What a way to kick off the Memorial Day weekend and the start of summer. Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes rolled into town for a show at Club Infinity in Williamsville, NY on May 24 2008 for a devoted and rapturous audience. Southside and The Jukes had not been in the Queen City area since opening up the 2005 Thursday at the Square concert series. The concert was a benefit for the FBI scholarship fund for officer's families who have been killed in the line of duty and featured an all day show with many local bands on the bill as well. The Jukes two hour set featured a nice mix of older and newer material from their storied thirty plus year career even though Southside proclaimed jet lag after having returned from Europe two days earlier. Having risen from the same Jersey shore music scene that gave us Bruce Springsteen, Little Steven and many other bands, Southside always was the most soulful of the bunch relying more on horns and rhythm and blues than straight out rock. Starting the set with "Rhumba & Coke" they tore thru amazing versions of "I Played the Fool", "Love on the Wrong Side of Town" and "Hard to Find" for the first four numbers. Seemingly without coming up for air they followed that with "Lost", "Walk Away Renee", "Gin Soaked Boy" and "Talk to Me". Next was a cover of James Brown's "Cold Sweat" followed by the Jukes classic "Without Love". A few other highlights included "Baby's Gone For Good" "Trapped Again", "Till The Good is Gone" , the Springsteen written "Fever" and "Better Way Home". They returned for a two song encore of "I Don't Want To Go Home' and Havin' A Party" before calling it an evening. Some of the local bands turning in impressive opening sets were The Mark Winsick Band, Harvey and the Hurricanes, Weekend and The Chris Squire Band. For more information on Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes check out www.southsidejohnny.com