What's Going On: 12/24, 12/25, 12/26, 12/27 & 12/28, 2015

It's the final holiday installment of Home for the Holidays this weekend.

Home for the Holidays

I hope you have some time off this week. Whatever your winter holiday celebrations entail, make some time for yourself, your family, and your friends. Going out to see a show is one thing you can all share together.

On Christmas Eve, Brighton Bar's Joy Vay hosts Band Appreciation Nite with free admission, food, and drink specials at the bar.

Tomorrow is Christmas. Have a wonderful day. Go see Star Wars or something. Maybe find a bar that's open later to take a break from all the festivities.

On Saturday, it's the 9th and final Christmastime installment of The Bouncing Souls' Home For The Holidays. The weekend is full of music and charity events that are all listed over at Chunksaah Records' website. The Souls' shows at The Stone Pony are all sold out, but there is plenty of other stuff to do.

Saturday's H4TH show includes openers World Inferno Friendship Society, Miss TK and The Revenge and The Low Budgets. The after-party takes place at Asbury Park Yacht Club and features The Moms, Up For Nothing and DJ "The Pete" Pete Steinkopf. This one is called "I Like Your Mom," and moms get in free.

Also on Saturday, Brighton Bar hosts The Union, Salmon Jam, Pepperwine, and Chaos Kings. It's the second annual Jawliday party at Red Bank Rehearsal with The Vansaders, The Battery Electric, Hot Blood, and more. Sandy Mack is at Wonder Bar.

Sunday's installment of H4TH brings Tim Barry, Let It Burn, and Tommy Brunett in to play with The Bouncing Souls. The APYC after-party features Crazy & The Brains and The Scandals. During the day, it's another edition of the Asbury Park Punk Rock Flea Market.

Things wrap up for H4TH on Monday when The Bouncing Souls are joined by The Loved Ones, Static Radio NJ, and Roger Harvey at The Pony. APYC has the after-party with Luther. As a warmup to those, you can check out acoustic performances from The Menzingers' Greg Barnett and Tom May in Convention Hall and Dave Hause, Jared Hart, Augusta Koch, and Chris Brown over at Russo. Happy Mondays brings in Accidental Seabirds, Yawn Mower, We're Ghosts Now, and Carrying Kimberly for their weekly free show.

We here at CDMHQ would like to send you our warmest wishes for this week. We hope all of your dreams come true. Hug each other. Love each other. Be kind.

Peace.

THURSDAY (12/24)

The Brighton Bar (Long Branch): Band Appreciation Nite, 7pm, FREE

FRIDAY (12/25)

MERRY CHRISTMAS

SATURDAY (12/26)

Asbury Park Yacht Club (Asbury): The Moms / Up For Nothing / DJ The Pete, 11pm, $8 ($5 w/ Souls Tix, Moms Free)

The Brighton Bar (Long Branch): The Union / Salmon Jam / Pepperwine / Chaos Kings, 7:30pm, $5

Clash Bar (Clifton): The Heshers / RP / Galanos / Match Party

Court Tavern (New Brunswick): Court Tavern Holiday Festivus!

Langosta Lounge (Asbury): The Yellow King, 10pm, FREE

Outer Art Space (Flemington): Lilac Daze / Foozle / Secret Mountain / Secretary Legs, 7pm, $5

Porta (Jersey City): Remember Jones and The Emancipation Congretation, 11pm, FREE

Red Bank Rehearsal Studio (Red Bank): The Vansaders / Eagle! / The Battery Electric / Hot Blood / Throw The Heat, 8pm, $12

Roxy & Dukes (Dunellen): Rachel Wise and the Guise / Fatback and the Urban Ploughboys / The Blue Plate Specials, 9pm, $10

The Saint (Asbury): Black Suburbia / Trulogy / Flow Menez / Alexa Nova / Dream / The 9 / Mike Favata / Nick Serido, 7:30pm, $10

The Stone Pony (Asbury): Home For The Holidays: The Bouncing Souls / World Inferno Friendship Society / Miss TK and The Revenge / The Low Budgets, 7pm, SOLD OUT

The Wonder Bar (Asbury): Sandy Mack / Strumberry Pie, 7pm, $5

SUNDAY (12/27)

Asbury Park Yacht Club (Asbury): The Scandals / Crazy & The Brains / DJ s.pookie, 11pm, $8 ($5 w/ Souls Tix)

The Brighton Bar (Long Branch): Holiday Break Showcase w/ Fence / Circuitry / Silent Future / RedCoat, 6pm, $10-$12

Convention Hall (Asbury): Asbury Park Punk Rock Flea Market (Asbury), 11am, $10 at 10am, $4 at 11am

Langosta Lounge (Asbury): Jet Weston and His Atomic Ranch Hands, 1pm, FREE

The Saint (Asbury): Jo Wymer's Student Holiday Showcase, 1pm, $10

The Saint (Asbury): Jo Wymer Band / Bullet Bob And The Colts, 7:30pm, $10

Starland Ballroom (Sayreville): The Starting Line, 6:30pm, $27.50 adv, $30 door

The Stone Pony (Asbury): Home For The Holidays: The Bouncing Souls / Tim Barry / Let It Burn / Tommy Brunett, 7pm, SOLD OUT

MONDAY (12/28)

Asbury Park Yacht Club (Asbury): Luther / DJ Sara M., 11pm, $8 ($5 w/ Souls Tix)

Convention Hall (Asbury): Greg Barnett & Tom May / DJ Magic Mike, 4pm-7pm, $5 suggested donation

Russo Music (Asbury): Dave Hause / Jared Hart / Augusta Koch / Chris Brown, 2pm-4pm

The Saint (Asbury): Alyssa Stevensono / Dan Gagliardi / Robert Smedberg / Jack Steiger, 7:30pm, $7

The Stone Pony (Asbury): Home For The Holidays: The Bouncing Souls / The Loved Ones / Static Radio NJ / Roger Harvey, 7pm, SOLD OUT

The Wonder Bar (Asbury): Accidental Seabirds / Yawn Mower / We're Ghosts Now / Carrying Kimberly, 8pm, FREE

More Home for the Holidays, Night Three Pics: Organ Thieves, Mephiskapheles, THE BOUNCING SOULS

CoolMom and I Saw the Whole Thing

I didn't want to leave you with the impression that CoolMom and I went to The Stone Pony on Saturday night just to see Titus Andronicus. I love that band, but this was The Bouncing Souls' Home for the Holidays after all. It is truly one of the most fun musical experiences of the whole year, and -- even if you're not a fan of The Bouncing Souls -- it's worth it to try to get to at least one of these nights when this comes around.

On top of the sheer joy and craziness that happens when The Bouncing Souls take the stage and play through the evening's setlist, which is different each night, the audience also gets treated to some excellent opening acts handpicked by the headliners. In addition to Titus Andronicus, Saturday featured the hard rock, soul punk of Toronto's Organ Thieves along with the ska stylings of New York's Mephiskapheles. CoolMom is particularly partial to ska so this was an all-around great evening for her.

I got pics of all of the acts, and here are some of my non-Titus shots from Saturday. As I said, we gave up our primo location in the name of safety for the Souls' set; but we were able to take everything in from our place by the bar and it was great. We'll both be back next year. I did two nights this year. We'll see if I can bump it up in 2014.

Home For The Holidays Edition

Bouncing Souls Friday

It's been a tough couple of days health-wise for me. I won't bore you with the details, but I'm feeling about 90% now. I think I'm good to head to the Stone Pony for the first of my two nights with The Bouncing Souls.

The Bouncing Souls always have some great openers for these Home for the Holidays shows. Tonight we get Laura Stevenson and a mystery band called Molly and the Zombies. Tomorrow, it's the band that accounts for a good percentage of the posts here at CoolDad Music, Titus Andronicus. Trying to work it out so that CoolMom can join me tomorrow night, so if anyone knows a reliable babysitter...

I hope Santa was good to you. If you're going to either of the shows, come find me. I'll buy you a beverage.

Rock on.