Outpost in the Burbs presents Jill Sobule at Van Vleck House & Gardens

(MONTCLAIR, NJ) — Outpost in the Burbs presents Jill Sobule at Van Vleck House & Gardens on Sunday, June 9, 2024 at 4:00pm. Weather permitting, this concert will be held outside in the gardens. Tickets are $30.

Jill Sobule’s work is at once deeply personal and socially conscious, seriously funny and derisively tragic. In a dozen albums spanning three decades of recording, the Denver-born songwriter/guitarist/singer has tackled such topics as the death penalty, anorexia nervosa, shoplifting, reproduction, the French Resistance, adolescent malaise, LGBTQ issues, and the Christian Right.

Her hits include “I Kissed A Girl”—the first openly gay-themed song ever to crack the Billboard Top 20—and the alt-rock anthem “Supermodel” featured in the film Clueless. Sobule was one half of The Jill & Julia Show, providing music while actor Julia Sweeney contributes storytelling. Jill is considered a pioneer in crowdfunding and is constantly exploring and creating new models for artists in an ever-changing music industry.

Jill’s theater credits include a musical adaptation of the Broadway classic “Yentl”, “Prozak and the Platypus”, and “Times Square”. Her latest, “F*ck 7th Grade”, was postponed due to Covid, but was performed and filmed for three days at a make-shift drive-in over the Summer. The musical is a finalist for the Lambda Literary awards in LGBTQ Drama category this June.

Tickets are $30 and available for purchase online. Van Vleck House & Gardens is located at 21 Van Vleck Street in Montclair, New Jersey. Doors will open at 3:30pm and the show will start promptly at 4:00pm with opening performance followed by headliner at 5:00pm.

Weather permitting this concert will be outside in the gardens – please bring a lawn chair or blanket as we will not provide chairs if we are outside.  If weather forces us inside the Van Vleck House only guaranteed ticket holders will be seated inside and all other customers will be automatically refunded for their purchase.

For her most recent album, the Ben Lee-produced Nostalgia Kills, Sobule turned her warm wit and laser-focused poet’s eye on herself more than ever before. For all its graceful, funny, and heartbreaking explorations of awkward youth and grown-up regrets, Nostalgia Kills is as of-the-moment as anything in Jill Sobule’s catalog. Through her own experiences, she explores issues our society still collectively struggles with (LGBTQ rights, teen mental health, our unhealthy obsession with staying forever young) and gently skewers our tendency to dwell on the past at the expense of addressing the present.

Sobule has performed with Neil Young, Billy Bragg, Steve Earle, Cyndi Lauper, Tom Morello, Warren Zevon, and John Doe. She inducted Neil Diamond into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. She has shared billing with Don Henley, Joe Jackson, Warren Zevon, the influential LA punk band X, and Lloyd Cole & The Negatives. She regularly co-stars with comedian/actress/author/SNL alumni Julia Sweeney in their Jill & Julia Show, an unusual and mesmerizing combination of song and storytelling. A road warrior, she plays more than 100 shows a year.

“Jill Sobule can claim her place among the stellar New York singer-songwriters of the last decade. Topical, funny and more than a little poignant …grown-up music for an adolescent age.” – New York Times

Outpost in the Burbs is a nonprofit outreach organization in Montclair dedicated to building community through music and volunteerism.   For over 35 years, the Outpost has presented more than 450 concerts by internationally known artists such as Judy Collins, Roger McGuinn,, Jorma Kaukonen, Jimmy Webb, Richie Havens,  The Jayhawks, Nick Lowe,  and Dar Williams.  In addition to presenting concerts, Outpost volunteers have donated many hours of their time through programs affiliated with Toys for Tots, the Human Needs Food Pantry of Montclair, the Community Food Bank of N.J., Dress for Success, MESH (Montclair Emergency Services for Hope), and a Community Food Program run by Outpost volunteers in Orange, NJ.