Thursday thru Saturday with Dentist, The Battery Electric, Strange Eclipse, Kerbivore, Holiday, Lyons, Lowlight, Little Vicious, and The Jolly Daggers

Little Vicious at Bond St. Basement

Weekend Off

I don't know what happened on Friday. Several albums came out that I do want to talk about, but I just never got myself going. One cup of coffee doesn't do it for me. If I don't have that second cup, I'm useless for the rest of the day. Also, I'd done a photoshoot with Dentist the day before; and, I think, just wandering around in the searing heat all day did a number on me.

At any rate, even if I wasn't posting, it's not like I took the weekend off.

There was the aforementioned photoshoot with Dentist. I don't really have a lot of confidence with band promo shoots. The spur-of-the-moment, reactionary nature of live music photography seems to be more of a strength for me; but I'm pretty proud of the shots we got. I think I'm starting to learn how to photograph groups and -- come on -- Dentist are just a good-looking band.

Dentist at Asbury's Outpost artist hangout

Summer -- at least the month of July -- is about swim teams here at CDMHQ; and the cooldaughters had a summer camp swim meet scheduled for Thursday night. When that got washed out, CoolMom and I headed down to Porta Asbury Park to catch Dentist's evening set. This was my second time seeing them as a 3-piece, and it's really working for them.

Dentist at Porta AP with the Sony RX100IV

Then Friday. Daytime: blah. Dinner time: CoolMom killed it with a nice dinner of homemade chicken parm. That evening, I stopped in at Asbury Park Music Foundation to see -- for the first time in a while -- our denim-clad brothers in The Battery Electric. They were playing the release show for Roxbury, NJ's Strange Eclipse, and the alcohol-free set still got pretty wild with the young headliners hopping up to sing "Does He Love You" with the Battery boys.

The Battery Electric and Strange Eclipse at APMF with the RX100IV

For their part, Strange Eclipse, who look to be just a little older than CoolDaughter #1, were impressive. They turned in an extremely tight set of heavy blues / garage rock that had me forgetting they were teenagers. I headed home straight after, since the cooldaughters had a two-day swim meet with their club team starting the next day.

Strange Eclipse at APMF with the RX100IV

I thought I'd get some posts done during the excruciating boredom that is being a spectator at a big, club swim meet. But things were so mind-numbingly boring that I could barely move my fingers. Also, I may only have had one cup of coffee on Saturday.

Then, it was back from Princeton for a busy Saturday night. The Asbury Park Brewery was hosting an early show that featured Staten Island's Kerbivore, Neptune's Holiday, and local Asbury favorites, Lyons. Kerbivore came highly-recommended from our good buddy Sugarblast Al C of the Signal2Noise radio program, and their power-punk-pop (think GBV, Replacements, etc.) didn't disappoint. Holiday are a low-key trio that make some big sounds which always remind me of Neil Young or Built To Spill. And Lyons closed things out with their chimey post-punk.

Kerbivore at Asbury Park Brewery

Holiday at Asbury Park Brewery

Lyons at Asbury Park Brewery

I'm quickly warming to the brewery's tasting room as a venue. It's a little loud and echo-y, but it's nice to have another independent spot where you can see bands and enjoy some nice, local beers.

Quick hustle over to Bond St. Basement for Lowlight, Little Vicious, and The Jolly Daggers. It was a beautiful summer Saturday in Asbury, so that meant parking super far away and people watching as I walked to Bond. I started wondering where they keep the machine that spits out all these Jersey Shore cast-member clones that wander downtown Asbury in the summer.

Anyway...

The Bond St. show was a late one with Lowlight kicking things off at around 10:45. They were great as usual, and we even got a few moments of Renee without her hat. Little Vicious had people dancing and going apeshit with help from a guy named Dan who wailed on a block for just about the entire set. The Jolly Daggers hit at about 1:10 in total darkness, and were fun as always. I mean, they are led by Captain Fun, Ron Santee; and, on this night, they also featured a wig-clad Marguerite King of Little Vicious on lead guitar. I was toast afterwards and headed home.

Lowlight at Bond St. Basement

Little Vicious at Bond St. Basement

Jolly Daggers at Bond St. Basement

Back to Princeton Sunday morning for about 6 more hours of sitting around at the meet where, again, I got no blogging and very little editing done. I did have time to reflect, though, on what a cool few days I'd just had. CoolMom and I got a little pizza date on Thursday. I got to hang with some of my very best friends and see them play. I saw and got to know a a couple of new bands. I took a whole bunch of what I consider to be pretty cool pictures. The five or so minutes that the cooldaughters were actually in the water were exciting as always.

I really need to stop complaining so much.

Pics from this weekend are pretty much all edited and will be appearing in the Flickr galleries and / or on the Facebook page if they haven't already.

Holiday Benefit with Little Dickman Records on December 14th at The Theatre Bar at 610 Bangs

For the FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties / The Mercy Center of Asbury Park

UPDATE: THIS SHOW IS ALL AGES AND WE HAVE ADDED THE ROCKNROLL HIFIVES AS OPENERS!!!

We are just about a month away from the first-ever show that CoolDad Music will have a hand in presenting. I've done the Facebook inviting and sharing and whatnot, but I just noticed that I haven't yet done an actual POST about it. So here goes.

On December 14th, CoolDad Music will be joining forces with the wonderful people of Little Dickman Records to present a holiday show in Asbury Park. The festivities take place on December 14th at The Theatre Bar at 610 Bangs. Things get started at 3pm.

Best of all, the show will be a benefit for The FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties as well as The Mercy Center of Asbury Park. This means a lot because right in Asbury Park, and in many other communities throughout our area, there are people -- our neighbors -- that face the prospect of going to bed hungry every night. We'd like to get as many people to this show as possible, so that we can do as much as we can to help these organizations help those in need.

Admission to the show will be $10; but, if you bring a donation of non-perishable food items (no glass please), your admission drops to $5.

Oh, and the bill is amazing. We've lined up bands from the Little Dickman roster and beyond. Honestly, every single one of these bands has brightened my year by putting out a great record, playing fantastic live shows, or both.

There will be music from:

The Battery Electric
Hot Blood
Dentist
Overlake
Black Flamingos
T.V. Tramps
The Off White
Ms. America
The RocknRoll HiFives

We're also going to have some special acoustic performances as well as some other fun stuff. So, if you haven't already, RSVP to the event and please share it with your friends. Everyone is invited to come toast a great year.

Also, if you don't come, my brother might cry.