and he was great tonight — just amazing! He really knows how to improvise, take us wherever he wants to go, and then swing right back to where we were when we first came in.”
Recalls Patty from Houston, TX, “I’ve been a fan since the ‘80s, but this was my first time seeing him live. I love how he took the music and enhanced it so it wasn’t like he was just playing a song. Usually when I listen to Bruce, I listen to his recordings, but tonight I found myself thinking that I’d much rather be listening to him play live because, live, he takes every single song to another level.”
Confesses Julie from Harleysville, PA, “I’m a new fan of Bruce Hornsby, but I’ve followed his guitarist, Gibb Droll, for a long time — since the early ‘90s — and he’s a great rock and blues player.” Recalling, “I got this Gibb Droll T-shirt I’m wearing at a concert back in the ‘90s when Gibb was just starting out,” Julie discloses, “I’ve kept it all these years — it’s the only concert T-shirt I own — and before the show, Gibb saw me wearing it and autographed it for me which is so great because today’s my birthday!”
Sharon, a musician from Asbury Park, declares, “I’ve been a fan of Bruce Hornsby forever! Those first songs of his that we heard on the radio back in the ‘80s are very beautiful and heartfelt songs, but over the past 20 years I’ve really been listening to the diversity of his work and the amazing things he can do on the piano.” Recalling, “I’ve seen Bruce many times over the years and each show is completely different,” Sharon concludes by suggesting, “He has a childlike nature that comes out in his playing and the camaraderie he has with the men on stage is such a beautiful collaborative thing which shows that Bruce is not only a great musician but a great bandleader, too.”
Lastly, Peter from Tuckerton reveals, “I’ve been listening to Bruce for a long time and the thing I admire most about him is that he will play with anybody. There are musicians who are elitists who will say, for instance, that there’s nothing except jazz that’s worth playing, but Bruce Hornsby will play anything with anybody,” prior to concluding, “He’s just amazing!”
To learn more about Bruce Hornsby, please go to brucehornsby.com. For info on great upcoming concerts at Ocean City Music Pier — including The Outlaws plus Duane Betts and Palmetto Motel on August 10, Todd Rundgren on August 11, The Indigo Girls on August 17, The Temptations on August 18, and 10,000 Maniacs on August 24 — please go to ocnj.us.
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