Pop Break Live: The Jukebox Criminals at The Asbury Lanes in Asbury Park, New Jersey
On January 10, The Jukebox Criminals put on a raucous party to celebrate its 10th anniversary. Corey Dean, Jack Hall, Ryan Hall, Ryan McKenna, and Sean McKenna hit the Asbury Lanes stage for two and a half hours playing a mix of funk, pop punk, ska punk, R&B, rock, and hip hop favorites.
After a few songs, including Blink-182s “The Rock Show,” the band noticed the crowd was merely tapping along to the songs. To get the crowd going, The Jukebox Criminals pulled out Walk the Moon’s “Shut Up and Dance” and the crowd did. Throughout the night, the audience felt the music more and more, culminating in an unprovoked conga line throughout Asbury Lanes.
While The Jukebox Criminals mostly performed high energy covers of ’90s to 2010s rock songs, the band threw in some curveballs. Among covers that stayed fairly true to the original, such as its cover of “Fly” by Sugar Ray, the band creatively performed a funk cover of Smash Mouth’s “All Star. The other stand out of the night was a ska-punk cover of “You Can Call Me Al,” which turned a Paul Simon song into a song that would be at home on a Less Than Jake album.
The Jukebox Criminals also put their spin on Bruno Mars’ “Treasure,” The Mighty Mighty Bosstones “The Impression That I Get,” Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now,” The B-52s “Love Shack,” Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines,” Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk,” Outcast’s “Hey Ya,” The Beastie Boys “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party!), and more.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Asbury Park without an appearance from the Boss or one of his songs. To close the night, The Jukebox Criminals performed Bruce Springsteen’s “Badlands.”
If you love to party and rock out to high energy covers of 90-2010s rock songs mixed with some funk, The Jukebox Criminals will keep you dancing all night long.
