Live review: The Get Up Kids live at The Stone Pony

Asbury Park, NJ – 01 October 2024

One Night To Relive The Rest Of My Life

Nostalgia warmed the Asbury Park air, as The Stone Pony filled with 40-somethings stepping back in time to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the classic Get Up Kids breakout Something To Write Home About.  We came into that show in our 40s, grays interspersed in our hairs, back pain and job stressors dominating our thoughts, we had all long since traded in our argyle sweaters.  That’s how we came into the show, but it wouldn’t be how we left, as the forever youthful ghosts of The Stone Pony transported us all back a quarter century.  The sadness behind our eyes after growing up in the shadow of late-stage capitalism gave way to twinkling eyes of youthful exuberance and ear to ear smiles.

Openers Smoking Popes knocked it out of the park with their career spanning set. The Chicago quartet dialed up the passion and the crowd converted it into kinetic release. Despite kicking things off with “Simmer Down,” the four-piece did nothing of the sort. The Popes showed why they have remained such a beloved act for 30+ years. The notes and lyrics exploded from the band throughout a setlist devoid of any filler. These guys doesn’t need to fill in silence with stage banter and anecdotes because they are too busy slicing their way through their impressive discography, including a new track “Golden Moment,” a cover Willy Wonka’s “Pure Imagination” and a brief tribute to The Replacements‘ “Can’t Hardly Wait” in the midst of “Gotta Know Right Now.” I was more than thrilled with every track that made its way onto the show and into my earholes.  The band left the stage and my wife and 11-year-old daughter both chastised me for not having introduced her to the band earlier, looks like I’ve found some new dinner time albums to listen to this week. 

After The Popes got everyone’s blood pumping and heart racing, the trip back in time continued as Kansas’ favorite sons took the stage.  No longer lamenting high school romances, the kids in the crowd are no longer kids, we have our own kids now and those songs we thought we understood at 16 hit so much harder at 40, especially when we get to watch those songs connect to our own children, as I have had the chance to do with our youngest tonight. 

It was a shock to the system to realize how fantastically the songs of Something To Write Home About have held up over all these years.  The earnestness that put TGUK at the forefront of the Midwestern Emo boom has not faded, the quintet still seem as gracious and humbled to be on stage as those of us in the crowd were to share the moment with them, treating this Tuesday night like a friday, as Jim Suptic demanded from the stage.  Of all the times I’ve been lucky enough to catch The Get Up Kids on tour, this was amongst the best.

It may have been 15 years since I last listened to “Holiday,” but once they hit that epic double pick slide and with every subsequent turn of phrase and every cymbal crash, it all came rushing back, along with every autobiographical imprint the song has had on my psyche. The band crushed the album, playing it start to finish.  The band closed out the record, leaving the aging crowd sweaty, over-exerted and hoarse, but still begging for a few more minutes of our youth.  The show easily could have ended here and been an epic performance.  Luckily, the band did not leave us hanging, returning for a six-song encore, the best of the rest of their discography.  The assortment of other tracks, including “On A Wire” “Mass Pike” “Shorty” and closing out with  our daughter’s favorite song, “Don’t Hate Me.”  It was great to see (and rewatch) the video of our youngest and my beautiful wife, scream-singing along to “Don’t Hate Me”

I’ve heard people talking about rooms coming to life during a set, but on this day, this room, the crowd was brought to youth, and I for one, needed that little endorphin pump to keep the heart on my sleeve beating.