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Spike and the Gimme Gimmes (Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, August 3, 2025)

Posted in Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, Kate Clover, Schizophonics, Spike and the Gimme Gimmes, The Schizophonics on August 5, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 3, 2025] Spike and the Gimme Gimmes

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes was a band I knew nothing about but didn’t like, based on their name.  Then I learned that they are a cover band doing punk covers of classic rock songs and I thought their name was actually pretty perfect and I wanted to see them live.   I had a few opportunities but they kept falling through.

And then I saw that the band has changed its name to Spike and the Gimme Gimmes which isn’t as good a name but which apparently makes sense for some reason or another.

The band is made up of a bunch of different people who tour for a while.  Initially the band had a bunch of famous punkers and now it’s made of some less famous (to me) punkers, but they’re still fun as anything.

For this tour the band was Spike Slawson (of Swingin’ Utters and Re-Volts) on vocals and maracas.  He would be the Spike of the band name and has been their lead singer since they started in 1995.  We also had CJ Ramone (of The Ramones) on bass.  Yes and actual Ramone! (He was one of the first people to replace an original Ramone and was much younger than the rest of the band when he joined.  He was a fun guy to have back there.

On one guitar was Joey Cape (of Lagwagon) who has also been with the band since the beginning (I don’t know him).  Chris Shiflett of the Foo Fighters was in the band, but now his brother, Scott Shiflett (of Face to Face and Viva Death), plays guitar.  And that leaves the drummer–I can’t tell who it was from the Wikipedia page. (more…)

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The Schizophonics (Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, August 3, 2025) [SPIKE AND THE GIMME GIMMES]

Posted in Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, Kate Clover, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Schizophonics, Spike and the Gimme Gimmes, The Schizophonics on August 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 3, 2025] The Schizophonics

I had not heard of The Schizophonics before this tour.  I looked them up just to see what their deal was and the reviews universally talked about how amazing the live shows are.

About 15 moinutes after Kate Clover left the stage, three people came on stage wearing black jackets with their names on them (fifties style)–Pat, Lety, Sarah.  They removed the jackets and began playing.

Lety Beers on drums and Sarah Linton on bass are great players–Lety’s drums are perfectly timed and Sarah’s bass is perfect for holding the songs together while Pat … does his thing.

Which is… being everywhere all the time.  Pat Beers sings and plays guitar.  And when he is not singing, he is dancing from one side of the stage to the other–skipping, spinning, dropping, rolling.  He ran down the steps on the side of the stage and ran back up on the stage.  All the while, he was still playing guitar.  Even as he dropped to the ground, did a backwards somersault and got back to his feet, the solo was still going on.  Were the solos intricate?  No.  But did he keep the solos going?  Yes indeed.  He plays guitar with one hand in an astonishingly powerful way.  At times he took his guitar off and held it aloft with his left hand and still played with one hand.

I took so many videos and I don’t think I ever captured the full insanity of his stage presence.

Near the end of the set, he put his mic stand on the floor, jumped down and then hopped the barrier.  He put his mic in the middle of the floor and then proceeded to sing and play and run around like a one-man mosh pit.  Even on the floor of the venue, he dropped to his knees, rolled on his back and almost crashed into everyone.  He also had fun singing to a 9-year old in the audience (Lety gave the girl a shout out).

Later, he jumped down without his guitar and sang in the audience,

It was phenomenal and the crowd responded in kind.

What were the songs like?  I have no idea.  They were fast, three chord  rockers.  He sang words but mostly screamed and yelped.  And then he soloed for ages.  The songs were all catchy and simple, but I couldn’t tell you if they were original or covers or what.

I was exhausted just watching him and I was very jealous at his ability to bounce around and get back up so easily.

I enjoyed the heck out of the set and so did everyone else.  They made a ton of new fans, at least of their live show.

I looked at setlists to see what songs they played and yet there’s no recorded setlists for any of their shows this year.  There’s a few shows from 2024 that have songs but I don’t think that’s what they played for us,

They played for about 45 minutes.  Pat was a sweaty mess by the end (although his button down shirt remained tucked in all night).  Pat even broke the heel of his shoe running up and down the stairs.  But he carried on regardless.

I’ve never seen anything like it and I can recommend seeing them one hundred percent.  They may work better as an opening act as I can’t imagine what 90 minutes of that behavior would do to the guy, but if they’re on the bill, don’t miss them!

I have no idea what songs they played and I don’t care what they might play next time.  I’m a convert!

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Kate Clover (Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, August 3, 2025) [SPIKE AND THE GIMME GIMMES]

Posted in Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, Kate Clover, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Spike and the Gimme Gimmes, The Schizophonics on August 3, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 3, 2025] Spike and the Gimme Gimmes

I had wanted to see Me First and the Gimme Gimmes for a little while.  And then they changed their name to Spike and the Gimme Gimmes (I don’t know enough about the band to know anything about this–all I know is there are all kinds of people playing in the band from time to time).

I didn’t really think very much about the opening acts and wasn’t even sure if I’d make it in time to see either opener.  But I got there a few minutes before Kate Clover came on.

I don’t know anything about her.  In fact it’s only when writing this that I found a bio about her (it’s overblown and not very informative) but  I learned that she’s from L.A.

Her set up was simple–guitar, bass and drums–with everyone dressed in black and white.  The guys were in suits and she had a cool black outfit with white piping on it.  They came out and rocked!

Her bio says she learned three chords and that’s what we got.  Simple, chugging, riffing garage rock.  Songs around 3 minutes long with maybe a guitar solo.  Kate also played guitar although for a couple of songs she put down the guitar and just sang.  At one point she said they were going to play a new song, but since you don’t know us, it’s all new, right?  As far as I can tell, this was her first show in New Jersey. (more…)

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From Indian Lakes (Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, April 21, 2025) [L.S. DUNES]

Posted in Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, From Indian Lakes, L.S. Dunes, Night Sins on April 21, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 3, 2025] From Indian Lakes

My son and I saw L.S. Dunes open for Pierce the Veil back in 2023.  We knew a little about them and then the merch guy told us that we would really like them.  But, as seems  to happen at the Santander Arena, the opening bands are just lost in the acoustics of the place.

But I was intrigued enough to want to check them out in Asbury Lanes.  My son and I went for dinner before the show and by the time we found parking, we had missed opening band Night Sins entirely.  And the place was PACKED.  I felt lucky that I could squeeze into the ADA seating area because if I couldn’t we’d have been crowded even further back.  Although I will say that it was not the ideal location–I really assumed we’d be really close to the stage.  And while we weren’t far away, it wasn’t ideal.

By the time we had fully settled in, From Indian Lakes were almost done.  I didn’t know anything about either band, but I was interested in them both and a little bummed to have missed them.

A brief bio: they released their first record since 2019 mid last year, which falls under a shoegaze, indie rock type of genre. The latest album of Head Void was a lot heavier than Dimly Lit in 2019, but compared to L.S. Dunes it’s quite tame.  They are apparently the brainchild of lead singer Joe Vann (Joey Vannucchi) and I don’t know who else was on stage with them.

Joe was totally understated as a front man, but he was also pretty funny, replying to fans shouting things and generally keeping the mood light.  He also had a very funny attitude about talking–just don’t offend anyone and it’s a win.  We saw about three songs in full and I really liked their vibe–very chill and shoegazey.  Although, live there was a harsher element than the soft shimmer of the album.

Overall I enjoyed what little I heard, and I’ve found that I enjoy their albums quite a bit too. (more…)

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Rx Bandits (Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, March 13, 2025)

Posted in Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, Rx Bandits, Zeta on March 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 13, 2025] Rx Bandits

So I didn’t know Rx Bandits at all.  When they started this tour last year (and played Philly), I skipped it even though I wanted to see Zeta.

But in the year since, I listened to this album and found that I liked it quite a bit.  And U still wanted to see Zeta, so I grabbed a ticket and investigated Rx Bandits more.

Rx Bandits had a simple set up–two guitars (singer Matt Embree & Steve Choi), a bass (Matthew Fazzi) and drums (Christopher Tsagakis).  And for a couple of songs they even brought out some horns (trombone: Andrew Borstein & saxophone: Dennis Passley).

This was a tour for their album The Resignation, which they played straight through.  I didn’t realize that they were initially a ska band and that they had morphed into something else over the years.

The band is tight and energetic and they rocked the venue (the crowd was nuts–I was on the barrier and was fairly safe).  They brought out the horns for Prophetic (and played the slow denouement that segued into Newsstand Rock. (more…)

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Zeta (Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, March 13, 2025) [RX BANDITS]

Posted in Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, Rx Bandits, Zeta on March 13, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: March 22, 2024] Zeta

I was not familiar with Rx Bandits when they announced this show.  Indeed the only reason I was interested in this show at all was because Zeta was announced as the opener.

I had seen Zeta once and they blew me away. I would do just about anything to see them again.  So if just going to Asbury Park is the requirement, I was there.

I bought this ticket from the box office (always fun), although I had never really heard of the RX Bandits.  I was psyched to see Zeta.

Imagine my surprise then, when they announced another show in January–this one headlining.  So I got to see them in Jan and then again in March.  And this show was very different.

Well, not very different.  But quite different.  For one thing the stage was huge.  At the Foto Club, they were crammed around the drum kit.  Here, they all had space to move around.  But the focus, as always was on drummer Chino Sandoval–front and center and a whirling maniac.  They are still touring their fantastic new album, and I’m not entirely sure what they played from it.

I’m assuming the first two songs were the same as last time, but after that, I lost track.  I feel like the set was a little different because at one point Juan Chi stepped away from the mic and literally just screamed the vocals into the crowd.  There was some chatter before that but as soon as he started singing like that everyone was silent (even though I believe he was singing in Spanish).

As always, Antonio Pereira loomed behind the drums with his awesome bass sound.

Daniel Hernandez was on the other side of the stage.  He rapped a song and I’m fairly certain he sang part of Bulls on Parade by Rage Against the Machine.  I admit that their sound was a little fuzzy (opening act problems) and they were really loud.  So I didn’t really understand a lot of what they were singing (it being mostly Spanish as well).  But the intensity is unmatched.

After every few songs, the crowd around me roared it’s approval, with a few “holy shit” moments.   This was especially true the two times that Chi hopped on the bongos and Hernandez played his own small drum kit.  It’s all percussion and bass, playing rhythmically and it’s awesome.

Sadly I’ll never know what the set list was, but it doesn’t matter.  I loved the show, Iloved that they clearly won over new fans and it was especially cool that two of the guys remembered me from January when we chatted for a little while.

 

2025 Asbury Lanes 2025 Foto Club 2023 Underground Arts
¿Por qué cargamos el peso de la melancolía del mundo entero sobre nosotros? £ ¿Por qué cargamos el peso de la melancolía del mundo entero sobre nosotros? £ La flor de la palabra @
¿Por qué sentimos la necesidad de romper con todo? £ Completar ∞
Privilege ¿ La flor del tiempo @
La flor de la palabra @ El Canto de La Victoria @
Completar ∞ Afrontar ∞
La flor del tiempo @ Sufrir ∞
Steps ¿ Magia infinita ∞
The Truth ¿
Yo el peor de todos (somos cosmos) XXV §
Shadows ¿
The Wild ¿
unknown setlist Magia infinita ∞

 

¿ Was It Medicine to You? (2025)
@ Todo Bailarlo (2022)
∞ Magia infinita (2018)/reissued 2024
£ L’Antiteoria del Todo (2016)
§ single (2013)

 

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Built to Spill: There’s Nothing Wrong with Love 30th Anniversary Tour / Floating Witch’s Head (Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, August 31, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, Built to Spill, Floating Witch’s Head on August 31, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: August 31, 2024] Built to Spill / Floating Witch’s Head

I have seen Built to Spill five times and have enjoyed every show.  This tour promotes the 30th anniversary of the album There’s Nothing Wrong with Love.  I thought I knew this album pretty well, but it turns out that I really started getting into them with the album AFTER this one.

But I was still really excited to see this show.  They announced a show at Franklin Music Hall which bummed me out because I don’t really like that venue (and it was the same night that I had tickets for at least 3 other shows).  But then they announced this show at Asbury Lanes which was awesome.  I grabbed a ticket right away.

Then I found out that my son was going back to school that day.  So that would be kind of weird to drop him off and then rush off to a show.   Then it turned out he didn’t have to go until the following day, but it would have been even worse to go out on his last night at home.  SO I blew off this show.

Last time that BtS toured, they came back through the area a second time about four months later (Philly in May, Bethlehem in September), so I secretly hope that they will do that again maybe early next year?  But they played a lot of shows on this tour, so I’m not holding my breath.

I’d never heard of Floating Witch’s Head who are

a new Boise-based project concocted by Travis Ward (guitars & vocals) with Michael Mitchell (drums & percussion) and Eric Gilbert (keyboards & head shakes). RIYL: garage, psych, swamp, proto-punk, acid rock, beards, hot peppers, pickles, parties, nice people

The last few tours I’ve had a love/hate relationship with the opening bands.  Last tour I loved Blood Lemon but hated Wetface.  Floating Witch’s Head I’m feeling ambivalent about.  The description above is pretty accurate and I do tend to like this kind of music, but the song I listened to is really pretty standard fare, nothing that excited me.

 

 

 

 

 

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Pollyanna / Latewaves / Froggy (Baronet Rooftop at the Asbury Hotel, Asbury Park, NJ, August 23, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, Baronet Rooftop at the Asbury Hotel, Froggy, Latewaves, Pollyanna on August 23, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: August 23, 2024] Pollyanna / Latewaves / Froggy

I was supposed to see Pollyanna open for Jhariah back in January.  They had to bail because they were touring with someone else.  I was also suppose to see them at the Ukie Club, but it didn’t happen.

So I was excited to see them at this show which was listed as being at Asbury Lanes ut actually took place on the Baronet Rooftop at the Asbury Hotel.  I have no idea if that’s a thing that happens much.  I don’t know if it ‘s a bigger, better venue or just a change of venue.

I was looking forward to experiencing this whole night.  And then we booked our vacation for that week.  So, no Pollyanna yet again.

Latewaves is a rock band from Asbury Park, NJ that is trying their best.  They do rock although in a more poppy than punky way.  They seem like they’d be fun live.

Froggy is a Philadelphia based queer punk band. The members are all quite young.  Actually that was true when I first posted about them two years ago.  I don’t know how old they are now, but I’m glad they’re still going.

Musically they are pretty tight and their musical sense is all over the place with punk noise (love it!).  Their first single 7-11 Nachos has an early Black Flag (TV Party) vibe.  But I’m not a fan of the singer’s voice.

 

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Me First & the Gimme Gimmes / The Defiant / Ultrabomb (Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, April 27, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, Hüsker Dü, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, The Defiant, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Ultrabomb on April 27, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: April 27, 2024] Me First & the Gimme Gimmes / The Defiant / Ultrabomb

I initially didn’t want to like Me First and the Gimme Gimmes because I didn’t like their name.  There are worse reasons to not like a band. Then I learned that they are a cover band doing punk covers of classic rock songs and I thought their name was actually pretty perfect and now I want to see them live too.

I bought a ticket for this show but learned a few weeks later that Teenage Fanclub was playing the same night.  Very different vibes, but a tough decision.

And, best of all, my family was going to be out for the night so I didn’t even have to feel guilty about going out without them!

But for whatever reason, I was really tired that night.  I wound up doing a lot of things that day and was asleep by 9:30.  I probably could have gone to the show and been awake enough to enjoy it, but I didn’t have the motivation to go to either show.

I hadn’t heard of The Defiant, but had I known about them, it probably would have swayed my decision to go to this show

Members from The Offspring, Smash Mouth, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Street Dogs and The Briggs have united to form the new band THE DEFIANT. The members of The Defiant are no strangers to success as individuals but as a group their music stands for so much more on both a personal and professional level. Together the five members create a rock ’n’ roll pedigree that culminates into a riot of melodic punk. The Defiant will release their twelve-song debut album this October with touring to follow.  The Defiant is:  Pete Parada on drums (The Offspring),  Greg Camp on guitar (Smash Mouth),  Johnny Rioux on bass (Street Dogs),  Joey LaRocca on guitar and keys (The Briggs) Dicky Barrett front and center (The Mighty Mighty Bosstones).

Mostly, I have wanted to see The Mighty Mighty Bosstones for decades (I saw them once back in the 90s) and was very sad when they broke up.  Had I known that I could have seen Dicky Barrett (who is really the one I wanted to see), I would have absolutely gone to this show. Ignorance is a bad thing.

And holy crap Ultrabomb features Hüsker Dü’s Greg Norton!  Why didn’t I read about these bands before this show?

UltraBomb, the eagerly anticipated international supergroup, have now arrived bringing together three iconic musicians from the cream of punk rock. On bass is the legend that is Greg Norton, once the driving force behind one of the most influential bands to emerge from the American punk scene, Hüsker Dü. Next up is the indefatigable singer-guitarist Finny McConnell, a name you’ll recognise from thirty years as the frontman of the Canadian Irish folk-punk sensation The Mahones. Completing the trio is the drumming powerhouse Jamie Oliver, having served well over fifteen years in the seminal British punk band UK Subs, as well as shorter stints with the likes of SNFU among others.

Oh boy, do I regret missing this show.

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THICK (Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, March 1, 2024)

Posted in Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ, Big Girl, Teenage Halloween, Tetchy, Thick, Well Wisher on March 6, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: March 1, 2024] THICK

This concert was announced less than a month ago, but I was on board with seeing THICK again.  I had seen them open for Pussy Riot and they were great.  So, yea, only three months later I’d happily see them again.

This was their only show on their schedule, so I’m not entirely sure what inspired it. And with such short notice, I fear that they didn’t have a very large turnout.  In fact, after Teenage Halloween, a lot of fans of the band left, so there were definitely more people there for Teenage Halloween (who are from Asbury Park, let’s not forget) than THICK.

Also, I am quite certain the THICK set was cut short.  They had a pretty hard curfew of 11:30, and by the time they went on, it was close to 10:45.  So, they actually wound up playing one song fewer than they did when they opened for Pussy Riot!

The setlist was not too different from the previous show, although the opening and closing songs were different.

I was up front for the first couple of songs, but I decided to move back some because the sound was a little better in the back.  Plus, once the mosh pit got going (and it was small but it did get going–there was a guy with a huge mohawk who was pretty awesome).

They opened with the title track from 5 Years Behind, the album I know best.  It was great to hear them started off with the frenetic shouting of “always five years always five years always five years behind.”   They didn’t play this last time and it was fun to hear.  It was also the only song where Kate Black played guitar and the touring guitarist Gillian Visco (from Shadow Monster) played bass.  (more…)

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