So
just to get it out of the way, before I left for this brief trip I thought to
myself, ‘I ought to charge my camera battery’. But I didn’t.
And ya know what- the damn thing died before I even got to the
show. So instead of live pictures
of bands I’m going to put photos of my insane record haul from this show
instead.
Anyways,
it was a nice drive down to New Jersey, until I actually got to New
Jersey. They call their roads
‘highways’. But if you put a
traffic light on a road, surrounded by strip malls it ceases to be a highway.
It’s just a street at that point.
And for one reason or another, every time I go to Jersey I end up on one
of these ‘highways’ for about 20 or 30 miles. It’s mind numbing.
The actual highways aren’t much better. Never have I witnessed more insane driving outside of a NYC
cab driver on a bender.
I
eventually make it to Asbury Park and actually have some time to explore,
instead of my last visit a few years back where I wandered the boardwalk before
seeing Rorschach at the Lanes and then taking a train back that night. Cookman Ave. seemed to be the happening
spot. I checked out the GroovyGraveyard, which is rife with eclectic randomness- a bunch of assorted records,
comics, toys, etc. In other words,
a little slice of heaven for me. I
found a Monorchid gatefold LP there for five bucks. I then headed across the street to Holdfast Records. It was a very new looking, very tidy,
clean, and professional shop. As
I’m flipping through records Joe from Psychic Teens wanders in, and I’m almost
wondering how this record-fiending fella wasn’t already here. We look at records and I convince him
to buy a Most Secret Method LP because it’s five bucks and it rules. I find a Kurt LP, Seven Storey Mountain
LP, and David Byrne LP all for the total sum of about $16. Joe and I head back to Groovy Graveyard
because I tell him it rules and we discover the owner runs a noise rock forum I
post on and so we chat about all that good stuff.
I
head to the venue and meet up with people and we eventually head out to a
nearby spot called Kayas Kitchen, an all-vegan establishment, and get some food
to go. I gotta say, it’s pretty
good. A little on the pricey side,
but quite good. If you even happen
to find yourself in Belmar for some odd reason give ‘em a whirl. They got quite a variety of good stuff.
So
I get back to the venue (which I ought to add is about 20 degrees cooler due to
the ocean breeze coming off the Atlantic some 50 yards away than the sticky heat
wave engulfing town some several blocks in the other direction) just in time to
eat and then catch a chunk of the set from opener Sex Cross. It’s dudes from Old Wounds doing goth
punk, seemingly desperate to escape their hardcore roots, but not quite there
yet. I’m pretty sure I still
spotted some breakdowns. It was
decent overall for hardcore dudes who want to dress up as vamps. There was certainly a flair for
presentation and just a bit of over-doing it.
PsychicTeens were up next. They opened
with “Lust”, a slow, plodding dirge from “Come”, followed by the new-ish 7”
songs, and a couple new ones that I have heard before. It’s a bit of a weird setting because
every other time I’ve seen them it’s a small space and they are super loud. But Asbury Lanes is a bit bigger of a
venue (it’s literally an old bowling alley with a stage in the middle of it)
and they didn’t sound quite as deafening as in the past. Still a great set and it was cool to
know that there were probably plenty of people present who had never heard
them.
ChildBite then get up and miraculously create an anti-gravity zone in front of the
stage for the duration of their performance because everyone up front seemed to
lose control of all bodily functions and it became this uncoordinated mess of
swinging arms, flailing legs, stupor-induced stumbling, and general
confusion. Granted, the band is
super weird and crazy. Their
frontman was this perfect mix of Neil Fallon and Dan Higgs while the band
played some revved-up concoction of noise rock and Dead Kennedys. It was pretty awesome. The crowd, on the other hand, was
not. I mean, when you see a bunch
of 16 year old kids dancing like they’re swatting at a swarm of bees, or a
seizure-prone meth addict you give them some leeway. “They will understand rhythm some day”, you think to
yourself. But when it’s a bunch of
grown adults- one of which happened to jump on stage at one point, grab a beer
from the band, and then fall off the stage on his ass and continue to act like
a schmuck- it’s just sad and embarrassing. So yeah, Child Bite- killer. Audience- buns.
Coliseum
closes things out. Here is a band
that sounds so tight, so locked in with each other, a sound so dialed in that
if you close your eyes it’s as if you’re listening to the record. It’s that crystal clear. They play lots of new stuff, which was
fun to hear, followed by some stuff from the last two records. It’s different for sure, but you can
see where they are moving ahead and I enjoy it quite a bit.
After
the gig I crashed at a place a block away and got up early to take a stroll on
the beach before getting some dull breakfast. I got on the road and headed up to Princeton to explore the
Princeton Record Exchange. I
almost gave them all my life savings over all the good stuff I came
across. I went to sell them some
records and they offered me next to nothing for them. I guess when they offer to buy brand new LPs from you for a
buck I guess that’s how they can afford to sell a copy of “Scratch the Surface”
on vinyl for $10. It’s good and
bad. I sold them a few things I
wanted to get rid of and in turn I picked up a ton of great records on the
cheap.
After
spending way too much time in that place I made a mile, which was a lot more
slow going than I’d hoped because getting out of this state is horrible. By the time I hit Pennsyltucky I was
cruising on auto-pilot and just winged it back home. While there is no photographic evidence of my trip a parking
ticket, the sand between my toes, the ringing in my ears, and the bag full of
vinyl in the back seat is proof enough that it was a drive worth doing.
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