Above: Max Weinberg and his band are joined by an audience member playing cowbell on Honky Tonk Woman. 

Max Weinberg’s Jukebox tour rolled back into the Greenwich Odeum last Friday, offering audience members a chance to build the set list. Weinberg, a drummer, has played with Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band for decades and served as bandleader for two of Conan O’Brien’s late night talk shows.

His jukebox show offers something different, by allowing the audience to order up songs from across the decades – a list of 200+ possibilities that scrolls on a video screen behind the performers. Weinberg and three guitarists know a lot of songs, jumping from one hit to another. The only kind of conversation was who should take the lead vocals on a particular song.

Among the songs performed Friday were everything from Hang on Sloopy and Pretty Woman to American Girl and Cinnamon Girl.

When the band went to play Honky Tonk Woman, Weinberg asked the audience to name the most important  instrument in the song and when a man yelled, “Cowbell,” he was invited onstage and handed a cowbell. The audience member did not need any instruction – he launched into the first part of the song. Weinberg and the rest of the band joined in.

That’s got to be part of the magic of a live show, especially one with a heavy dose of audience choice built in.

The Boss won’t be in town any time soon but next month, on July 16, the Odeum is featuring Bruce Off Broadway: A Uke Tribute with Jim Boggia on July 16. You can buy tickets to that show HERE and check out the Odeum’s full lineup HERE.