The Scandals, Worthless United, The Curse, and Spinal Ramones Played the NateFest After-Party at Asbury Lanes, 3/21/15 (PHOTOS)

Bayonne's The Scandals kicked off the NateFest After-Party at Asbury Lanes.

Friends Helping a Friend

On Saturday night, Asbury Lanes hosted the after-party for NateFest, a 2-day punk / hardcore festival and fundraiser. The Scandals, Worthless United, The Curse, and Spinal Ramones all came out to continue the festival's efforts to raise money for New Jersey hardcore fixture and apparently great person, Nate Gluck, who recently received a diagnosis of cancer of the stomach and esophagus.

Every band that took the stage praised Gluck or told stories like, "He was the first person to be nice to our band when we were nobody." In keeping with the picture painted of Gluck by each band that took the stage, the entire evening was full of goodwill and fun.

The Scandals, fresh off of their tour with The Gaslight Anthem, started things right at the scheduled 10:45. The Bayonne band had the crowd screaming along and fist-pumping right from the beginning; and, by the end of their set, singer / guitarist Jared Hart was on the floor getting mauled by the crowd.

Asbury's Worthless United got the band back together for another go 'round in support of Nate Gluck. They had lots of friends in the crowd, including Jay Insult who treated everyone to his vuvuzela stylings both from the floor and from the stage. The set included a cover of Generation X's "Dancing With Myself," and singer Dave Colantoni worked the crowd into a frenzy of "L-E-S-Ses" for set-closer "Your Ass Is Grass...And Worthless Is the Lawnmower."

The Curse, who feature Dave Hause on guitar and backing vocals, exhorted the crowd to come closer to the stage. Singer Ben Wolfgang took advantage of the crowd's proximity and spent most of the set at the edge of the stage, sharing the mic with anyone else who would sing. The Curse are a pure hardcore band, but several of the songs have a melodic element to them -- even a few whoah-ohs -- and the band just puts out an overall positive vibe.

Finally, Spinal Ramones closed things out with a set of Ramones and Misfits covers. The band apologized in advance for having very little voice left after NateFest earlier in the day, but their set was a perfect closer for the evening as everyone sang along. Worthless United drummer Steven Asbury joined the band for lead vocals on "Rockaway Beach."

It was a late night blanketed in friendship and good feeling. The turnout was good, so I hope the party raised a lot of money for the Gluck family. If you missed NateFest or the after-party, there's still a GoFundMe running where you can help.

Here are some photo highlights from Saturday. Complete sets are at Flickr.