My first show of 2011, and first since the summer, had me traveling up to Asbury Park at the last minute to see a few bands I’ve been meaning to check out. After a long afternoon in my office, (someone pays me to code wikis and listen to Discharge…what a world) and a quick trip to Walmart for earplugs, where I observed a near fight, I was off to Asbury Park. Parkway North is such a mess. Potholes everywhere, construction half completed, and a massive amount of shitty drivers on the road. Can I have my taxes back? Getting to Asbury Lanes is really easy (drive to Casino Skate Park. Make a left. Park.) so I made it up in time to only miss the opener Mob Mentality. Alex from Dissed & Dismissed Fanzine had tweeted me earlier in the day about them, so I apologize for missing them.
In 2011, in-between band time is weird. I huddled up in the corner and answered some email from students on my phone and read a few hours of tweets in Tweetdeck. I met up with a few friends who I had not seen in a long time, but otherwise kept to myself. I wish I’d had a smartphone in, say, 1998 to pass the time.
After some delay, Stick Together were up next. They are from Wilkes Barre PA, a place I used to know some people from. Musically, they reminded me a bit of Release or Four Walls Falling. Their singer also reminded me a bit of Rob Fish, speaking his mind between songs about a number of matters. I yawned my way through all the Straight Edge talk, mostly because I’ve been through too many generations of that to care, but was pleased they had something to say at least. I didn’t appreciate the lecture to women about not being “slutty,” which was based around, “you don’t have to be like that!” Wow, I’m sure the women in the audience really appreciated a Dude needing to let them know! Hey, it’s 2011, let’s stop policing people’s sexuality, please. With that being said, at least Stick Together have something to say to their audience more than goofy talk about their edges or how many shirts and records they have for sale. I am going to check out their record.
I was looking forward to seeing Give after really enjoying their recorded output. Give are from Washington DC and remind me a lot of Swiz or Ignition. They really impressed in a live setting and played some promising new material. The crowd seemed to be into them and the band really was into their performance. I will look forward to more. Maybe we could interview them?
After a little bit of time tweeting back and forth with a former student about how shitty the major political parties are in our country, it was time for The Rival Mob. After a quick hello to DFJ, I got a good spot on the side of the stage, deciding to stay out of the pit and just hang out. The Rival Mob played a nice mix of older and newer songs from all their records. The crowd was pretty into it, dancing and diving and having lots of fun. I like them a lot, which is fantastic considering how horrible that “style” has become over the years.
I bailed really quick after the show and headed home. I had a great audiobook to finish on my phone and honestly was pretty beat after being up since 5:30am. After a quick trip to Wawa (I’m now the mayor of FOUR Wawas) after getting back to Manahawkin I headed home and dropped into bed.
