Back when I started CoolDad Music, last night would have been a no-brainer for me. I would have gone to the big show featuring the international touring band at The Stone Pony. While I never spent much time listening to Ride, I am an absolute shoegaze nerdling; and I've been meaning to check them out on this tour. Choices have gotten more difficult for me, though, as I've become aware of all of the great local music we've got around here.
I love dollys. They put out, maybe, my favorite record of the year so far; and they keep cranking out solid pop tune after solid pop tune. They were releasing two more of those at Asbury Lanes last night with help from some other really good bands in The Cold Seas, Goodbye Tiger, Hodera, and Bradley Cooper. dollys were also about to embark on a 3-week tour, and this was their send-off party. I made the decision to skip Ride and head to Asbury Lanes pretty much in the car on my way down to Asbury Park. Someone did call me a local freak for choosing the Lanes, but I have no regrets.
Bradley Cooper, featuring members of Deal Casino and dollys opened things up. Billed as a "hard rock" act, they fell more into just the "rock" category as far as I was concerned. They turned in an extremely fun set, their first in a long time apparently, as several people in the crowd were particularly excited for the band's return. At the end of their set, frontman JoeP said that it would probably be at least five years or so before we saw Bradley Copper again.
Goodbye Tiger have been busy lately. I feel like I've seen them on some bill almost every week. The constant playing pays off in the form of a tight and cohesive set of their somewhere between groove and prog experimental sound. They featured songs from their recent The Pixelated Soul.
Asbury Park's The Cold Seas had just released their Afterglow EP prior to last night's show. The band have a sound that's retro and modern at the same time. They play in that psychedelic, indie rock space of bands like Tame Impala; and I've really enjoyed them every time I've been able to catch a show. The fog machine was in full effect last night; and, while it swamped drummer Nash Breen a couple of times, it worked well with The Cold Seas' vibe.
A few months ago, I reviewed Hodera's 2014 Reset To Default. In that review I said, "The entire set gives the impression that a Hodera live show could be a pretty impressive experience." I'm just gonna say, I know my stuff. I'd missed a bunch of chances to see Hodera live before, so last night was my first time. Even with frontman Matt Smith recovering from an illness, the band tore through an ultra high-energy set that touched on that 2014 EP as well as the band's current release, United By Birdcalls.
I'm not sure what else to say about dollys at this point. They're just really incredible every time. From Jeff Lane's guitar work, to Erik Romero's bass, to Natalie Newbold's joyous drumming and vocals, they just consistently bring it. My one complaint might be that their sets always seem too short, but that's the mark of a band that knows how not to overstay its welcome and always leave them wanting more, I guess. The two new songs that dollys released yesterday -- "I Know" and "Imitator" -- sounded great live and fit in seamlessly with the rest of the band's set.
There is no doubt in my mind that Ride put on a great show and that I would have loved every minute of it. But I can't imagine its being any better than last night's show at Asbury Lanes. That's not a knock on anyone. It's just an observation about how incredibly lucky we are to live in such close proximity to so much great music.
Pics from every set are up at Flickr. You can click the links below to check them out.
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| dollys |
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| Hodera |
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| The Cold Seas |
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| Goodbye Tiger |
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| Bradley Cooper |
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