Hank Azaria & The EZ Street Band to Perform at The Stone Pony
originally published: 08/13/2024
(ASBURY PARK, NJ) -- Six-time Emmy Award winner, Screen Actors Guild Award winner, and Tony Award nominee Hank Azaria will bring his Bruce Springsteen Tribute, Hank Azaria & The EZ Street Band, to the Stone Pony on Friday, November 15, 2024. Showtime is 7:00pm.
Azaria celebrated the public debut of his Bruce Springsteen Tribute, Hank Azaria & The EZ Street Band, with a sold-out concert at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC on August 1st. The joy in the room, and Azaria’s camaraderie with the audience, was palpable.
In a concert review in Observer, Dylan Roth praised, “The debut public performance of Hank Azaria and the EZ Street Band, which sold out Le Poisson Rouge in Lower Manhattan, was a lively and heartfelt 80-minute celebration—not just of Springsteen’s music, but of the impact it has had on Azaria’s life. Azaria used the character of the Boss to revisit his triumphs and exorcize some personal demons, telling his own story in Bruce’s voice.”
Tickets for the Stone Pony show are available for purchase online starting August 14 at 10:00am. The show is open to all ages. The Stone Pony is located at 913 Ocean Avenue in Asbury Park, New Jersey.
About nine months ago “I had the crazy idea that I would like to sing some Springsteen songs to surprise people at my 60th birthday party,” explained Azaria on his website. So hecalled his son’s former jazz piano teacher, Adam Kromelow, who played in a Genesis tribute band, and asked him if he could put together a band. “At first I wasn't sure I could capture Bruce’s singing voice– talking like him is no problem, I mean, that’s my day job!”
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Azaria got obsessed with singing as exactly like Bruce as he could. He practiced every day for about 6 months, trying songs, abandoning them, circling back, and each time feeling like he was getting closer and closer to actually sounding a lot like his boyhood idol. About 4 months into this obsession, after driving his wife and son nearly insane with his constant “scream singing” around the house, “something ‘unlocked’ in my voice– I kind of couldn't believe how Bruce-like it sounded!”
Azaria felt confident enough in the band that he invited none other than the actual drummer for the E Street Band, Mighty Max Weinberg, to sit in at their first live performance at City Winery in front of a crowd of over 550 people. And Max did! In fact Max called it “the best Springsteen tribute band he’s ever seen.”
“I’ve never worked harder preparing for any role than I did in perfecting a singing vocal impression of Bruce Springsteen,” admitted Azaria.
Azaria is an acclaimed voice artist, perhaps best known for his decades of work on The Simpsons. Now he’s using his voice in a new and different way, and having a blast entertaining people in a live, concert setting. Azaria spent months creating an impression of Bruce’s distinctive speaking cadence and singing ‘voice’ to conceive the tribute show. As Azaria told Rolling Stone, “I think of it as a theatrical performance,” he says. “I’m staying in character as Bruce even though I’m telling stories about myself. It’s a performance piece, but I’m not a Bruce impersonator.”
The tribute performance itself is a joyful, full-tilt rock ’n roll event, and Azaria’s physicality and flair are a true homage to Bruce. Azaria channels many familiar components of Bruce Springsteen’s iconography: intimate, irreverent storytelling, connection to family, preternatural stamina, camaraderie with the band, and a palpable love for performing. Azaria has delivered a show we want to root for - invigorating, upbeat and ambitious.
Hank Azaria most recently starred in Sam Levinson and Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaye’s The Idol, alongside The Weeknd and Lily-Rose Depp on HBO, and Apple TV+’s Hello Tomorrow alongside Billy Crudup. Azaria also appeared in a guest starring role in the fifth and final season of Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon. Previously, he received critical acclaim for starring as Jim Brockmire on the comedy series, Brockmire – which he executive produced and was nominated for three Critics’ Choice Awards for “Best Actor in a Comedy Series.” Additionally, Azaria guest starred on Ray Donovan and won the 2016 Emmy Award and was nominated again the following year for his role. He was also Emmy-nominated for his notable guest starring roles on Friends and Mad About You.
Azaria is well known for being a principal voice actor on The Simpsons, voicing over 100 characters including the iconic Moe Szyslak, Police Chief Wiggum and ComicBook Guy. He has won four Emmy Awards for “Outstanding Voice-Over Performance” and has been nominated for an additional six Emmys. On the big screen, Azaria starred as the scene-stealing housekeeper, Agador Spartacus, in Mike Nichols’ The Birdcage and won a Screen Actors Guild Award as well as received a nomination for his performance. Other film credits include: Godzilla, America's Sweethearts, Love and Other Drugs, Shattered Glass, Heat, The Wizard of Lies, Quiz Show, The Smurfs and The Smurfs 2, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Along Came Polly, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Now and Then, Anastasia, and Pretty Woman.
Azaria recently partnered with Soul Focused Group to create the Human Solidarity Project – a nonprofit initiative that fosters change by providing opportunities and resources to communities in need. Azaria also sits on the board for DREAM Charter Schools which serve thousands of children across East Harlem and the Bronx through a network of free, extended-day, extended-year, and community sports-based youth development programs.
Net proceeds from the upcoming concerts will benefit The Four Through Nine Foundation, which was founded by Azaria and is committed to social justice, education and recovery causes — “I can't think of a better way to spend my time and use my passion for voices than playing these songs for a crowd that loves them and to lovingly pay tribute to Bruce, while raising money for folks who need it.”
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