THE EXPRESS, MAKING LOCAL STOPS
Not-so-tiny Tim: McLoone looms large over the downtown crowd as Holiday Express presides over the 2008 Town Lighting event in Red Bank.
By TOM CHESEK
There’s Bruce, and there’s Bon Jovi — two guys who epitomize the words Local Boys Made Good. A couple of cats who continue to sell records and concert tickets as if there was still such a thing as a music industry.
There’s another side to the Bruce Jovi dynamic, too — that friendly competition to see who can be the biggest do-gooder; that most generous patron of food banks and shelters and mewling kittens stranded in trees. It’s a competition that generates its own self-sustaining momentum — think Mantle and Maris ‘61.
So, yes, they’ve Made Good, and they’ve Done Good, and whether it’s by auctions, contests, scalpers, or donations to a cause, people get their hands on those tickets by any means available.
But there’s another act out there whose live dates are awaited just as breathlessly. Unless you’re willing to work, however, forget about following the tour — admission to the majority of these shows is unavailable at any price.
It isn’t that you’re not rich enough, cool enough, or connected enough to score tix. It’s just that when Holiday Express puts together its November-December schedule, it’s a slate of performances that take place not in Giants Stadium, but in such venues as children’s hospitals, senior care facilities, group homes for the disabled and other places where you’ll find what founding father Tim McLoone has referred to as the “adult orphans” among us.
That’s the core of what Holiday Express does — some fifty shows, sometimes three in one day, and many in places that most people would rather not think about at all, not even during the holidays.
Fortunately, the Holiday Express music machine and the year-round volunteer organization that stands behind it are hardly the sorts that prefer to fly, Santa-like, beneath the radar. They’re more apt to make their presence known through a series of joyously jingling public concerts, keynoted by the annual free outdoor set at Red Bank’s Town Lighting held every Black Friday.
This Tuesday and Thursday nights, the Express roars back into the borough for what’s become another Yuletide tradition — a pair of fundraising concerts that promise to shake the chandeliers of a newly unwrapped gift box called the Count Basie Theatre.
Tim McLoone, at center stage, skippers the Holiday Express band during the 2008 Town Lighting in downtown Red Bank.
The Basie stand, which has been happening for the better part of fifteen years, has included two performances by popular demand since 2006. If you’ve ever done a bit of “trainspotting” at an Express gig, you know what to expect — a towering, Spectorian Wall of Sound of thrilling scale, generated by a rotating squadron of more than 70 Jersey-fresh musicians and vocalists. A set list that draws from every corner of the Christmas village, from the sacred and serene (”O Little Town of Bethlehem,” “Silent Night”) to the secular and silly (”Run Rudolph Run,” “Frosty the Snowman”). And the glee? Make no mistake — you will know the glee.
The band, by the way, is a truly stellar affair that features the talents of Asbury Jukes Bobby Bandiera (who’s a bit busy himself putting together the big Hope Concert IV on December 22) and Ed Manion, as well as Springsteen backing vocalists Delores and Layonne Holmes, and a lot of people who are normally headliners in their own right — Melissa Chill, Beth Anne Clayton, Pat Guadagno. It’s a group that’s known beyond the borders of the Garden State for its 1999 visit to tragedy-scarred Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, as well as its 2005 tour of the Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast.
We’ve said this several times before, but it bears repeating that for many people, McLoone and his organization have come to represent a Good Neighbor Sam kind of America that many refused to believe had died; a place where artificial divisions of class, creed and corrosive ideology break down — and where even as goofy a tune as “Disco Santa” can itself break down all resistance with its message of brotherhood and generosity of spirit.
As McLoone has been the first to admit, the onstage band gets the lion’s share of attention simply because it “makes the most noise,” even though it’s just one component in an all-volunteer, non-sectarian force of goodwill that exists largely behind the scenes.
In fact, the all-around renaissance guy is of the rather contrarian opinion that the big stage shows (at Newark’s NJPAC as well as at the Basie) do not truly represent the “interactive experience” of a visit by Holiday Express — a stomping, clapping, singalong experience that’s been known to completely alter the mood of some fairly grim places.
What the theatre shows accomplish is to maintain awareness and raise funds for the nonprofit organization’s ongoing efforts on behalf of our region’s neediest and most neglected neighbors. The Express website counts more than 600 volunteers as active in the organization — adults and kids who do everything from packing gift bags, loading trucks and setting up for the shows, to dancing and “giving hugs and smiles.”
This Express, of course, runs a year-round schedule, presenting such events as summertime barbecues in inner-city neighborhoods, and an annual golf outing that’s proven to be a popular fundraising vehicle in its own right. Mostly, the volunteers work quietly at the nonprofit’s warehouse facility off Shrewsbury Avenue in Tinton Falls; gathering and sorting gifts to be distributed at year’s end, and working the phones for those crucial private donations.
Meanwhile, Holiday Express continue to make the rounds, anywhere that its dazzling Wall of Sound can make some small bit of difference. Tim McLoone, by the way, also appears with his “summer” band The Shirleys, on the bill of Bandiera’s big Hope Concert next Monday — a cast that further features Jon Bon Jovi, Southside Johnny, Gary U.S. Bonds, Nicole Atkins and more. Still more to come on that show; tickets for the two Holiday Express shows in Red Bank are priced from $25 to $100, and can be reserved at the Basie’s online box office.
Tomorrow in oRBit: Christmas concert week continues, with Nancy Scharff and about 199 (and counting) close friends.
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December 15, 2008
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