There were a festival-worthy five bands on last night's bill at Asbury Lanes. The homeowners' association that was meeting in the outdoor space adjacent to the Lanes got to hear the first couple of songs from Eatontown's Have A Good Season just before the garage door closed for the night. Lucky for them, too, since guitarist / frontman Nick Palermo heads off to college in the coming days. More on their set, along with sets from our friends in Paper Streets, Long Branch garage / glam rockers Acid, and Brooklyn's Grooms, later.
Staten Island via New Jersey quartet Cymbals Eat Guitars headlined the night. When the band started releasing singles in the run-up to their new album, it felt like they had been gone for a while. Turns out it has been three years since the band's last full-length Lenses Alien. Their debut LP Why There Are Mountains rates as a classic of the late aughts for me, and their combination of Pavement-y sounding indie rock and shoegaze touches a lot of personal bases.
While the sound is there, I've always found CEG to be a bit darker, less absurdist than Pavement. Frontman Joe D'Agostino lets all those emotions out onstage. He furiously attacks his guitar-playing; and, for the second time in a week, I saw someone break strings on multiple guitars during a set.
The new songs sounded great live, and there were name checks of well-known NJ landmarks like Six Flags and Vintage Vinyl throughout the evening. LOSE comes out tomorrow, but I was able to pick up a copy from the band last night. I'm looking forward to seeing them again in a few weeks when they open for Bob Mould at Bowery Ballroom.
I managed a bunch of pictures of all the bands. Here are highlights of the set by Cymbals Eat Guitars. There are more on Flickr, and pictures of the other bands will start showing up there as I make my way through them.
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