Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial kick-off to summer.
The season where fun is made in the sun, sand gets stuck between our toes,
Sangria and BBQ’s take center stage. Any other year, kicking off Memorial Day
weekend in the Jersey Shore would be as traditional as the first grilled hot
dog or burger, but over seven months after Hurricane Sandy ravaged the East
Coast and took away most of the atmosphere of Jersey’s famous shoreline, the
people of The Garden State are staging a comeback, the rebuilding of the
landmarks and beaches that saw people from all over the world come and enjoy.
In the town that gave birth to Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, Asbury
Park was ready to show the world that the time to come back to the Shore is
now. In a co-headlining bill featuring New Jersey’s The Gaslight Anthem and
Brooklyn’s The Hold Steady, the venue that made Bruce, Southside Johnny, and so
many others famous, The Stone Pony, welcomed the two bands to open up summer
2013.
While most of Asbury was still under construction from the
storm and nearly a ghost town thanks in part to a lack of people renting summer
shares and the cold, wet, windy weather, this summer got off to a slow and cold
start, but that was not going to stop the sold out audience from packing the
Pony’s Summer Stage.
Just after 8pm, The Hold Steady provided the soundtrack to
the season opening with their furious anthem, “Constructive Summer,” as beers
cracked open and some pounding double whiskey and coke with no ice, it was time
to forget the effects of Sandy, the current weather and let loose. While the
stage was open and no backdrop was behind the band, you could see the breaks in
the clouds of sun and shadows altering the skyline to make for a beautiful
ambience during the fury of rock and roll. In a tour-de-force set that included
songs like “The Swish,” “Chips Ahoy!,” “Your Little Hoodrat Friend,” “Stuck
Between Stations,” and even two brand new songs, The Hold Steady did little
talking and captured the crowd with their music. As usual, singer Craig Finn’s
guitar was used more as a prop than proper instrument, but his stage antics
were not only comical as he laughed at his own monstrous lyrics and acted out
every piece of dialogue he was singing like a thespian actor on Broadway. The
band sounded as tight as ever, even as the rain came pouring down half way
through their set and fans were getting rained on, The Hold Steady seemed
unfazed and pushed through it all. It was the first time the band were playing
the iconic venue and being a band that is constantly compared to Springsteen’s
signature bar room sound, they were having the time of their lives, and being
huge fans of The Boss himself, it seemed like it was a dream come true.
After the crowd
recharged after The Hold Steady’s hour long fuming set, it was time for the
pride of New Jersey to come on give hope to a better season and tomorrow to
their people. The Gaslight Anthem walked on stage to the sounds of fellow
Jersey punks, The Bouncing Souls blaring through the Pony, grabbing their
instruments and taking their places, the sounds of “Oh ho! Whoa Ho!” surged through the crowd as the title
track to last years album of the year, Handwritten, opened their set. From the get-go, this was the
most passionate audience I have ever witnessed respond to this band, from the
countless times I have covered them, this was something different, this was
something stronger, this was a crowd beaming with pride for their hometown
heroes. “It is summer everybody! Just a few months ago, Hurricane Sandy took
away our shores; it took away our beaches, but we coming back. It is going to
be better than ever,” said singer Brian Fallon to his people. His calming voice
soothed the crowd that while many parts of the Shore are gone, it is time for
new memories to be made, starting now. The bands songs are about the places and
people that residents know so well, so hearing a guy from the same place
talking about the same loves that those impacted by the storm, still, all these
months later was reassuring. Even though it has been nearly a year since Handwritten was released, most of the bands 90-minute set came
from their 2007 breakthrough, The ’59 Sound. The anthems Gaslight have written from ‘59 all take on new meaning now, songs like “Miles Davis
and the Cool,” “Great Expectations,” “Meet Me By The Rivers Edge,” “Old White
Lincoln,” “The Patient Ferris Wheel,” and the album and shows epic closer, “The
Backseat,” all have new value thanks to being written about their home state
and atmosphere that is now forever altered.
