It was unannounced but hardly a surprise when Bruce showed up for last night's annual Light of Day show at the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park. Since their beginning more than 10 years ago, he's only missed a few of these Parkinson Disease Foundation benefits, and with him being in town on Friday to shoot a video for the upcoming album, most observers would have been more surpised had he chosen to stay away.

The recipe was the same as most years: Bruce made a couple of appearances early in the show during Garland Jeffreys and Willie Niles' performances before making his real entrance as the final act, which was billed as Joe Grushecky & the Houserockers, but quickly turned into Bruce Springsteen with Joe Grushecky & the Houserockers.

For anyone who had hoped to hear one or two tracks from Bruce's upcoming album, that was not to be. But even they could hardly be disappointed with what they did witness, which was an exceptionally loose and physically fit Bruce who was all over the stage and in the crowd during his two-hour performance. The songs chosen were nothing out of the ordinary for these events. "Darkness on the Edge of Town", "Save My Love", "Atlantic City", "Waitin' on a Sunny Day" (with a nod to Clarence where the sax solo usually appears) and with acoustic versions of "Incident on 57th Street" and "Thunder Road" respectively opening and closing his set.

For more information go check out the full setlist and read Stand Goldstein's play-by-play review on NJ.com.