Whooey, Huey!

Thanks, Huey Lewis and the News, for making it so much fun to live in Sheepshead Bay. Your concert at the Asser Levy Park’s Bandshell has really put the right kind of endcap on this season’s concerts. It has left us waiting for next year – hoping that you’ll make that trip way over from California, again – to keep our hearts of rock and roll still beatin’. Thanks, too, for bringing Paul Thorn out with you. Us, city folk, sure do need a little Southern soul from time to time. I was happy that a few early-to-bedders left before you had a chance to perform your encore, since it let me move up closer to the stage, where I could see from the great shape you’re in why ‘it’s hip to be square’.

Too bad, though, that we weren’t allowed to take pictures – well, not that it stopped some from trying. Hey, a few were even recording videos. Your encore set was excellent and almost a concert in itself.  Best of all was when you, the only headline performer to do so this seaside season, came out after your meet and greets backstage, to say ‘hi’ to your fence-fans. One of them was me. It was so nice of you to reassure all the clamoring autograph seekers that you would give each one of us your John Hancock. Even though, you couldn’t put my name on the program cover, you did bring your own permanent marker for the autograph — I really appreciate that, since in the rush to get to you, noone in the crowd could seem to find a pen. I read that you were born in New York city, and your true born-in-New York spirit has shown through, last night. Please tell me that you, too, are from Sheepshead Bay. We were hoping, like Liza Minelli did when she finished her performance a couple of weeks ago, you would get the hankering for some Nathan’s. So autographs in hand, my newfound seaside friends and I headed off for a nostalgic bite of the most famous hot dog. Unfortunately, we didn’t see you there. Still, we were glad for everything you shared with us that evening. So thanks, again, and we’ll be waiting to hear from you, Huey.

To all our readers, we encourage you to plan for the Annual Seaside Summer Concert Series for 2009, as long as this tradition is still in our own backyard. There was something eerily foreboding about the way that Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn’s Borough President, was reminding us about what a treat this is for us. We certainly hope that our Seaside Concerts are not on the Coney Island Development chopping block.