This week for What Where When-sday, we have a famous actor paying tribute to a rock legend. Hank Azaria brings his EZ Street Band to the Franklin Theatre tomorrow night. The acclaimed actor and voice artist, best known for his decades of work on The Simpsons, will be using his talents to celebrate Bruce Springsteen. Azaria spent months creating an impression of Bruce’s speaking and singing voice. In an interview with WNXP, Azara said that the concert experience is more than just a night of cover songs.
“We are trying to be the best possible tribute band we can be,” Azaria said. “We’re trying to recreate the sound of the E Street Band with songs that I love and have loved from my soul since I was about 12. I’m trying to sound as much like Bruce as I can. I’ve been imitating the way Bruce speaks since I as a kid. I started telling stories as Bruce to introduce the songs. My gig as a character actor has been adopting voices and creating a persona from that voice, and this Bruce impression is no exception.”
He continues: “I debuted this on my 60th birthday to cheer myself up like a reverse surprise party. I told my friends who were Springsteen fans that had this great tribute band coming in, but I didn’t tell them that I was working for months to be the front man for it. For folks who may not know “Streets of Fire,” or “Darkness on the Edge of Town” where I connect that to my recovery, I’m a sober guy for 19 years. I just wanted to give people context for the songs that may not have had them or may not have known them. That turned into this show telling about what the songs mean to me as Bruce. I debated for a long time whether that would be weird, and it is kind of weird, but it kind of works.”
He also tells us what Springsteen and Julia Roberts have in common and what the Boss himself thinks of the EZ Street Band. For the full interview with Hank Azaria, check out our podcast feed.
This week in live music:
Tonight (July 9) with The Psychedelic Furs at Brooklyn Bowl. Tomorrow night (July 10) Music Trivia with WNXP is at the Blue Room. On Friday (July 11) Yo La Tengo and Built to Spill performing at the Ryman. Back at the Blue Room on Saturday night (July 12) is Nashville rapper Mike Floss. More local music is happening on Saturday with Tristen performing at Soft Junk, and wrapping up this week’s listings on Tuesday (July 15) is Kesha at Ascend.
