Hank Azaria & The EZ Street Band

How Hank Azaria Created “The Best Bruce Springsteen tribute Band Ever”

Hank Azaria is a six-time Emmy Award winner, Screen Actors Guild Award winner, and Tony Award nominee for Spamalot, which he helped workshop and originate for Mike Nichols. He has been working in film, television, voice over and stage for nearly forty years. He is perhaps best known for his principal vocal work on the Simpsons where he plays Moe the Bartender, Police Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy and many other characters. He has won four Emmy Awards for “Outstanding Voice-Over Performance”. On the big screen, Azaria starred as the scene-stealing housekeeper, Agador Spartacus, in Mike Nichols’ The Birdcage and won a Screen Actors Guild Award as well as received a nomination for his performance. Other film credits include: Along Came Polly, Night at the Museum, Godzilla, Quiz Show, and many more. On Television, Azaria received critical acclaim for starring as Jim Brockmire on the comedy series, Brockmire – which he executive produced and was nominated for three Critics’ Choice Awards for “Best Actor in a Comedy Series.” He guest starred in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Ray Donovan, where he won the 2016 Emmy Award and was nominated again the following year for his role. He was also Emmy-nominated for his notable guest starring roles on Friends, as Phoebe’s boyfriend David, and Mad About You. He also won an Emmy in 2020 for portraying Mitch Albom in the TV movie Tuesdays with Maurie with Jack Lemmon. Onstage he most recently costarred to excellent reviews with John Krasinsky and Claire Danes in Dry Powder at the Public Theater.

Azaria took all that experience and joy in performing and crafted a show that was uniquely suited to his gifts and passions. “I’ve neve worked harder preparing for any role than I did in perfecting a singing vocal impression of Bruce Springsteen.”

About nine months ago “I had the crazy idea that I would like to sing some Springsteen songs to surprise people at my 60th birthday party.” So Azaria called his son’s former jazz piano teacher, Adam Kromelow, who played in a Genesis tribute band, and asked him if he could put together a band. “At first I wasn’t sure I could capture Bruce’s singing voice– talking like him is no problem, I mean, that’s my day job!”

Azaria got obsessed with singing as exactly like Bruce as he could. He practiced every day for about 6 months, trying songs, abandoning them, circling back, and each time feeling like he was getting closer and closer to actually sounding a lot like his boyhood idol. About 4 months into this obsession, after driving his wife and son nearly insane with his constant “scream singing” around the house, “something ‘unlocked’ in my voice– I kind of couldn’t believe how Bruce-like it sounded!”

Adam put together an incredible group of musicians. Mostly folks he had worked with- one of whom was his college roommate, some he went to music school with, folks for the most part who have played together on Broadway and elsewhere- all professionals. The band became as obsessed with recreating the sound of the E Street Band as Hank did with imitating Bruce himself. Members of the EZ Street Band have worked and performed with artists such as Ariana Grande, Post Malone, Lil Nas X, St. Lucia, Josh Groban, blackbear, Cynthia Erivo and more, and have opened for Modest Mouse, Carly Rae Jepsen, Lake Street Dive, Charlie Puth, Tove Lo, and They Might Be Giants. They have performed on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Good Morning America, and NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts, as well as notable concerts at Coachella, Bonnaroo, Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Radio City Music Hall, and in the band for Broadway’s Tony-Award-winning Dear Evan Hanson. As recording artists and composers, their music has been heard on NBC’s The Voice, Amazon Prime’s The Expanse, various programming for HBO, ESPN and more.

Azaria felt confident enough in the band that he invited none other than the actual drummer for the E Street Band, Mighty Max Weinberg, to sit in at their first live performance at City Winery in front of a crowd of over 550 people. And Max did! In fact Max called it “the best Springsteen tribute band he’s ever seen.” And he wasn’t just being nice 🙂

The evening was such a singularly and joyously successful event that everyone, from the audience to the band to the lead singer felt compelled– driven, actually– to do it again . And again. All the net proceeds go to Azaria’s Foundation devoted to social justice, education and recovery causes. “I can’t think of a better way to spend my time and use my passion for voices than playing these songs for a crowd that loves them and lovingly tribute Bruce, while raising money for folks who need it.”

“We played 11 songs in our debut– the 90 minutes felt like 10 minutes– I intro’d most of these songs talking like Bruce (again, my day job!)” Only the bass player, Jeff, had known these Springsteen songs. Everyone else, including Adam (who Hank took to his first Springsteen concert along the way!), was pretty much being introduced to this music. “They all seemed to fall in love with the songs and we all fell in love with each other as we were learning and playing together. On we went from there and we are now the EZ Street Band!”

The rest will be history!