New Jersey residents usually have an ingrained reverence for Bruce Springsteen, but that doesn’t seem to be the case for one Jersey Shore bar owner. After The Boss turned his latest European tour into a fiery rebuke of Donald Trump, Riv’s Toms River Hub in Toms River, NJ canceled a scheduled performance by Springsteen cover band No Surrender, with the owner deeming the show “too risky at the moment.”
The nine-piece group was set to play Riv’s on May 30th, but shortly after Springsteen’s remarks at the opening of his “The Land of Hope & Dreams Tour,” band members began receiving texts from concerned owner Tony Rivoli (yes, his real name). According to NJ.com, Rivoli messaged bassist Guy Fleming that Toms River and his establishment’s base “is red and won’t stand for [Springsteen’s] bullshit.”
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Bandleader Brad Hobicorn suggested they could play the gig under their old name, Asbury Fever, with a set of classic rock covers excluding Springsteen. However, Rivoli refused to pay the $2,500 rate for a non-Springsteen show. “This is not political for us at all,” Hobicorn told NJ.com. “We’re just a cover band that’s trying to make some money and people rely on it financially. We’re the ones really getting hurt.”
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“Unfortunately it’s just too much money,” Rivoli texted Hobicorn. “I wanted to do the Springsteen tribute for that money [and] my social media team would have promoted it we would have done well but now because Bruce can’t keep his mouth shut we’re screwed.”
Rivoli, however, told NJ.com that he never officially canceled the gig, and that “as of Wednesday” would have allowed No Surrender to play. After No Surrender publicized the cancellation in now-deleted social media posts, Rivoli did offer to let them play as planned, but the band felt “negative vibes about the whole thing” and that there was now “a safety concern.” They’ve since been booked at Headliner Oasis in Neptune Township, another red area just 30 minutes away from Toms River, on May 30th. See all their upcoming dates here.
This isn’t the first time Rivoli’s conservative politics have brought his business bad press. Although his previous establishment, Rivoli’s Restaurant, closed in 2016, images resurfaced in 2020 of the restaurant’s sign reading, “I can breathe, I obey law,” a reference to the death of Eric Garner. Rivoli publicly apologized.
Springsteen himself, meanwhile, has continued to use his stage to speak out against Trump, even releasing The Land of Hope and Dreams EP featuring recently recorded songs and speeches from his ongoing tour. Trump has responded with memes and petty threats. Consequence’s own Managing Editor Wren Graves and Publisher Alex Young discussed the feud in our latest Consequence Chat.
