B Street Hits Stage at Hot Summer Nights

Summit's Hot Summer Nights concert series neat feature the B Street Band, the original Bruce Springsteen tribute band, July 27 at 7 p.m. B Street is one of the oldest tribute bands in the country, having been playing Springsteen hits since 1980.

"Last I checked, there were about 160,000 tribute bands in America," said B Street keyboardist Willie Forte. "But we were one of the first."

Back in the 70s, when Forte was playing clubs and bars, he realized that bands had to do something different to be noticed. He thought there was a niche in playing Springsteen songs. Thirty years later, it looks like he was right.

"You had to be original or do something to separate yourself from the pack," he said.

B Street is a six-man operation. Glenn Stuart is the singer and Forte plays keyboard. Rounding out the band are the four Steves: Barr (lead guitar), Lopresto (bass), Meyers (saxophone) and Pozzelanti (drums). Barr and Forte are founding members of the band, and Stuart has been with B Street for almost as long. Meyers, Lopresto and Pozzelanti are relative newcomers.

"Glenn's not a clone, but he does resemble Bruce," said Forte. "We never do a note-for-note show; we always put our own spin on things."

B Street has had plenty of practice. Seven years ago, they started playing private events, and have averaged 225 shows a year. Though they've played once-in-a-lifetime venues like the New York Stock Exchange and governor inaugurations (including Christie's), Forte says he'd still like to play at Madison Square Garden. He says concerts like Summit's Hot Summer Nights are some of the band's favorites to play.

"We love interactive jobs, when people can dance in front of us," said Forte. "It's more fun when people are expressing their emotions (instead of just sitting in a theater). We love to bring people on stage."

B Street is happy to take requests, and Forte suggests that audience members make signs with the names of songs they'd like to hear. Amazingly, they never make a set list and usually just wing it. Forte admits it's not easy to get new members acclimated to this style, but they always manage to make it work.

"It keeps us fresh, keeps everyone on their toes," said Forte. "I'm very proud of that."

B Street's career has grown alongside Springsteen's. The band has played with The Boss on many occasions and has his endorsement. Since they've been playing Springsteen's songs for 30 years, B Street and Springsteen are on the same wavelength. For example, when Springsteen's "Magic" album was released, B Street played songs from it at BB King's in Manhattan the night before a Springsteen concert. One of the songs did not have a suitable ending for a live show, so Forte tried to think like Bruce and wrote one. The next night, Springsteen played a very similar ending to the one Forte wrote.

"Bruce has been a really good guy to us," said Forte.