The Boston Globe - 23.08.2019

THEBOSTONGLOBEFRIDAY, AUGUST23,2019 | BOSTONGLOBE.COM/ARTS

Weekend

G

O

ne weekday evening in April

1974, Barry Schneier went out

to see some rock ’n’ roll in Har-

vard Square.

Schneier, then in his 20s,

spent a lot of nights in those

days checking out the local mu-

sic scene. While growing up in Newtonduring the

1960s, he’d played in a high school bandthat land-

ed a few gigs at Surf Nantasket. He’d recently gradu-

ated from Emerson College with a degree in film-

making, and he often brought his cameras to the

shows.

Schneier’s downstairs neighbor had just brought

home a copy of an album by an unheralded newcom-

er from New Jersey named Bruce Springsteen. The

album had an unwieldy title — “The Wild, the Inno-

cent & the E Street Shuffle” — and a similarly rowdy

mix of horns, guitars, and words. Schneier was intrigued.

So he and a couple of friends headed over to Charlie’s Place, on Bow Street.

When they got to the bar, they were startled by the enthusiastic turnout for an

unknown fromout of town.

Schneier asked one customersitting in a booth: Why such a crowd?The guy

gushed about Springsteen and his band. He was fromPhiladelphia, and he’d

SPRINGSTEEN,PageG4

Bruce, before the

future was written

How Barry Schneier’s rare photos captured a night in rock history

PHOTOS BY BARRY SCHNEIER

BY JAMESSULLIVAN | GLOBECORRESPONDENT

JONATHAN WIGGS/GLOBE STAFF

BOOKS

By Matthew Gilbert
GLOBE STAFF
One of the nice byproducts of Peak
TV is that the odds are a little better for
the weird shows.
And by weird, I mean original — se-
ries that don’t fit into the TV cookie-
cutter machinethat so many writers,
networks,and viewershave become
dependenton. The originals — like
Showtime’s new “On Becominga God
in Central Florida” — can often best be
described by what they are not: crime
or legal procedurals, superheroorigin
stories,reboots,sitcoms,supernatural
soap operas, or family melodramas.

Dunst

breaks bad

in ‘Florida,’

and it’s good

PATTI PERRET/SONY/SHOWTIME

TELEVISION

They aren’t even necessarilycomedies

or dramasbut some ratio of both.

Like AMC’s alchemy-in-SoCalun-

derdog“Lodge 49,” or Amazon’s ro-

mance-in-death one-season pleasure

“Forever,” “On Becoming a God in Cen-

tral Florida” followsno familiarrules.

Even the title has a will of its own — it’s

long and it doesn’t easily fix in the

‘‘FLORIDA,’’PageG6

Kirsten

Dunst and

Alexander

Skarsgardin

Showtime’s

new “On

Becominga

God in

Central

Florida.”

Inside

MOVIES

WWEORBUST

ManwithDownsyndrome

seeks wrestlinggloryin

‘PeanutButterFalcon’

G6

ALBUM REVIEW

WRONG TURN

Sleater-Kinneyoff course

on‘TheCenter Won’tHold’

G2

By NickA. Zaino III

GLOBE CORRESPONDENT

J

osh Johnsonis not a political comedian. Those who see

any of his four shows at Laugh Boston this weekend are

morelikely to hear jokes abouthow he was terrified by

an opossum or getting bullied by New York City middle-

schoolers as an adult than a riff on President Trump

wanting to buy Greenland. But in his day job as a writerfor “The

Daily ShowWithTrevor Noah,” he doeshave to find a way to

make the news funny.

JOHNSON,PageG5

Josh Johnson saves

politics for hisday job

COMEDY CENTRAL

COMEDY

BruceSpringsteenwas photo-

graphedby Barry Schneier

(below)at Harvard Square

Theatre in 1974.

Springsteenwith
ClarenceClemonsat
the Harvard Square
Theatre show.

ComedianJosh

Johnsonis a

writerfor “The

DailyShow.”