GayGuy / StraightGuy Released Their LP at House of Independents with The Battery Electric, Dentist, The Black Clouds, and Yawn Mower, 5/5/16

GayGuy / StraightGuy, Yawn Mower, and Dentist's Emily Bornemann

Shut Your Mouth and Eat Your Cake

In what almost felt more like a house party among friends than a concert, Asbury Park's GayGuy / StraightGuy celebrated the release of their debut LP, Shut Your Mouth and Eat Your Cake, at Asbury Park's House of Independents on Thursday night. They stocked the bill with besties who also happened to be some of the area's best bands.

Fellow guitar (baritone) / drum duo, Yawn Mower, started things off just as the clock struck 8pm sounding as good as I've heard them. Their humor and overall positivity set the tone for an evening that bounced around between fun and lots of fun. The Black Clouds rattled the room with their 90s-inspired hard rock for the second early slot. Dentist's performance has just gotten better since playing night after night on tour, and the crowd really responded. The Battery Electric did their thing and got everyone crazy in advance of GayGuy / StraightGuy.

GayGuy / StraightGuy came out for their set and spent the first half pummeling the space with songs from Shut Your Mouth and Eat Your Cake. I think they even threw in something brand new. For the second half of their set, the band brought friends -- members of The Battery Electric, Yawn Mower, Black Clouds' Dan Matthews, Dentist's Emily Bornemann -- onstage for a set of Nirvana and Weezer covers. That was when the sing along dance along party kicked into high gear.

Calling the evening a "release party" instead of a "release show" was entirely accurate. At the end of the night, GayGuy / StraightGuy drummer Bob Paulos said to me, "I love doing that -- just playing music with friends." The celebratory atmosphere and good vibes extended from the stage to the audience throughout the night, and there were moments when the room felt like it was full of a couple hundred friends.

I spent the evening shooting everything, lots of it on my brand new, extremely heavy f1.8 (FIXED!) 50-100mm zoom lens. It was pretty comical since my little mirrorless camera bodies are dwarfed by the massiveness of that glass, but I think I found a winner. You can check out all the photos from the evening either in the Flickr galleries (full rez) or on the Facebook page (Facebook rez).