At The Tabernacle

My friend from Weird New Jersey told me about this place for concerts. I am a huge Ian Hunter fan (Cleveland Rocks, All the Young Dudes) and he and his band were playing there and my buddy was MC'ing the show. It was a no brainer.

At The Tabernacle is in a hilly section near Denville. The town used to be a summertime Methodist get-away back in the day and I mean back in the day. I was told it's sister town is Ocean Grove near Asbury. And that makes sense. Some of the homes were built back in the late 1800's. A real cool place to walk around and check it out.

The venue used to be a small open ended chapel. Now it is enclosed and the Tabernacle holds around 300-350 people at most. Every seat in the house is great and the sound was incredible! They really have everything down pat when it comes to musical shows.

The warm-up act was one of our favorite local mucians, Willie Nile. He and his bass player rocked the crowd. He even played a few new songs from his upcoming CD and they were awesome. I'm buying it when it comes out. Check out Willie...

Then Ian Hunter and his Rant Band. OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The F'in guy was a rock God back in the day with Mott The Hopple. He played with David Bowie and Queen to name a few. Mr. Hunter still has his pipes and the man can play a great guitar and harmonica and even a better piano. He really is a great talent. And his Rant band are extraordinary musicians. An incredible night of Rock n' Roll...

The Tabernacle is the type of venue I love to go to. Up close and personal with some of your favorite musicians.

This was my first time at the Tabernacle and I look forward to the next show at this incredible venue. Check out their web site and go see some great live music. Also, click on past performers who played there...

<a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.atthetabernacle.com%2F&s=965995f901b5479e8f3cbad58b974e8a28b0eb91331e12f3cdd91633f757a5ec" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.atthetabernac…</a>

Surprised no one else has reviewed this place. This is one of the best concert venues around here. Now in its 16th season, last night's show was memorable, a solo performance by Aaron Neville, who, accompanied only by a keyboardist, took the audience on an intimate, 90-min. biographical memoir of his entire career. It's interesting that after starting out very young singing in doo-wop groups, then becoming world-famous in a ferocious New Orleans funk band, he now appeals to an almost entirely white, middle-aged pop audience. But, whatever, despite the body piercings and tattoos on his face, the guy is ethereal. In fact, one fan waiting behind me in line was gushing about how he drove 1,400 miles from Alabama just to see this show.

The way this place works is you order your tickets off their website with PayPal, pick them up up to an hour before the show at will-call, and then stand in a queue until 30 minutes before the performance. Staffers walk up and down the line with trays of free cheese and crackers to snack on while you wait, which is pretty cool. Seating is general admission. There is plenty of room to spread out, but you sit on hard wooden pews, because the place is a former Methodist revival tent. Bring a travel seat cushion if you have one.