Jersey City and Asbury Park with The RockNRoll Hi-Fives, Lost Boy ?, NO ICE, Vacation, Resounding No, Daddies, and The Vansaders, 8/16 & 8/18, 2018

The RockNRoll Hi-Fives at APYC

Home and Away

This past weekend was a big one in terms of New Jersey shows. I'm only one person, so I always have to make choices. Ever since Rose Lamela started contributing here, though, I've had the opportunity to squeeze in coverage of a few things I would otherwise miss. On Thursday night, we were both in Jersey City. Rosi hit Monty Hall for Vacation, Daddies, and Resounding No; while I made it over to FM for the first of two homecoming shows for The RockNRoll Hi-Fives. That one also featured a solo performance from Lost Boy ?'s Davey Jones as well as NO ICE.

CoolDad Music hosted the second Hi-Fives show at Asbury Park Yacht Club on Saturday. We got help that night from a huge post-Gaslight Anthem crowd and the always amazing Vansaders.

But first, Thursday...

Here's Rosi.

Thursday Trio

Thursdays have been my Fridays for most of the summer as I get some nice perks at my day job. Last week was the end of that, and the feeling that summer is coming to an end was getting me down. There is nothing like a three-band line up at Monty Hall to cheer you up after a case of the end of the summer blues.

What could possibly cheer me up? Getting to see Daddies, Resounding No, and Vacation was all I needed to feel like I can take on the rest of the year.

Daddies gave us a little bit of their garage punk antics and even featured back up singers for a few tunes.

Daddies by Rose Lamela

Daddies by Rose Lamela

Daddies by Rose Lamela

Resounding No brought me back to a more pensive place with their crunchy grunge sound.

Resounding No by Rose Lamela

Resounding No by Rose Lamela

Resounding No by Rose Lamela

Vacation was the final push for me to get back to where I wanted to be. They absolutely rocked Monty Hall. There were times I was scared I might get hit in the head with a plastic Fireball bottle, but it wouldn't have taken me out of the refreshed mood I inhabited as I shared my last summer week with a gang of rock misfits. It's the little notes and beats in life that get us moving on to what is ahead even if it's the possibility of a cold dreary winter.

Vacation by Rose Lamela

Vacation by Rose Lamela

Vacation by Rose Lamela

I absolutely feel what Rosi is saying there. For me, personally, there really are very few downer type emotions that a live show can't cure for at least a few hours. That's what it was like at FM in Jersey City on Thursday night.

Davey Jones of Lost Boy ? performed new songs from his upcoming Paranoid Fiction. He sang to tracks that he'd recorded, produced, and played every instrument on and did not lose a single step as a frontperson without a band.

Lost Boy ?

Lost Boy ?

It had been about two months since I'd seen The RockNRoll Hi-Fives as they'd been on a nationwide tourcation. Among friends, they played loose and relaxed, filling in the spaces between songs with stories from tour. I can't tell you how good it felt to see and rock with them again.

The RockNRoll Hi-Fives

The RockNRoll Hi-Fives

NO ICE closed out the evening. They are one of the most fun bands out of Brooklyn right now. They can write a damn rock song, and the people who stuck around late all sang along.

NO ICE

NO ICE

That whole show was love, friendship, and smiles all around -- a real escape from whatever could have been eating at you for the rest of the week.

I spent Friday with friends and family as we geared up for the show at Asbury Park Yacht Club on Saturday night.

With a sold-out Summer Stage show and Ted Leo and The Pharmacists over at The New Legendary Asbury Lanes, Asbury was hopping. We'd had a few storms, so the temperature was coming down to a comfortable level; but, once I finally found parking and made my way inside APYC, I realized that the heat and humidity from earlier in the day would be hovering in the bar for the entire night. This turned out to be the hottest show I've ever attended (with, maybe, the exception of Lost Boy ?'s Goose Wazoo release show at Shea a couple years back).

The RockNRoll Hi-Fives took the stage just as the place was starting to pack out following The Gaslight Anthem. They brought it, even in the face of crushing heat. Confetti flew everywhere; and I was right in the line of fire. My sweat dissolved the colored tissue paper into pink, purple, and blue tattoos on my skin.

The RockNRoll Hi-Fives

The RockNRoll Hi-Fives

The RockNRoll Hi-Fives

I'd been trying to book the Hi-Fives on a bill with The Vansaders for a while, and the fact that it finally came together for Saturday's show was probably the best possible outcome. The Vansaders are a Damn. Good. Band. Great songs. Full of emotion. They deserve to be big.

The Vansaders

The Vansaders

The Vansaders

When the music ended, the crowd was sopping wet. I had purple rectangles on my face, pink squares on my arms. We filed out onto the boards and took in the cool, beach air. Again, the music and community made us all forget the heat and any other negative energy for a little while.

This wasn't only a homecoming show for The RockNRoll Hi-Fives. It was also a going away party of sorts. The band have relocated their base of operations to North Carolina, and Saturday's was their last show as residents of New Jersey. It was a pretty emotional night in that way. If you've been a reader here for the last little while, then you know that the Centenos are family to us here, and we'll miss having them close by. They're Jersey through and through, though; so we'll get plenty of opportunities to see them when their need for real bagels and real pizza gets the best of them (like 9/8 at the 4th Annual Bond St. Block Party in Asbury or 9/30 at The Hoboken Arts & Music Festival).

If thoughts of the end of summer or back to work or back to school or maybe missing your friends start to get you down, head out to a show and feel happy. It really has a way of changing your perspective and putting a positive spin on the world.

All of the pics from the weekend by Rosi and me are up at our Flickr galleries.

Northside, Night 2 w/ Shellshag, NO ICE, and Prima; Snail Mail w/ The RockNRoll Hi-Fives, 6/8-6/9/18

Snail Mail at Asbury Park Brewery

Weekend Wanderings

Friday

Last week was a pretty busy one. CoolMom left for a business trip to Europe on Sunday. We had the usual swim practices, swim meets, and family activities. CoolDaughter 2's softball team had a stretch of four games in four days as they made up all of the rain-outs from the season. On top of that, it was Northside Festival weekend; and there was the big Snail Mail show at Asbury Park Brewery on Saturday. Thanks to CoolDaughter 1, my very cool coolparents, and some scaled-back Northside plans, I was able to make everything work. It really is possible to have it all.

After the victory by CD2's Her-ricanes on Friday night, I headed up to Brooklyn again for a Northside show at Main Drag Music. This one featured Rose Blanshei of Prima, NO ICE, and our good friends Shellshag. I hadn't seen Shellshag in a very long time, and I was looking forward to catching up and catching their set.

Main Drag is a pretty great place for a show. It's a cavernous, old Brooklyn space with guitars hanging on the walls. The evening had a friendly, communal, non-bar vibe if that makes any sense. In addition to a cooler full of beers ($3 donation), the store also supplied a whole cooler full of flavored seltzers ($1 donation); so my night was made. (Note to bars / venues: Have more interesting non-alcoholic choices than just Red Bull, club soda, and Coke. I will totally overpay you for a La Croix or a Schweppes.)

Rose Blanshei kicked things off with a short solo set. There were a few technical difficulties with the looper, and Blanshei abandoned one song that was too new; but all the friends in the crowd were more than forgiving, laughing right along with her. The set was still mesmerizing. The combination of Blanshei's voice and guitar was haunting, and I'm going to be seeking out her work with Prima.

Rose Blanshei of Prima

NO ICE crowded the tiny stage with their seven members. The band combine power pop, classic, and indie rock into a sound that's always a raucous party. Jamie Frey and Gwynn Galitzer pour their rock and roll souls into every lyric; and, for the duration of NO ICE's set, Main Drag shrunk down to the size of a sweaty bar.

NO ICE

Shellshag closed things out, rattling off some of my favorites like "Resilient Bastard," "Flowers for Julie," and "Face to Face" over a set that -- as always -- went by too quickly. Shellhead and Jen embody everything beautiful and good that playing music can do for people; and, as they ended their set by dedicating "Carry On" to "Shellshag '18 Comeback" and a bright future, I felt my heart warming.

Shellshag

Shellshag

Another short, sweet taste of Northside '18; but -- I gotta say -- even though I only caught two shows, this was my most rewarding year.

Saturday

The Her-ricanes played (and won) their final regular season game on Saturday morning to finish the season 4-2-2. We're waiting for info on the playoff seedings. The rest of the day was, mostly, pretty lazy followed by a huge family dinner for my cousin's 30th birthday. From there, I headed to Asbury Park Brewery for the sold-out show with Snail Mail and my other family, The RockNRoll Hi-Fives.

Snail Mail, the project headed up by 19-year-old Lindsey Jordan, released their debut LP, Lush, on Friday. I spent my drives to and from Brooklyn on Friday night listening to the album on repeat, and Jordan approaches the ups and downs of young love and desire with a maturity and confidence that are rare among those even decades her senior. That, and Jordan also happens to be an interesting and subtly brilliant guitarist with a singing voice that can move between youthful and timeworn over the course of a single song.

Taken together, all of that has positioned Jordan -- fairly or unfairly -- as an indie, guitar rock savior of sorts who's received extensive coverage from NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and lots of other places who talk very seriously about music. At the end of last week, Matador announced that Snail Mail and Car Seat Headrest would be opening for their label-mates, Interpol, at Madison Square Garden this coming February. We'd all be getting to see Snail Mail at Asbury Park Brewery. Just a few days before the show, The RockNRoll Hi-Fives snagged the opening slot.

Asbury Park Brewery has been doing great things in giving a home to shows that, most likely, would have passed by Asbury Park following 2015's closure of Asbury Lanes. This show had been sold out for weeks, and Asbury Park Brewery was paaaacked. I managed to squeeze up front for both sets; but I'd imagine, given the narrowness of the room and the lack of a stage, that anyone shorter than about 6'4" would have had trouble seeing anything if they weren't in the front row. All the bodies filling the space, though, did contribute to some of the best sound I've ever heard at the place.

The RockNRoll Hi-Fives won over the room with their 30-minute set. Saturday was a double-header day for the band as they made their way to Asbury straight from a set at the Metuchen Music and Arts Festival. The effects of touring and consistent playing showed in the band's delivery, and they took full advantage of the opportunity to show a mostly new group of fans what they could do.

The RockNRoll Hi-Fives

The RockNRoll Hi-Fives

Lindsey Jordan and Snail Mail came out right at 9pm, and turned in an hourlong set that validated all the hype for me. "Heat Wave," Jordan's solo take on "Anytime," the band's cover of Coldplay's "Speed of Sound," and the crowd sing-along with "Pristine" were all highlights. Single "Pristine" is just a great song, and the band's live rendition was flawless.

Snail Mail

Snail Mail

Lindsey Jordan and Snail Mail are more proof that there's still life left in guitar rock. It's coming from new voices, with new perspectives, making catchy, accessible music that doesn't rely on re-using old ideas or being "retro."

The future is bright.

Pics from the weekend are up in the Flickr galleries.

The Everymen Played Their Final Show at Monty Hall with The RockNRoll HiFives and NO ICE, 5/13/17

The Everymen

Farewell to The Everymen

Back in August of 2012 -- a mere 5 months into the life of CoolDadMusic.com -- I came across a premiere for The Everymen's "Coney Island High" on BrooklynVegan. The Tuckerton, NJ band's ode to the defunct Manhattan all-ages venue was not only a perfect fit for a Jersey Shore-based blog focusing on independent music, but it is also just a damn good rock and roll song. I pre-ordered The Everymen's debut LP, New Jersey Hardcore, and things took off from there.



I interviewed frontman Michael Venutolo-Mantovani (Mike V) for Speak Into My Good Eye. Mike V became a sometimes contributor here at CoolDadMusic.com, and I went to several Everymen shows -- The Saint, Asbury Lanes, Brooklyn Bowl, Le Poisson Rouge, Maxwell's, SXSW. I met our good buddies, Dentist, at an Everymen show. I met Joe Centeno of The RockNRoll HiFives at an Everymen show. I saw the band open for The So So Glos and Titus Andronicus. CoolMom and I were there when they played well past legal closing time for their last-ever show at Maxwell's, a show that also featured Life Eaters, The Brooklyn What, and my first-ever encounter with Black Wine.

There were several attempts to book The Everymen on a "CoolDadMusic Presents" show here in the area, but the band's relentless touring schedule made it difficult to sync up. Little Dickman and I finally got them for our first-ever Sundown at the Carousel show with Dentist and Overlake (who I also probably met through The Everymen), and it was a day I'll always remember.

On Saturday night, The Everymen played their final show ever. They brought their extended family of The RockNRoll HiFives and NO ICE -- a band that grew out of The Brooklyn What -- to Jersey City's Monty Hall for the final blowout. There were 250 band-provided free beers for the crowd, and -- true to form -- the entire evening was a raucous, joyful, and sweaty affair.

NO ICE kicked things off with "The Cemetery" from their Come on Feel the NO ICE LP. From there, they played selections from that record as well as some new songs. NO ICE play what frontman Jamie Frey likes to call "Cool Dad Rock" (I'm not kidding.) which shows off the influence of everything from The Jesus and Mary Chain to The Replacements to 50s doo wop.

NO ICE

Frey mentioned the dozens of times that his bands had shared stages with The Everymen. He talked of Mike V's and the bands' big hearts and their dedication to supporting other musicians. Frey marveled that so many like-minded individuals (and there have been many Everymen) could come together in a single band.

NO ICE's Jamie Frey

Next up were The RockNRoll HiFives, each member sporting a "The Everymen Drank All My Beer" tee. The Centeno family played the CoolDad Music fifth anniversary celebration back in March and, since then, have been on a tear, touring and playing multiple shows per weekend up and down New Jersey. I think I've had the chance to catch one of their sets almost every weekend since our show.

As I mentioned, I first met Joe Centeno when he was playing with The Everymen at Maxwell's back in 2013. He's known Mike V for many, many years; and The RockNRoll HiFives referred to The Everymen as family many times during their set. And that set, like the three or four others I'd seen over the preceding month, was an absolute joy -- Joe leaping off of his amplifier, Eilee throwing confetti over the crowd, Evren wailing away like a seasoned drummer, Gloree smiling broadly while digging in on the bass, and the crowd loving every minute of it.

Joe Centeno of The RockNRoll HiFives

Eilee told the story of falling in love with The Everymen's "Dance Only, Only Dance" as a seven or eight-year-old during the video shoot at the old Centeno house. She talked about being called up on stage to sing it back then despite not really knowing the words. Joe was visibly a little sad at the idea that The Everymen were calling it quits.

The RockNRoll HiFives

By the time The Everymen took the stage, Monty Hall was packed. The three tubs of ice cold beers were down in front; and Mike V, Catherine Herrick, Ryan Gross, Jamie Zillitto, Scott Zillitto, Matt Siegle, and Geoff Morrissey laid into "A Thousand Miles" from the band's Givin' Up on Free Jazz LP. We were off. Twenty songs, about an hour and forty minutes. Mike V asking me for beers so that he could throw them out to people in the crowd. Catherine Herrick belting out some of my personal favorites like "Coney Island High" and "A Girl Named Lou Pt. 2." Eilee Centeno joining the band once again for "Dance Only, Only Dance." Covers of "Don't Change" by INXS and "Surrender" by Cheap Trick.

The Final Set List

Catherine Herrick

Mike V and his foggy glasses

Eilee and The Everymen

As Jamie Zillitto signaled the beginning of the end with the opening bassline for "Boss Johnny & The Get Lucky," Mike V told us all, "This is it! We don't do fucking encores!" The crowd erupted at all the right moments as they shouted "I HELD ON!!!" along with the band. Mike V ran down the list of all Everymen members, past and present; and, when the song was over, there were waves and hugs as the house music came up.

"Boss Johnny & The Get Lucky"

The Everymen synthesized some very New Jersey sounds -- The Misfits, The Shirelles, Springsteen -- into something all their own. When people have asked me to describe them, all I've ever really been able to say is, "It's rock and roll." Saturday night was a rock and roll party for the ages, one I'm sure nobody who was in that room will soon forget and one that I'm sure many who weren't in that room will claim they remember as the years go on.

No encores

CoolDad Music would not be what it is today if I never came across "Coney Island High" during my Internet travels on that Thursday afternoon in 2012. The NY / NJ music scene would not be what it is today if there had never been an Everymen. The band went out in a blaze of rock and roll glory on Saturday night, and the crowd at Monty Hall drank all of The Everymen's beer.

Pics are going up in the Flickr galleries and on the Facebook page.

NO ICE Release New Video. Playing Record Release at Shea on 1/6.

NO ICE at Maxwell's Tavern last January

"The Cemetery"

Back in may, I reviewed NO ICE's debut LP, Come on Feel the NO ICE. The album, produced by Oliver Ignatius at Mama Coco's Funky Kitchen, is a collection of songs that reflect the major influences at work on songwriter Jamie Frey. One of the standout tracks on the album for me -- such a standout that it made my year-end "Favorite Songs" playlist -- is opener "The Cemetery." To me, the song sounds like a chugging homage to The Jesus And Mary Chain.

This week, NO ICE released the video for that song and reminded me how much I like it. The video, directed by Frey and Brian Chillemi, features the band and their friends dancing at the now-shuttered Aviv in Brooklyn.

Aviv may be gone, but you can dance around and celebrate the vinyl release of Come on Feel the NO ICE tomorrow, January 6th, at Shea Stadium. Joining NO ICE on that bill are our good friends, Sharkmuffin, along with THICK and Milk Dick.

NO ICE, Come On Feel the NO ICE, 2016

Album Review

Several months ago, I drove up to Hoboken to see Dentist and Overlake at Maxwell's Tavern. Also on that bill were Brooklyn's NO ICE (sometimes pronounced "noice," according to the band's bio). NO ICE frontman, Jamie Frey, and I have a bit of a connection. A few years ago, I got a terrible case of the flu on the night I was to go see Neutral Milk Hotel in Jersey City. Through our mutual friend, Jim Testa, Jamie ended up using my tickets and wrote a review for Jersey Beat. I'd also seen Jamie perform with his other band, The Brooklyn What, as part of The Everymen's final Maxwell's show back in 2013.

Based on that history, Jamie and I struck up a conversation following NO ICE's set at Maxwell's Tavern. "Sounds like you guys like a lot of the same music I do," I said.

I'm not sure if he'd made the connection between CoolDad Music and me, but Jamie's response was something along the lines of, "Yeah. When people ask, I like to say we play cool dad music."

NO ICE's debut LP, Come On Feel the NO ICE, sounds a lot like this cooldad's teen years and young adulthood. At the time, I had my feet in both the classic rock of my youth and more modern alternative and indie rock. The Who, Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, R.E.M., The Replacements, The Smiths, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Lemonheads, Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., My Bloody Valentine. I'd switch among those bands without a thought. Come On Feel the NO ICE is kind of like that.

Opener "The Cemetery" is straight-up Jesus and Mary Chain, chugging guitars, reverb, and "doo doo doos" from Frey and vocalist Gwynn Galitzer. Things change on the swaying, easygoing, country-influenced "Summer Bummer." The song sits somewhere between classic rock and something like Yo La Tengo's quieter moments. "Darlin'" is noisier, more shoegaze-y. And, in the space of the first three songs, we've covered a series of influences that come together in the stew of indie rock.

It keeps going. There's the garage rock of "Leave Her Alone" and the girl group, doo wop of "We Get High Together." The early punk rock of "Out with the Brats." The 90s noise rock of "Guitar." The outlaw country of "Eat This Heart (Winter Version)." The 50s via the 70s production number of Leonard Cohen cover, "Memories."

It sounds like a mess, doesn't it? Well, it is kind of a mess, but in the same way the thoughts that roll around in your -- and I'm thinking, Jamie Frey's -- head are a mess. Frey and NO ICE use whatever sounds are handy or appropriate for the story they're trying to tell, whether it's resignation over the idea that all good things come to an end or being in love with a guitar. That results in a messy, genre-defying collection of songs that make it hard to classify NO ICE.

Let's just say that NO ICE are a rock and roll band. That means they make music that sounds like the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, and 10s. That means they write songs about finding love, losing love, drinking, and getting high. That means they're standing on the shoulders of those who came before. They're cribbing, and they're paying homage as they tell their own stories. In that way, the disparate collection of rock and roll songs on Come On Feel the NO ICE hangs together in the same way that the disparate thoughts in someone's head hang together to make a whole person. It's also just fun. Especially for a cooldad who's lived through five of the decades on that list above.

Come On Feel the NO ICE got the Mama Coco's Funky Kitchen treatment from producer Oliver Ignatius and is available now at NO ICE's Bandcamp page.

[Note: There's a line in the band's bio that says, "The title is a tribute to the 1993 album Come On Feel The Lemonheads by The Lemonheads." So, if your thoughts drifted to Slade or Quiet Riot, I guess you were wrong.]

Overlake, Dentist, and NO ICE Played Maxwell's Tavern, 1/15/16

My First Time Back

In the two plus year's since Maxwell's in Hoboken changed hands and became Maxwell's Tavern, I haven't been back there. Other than dropping someone off at their apartment after a show, I'm not sure that I've even been to Hoboken in that time. There were a couple of "almosts," but the proximity of Asbury Park and the fact that there is always something to see locally make the decision to hike up to Brooklyn or Manhattan or Hoboken a hard one.

With a bill last night that included good friends Overlake and Dentist along with Brooklyn's NO ICE (fronted by Brooklyn What frontman and Jersey Beat contributor, Jamie Frey), I decided the time had come. I got myself a $20 parking spot about a block away from the venue and made my way into the revamped performance space. It's a little smaller. The bar area is a little tight. But the stage is roomy and well-lit, and the sound is great.

It was a laid-back atmosphere. I was surprised at how many folks from the North Jersey / Hudson County music scene I've met over the years, and it was encouraging to see them all singing, dancing, and supporting Dentist. I know I'm biased, but Dentist have been sounding better and better at each show. 2016 will be big for them.

NO ICE are a Brooklyn six-piece whose sound is rooted in straight-ahead rock and power-pop. As I listened to them, I thought to myself, "OK. This band likes a lot of the same stuff I do." After their set, Jamie Frey joked with me that when he describes his musical tastes to people, he usually calls it "cool dad rock." Yep.

Overlake were pretty much on their home turf; and, even though it was their first time back at Maxwell's Tavern as well, the crowd swelled for their set. The people up front with me were into every second of it. Like Dentist, I think Overlake get sharper and sharper each time I see them; and they really know how to structure their set for maximum impact.

I couldn't have asked for a better trip back to Maxwell's Tavern. It's not as close as Asbury Park, but it's not as much of a pain to get to as Brooklyn or Manhattan either. I'll keep my eye on their upcoming schedule and make it a point to convert a few more of those "almosts."

Shots from all three sets are in the galleries below.

Dentist

NO ICE

Overlake