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Archive for the ‘Hillsborough NJ’ Category

Chris Gethard (Flounder Brewing Co., Hillsborough, NJ, January 16, 2026)

Posted in Chris Gethard, David Dondero, Flounder Brewing Co, Hillsborough NJ, Weird New Jersey on January 17, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: January 16, 2026] Chris Gethard

When I first saw a poster for a Chris Gethard show (I’m guessing at House of Independents), I thought his name was a joke–Get Hard, ha ha.  I’m sure he took a lot of abuse for that in school.

But I looked him up and discovered that he was part of an amazing podcast called New Jersey is the World (it ended about a year ago).  Gethard (pronounced Getherd) grew up in New Jersey and spent many years writing for Weird NJ.  And he knows this state better than just about anyone.

He does comedy nationally, but he seems to really relish doing shows in NJ.  Last year he did a show in every county (in pizza places, in basements, in a used furniture store (!) and now for the second time in Flounder Brewing.  (I’m bummed I missed the last one).

He has regular routines, but he also loves to tell stories about New Jersey, especially weird New Jersey. (more…)

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David Dondero (Flounder Brewing Co., Hillsborough, NJ, January 16, 2026) [CHRIS GETHARD]

Posted in Chris Gethard, David Dondero, Flounder Brewing Co, Hillsborough NJ, Kevin Devine on January 16, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: January 16, 2026] David Dondero

It’s interesting to me that my last show of 2025 was at the same venue as the first show of 2026–a venue I hadn’t been to before that previous show.  It helps that it’s 15 minutes from my house.

I have known about Chris Gethard for a little while.  I missed him the last time he came around here, but I soon as this show was announced I grabbed a ticket.  I saw that David Dondero was going to open for him.  I thought I didn’t know who he was, but it turns out I had seen a Tiny Desk of his back in 2014.  The folks at NPR Music love(d) him, but I was okay on him

his music is good but not especially memorable, but it’s his lyrics that Dondero is known for.  His songs are thoughtful and interesting and look at a variety of subjects.

Chris Gethard introduced him and said that he had known about David for decades and was a huge fan.  He was in Florida and David was playing a show and said he was moving back to New Jersey.  He and Chris connected and this tour was born.  (more…)

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Kevin Devine (Flounder Brewing Co., Hillsborough, NJ, December 17, 2025)

Posted in Flounder Brewing Co, Hillsborough NJ, Kevin Devine on December 17, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: December 17, 2025] Kevin Devine

I’ve been a fan of Kevin Devine and the Goddamn Band for several years now.  I first saw him opening a show and I really enjoyed his brief set.  I’ve since seen him solo and with the Goddamn band.  So when they announced that he would be playing a show at a Brewery fifteen minutes from my house, I grabbed tickets immediately.

And then my scheduled surgery was moved up from January to December 10.  I assumed there was no way I could go.  And yet, a week later I felt great and figured I could surely sit for 90 minutes.  I reached out to Flounder and secured two seats and by midday I felt well enough to go.

Sadly, I am an idiot and never confirmed the start time.   I thought it started at 8, but it actually started at 7:30 and it sounds like Kevin mingled and chatted with everyone.  So we arrived around 7:45, embarrassingly after he had started.  And we clearly missed ten or fifteen minutes.  However, Kevin played 20 songs while we were there and finished a little after nine, so even if we missed a few songs, we still had a great night of music.  [Turns out we only missed one full song, some of the second song and a 5 minute intro, phew]. (more…)

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Neshanic and Neshanic Station: Images of America (1999)

Posted in Branchburg, NJ, Hillsborough NJ, History, Set in New Jersey! on March 14, 2024| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: March 2024] Neshanic and Neshanic Station

My son bought me this book for Christmas.  It’s a historical look at our town, assembled by the Neshanic Station Historical Society.

I’m fairly certain every town has one of the books in the Images of America series.  And they are basically lots of photos of interesting (or not) scenes from the history of the area.

Obviously, the bigger the area, the likelihood there is for more pictures.

Neshanic and Neshanic Station are small villages that are part of Hillsborough and Branchburg respectively and it’s pretty clear that initially one or two families owned much of the area.

It was once a fairly thriving area, with a train station and a lot of businesses.  Most of those businesses are now residences.  There were two schools in the area both are now gone.  The train station is no more, although the train does still pass through.

It’s now a sweet, quiet place to live with a lot of historical information available.

The book shows lots of pictures of what it was like in the early 1900s through the 1950s with a couple of contemporary (circa 1990s) photos as well.

A lot of the same names appear in the photos– I do wonder if a call for pictures from other families was put forth.

My favorite parts were seeing the roads that I know now as the were–unpaved and with no houses when the village was first founded.  And seeing that one of those original schools was possibly on our current property–maybe a metal detector is called for!

It was interesting reading this and realizing just how much is different in the 25 years since the book came out.

 

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