Neptune, N.J.-raised singer-songwriter-guitarist Nicole Atkins has called Nashville home since 2015, but you can’t take the New Jersey out of the girl. During our pandemic summer, Atkins returned to the land of Springsteen, Sinatra and Snooki for her second livestream series of the year. Live From the Steel Porch, a series streamed from Langosta Lounge on the Asbury Park boardwalk, concluded Wednesday night.
“How’s everybody doing out there in TV land?” Atkins greeted viewers, who checked in from as far as Australia and San Francisco and as close by as Jersey City. She then launched into an hourlong set showcasing material from the recently released Italian Ice. The album, Atkins’ fifth, is billed as a love letter to her home state — specifically the Jersey Shore, the Garden State's endearingly tacky Gatlinburg-by-the-Sea.
Clad in an orange flannel coat and cotton-candy jumpsuit that popped against her bandmates’ white dress shirts and the venue’s wood-paneled walls — festooned with quirky artwork and, naturally, a pizza box — Atkins routinely broke the fourth wall. She and the crackerjack four-piece ensemble (which featured an all-Southern rhythm section in Boston-born Memphian Danny Banks on drums and Muscle Shoals-residing former Nashvillian Spencer Duncan on bass) fired off Italian Ice highlights including the psych-y “Mind Eraser,” disco-inflected “Domino” and country road song “Never Going Home Again.” On the tender slow jam “Captain,” Atkins duetted with guitarist Lee Maroney (standing in admirably for Spoon’s Britt Daniel, who appeared on the album version); for the emotionally charged “Forever,” she successfully rallied the crew and waitstaff to belt out call-and-response vocals.
Livestreams can compound the void where live music was but this felt more like a TV taping with an interactive side, with fluid multi-camera work and Atkins doing double duty as frontwoman and master of ceremonies. She took questions in real time from fans in the chatbox between songs and even exitied the stage momentarily mid-set to let a fellow Jersey native living in Tennessee (22-year-old Memphis singer-songwriter Max Kaplan) play a tune. Atkins defused the unnatural aspects of performing sans crowd with her easy charm, remarkable pipes and comfort with the surroundings, making sure those watching from home felt as at-home as she did.
