Bruce Springsteen performs at New York Public Library gala

NEW YORK (AP) – They threw a party at the New York Public Library and a concert broke out.

Bruce Springsteen was among six honorees Monday night at the library’s annual “Library Lions” gala, which pays tribute to “outstanding achievements” in arts, culture, letters and scholarship. Others receiving medals were producer-writer Shonda Rhimes and authors James Patterson, Daniel Kehlmann and Louise Erdrich and author-musician James McBride, with whom Springsteen exchanged hugs and greetings shortly before guests were seated for dinner.

Held in the grand auspices of the main research room of the 5th Avenue branch in Manhattan, the ceremony was brief, and without acceptance speeches. But NYPL President Anthony Marx promised a “special treat” was upcoming, and a few minutes later reintroduced Springsteen, his jacket now off and a guitar in hand.

“I’ve played fireman’s fairs. I’ve played bowling alleys. I’ve played pizza parlors,” Springsteen related to the hundreds of attendees in his raspy drawl. “I’ve played hockey rinks. I’ve played weddings. I’ve played Bar Mitzvahs. I’ve played insane asylums. I’ve played football stadiums.”

“But I have never played a (expletive) library.”

After laughter and applause, Springsteen settled into a slow, soulful performance of “Thunder Road,” scatting the closing passage once filled by the saxophone of Clarence Clemons. To a standing ovation and familiar calls of “Bruuuuce,” he wished everyone good night and added a well-placed message, “Read a book!”

Springsteen has a history of surprise performances. At the New York Film Festival in late September, he turned up after a screening of the biopic “Deliver Me from Nowhere,” starring Jeremy Allen White as Springsteen, and sang “Land of Hopes and Dreams.”