Juliano Brothers aim to please Shore fans

SEA ISLE CITY, N.J. - "Foghat!" someone screamed from the bar.

The Juliano Brothers - who claim to be "a 1,200-pound breathing jukebox" - broke into "I Just Want to Make Love to You."

Then a sweet lady, a grandmother, gave them a note asking for "Daydream Believer," and soon the band was playing and the whole bar was singing, "Cheer up, sleepy Jean, oh what can it mean. . . "

The Juliano Brothers aim to please. The three brothers, middle-aged, all with day jobs, have developed a cult following in South Jersey and down the Shore, playing eight gigs a week, including five every weekend.

Their mecca is in Sea Isle at the Springfield Inn, a local institution with ceiling tiles peeling off and drops of rain leaking through, and hundreds of people who pour in faithfully every Saturday and Sunday all summer to hear the Juliano Brothers.

To say the brothers - Greg, 360 pounds, Mike, 300 pounds, and Matt, the lightweight at 260 - are a 1,200-pound juke box is an exaggeration, unless maybe you add in drums, guitars, and their mother, "the Queen," Josephine, who just turned 80, and sings a song or two at many of their shows.

At Otts on the Green, in Sewell, on a recent Thursday, she wore a sash to celebrate her birthday. She danced and pranced and flirted with the guest drummer, Bernard Lee "Pretty" Purdie, 74, who recorded with Aretha Franklin and Steely Dan.

"We can run away and get married," she said to Purdie, as the crowd roared.

"Standard question," the widow continued. "Do you drive at night? You got to know, no sex involved. I had enough of that."

The brothers just shook their heads. Mom lost her husband, Amato, two years ago, and her filter long before that.

The Juliano Brothers started playing with their parents as teenagers in a band called Family Affair. The brothers, who grew up in West Deptford and all live in Gloucester County, say now they did everything backward. Most bands play the Shore when they are young, then graduate to weddings and private parties as they get older, have families, slow down.

These men formed the Juliano Brothers around 2000, and only began taking the Shore by storm a decade ago. Mike is 56, Matt, 54, and Greg, 46. None have big-time family obligations away from the band. But Matt, a cabinet maker by day, admits the summer pace wears him out.

During the summer, they play the Springfield Inn from 4 to 8 p.m. every Saturday, then move on to Keenan's Irish Pub in North Wildwood from 10 p.m. to 1:45 a.m., and repeat both gigs on Sunday. Then it's back to the Springfield on Tuesday, the Wharf in Wildwood on Wednesday and Friday, and Ott's every Thursday.

Sea Isle is where they caught fire, and this summer is their 10th anniversary there. They perform on risers inside the rectangular-shaped main bar.

John and Susan Costello, both 54, of Abington, bought a house in Sea Isle in 2010 and discovered the Juliano Brothers. Every Saturday they claim the same corner by a smaller bar in the back of the room. Assorted family members always join them.

"They play great music, and they bridge generations," said Susan Costello.

As the Juliano Brothers sang, "I love you more today than yesterday," Costello danced and sang along with her niece, Kathleen McKenzie, 34, of Dresher, and her niece's husband, Mickey, 35. The couple left their kids at the Shore house with grandma.

"Makes you flat-out feel good," said Mickey. "Not a worry in the world when you're under this roof."

The Julianos know their job is to play the songs the way people expect the songs to sound, and they can play almost anything.

"I've officially forgotten more music than I know," said Matt.

Only one rule, really: At the Shore they must play Springsteen.

And sure enough, when they broke into "Jersey Girl," they really didn't need to sing. The bar did it for them.

Fans constantly try to stump them. That becomes part of the act. Last weekend somebody asked for "The No No Song" by Ringo, a hit for 10 minutes in the 1970s. Matt remembered the melody and pounded out a few bars.

"None of us read music," said Mike. "None of us took a lesson."

They do it all by ear. Greg and Matt play out front, bass and lead guitar. Mike is in back on drums.

"They look like two lineman and a fullback," said Jodi Dunnigan, 51, of Pottsville, seated at the bar.

Sue Barr, 60, lives in Ocean City and comes 10 times a summer in a van with 10 neighbors. "They can cover any song," she said. "You don't see bands that can do that."

The bar belonged mostly to boomers, but millennials also came in force.

"We're old school," said Colin McShane, 25, of Media, renting a house for the summer with 11 other alumni from St. Joseph's Prep and LaSalle College High School, old rivalries long buried. "They play classics, dude!"

Their numbers swelled each week with more friends and girlfriends and the passion and power of youth on this Saturday was not to be denied.

Though the band had already played Van Morrison's "Jackie Wilson Said," the kids demanded it again, chanting the first few bars after every song, and the Juliano Brothers at last complied.

They aim to please.

The brothers end every session at the Springfield with the same song, "Hey Baby."

The Supreme Court rulings, South Carolina slayings, lousy beach weather - that was all outside.

Inside, people only had one thought: "Ooh. Ahh. I want to know if you'll be my girl."

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