Stone Pony Summer Stage, Asbury Park, NJ – 14 Oct 2022
“I’m gonna make a toast when it falls apart; I’m gonna raise my glass above my heart”
Asbury Park was the setting of a tsunami of aging punks as Fat Mike brought his beer and music fest to the Stone Pony Summer Stage. Mohawks have been traded in for mortgages, but tonight that didn’t matter. With a triple headlining bill of NoFX, The Descendents and Face to Face, and support from local acts School Drugs and Free The Witness the aging crowd packed their ben-gay and ear plugs, for a new lease on our former lives.
Before we could get to skate-punk’s Big 3, we were treated to an absolutely inspiring set from Jersey’s own School Drugs. In the unenviable position of kicking the festival off at 4:30 despite it being a work day, School Drugs proved that the new generation is in strong hands. Performing with the unbridled energy of a toddler after a candy-shop bender, the band was a perfect update of the old-school hardcore sound. The Jersey shore outfit kicked off the set with a beautifully violent throwback to the 80’s hardcore sound, that smacked those in the beer lines across their mouths and pulled them into the pit. Of the 53 live sets I’ve watched so far in 2022, School Drugs certainly stood out as one of the most impressive. This is not the style of music I usually go out of my way to listen to, but next time I have a chance to watch these kids live, you can bet your ass I’ll be there.
Next up was another local support act, Free The Witness. Unfortunately, the young band was not my cup of tea. I can’t quite put my finger on it and I won’t blast the band for something I can’t explain. The performance simply fell flat for me. They did pull off a pretty good cover of The Stooges‘ “Search and Destroy” but it was too late in their set and by then I had already lost interest and decided to check out merch and craft beer tents. Maybe, it was just me though.
The sun started creeping below the backdrop on the Stone Pony Summer Stage as Face to Face took to their positions in front of the mics and hit the ground running. There was minimal banter, as the band tore through their set of classics and hidden gems. It was obvious why Face to Face has lasted so long as their self-affirming brand of rock-and-roll had the entire crowd bouncing, bobbing and pulsing. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen Face to Face live, but there has not been a single time where they didn’t sound identical to their records. Clean melodies, perfect timing and no need for bells and whistles, Face to Face brought the crowd energy to an astronomical height, a level it remained for the final two performances.
The Descendents took to the stage and despite the gray hair and frontman Milo Aukerman’s water bottle sling reminding the crowd that these were no longer young punks, the band has not lost a single step. Opening up with “Everything Sux,” the crowd shouted along to every lyric and the band continued with their tried and true classics of nerd-love and youthful rebellion that has had people falling in love with the band over and over again across five decades. Tight as ever, the band was a highlight not only of the night but of my life. Tonight was neither my first, nor will it be my last, time seeing the four-piece, but it was a reminder of what a kick ass show the band can put on. Absolutely awe-inspiring to see that the band that didn’t want to grow up, held true to that in spite of their age. It wasn’t just the crowd that was inspired, as even Fat Mike and El Hefe could be seen, on opposite sides of the stage, shouting and cheering along to the brilliant set from The Descendents.
Fat Mike, and NoFX hit the stage to close out the night. The class clowns of skate-punk kicked off the evening by getting the large Asbury crowd to perform the “Time Warp” before laying into a fantastic set. Sure, Mike was more than a bit inebriated, but that’s kind of what should be expected from the legends of the scene. Throughout a career spanning setlist, crowd-surfers floated atop the waving arms, lifted over the barricade before sprinting back into the pit for another ride across the sea of grizzled punks. While the moshing led to sore backs, the jokes led to sore stomach muscles thanks to the deep laughs brought on by the stage banter. The only hiccup came when the quartet paused the show after a crowd-surfer was being forcefully removed from the show by security.
Fat Mike had recently suggested their time together as a band was on the wane. According to an Instagram comment, the four-piece (that’s now a 6-piece) did not expect to perform beyond 2023, and that last chance energy permeated through the crowd. The band, despite its silly and intentionally tasteless jokes about Rollins, pronouns and sleeping with one another’s moms, played each song perfectly (which I’ve always found odd since I’ve heard they sucked live).
This isn’t a fresh or new band, and it showed in the performance. This was a band who had decades of experience with these songs, with these fans, with each other. NoFX and the crowd made it clear, if this was going to be the last time we see them, it was going to be the best. And holy shit, did the evening deliver and outperform all expectations.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/
