Bruce Springsteen joined Bleachers onstage during their recent Asbury Park gig to perform ‘Jersey Girl’ and ‘Chinatown’. Watch the footage below.
The Boss teamed up with the Jack Antonoff-led band on ‘Chinatown’ in late 2020. That December, the two New Jersey acts recorded a stripped-back rendition of the song on the roof of Electric Lady Studios in New York City.
After that acoustic version, they performed it together once before its fully electric form in 2022, and now have teamed up again during Bleachers’ hometown show at Shadow of the City Festival on Friday (August 28).
“There’s nothin’ like playing at home. There’s nothing like being 16 years old and having to sell a certain amount of tickets so you can play inside the Pony, and it’s just your cousins at the show,” Jack Antonoff told the crowd. “There’s nothing like playing in the place you wrote the songs from. There’s nothing like going through a lot, then being reunited with your people. It means the world, everybody. It means the world to be supported by you and my friends and my family.”
As Antonoff began playing a cover of Tom Waits’ ‘Jersey Girl’ (which was famously covered by Springsteen in 1985), the rock icon walked out on stage to join him. They then launched into a rendition of ‘Chinatown’. Watch below.
The Boss’ own ‘Land Of Hope And Dreams’ tour wrapped up in Philadelphia in May, a trek inspired by his objection to the Donald Trump administration and ICE’s killing of two citizens in Minnesota. Trump called on his supporters to boycott the “overpriced concerts”, while Springsteen branded him a “President who can’t handle the truth” at the first show.
In July, Springsteen made a surprise appearance during Bon Jovi’s Madison Square Garden show, joining them for ‘Who Says You Can’t Go Home’ and ‘The Promised Land’.
Earlier this month, the Boss also revealed that his wife and fellow E Street Band musician Patti Scialfa was in remission from cancer. “As you know, Patti’s been living with her multiple myeloma for over eight years, but now thankfully she is in remission,” he said.
Scialfa first publicly discussed her 2018 diagnosis in the 2024 documentary Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band, explaining that the condition had weakened her immune system and led to limited appearances for her on tour.
A for Bleachers, they released their new album ‘Everyone For 10 Minutes‘ back in May, and are due to embark on their biggest Europe and UK headline tour this November.
Antonoff and co. will kick off proceedings in Milan on November 5. Further shows are scheduled in Munich, Berlin, Oslo, Stockholm, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris throughout the month.
From there, Bleachers will head to the UK and Ireland for performances in Bristol, Glasgow, Leeds, Birmingham, Dublin and Manchester. The tour is set to conclude with a gig at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, London, on December 3.
Tickets are available for purchase here, and £1/€1 from each ticket sold will be donated to The Ally Coalition to support LGBTQ+ youth.
