STONE PONY
Mrowicki, who was manning his usual spot
in the DJ booth. “He said, ‘Let’s try it out
on the crowd,’ and I played the premiere of
‘Dancing in the Dark’ that night.” Springsteen and the E Street Band even played an
unannounced 1984 show to kick off their
mammoth Born in the USA stadium tour.
All the attention helped attract big-name
artists, including Elvis Costello, Blondie, the
Ramones and Gregg Allman, to perform at
the club, but by the late ’80s and early ’90s,
Asbury Park resembled a ghost town, and
the Pony stumbled as the city struggled. A
series of lawsuits over drunk driving, combined with poor financial management
forced the club into bankruptcy. Mrowicki
attempted to lead an effort to purchase the
place in the name of the staff, but was unable to compete with Deal businessman
Steve Nasar, who bought the club, redid its
interior and brought in Pallagrosi to help expand the bookings.
“When it reopened in 1992 after that
first closure, our goal was not to recreate
the old Stone Pony,” says Pallagrosi, who
by this time had left the Jukes and was
promoting concerts at Asbury clubs like
Xanadu and the Fast Lane. “Our goal was
to embrace all the new music that was
coming out and turn it into a pure national-
act venue. I purposely didn’t book South-
side Johnny as our first act. The ’90s at the
Pony brought groups that became major
bands, like Green Day, the Deftones, the
Black Crowes.”
In the vacant space next door that had
been Mrs. Jay’s Beer Garden, the new
owner erected a circus tent known as the
Stone Pony Big Top to host outdoor con-
certs in the summer. Today, outdoor con-
certs are held at the Stone Pony Summer-
stage, which has played host to Jersey-bred
breakouts like Pete Yorn and the Gaslight
Anthem as well as international stars like
Social Distortion and Dropkick Murphys.
Pallagrosi’s strategy helped keep the
club afloat despite Asbury’s decay, but
some locals who had been playing and
working at the club for decades felt it had
drifted from its roots. As the ’90s wore on,
Asbury Park and the club continued to face
a bleak financial landscape, and in 1998,
after a brief attempt at converting it into
a dance club called Vinyl, Nasar shut the
Pony’s doors once again.
The building sat dormant until 2000,
when it was purchased by Jersey City
businessman Domenic Santana, who rec-
ognized the club’s historic significance
and potential value. “When Domenic took
it over, that place was a mess,” says Steve
Schraeger, who performed with Cahoots
and Cold Blast and Steel. He credits San-
tana with saving the club. “They’d been
closed a couple years and had water dam-
age inside; the roof was leaking bad. He
fixed it because it was falling apart.”
Santana, along with former general
manager Eileen Chapman, renovated the
space to reflect its original look and feel,
updating the walls with memorabilia—
from signed guitars to vintage photos to a
giant reproduction of the Greetings From
Asbury Park postcard that adorns Springs-
teen’s debut album cover. “When Domenic
bought the place, he reverted it more back
to its roots and invited classic artists to per-
form here,” says house promoter and lo-
cal legend Kyle Brendle, who first booked
shows at the club in the mid-1980s. “There
was a visible focus on Asbury Park.”
In 2005, the development company
Madison Marquette, which owns most of
the Asbury Park waterfront, purchased
the Pony from Asbury Partners (who
had purchased the club from Santana in
2003). Today, the Pony hosts a mix of na-
tional acts and local favorites, often on the
same bill, and while Asbury may not boast
the same musical vitality that earned it
the reputation of America’s Liverpool in
its heady early rock days, music fans from
across the world keep on coming, and the
Pony remains an integral part of the city’s
identity and economy.
Forty years in, everyone has a theory
about what’s enabled the Pony to survive
two closings and outlast nearly every other
business in the city. “There’s two things
that make any bar business survive,” says
Pallagrosi. “First one is buying the thing
at the right price so you don’t choke to
death on the mortgage payments. I think
every owner has bought the Pony at an exceedingly great price. The second reason
is Bruce Springsteen. The Pony closed a
couple of times, and that could have been
it, but because of the connection to Bruce,
there was always someone who said, ‘The
Stone Pony closed? How could that be?
That place must be a gold mine.’”
(Continued from page 47) The Springsteen association is a huge
factor, but not the sole reason for the
club’s endurance. “The proximity to New
York City brings a lot of players through,”
says Brendle. “It’s very accessible as a
stop between Philadelphia and New York
for a lot of national touring bands.”
“It’s not just the history and Springs-
teen and Bon Jovi and Southside,” says Pat
DiNizio of the Smithereens, the seminal
New Jersey band that got one of its first
big breaks in 1980 opening for the residen-
cy of the Lord Gunner Group, a band that
featured Lance Larson, who now runs the
nearby Wonder Bar with Debbie DeLisa.
“It’s about the uniqueness of the room. It’s
funky and traditional and audience friend-
ly. You’re treated like family here. You see
old friends and they’ve got their own fami-
lies now, but they never lost their rock ’n‘
roll heart. The Stone Pony is where they
come to keep that heart beating.”
The word family comes up a lot when
talking to staff and regulars about the
club’s endurance. “I really think it’s the
people,” says bartender/maintenance man
Jimmy Capobianco. “The fans know who
is playing, they can go see the band any-
where else, but they come here for a rea-
son.” Capobiancio began working at the
club 12 years ago, after he and his wife Me-
lissa—now a bartender at the Pony—had
been coming every Friday night regardless
of the performers. “It’s the atmosphere and
getting to know the people who work here
that makes it special,” Capobianco goes on.
“They said, ‘You’re here so often, why don’t
you work here?’ Down here, I fit in.”
Capobianco was manning the out-
door smoking-section bar on a recent
Friday night while several hundred fans
packed into the club to see the Smith-
ereens perform something of a home-
coming concert. Mrowicki was back in
the DJ platform, where he frequently
returns to action, spinning tunes from
Jersey bands between sets and giving the
crowd quick history lessons. Capobianco
poured beers and waxed philosophical
during a quiet moment. “It’s good to be
alive and in Asbury Park,” he said. “The
third time’s a charm for revival.” ■
Anthony D’Amato is a musician and writer
whose parents first brought him to the Stone
Pony at age 5. He’ll release his new album on
New West Records this summer.
