The Hope Concert III

Last Friday night, I attended The Hope Concert III, which is organized by one of my favorite musicians Bobby Bandiera. As always, there a great line up was put together, but we found out earlier in the week that Bruce probably would not be attending. That said, the line up still included Jon Bon Jovi, Southside Johnny, Gary US Bonds, Mark Pender, La Bamba, and Tim McCloone.

This year's show was to benefit The Valerie Fund, which helps families deal with leukemia. Tim McCloone's teenage son Jack suffers from the disease. As I said during the show, if there is one person on earth who deserves a healthy family, it's Tim. He does so much charity work through Holiday Express that Jon Bon Jovi described him as "the closest thing we have to a saint here in Monmouth County."

It was great to see all of the guys come out and support the cause. As always, these shows are a celebration, dating back to the first one I attended, which was the Concert for Sgt. Pat King in 1998. Hard to believe that it's been 10 years. The music was great as always with the highlights being Bobby doing "Bridge Over Troubled Waters", JBJ and Southside doing "Broke Down Piece of Man", JBJ's amazing rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", and so many others.

After the show, Sammy and I hit the after party at Beuna Sera. Sammy worked the show, so I was totally in on his coattails, as usual. So after bs'ing for a few minutes with our pal, and master of the keys, Jeff Kazee (http://www.myspace.com/jeffkazeemusic), I found myself near the food (shocking) at the same time as Jon Bon Jovi. So I couldn't resist and I asked him, as an owner of a football team and a Giants fan, what he thought of Tom Coughlin. What proceeded was a pretty in-depth conversation regarding the coach, the quarterback, and the overall direction of the New York Football Giants. It was pretty cool to have such a down to earth conversation with a guy I have seen in concert countless times and who is a worldwide rock star and celebrity. For a good part of the conversation, he was just a guy from Jersey who was a fan just like me. Then, I told him that my choice when they hired Coughlin would have been Charlie Weiss, the current coach at Notre Dame. He then reminded me that he and Charlie are good friends and that he can't understand why he signed a 10 year contract to stay in South Bend.

The funniest part of the night is when Kazee came over and introduced Sammy to Jon. They chatted about The Garden for a few minutes and then when Jon turned his head to talk to someone else, I asked Kazee if I was chopped liver because he hadn't introduced me also. He assumed that since Jon and I were having such an in-depth conversation, that he and I knew each other. I knew Jeff wasn't being rude, but couldn't resist breaking his chops a little.

All in all...another great night at the shore with great music and great friends.

JN