Tuesday doesn't get enough love. You've got your free Happy Mondays shows at Wonder Bar or, sometimes, a low dough show at The Saint. You're kind of starting to feel like you're in the home stretch on Wednesday, and then things really kick off on Thursday nights. Tuesdays -- with a few exceptions -- are usually pretty quiet. That wasn't the case last night as Night Birds brought their short tour with Edmonton's No Problem to Asbury Lanes for some Tuesday night cobweb clearing.
The city of Asbury Park continues its project to apparently pave all of the streets along the waterfront with gold, and finding a drivable path to Asbury Lanes through the network of road closures proved more than I could manage. I ended up parking next to Wonder Bar and hoofing it for a block through the weird fat rain /sleet-like precipitation.
Things got started at around 9pm. Jersey Shore hardcore band Stag Party started things off with a short but relentless set. The crowd was a little subdued for most of the night, but things did work up to a small circle pit a few times.
North Jersey punk vets Mental Abuse followed. They had several supporters in the audience, including most of the Night Birds, who sang along as the band rattled off songs from an extensive setlist.
Night Birds' touring partners No Problem started at around 10:30; and, from the first moments of their set, frontman Graeme MacKinnon was hurling himself at audience members from the stage. In between his guitar work, MacKinnon leapt, did handstands, rolled around on the stage, and bounded into the crowd. The band delivered a wild set that combined the aggression and energy of 80s hardcore with the, for lack of a better phrase, pop sensibility of late 70s punk. Really impressive. Go see them or go listen to them whenever you get a chance.
Night Birds ended the evening with their typically great set. I love Night Birds' combination of hardcore and surf... ...and the humor... ...and the Seinfeld references. Compared to the other times I've seen the band, last night was pretty tame from a crowd perspective. That didn't stop frontman Brian Gorsenger from finding willing members of the audience to scream lyrics with him into the mic. A few times, it looked like he may have been losing his own voice. He pushed through it, and it didn't put any kind of a damper on the set.
I almost stayed in last night, but I couldn't miss a chance to see Night Birds so close to home. Even if it was Tuesday. Check out photo highlights below. You can see the rest of the pics in the Flickr galleries.
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