Five For Fighting with String Quartet with special guest Lace and Lee
October 13 @ 7:30 PM – 11:30 PM
Five For Fighting Strips the Hits Down to a String Quartet at The Vogel
Two decades after “Superman (It’s Not Easy)” first hit the radio, John Ondrasik trades the rock band for four Broadway musicians and a night built around storytelling.
The only way for a story to progress is to turn the page, and John Ondrasik, the platinum selling, Grammy nominated songwriter behind Five For Fighting, clearly understands that better than most. On Tuesday, October 13, he brings a genuinely different version of his catalog to The Vogel, reworked entirely around a string quartet rather than his usual rock band setup.
In the more than two decades since “Superman (It’s Not Easy)” first hit the stratosphere, Ondrasik has released six studio albums, including the platinum certified America Town and The Battle for Everything, along with the top ten charting Two Lights. His catalog includes chart topping hits like “100 Years,” “The Riddle,” “Chances,” “World,” and “Easy Tonight,” songs that helped make him one of the decade’s defining adult contemporary artists and have collectively earned tens of millions of streams. His music has also found its way into more than 350 films, television shows, and commercials over the years.
A Genuinely Different Way to Hear These Songs
This tour brings together an accomplished lineup of Broadway musicians, including Tony Award winning concertmaster and Moulin Rouge! The Musical co-orchestrator Katie Kresek on violin, Melissa Tong, who toured with Post Malone in 2023, also on violin, along with Broadway veterans Chris Cardona on viola and Peter Sachon on cello. That’s a serious level of musicianship built specifically to reimagine Ondrasik’s catalog with fresh, classically informed arrangements rather than simply performing acoustic versions of the originals.
To share the stage with such incredible musicians every night is a gift that keeps giving. The string quartet allows a more intimate experience and songs from my catalog with arrangements I do not play with the rock band.
Storytelling Built Into the Format
The string quartet format gives Ondrasik room to do something a full rock show rarely allows, step back between songs and actually talk through the stories behind them. That structure lets him dig deeper into his catalog, pulling out material that wouldn’t normally make a standard setlist, while the quartet also performs a rotating selection of classical and rock pieces that changes from night to night, giving even longtime fans something unpredictable to look forward to. Folk rock duo Lace & Lee open the evening, adding their own ethereal vocals and storytelling to round out the night.
Show Details
- DateTuesday, October 13
- Doors6:30 p.m.
- Showtime7:30 p.m.
- VenueThe Vogel, Basie Center Campus
- Address99 Monmouth Street, Red Bank, NJ
- OpenerLace & Lee
Why This Format Rewards Longtime Fans
Anyone who’s only ever heard these songs on the radio, layered with full rock production, is in for a genuinely different experience here. The string quartet format strips the material down to its emotional core, giving Ondrasik’s songwriting room to breathe in a way arena or amphitheater shows rarely allow. For fans who’ve followed his catalog for two decades, this is a rare chance to hear it reinterpreted by world class musicians in an intimate room built for exactly this kind of close, attentive listening.
Explore New Jersey covers the state’s live music scene, from platinum selling songwriters to the intimate reinterpretations that give familiar catalogs new life. Check back for more concert coverage all season long.
