Tourist season, with many many, many places to play--Bruce's beloved Asbury Park is not really very well attended, but every other shore town has bars, bandshells, restaurants, and clubs of every sort that are jammed with people waiting to be entertained--a lot of opportunities for dance bands, of course, but there are a lot of gigs for singer guitarists, providing they've got a powerful enough amp to cut through the crowd noise--you'd need a car though--