Glenn Tilbrook Played The Wonder Bar with River City Extension's Joe Michelini, 10/12/13

"Best of Times"

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that Squeeze's Singles -- 45's and Under is one of the best compilation albums ever put together by any band. It came out when I was 12 or 13 years old, and all of the songs on that record are a big part of the soundtrack of my teens. Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook crafted some of the most enduring new wave pop masterpieces of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Fans of that record and all of Squeeze's proper albums, like me, were out in force last night to see Glenn Tilbrook play The Wonder Bar in Asbury Park. MomVee and her husband joined CoolMom and me for the second weekend in a row; and, for once, I think we may have been part of the evening's younger contingent.

Now, I obviously go to a lot of shows. A lot of those shows are concerts by bands that I enjoyed in my youth or young adult years. What happens often at those types of shows is that you end up with a performer or a band running through their hits from twenty years ago, pleasing the crowd but appearing less than enthused about the whole thing. Glenn Tilbrook and his band, on the other hand, employed an array of interesting instruments and displayed obvious excitement and enthusiasm about their new material.

Percussionist Simon Hanson played "$10 bongos," an upside down storage bin, and a child's toy xylophone. Multi-instrumentalist Chris McNally played a baritone ukelele, keys, and a harmonium. Each took turns singing lead on songs they'd co-written with Tilbrook, who -- in addition to taking turns behind the drums, on the uke, and on keyboards -- sampled and played back the crowd from his iPad and astonished everyone with some serious acoustic guitar heroics.

Tilbrook peppered the set with versions of Squeeze songs like "Up the Junction," "Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)," "Annie Get Your Gun," and "Black Coffee in Bed," and the crowd ate it all up. But he also played selections off of his upcoming solo record and 2008's Pandemonium Ensues with The Fluffers. Tilbrook's trademark vocals and virtuoso guitar anchored much of the more recent material.

Joe Michelini of Toms River's River City Extension opened the evening and had his share of fans in the hometown audience. He previewed four songs from River City Extension's upcoming LP, Deliverance, and did acoustic versions of "Golden Tongue," "Today I Feel Like I'm Evolving," and "Ballad of Oregon." He joined Tilbrook's band to close out the night with raucous performances of Squeeze classics "Take Me I'm Yours" and "Goodbye Girl." Tilbrook played guitar and iPad, while Michelini -- also on guitar -- took on his wild, River City Extension frontman persona.

Those in attendance last night got to see a talented young songwriter who just continues to get better in Joe Michelini and a pop master still near the top of his game -- and apparently enjoying every minute of it -- in Glenn Tilbrook.