MIDDLETOWN – The Middletown Arts Center (MAC) will host at 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 17, an evening with E Street’s Max Weinberg to benefit the Middletown Arts Council.
Theater doors will open at 6:30 p.m. The event will have a talk show-style question-and-answer format followed by a VIP meet-and-greet reception.
A limited sale VIP ticket package will include premium seating and a reception at $75 per guest. General reserved seating is $40. A beer and wine cash bar will be offered. Call 732-706-4100 for tickets. Space is limited.
During the question-and-answer session, event moderator Tom Cunningham, host of the Bruce Brunch, which airs on Sunday mornings at 9 a.m. on 105.7 The Hawk Classic Rock Radio, will engage the audience in conversation with Weinberg and show rare video footage from his career.
Weinberg’s credo is “Show up, do a good job, and give the people more than their money’s worth!”
The Middletown Arts Center is thrilled to have the unique opportunity to host the up-close-and-personal evening with Weinberg to benefit the arts in the township.
Max Weinberg is currently on a world tour with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band and looks forward to talking to audience members about his career, past and present.
Referred to by Robert Palmer of The New York Times as “the rhythmic backbone of The E Street Band,” Weinberg performed on the classic album “Born In The USA,” which put the drummer and the rest of his E Street band members in the record books as having the biggest selling rock album in history.
Citing his work through the years with Springsteen and The E Street Band as, “the attainment of everything a 12-year-old drummer from the suburbs of Jersey ever dared to dream,” Weinberg has kept himself busy for nearly four decades performing with the likes of Paul McCartney, Sting, Tom Jones, Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bono of U2, Levon Helm and the Band. Of particular importance and one of Weinberg’s biggest thrills was backing Tony Bennett on television, a venue where Bennett rarely performed without his own group.
Following the E Street band’s breakup in 1989, Weinberg worked on several different projects, including starting his own record label and a brief attempt at law school. Ultimately, he would find great success as the musical director and bandleader for “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.” Having literally talked his way into the job following a chance meeting with O’Brien on a New York City street, Weinberg put together a top-flight set of musicians to form the Max Weinberg Seven. Weinberg was featured on “Late Night” and the “Tonight Show,“ not only as bandleader, but also as a comic foil to O’Brien, particularly in the show’s sketches.
Weinberg also has worked as a session musician, enjoying particular success in connection with songwriter Jim Steinman. Weinberg drummed on the immensely popular Meatloaf album, “Bat Out Of Hell.” At one point in 1983, he was featured on the number 1 and 2 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse Of The Heart” and Air Supply’s “Making Love Out Of Nothing At All.”
He is also the author of “The Big Beat: Conversations with Rock’s Great Drummers,“ a series of interviews Weinberg conducted over two years with his favorite drummers from different eras including, Ringo Starr, Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones, Levon Helm and Elvis’ original, longtime drummer D.J. Fontana. The book is considered an important addition to rock literature.
Today, he’s back touring with Springsteen and the E Street Band. “The mighty Max Weinberg, star of late-night television, found a place where Bernard Purdy, Buddy Rich and Keith Moon intersected, and he made it his own. I ask and he delivers for me night after night,” Springsteen said.
Visit www.middletown arts.org for more information.
