Max Weinberg talks with Jill Riley ahead of Red Wing show
by Kayla Song
October 31, 2019
Best known for his participation in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, drummer and TV personality Max Weinberg will be at Red Wing's Sheldon Theatre for an eclectic show centered on the concept of a jukebox. For the show, appropriately titled "Max Weinberg's Jukebox," Weinberg and his New Jersey bandmates won't be the ones in control of the setlist — the audience will be.
"It's a party, it's not really a concert," Weinberg explains. "It's where the audience gets to pick all the songs. I don't think it's quite ever been done before like this, where we have a video screen that is a constant roll of songs."
Throughout the night, the audience will have the opportunity to literally call the shots, shouting out the songs they want the band to play. Covering everything from the Beatles to the Stones to Springsteen and older songs, Weinberg has prepared a night to bring back the 1950s, '60s, '70s and '80s.
"You might get a Tommy Tutone request — Night Moves, Bob Seger, so it's very eclectic," Weinberg tells The Current's Jill Riley. "And judging from the 200 shows we've done in the last two years, it's popular. People really enjoy the concept."
However, it's no surprise that in the chaos of the show, someone will come up with a song that is not on the setlist. According to Weinberg, if one of the band members knows it, he's confident in his ability to "pretty much fake the drum part."
"Coming up in New Jersey playing all the bars and joints that I did when I was younger, you had to know how to fake music because you were playing from nine to three in the morning, sometimes five to six nights a week," he explains. "So if someone called out a song, the Jersey approach was to [say] 'Oh yeah yeah, we know that.'"
It's those experiences of on-the-spot improvisation during his youth and from the 17 years he led the band on Late Night with Conan O'Brien that Weinberg is drawing for this show. "All these experiences I've had, and skills you might say, that I've developed over my career, I'm bringing to bear in this show where I'm the drummer but I'm also the frontman," Weinberg says.
Some of the most frequently requested songs that Weinberg definitely doesn't need to "fake" are from his days with Springsteen, like "Thunder Road," "Fire" (which is a favorite of his, he tells Riley),"Pink Cadillac" and "Dancing in the Dark."
"I'm 12 years old again, you know, in my parents' attic banging on the drums, and that's the kind of feeling I hope to transmit to people: that what I do isn't particularly complicated, but it's always a lot of fun," Weinberg says about his experience on stage.
The scene of Weinberg drumming in his youth is similar to that of his son, Jay Weinberg, who also took up drumming, becoming so good that he is now the drummer for heavy-metal band Slipknot. But it was only after he gave up his sights on a career as a professional hockey player that he began to practice drum solos by Metallica and (incidentally) Slipknot.
"[Hockey] was all he thought about from the age of 8 to 15, and then he sort of picked up the drums," Weinberg says about the start of his son's drumming career. "He taught himself how to play the drums; I had nothing to do with it.
"I actually like it when people come up to me and say, 'You're Jay Weinberg's dad!' That's the best feeling of all," Weinberg continues. "He's so far beyond me, it's really pretty unbelievable but that's what you hope for your children."
While his son is currently on a world tour for Slipknot's latest album We Are Not Your Kind, Weinberg is excited for his own show this Saturday at the Sheldon Theatre which will also be "over the map."
"The energy and enthusiasm — the chaos is all part of the show," he says.
Use the audio player above to listen to Jill Riley's interview with Max Weinberg.
External Links
Max Weinberg - official site
Max Weinberg's Jukebox - Sheldon Theatre site
