Hank Azaria’s Springsteen Cover Band Is Actually Avant-Garde Theatre

Muse and artist. Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Getty

When you have a constant influx of cash from a Simpsons voice-acting gig, every day is technically a glory day, but let’s still go down this thunder road together: Hank Azaria is putting his acting career on pause to pursue his new dream of fronting a Bruce Springsteen cover band. Azaria told Rolling Stone that he began to seriously consider the idea when he turned 60 earlier this year and performed a few Boss songs at his birthday party. “My whole life is about sharing vocal impressions,” he explained. “This, in some ways, is the ultimate of that to me.” Alongside a crew dubbed the EZ Street Band, Azaria’s auteur vision — his sonic Gesamtkunstwerk — is to challenge the audience with who’s in front of them. “I think of it as a theatrical performance. I’m staying in character as Bruce even though I’m telling stories about myself,” he said. “It’s a performance piece, but I’m not a Bruce impersonator.” Azaria’s debut birthday gig went so well, in fact, that when he was offered two acting jobs later that week, he “turned them both down and spent all morning pursuing whatever’s next with the band.” Their first concert will be in New York City in August with a fall tour looking possible. Can we summon Patrick Warburton to do the same for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers?