The Battery Electric, BOYTOY, and YJY Closed Out Our Sundown at the Carousel Series for the Summer (PHOTOS)

The Battery Electric closed out Sundown at the Carousel 3.

Thank You

On Friday night, we held our last Sundown at the Carousel show for the foreseeable future. We closed things out with up-and-coming fuzz pop quartet and CoolDad Minivan victims, YJY, our new friends in the psychedelic noise-poppy BOYTOY, and our dear friends, The Battery Electric.

We started things a little later for a Friday night, and YJY got to play right through the actual sundown. The combination of sunset and the small purple and magenta lights placed to illuminate the Haculla mural gave everything an eerie beauty. We got songs from the band's excellent Couch Surfin' USA (which YJY are auctioning off to support City of Angels NJ) along with stuff I'd expect to hear on an upcoming release.

Brooklyn's BOYTOY impressed the locals with selections from their self-titled EP and their upcoming debut LP, Grackle. The band sit right in a space -- noisy, lots of reverb, pop sensibility -- that wins me over every time. I saw more than a few people stopping by the merch table to grab music and T-shirts and to talk with the band after their set.

The final band for our summer series at the carousel couldn't really be anybody other than The Battery Electric. These guys are some of Asbury Park's favorite sons, and they're some of my best buds. The Battery Electric always leave everything on stage; and, on Friday, the band played for over an hour. The crowd sang along with set staples like "Heathen," "Lauren," and "The Heart and The Thrill." The band threw in covers that ranged from Sam Cooke to Misfits. Folks who had come specifically for the band and folks who just stopped in to check out the free show all eventually got to smiling and dancing.

I couldn't be happier with how this series turned out for us this summer. I got to work with people that I love in Little Dickman Records and Arcade Radio. We brought in the amazing Gentleman Jim to help us with sound. People got to hear great music from Asbury Park and beyond inside one of the structures that has always symbolized the Jersey Shore for me.

Some old and not-so-old friends of ours like YJY, Overlake, The Everymen, and Wreaths got to shake the cobwebs from the old space. We made new friends in Lost Boy ?, Sharkmuffin, and BOYTOY; and I hope that introducing these bands to Asbury brings more opportunities for us to see them here again. We got to bookend the series with Dentist and The Battery Electric, and I'm not sure I would have wanted to do this without getting both of them.

Thank you so much to everyone who came out and supported the shows. This will be a summer I remember forever. Things don't end with this, of course. Almost every night, year round, you have a chance to get out there and support some local or touring band. If you see me around at one of those shows, come say hi.

Here are pics from Friday night. The rest are at Flickr.