What band started off by playing at venues on the Jersey Shore?

The band that started by playing venues on the Jersey Shore was Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

The group grew out of the active music scene around Asbury Park and other New Jersey Shore towns during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Springsteen and several future E Street Band members—including Steven Van Zandt, Garry Tallent, Danny Federici, Vini Lopez, and David Sancious—played in local bands and performed at clubs, lodges, and other regional venues.

When Springsteen signed with Columbia Records in 1972, he selected musicians from that Jersey Shore scene to record and tour behind his debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. The E Street Band therefore developed from a local network of musicians rather than appearing fully formed at the start.

The band’s name is commonly linked to a house on E Street in Belmar, New Jersey, where some members rehearsed. The Stone Pony in Asbury Park is also strongly associated with Springsteen, although it opened in 1974, after the band’s earliest local years.