New Jersey Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band cover act “No Surrender” on Thursday told NJ.com their gig at Riv’s in Toms River set for next Friday was canceled after the owner decided to punish them for the Garden State legend’s recent and increasingly heated anti-Trump crusade.
Riv’s owner began apprehensively texting frontman Brad Hobicorn after Springsteen – who’s never been a fan of the convicted felon president – had this month renewed his public disgust with the fat fuck and began attracting Fox News’s attention. Then on Sunday, Rivoli texted Hobicorn to call it off, saying it was “too risky at the moment,” his MAGA clientele. Hobcorn offered to drop the Springsteen set and bill themselves as “Asbury Fever” to play other classic rock hits. But Rivoli said he’d have to pay less than the $2,500 agreed to pay them for a “No Surrender” set.
“Unfortunately it’s just too much money 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 wrote in a text breaking the news to Hobicorn.
In a separate exchange, bassist Guy Fleming wrote “What’s worse? We offered to change the set to accommodate your needs. Still you canceled. Like I said, it didn’t cost Bruce a dime, but it cost me a days pay,” to which Rivoli replied with “Not happy either. I reached out to your band. Unfortunately, it’s business, and you are not an $800 band. My clientele will not come that evening after his endless bullshit. If you can guarantee me 75 people, that would change my decision. Whenever the national anthem plays my bar stands and is in total silence. That’s our clientele. Toms River is red and won’t stand for his bullshit,” and wow this Rivoli guy sounds like an absolute cocksucker.
And does a terrible job of hiding it. Note the “Not happy either,” “Unfortunately, it’s business,” and “My clientele,” as if he’s at the mercy of the fickle whims of the market and wishes it weren’t this way. Which honestly may have been understandable if not for the “Bruce can’t keep his mouth shut” and “his endless bullshit,” making it pretty obvious that Rivoli’s simply projecting onto his customers.
The “whenever the national anthem plays my bar stands and is in total silence,” gives it away too, like public displays of patriotism and reverence for the US are the sole province of the fucking mutants in the Orange Overlord’s cult. That to him a band playing friggin “Born to Run” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” songs is the same as spitting on an 102 year-old D-Day veteran. What a twat.
Fleming then posted about it on Facebook, to which Rivoli then denied ever canceling the gig on them, telling NJ.com they could play and at the original fee of $2,500. No Surrender instead picked up another gig at Headliner Oasis in Neptune Township on May 30, leaving Rivoli without an act.
“Rivoli has been in hot water before. In 2020, images surfaced of Rivoli’s previous business – Rivoli’s Restaurant, also in Toms River; closed since 2016 – posting the message ‘I can breathe, I obey law‚’ on the restaurant’s exterior marquee, at the time referencing the death of Eric Garner, who reportedly told a New York City police officer ‘I can’t breathe’ while he was in a chokehold, shortly before he died. Rivoli publicly apologized in 2020,” NJ.com writes in the article. Yeah, he’s a twat.