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Archive for the ‘Asbury Park, NJ’ Category

The Districts (Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, November 27, 2021)

Posted in Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, Set in New Jersey!, Sham, The Districts, The Scouts on November 30, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 27, 2021] The Districts

I was supposed to see The Districts play at Union Transfer on March 12.  COVID-19 had just found its way into New Jersey and Pennsylvania and I was being very cautious so I decided to skip the show.  It was a safe decision, but one that I now regret as it would have been a pretty great final show of the year.  Shows pretty much completely stopped after that.

I was then supposed to see the Districts three times in 2021 (a lot of that was coincidence).  The opened for Modest Mouse (I had no idea they were going to), then they announced a show in Asbury Park and then, at the end of the year they were supposed to open for Dr. Dog (they bailed on that show, as did I, even though the show went on).

After seeing them open for Modest Mouse, I wanted to see them headline, because they tend to go a bit more nuts when they are in charge.

I was happy to see them in such a small place, but I hadn’t really thought this show through.  Asbury Park, on Thanksgiving weekend.  Holy crap, the place was full of reunited and drunk college students.  Which made for a more festive atmosphere but also meant that security almost had to pull somebody out and that everyone was singing along (badly) at the top of their lungs.  And of course drunk people were pushing forward throughout the show.

The band seemed to be in a really good mood when they came out and they rocked several classic songs: “4th and Roebling,” “Salt” and ‘If Before I Wake” (the crowd loves singing the “I’m just a narcissist” line)  Then they moved on to You Know I’m Not Going Anywhere for “Hey Jo,” and the moody “My Only Ghost.” (more…)

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Sham (Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, November 27, 2021) [THE DISTRICTS]

Posted in Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, Set in New Jersey!, Sham, The Districts, The Scouts on November 29, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 27, 2021] Sham

After The Scouts, Sham came out.  Sham is the project of Shane Justice McCord.  It was him and a bass player (I loved his bass guitar!) for this set.

The bass player started by playing bird calls on a small device while Shane played acoustic guitar.

The set was quiet and acoustic and perhaps a little atonal.  Very experimental (in a video I took, you can barely hear the band from all the chatter, until a guy behind me says, “this band is so weird, this is the best.”

In no way were they the right band for this particular show–a rowdy New jersey crowd looking to rock.  But aside from talking over the set, the crowd was at least respectful.

A few songs in, the bassist moved to drums and a new bassist came out and that added a little (very little) oomph to their set. (more…)

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The Scouts (Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, November 27, 2021) [THE DISTRICTS]

Posted in Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, Set in New Jersey!, Sham, The Districts on November 28, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 27, 2021] The Scouts

I didn’t know if there were any opening bands for The Districts, and it turned out there were two.

The Scouts (a difficult search term, especially when combined with The Districts) are from The District’s home town of Lititz, PA.

They came out as a five piece and won me over immediately with some really solid guitar rock.  Their songs were all pretty long–about five minutes each with lengthy intros and multiple sections.

Lead singer Nathan Yager has long hair and a big beard but has a relatively restrained vocal sound (powerful but not overpowering).  He plays guitar as well and when he and Tom Hartman played together, they really brought in a nice mix of quiet and loud guitar. (more…)

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Anti-Flag (House of Independents, Asbury Park, NJ, November 10, 2021)

Posted in Anti-Flag, Asbury Park, NJ, Bad Cop/Bad Cop, Doll Skin, House of Independents, Ramones on November 12, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 10, 2021] Anti-Flag [postponed from March 17, 2020] 

I was pretty happy when my son asked if we could go see Anti-Flag.  I had heard him playing some of their songs and quite liked them.

Then I looked them up.  How could i have never heard of this band?  A politically charged punk band that has been making music and waves for over 25 years and I didn’t know them.  How was that possible?

The band came out on stage to a recording of “Blitzkieg Bop” and they were everything I wanted.

Anti-Flag has been around since the 1980s and had a few line up changes.  But things have been stable since 1999 when Chris #2 joined the band on bass and lead vocals.  He joined Justin Sane on lead vocals and lead guitar and Chris Headon rhythm guitar along with Pat Thetic on drums.

They are full of energy, or righteous anger and love and compassion for everyone present.

We were right in front of Chris #2 and it was incredible to watch him jump all over the place.  Way up in the air and at one point off the stack of amps.  His energy was incredible.

Justin Sane was a great front person–calmly telling us what was on his mind and then ripping guitar parts like crazy.

They played songs from throughout their career, occasionally dipping back in to their latest album 20/20 Vision with audio snippets introducing the songs.  The album is great although hearing trump’s voice again (even if it was used to mock him) was rather unpleasant.

The highlight for me though was looking over and seeing my son in a circle dance getting pushed around an having a great time. I can see him really moshing it up in a few years.  He did not crowd surf, although some people did (it was kind of a small club for that).

The band is obviously very political and they had brochures and activists there for all manner of causes.  They also had someone come out and say a few words about Punk Rock Saves Lives, an amazing organization whose mission statement is

to start focusing on Health Concerns, Equal Rights, Human Rights, and more. One of the keystones of the music community, especially Punk rock, is the ethos of taking care of one another. By championing this ethos through various campaigns hand-chosen by the artists, we can elevate their messages of hope, activism, and change to effect positive change and drive awareness.

Then as the show was nearing the end, Chris #2 had us do one of the coolest things I’ve done at a concert.  He had everyone–don’t give me any macho posturing bullshit, put their arms around the person next to them like a giant line of a group hug.  This was to tell everyone there that we are all on the same side, that the person next to us is our brother or sister.  It was a very moving moment for me.

And then, when we were all sweaty and gross from dancing and pushing each other around, we sang along to “Die for the Government.”

My only regret from this show is that I haven’t seen them like ten times already. Because I am ready to see them again.

  1. Blitzkrieg Bop (Ramones) [tape intro]
  2. Hate Conquers All ‰
  3. The Press Corpse ß
  4. Racists Æ
  5. Drink Drank Punk Ψ
  6. You Can Kill the Protester, But You Can’t Kill the Protest ⊗
  7. Trouble Follows Me Æ
  8. Bring Out Your Dead ⇓
  9. Disease Intro [tape intro]
  10. The Disease ‰
  11. Hymn for the Dead ß
  12. The Criminals Æ
  13. Turncoat ⊗
  14. Broken Bones √
  15. 1 Trillion Dollar$ ß
  16. Fuck Police Brutality Ψ
  17. Christian Intro [tape intro]
  18. Christian Nationalist ‰
  19. This Is the End (For You My Friend) ß
  20. American Attraction Æ
  21. Brandenburg Gate §
  22. Die for the Government Ψ

Ψ Die for the Government (1996)
⇓ Underground Network (2001)
⊗ The Terror State (2003)
ß For Blood and Empire (2006)√ The General Strike (2012)
§ American Spring (2015)
Æ American Fall (2017)
‰ 20/20 Vision (2020)

 

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The World is a Beautiful Place and I am No Longer Afraid to Die / Bent Knee / Gates (First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia, PA, November 12, 2021//Absury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ November 13, 2021) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, Bent Knee, First Unitarian Church, Gates, Philadelphia, PA, The World is a Beautiful Place and I am No Longer Afraid to Die on November 12, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: November 12 or 13, 2021] The World is a Beautiful Place and I am No Longer Afraid to Die / Bent Knee / Gates

I don’t really know The World is a Beautiful Place and I am No Longer Afraid to Die, but I have been intrigued by their name for years.  I’ve heard very good things about their live shows and was interested in checking them out.

However, I will likely never go to First Unitarian Church again (the venue just didn’t work for me for a number of reasons, even though it is a very cool place).  I was planning on seeing them at Asbury Lanes, but for reasons I never quite understood, that date simply disappeared from their tour poster.

The poster to the right has that show listed, but as the date got closer the poster had been updated and no longer included that final show and there was no word about it anywhere.  Fascinating.

I had not heard of Bent Knee, but this introduction from Wikipedia sure sounds interesting:

Bent Knee is an American art rock band formed in Boston, Massachusetts, in 2009. The band performs in multiple genres and draws from multiple influences, including pop, industrial rock, progressive rock, and avant-garde. The band is known for unpredictable dynamic contrast and the wide vocal range of singer Courtney Swain.

I’m certainly sold enough to check them out.

Gates is from New Brunswick, NJ (just down the road from me).  I was unaware of them, but their music sounds like it would be pretty good.

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Bad Cop/Bad Cop (House of Independents, Asbury Park, NJ, November 10, 2021) [ANTI-FLAG]

Posted in Anti-Flag, Asbury Park, NJ, Bad Cop/Bad Cop, Doll Skin, House of Independents on November 11, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 10, 2021] Bad Cop/Bad Cop [postponed from March 17, 2020] was originally scheduled to be Grade 2

Initially Grade 2 was scheduled to be on this tour, but they were replaced by Bad Cop/Bad Cop, who turned out to be amazing.

It was pretty fascinating having this band directly follow Doll Skin because the women in this band could easily have been Doll Skin’s moms (there were no men in Bad Cop/Bad Cop, but if there were they could have been Doll Skin’s dads, too).

I actually don’t know how old most of the women were on stage because damn, they rocked hard whatever their age, I only guess they are older since they sang songs about Breast Cancer and Detox.

Bad Cop/Bad Cop actually has three lead singers: guitarists Stacey Dee and Jennie Cotterill and bassist Linh Le alternated through the set.

We were right in front of Le and she was one of the most intense bassists I’ve ever seen–great poses, daring you to look her in the eye or daring you to look away.  I found out later that Le is the creator of the amazing series bassists against racists.

Drummer Myra Gallarza was great too, keeping the beat to these fast and furious songs.

I loved everything about Bad Cop/Bad Cop and I’m delighted to have seen them live.

  1. Retrograde ϖ
  2. Pursuit of Liberty ®
  3. Rodeo ⊗
  4. Breastless ®
  5. Perpetual Motion Machine ®
  6. I’m Done ϖ
  7. Simple Girl ®
  8. Take My Call ®
  9. Broken ϖ
  10. Amputations ϖ 
  11. Certain Kind Of Monster ®
  12. Womanarchist ϖ
  13. Wild Me ϖ

⊗ Boss Lady EP (2014)
ϖ Warriors (2017)
® The Ride (2020)

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Doll Skin (House of Independents, Asbury Park, NJ, November 10, 2021) [ANTI-FLAG]

Posted in Anti-Flag, Asbury Park, NJ, Bad Cop/Bad Cop, Doll Skin, House of Independents on November 10, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 10, 2021] Doll Skin [postponed from March 17, 2020]

I was really looking forward to this show because I was taking my son and his friend to their first punk show.  My son had been to a couple of other shows, but nothing where there was going to be as much call for a pit (the other shows were usually too crowded for a pit).

We arrived very early (even though I thought we were late).  Doll Skin didn’t go one for twenty minutes after stated time.  Which was fine because there was a ton of merch and political organization fliers in the back of the room to look at.

Then Doll Skin came on stage and there was a good chance that the band was younger than my son.  That’s actually not true, although when Doll Skin started, lead singer Sydney Dolezal was seventeen.  They are currently 20 or 21.

Meghan Herring and Tay (hired bass player) had COVID so they had Cameron Gile on bass, their driver Dustin Elias-Odgers on bass and multi instrumentalist Torri Ross on drums.

The band was amazing.  Syd was a dynamite singer–a great performer, an excellent voice and a lot of fun.  Their lead guitarist, who I think was Alex Snowden, was incredible–phenomenal riffs and a great sound.  And the substituting players were fantastic.  I don’t know how often they played the songs before, but they were tight as anything.

I really enjoyed their set.  And after the show Syd chatted with us and signed my son’s poster, so that was pretty cool too.

  1. Don’t Cross My Path ⊗
  2. Love Is Dead and We Killed Her ⊗
  3. Control Freak ♦
  4. Mark My Words ⊗
  5. Daughter ♥
  6. Eat Shit Ξ
  7. Puncha Nazi ♥

Ξ Eat Shit [single] (2021)
♦ Control Freak [single] (2021)
⊗ Love Is Dead and We Killed Her (2019)
♥ Manic Pixie Dream Girl (2017)

 

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Andy Shauf / Faye Webster (Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, September 12, 2021) [rescheduled date, rescheduled again]

Posted in Andy Shauf, Asbury Park, NJ, Faye Webster, House of Independents, Margaret Glaspy, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Union Transfer on September 12, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: September 12, 2021] Andy Shauf / Faye Webster [rescheduled from May 1 and December 17, 2020; moved to March 31, 2022]

indexThis show appeared and then disappeared.  In May, Andy’s own website it was still an active date until you clicked on it and the ticket sales said March 2022.

Maybe in 2022 Andy will come back around.  He was supposed to play a show in NJ as well, but there was none listed in May.  We’ll see.

Postponing shows until December seemed like a safe bet.  My calendar was pretty free and I was hoping to see shows by now.  I’m not sure if I’d rather have gone to Philly or Asbury Park, though.  Well, next year will held me decide, I’m sure.

Andy Shauf is a Canadian singer songwriter.  He sings quiet, introspective songs.  He was playing at Union Transfer at the beginning of Mat and then in New Jersey in the middle of May.

I was introduced to his music from a Tiny Desk Concert in which he never really moves.  He has very long hair which also never moves.  His songs are really very pretty and well constructed.

It’s his voice that I find utterly fascinating.  He enunciates in such an unusual way.  The way he emphasizes certain vowels defies his Saskatchewan upbringing.  He sings not unlike Margaret Glaspy and other newer sings who stress their vowels in an unusual to me way.

I really enjoyed his Tiny Desk and I enjoyed reading about the album The Party which sounds like the worst party ever.

Since then he has cut all of his hair and looks totally different–I wasn’t even sure it was the same guy.

Faye Webster is a singer from Georgia who actually has a similar singing style to Andy, which is fascinating.  She sings low key torchy ballads and would be a perfect opening act for him.  I’m going to have to listen to a bit more from her.

He’s the kind of musician that I would think about going to but probably wouldn’t, and then I’d wish I had.  Well, now I have two more chances.

His initial itinerary fascinated me:

Boston, Brooklyn, Philly, D.C., North Carolina, Atlanta, New Orleans, Alabama, Indiana, Pittsburgh, New Jersey, upstate New York.

The rescheduled shows keep the same basic set up except that now Philly is the day before NJ–I wonder what changed that plan.

shuaf

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Almost Queen (The Stone Pony Summer Stage, Asbury Park, NJ, September 10, 2021)

Posted in Almost Queen, Asbury Park, NJ, Happy Birthday, Philadelphia Freedom, The Stone Pony, The Stone Pony Summer Stage, The Unforgettable Fire on September 10, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 10, 2021] Almost Queen

S.’s co-workers invited her to see Almost Queen with them late in June.  She agreed, thinking it would be a fun night out.  As September approached, she realized that the friends had a slightly different plan for the evening than she did, and realized that she couldn’t ride down with them.  So she asked me to come along.

I was game, of course.  I have never intentionally paid to see a tribute band before.  But since this was a band that I would never be able to see live (Queen last played in New jersey in 1982–although the version with Adam Lambert had played here more recently), I said why not.

I was intrigued that a cover band had two opening acts, also cover bands: Philadelphia Freedom, The Elton John Tribute and The Unforgettable Fire: The U2 Tribute.

However, the combination of Friday night plans and Friday night traffic meant we got to the Stone Pony during the final two U2 songs (“One” and “Bullet the Blue Sky”–a rather odd final song I thought).  They sounded good from the street, but I have no real opinion of The Unforgettable Fire.

The place was PACKED and there was no vaccination requirement (good grief).  This is my third Summer Stage show in a few years and honestly, unless there is something really amazing playing there, I don’t think I’d go back.  The crowd is just terrible–filled with drunken Jersey dudes and dudettes.  If this was a band I really wanted to see I’d have been really annoyed by them all.  Fortunately, this was a fun tribute act and I was happy to just kick back and enjoy.  We somehow managed to find our group (amusingly, I told S. to have her friend hold up her phone and wave it.  Immediately someone did and we followed the light only to realize that it wasn’t her friends, but the person standing right next to them–weird). (more…)

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Waxahatchee / Fenne Lily (Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, July 16, 2021) [rescheduled date, rescheduled again] [CANCELLED]

Posted in Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, Coronavirus, Fenne Lily, Jeff Tweedy, Lucy Dacus, OHMME, Philadelphia, PA, Postponed, Quarantine, Union Transfer, Waxahatchee on July 16, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[POSTPONED: July 16, 2021] Waxahatchee / Fenne Lily [rescheduled from August 14, 2020 and April 6, 2021; now cancelled]

indexAlthough this show was still listed on the website as of mid may, when you clicked on tickets, it officially said cancelled.

Waxahatchee is playing all over the place, so I’m not sure if they’ll ever make it back to Asbury Lanes.  I’d have liked to see Fenne Lily open.

~~~

It took a pretty long time for this show to get officially postponed.  AS of a week or so ago, the date hadn’t been changed.  But I see now that it has been pushed just a few months away.  July seems REALLY questionable for a new show.  Although i will be vaccinated by then so…

Waxahatchee was supposed to play Union Transfer back in April.  That show was rescheduled to October.  But in the interim, she scheduled this date at Asbury Lanes.

Union Transfer holds about 1,000 people.  Asbury Lanes holds about 100.  What a different experience that would be.  Even if you went to both shows.

The one real difference though is the opening act.  OHMME is in Union Transfer, Fenne Lily is here.  I loved OHMME when I saw them and want to see them again.

I saw Fenne Lily open for Lucy Dacus and I really enjoyed her.  In fact, I would enjoy seeing her again as well.  So, her as an opening band isn’t a bad thing by any means, It’s just not as good as OHMME.

I’ve seen Waxahatchee twice–once with a full band and once solo.  I like her, although I wasn’t sure I wanted to see her again.  She has a new album out and I’ve heard it’s much more mellow than her last couple, so that doesn’t really appeal to me.

I’m curious if this show will be rescheduled.  It would be fun to see her in a small space (with social distancing).

wxa

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