2 Nights On The Pony Summer Stage - May 25+26 - ON SALE FRIDAY!

Is it a beach towel? Kind of odd merch. Bring back el jefe.

Not that odd when you put it in the context of where and when they are playing. Beach gear is pretty fitting for NJ natives playing a show across the street from the beach on Memorial Day weekend, opening the first summer post-Sandy. Kind of fits into the 'Jersey Shore is Back' narrative that has been going on down in this area over the past couple weeks. Additionally, it will be sold from the Jersey Strong tent, so I think it's safe to assume that at least some of the proceeds will be going to Sandy-related charities.

Not looking forward to this predicted weather for tomorrow. Rain could be fun. Cold and rainy, not so fun.

Oh well, it's better than the show getting cancelled! See you guys tomorrow!

Basically between Accuweather and Weather.com, it sounds like it MIGHT rain, and if it does, it will be around the beginning of the show, and only for a little bit (chance of rain is around 40%). The radars are confusing me though.

Having been at an outdoor show when it's been in similar weather (mid 50's), it's actually not as cold as that when you're in a crowd. Ew/Yay body heat!

big blue wrote:

Is it a beach towel? Kind of odd merch. Bring back el jefe.

it's a TGA beach bag, beer coozie, and beach ball...nothing great..

Soundcheck:

Too Much Blood
The Diamond Church Street Choir
Miles Davis and the Cool
Meet Me By the River's Edge

Ok, so I assume everyone at tonight's show noticed the higher pitch and the difference with Brian's voice. I understand that after this much touring he might have issues, but I prefer the deeper, more gravely sound. I hope it comes back.

Setlist:

Handwritten
Old White Lincoln
American Slang
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
Casanova, Baby!
The Diamond Church Street Choir
Biloxi Parish
Angry Johnny and the Radio
45
The Patient Ferris Wheel
Blue Dahlia
Too Much Blood
Miles Davis and the Cool
Meet Me By the River's Edge
Mulholland
Great Expectations
Keepsake

She Loves You
The '59 Sound
Here's Looking at You, Kid
The Backseat

big blue wrote:

Ok, so I assume everyone at tonight's show noticed the higher pitch and the difference with Brian's voice. I understand that after this much touring he might have issues, but I prefer the deeper, more gravely sound. I hope it comes back.

I was there and I thought it was a little higher than usual but he sounded good to me. Granted its more of a personal preference. My issue with the concert was that it was a little short, they usually go closer to 2 hours but they only did about an hour and a half.

ive seen these guys more than a dozen times and this was by far the worst show of theirs i've been to. tga are my favorite band but i feel like the hold steady put on a much better show tonight. hour and a half by a headliner? come on. i really feel bad for people who said they were travelling from a distance for this show... i hope they had a better experience than i did

rem999 wrote:

ive seen these guys more than a dozen times and this was by far the worst show of theirs i've been to. tga are my favorite band but i feel like the hold steady put on a much better show tonight. hour and a half by a headliner? come on. i really feel bad for people who said they were travelling from a distance for this show... i hope they had a better experience than i did

The Pony has always had a very strict curfew time...especially for outdoor shows with the amount of noise. The set time could definitely have been because of that.

Shorestyle69 wrote:

rem999 wrote:

ive seen these guys more than a dozen times and this was by far the worst show of theirs i've been to. tga are my favorite band but i feel like the hold steady put on a much better show tonight. hour and a half by a headliner? come on. i really feel bad for people who said they were travelling from a distance for this show... i hope they had a better experience than i did

The Pony has always had a very strict curfew time...especially for outdoor shows with the amount of noise. The set time could definitely have been because of that.

last time i saw them on summer stage they played two hours... its not like they ran out of time. it was obviously shceduled to be that long if they knew what time they had to be off by

The short show problem is not a Stone Pony issue, it is a Gaslight Anthem issue.

They are a big-time headlining band, and should be playing a minimum of two hours every night. Why they won't do so is not so clear to me.

rem999 wrote:

Shorestyle69 wrote:

rem999 wrote:

ive seen these guys more than a dozen times and this was by far the worst show of theirs i've been to. tga are my favorite band but i feel like the hold steady put on a much better show tonight. hour and a half by a headliner? come on. i really feel bad for people who said they were travelling from a distance for this show... i hope they had a better experience than i did

The Pony has always had a very strict curfew time...especially for outdoor shows with the amount of noise. The set time could definitely have been because of that.

last time i saw them on summer stage they played two hours... its not like they ran out of time. it was obviously shceduled to be that long if they knew what time they had to be off by

Not 2 hours. Just over an hour and a half. Same amount as tonight.

Shorestyle69 wrote:

rem999 wrote:

Shorestyle69 wrote:

rem999 wrote:

ive seen these guys more than a dozen times and this was by far the worst show of theirs i've been to. tga are my favorite band but i feel like the hold steady put on a much better show tonight. hour and a half by a headliner? come on. i really feel bad for people who said they were travelling from a distance for this show... i hope they had a better experience than i did

The Pony has always had a very strict curfew time...especially for outdoor shows with the amount of noise. The set time could definitely have been because of that.

last time i saw them on summer stage they played two hours... its not like they ran out of time. it was obviously shceduled to be that long if they knew what time they had to be off by

Not 2 hours. Just over an hour and a half. Same amount as tonight.

thanks for bringing that to my attention. i guess i don't remember it being that short. the point being however they usually play longer.

I guess I differ from a lot of you on this, but an hour and a half is not a short set. There are very few bands in the entire world I would want to see a two hour set from.

I like that the t-shirt has the date on it but I'm not sure I get the logo design Not that I dislike it, I just want them to do something with more personality somehow.

I am actually not used to bands doing a full two hours. 1h 30m or 1h 45m is probably the usual amount I see unless it's someone like Foo Fighters, Bruce or like, Motley Crue. Don't forget- didn't they go PAST curfew last time? Maybe they didn't want to deal with the consequences of that again. I don't think they could start the show any earlier without it being weird. I mean they went on at 8:30ish.

That show was awful. Really want to get rid of my tickets for tonight. The advertising on the stone pony site had gates at 5 and show at 7. The show started with Luther at 630. Then they had you wait in some ridiculous line that went all the way around the corner. Hold steady started at 715 and I literally missed 5 songs because we were waiting in this stupid line and they couldn't get their shit together.

There were 10 portapotties total. For that whole crowd. What??

I've never seen any crowd not dance/jump until last night. I thought I was going to a rock concert? People literally were not even moving/singing along. Took until angry Johnny for them to finally move. The sound was bad, but hey it's an outdoor show. I'm not expecting as much as I would from a club show. Plus it rained (a lot) and that might have messed some shit up.

Gaslight was not as tight as they usually are either. I couldn't even pick out a standout song.

The best parts of my evening were: What I caught of the hold steady's set, gaslight coming out to the souls, and arrested development at 3:01am.

If anyone wants 2 tickets for relatively cheap tonight, please let me know. I'm done with this band for awhile.

Last time on the summer stage, Brian commented about the curfew, and he was thankful that the asbury pd let them stay on as long as they did. But I agree, the crowd was kind of dull, the band didnt seem to connect with the audience, and the higher pitch sound just didn't work for me.

I'd say the band feeds off the crowd, right? Well, not to take anything away from "new" fans, they are the reason Gaslight has become as big as they have, i feel that a rather large majority of the crowd last night was newer fans who only got onboard after Handwritten came out. If you think about it, this was the first legit show in Jersey since Convention Hall in 2011 and Handwritten came out last year, so for the casual fan who maybe heard 45 on the radio, this was the first chance to see Gaslight in Jersey. That could very well have been the reason the vibe was bad/weird, and why/if the band sounded a bit off or not as engaged with the crowd. Last night was my 10th show, since 2008, and it was without a doubt the weirdest mood/vibe i've personally ever had at a show. Not saying i did not enjoy, because i loved every second, something just seemed odd. It may have also had something to do with both the band and the fans to the point that it had been raining on and off all day even during the show at times, and it was very windy and downright cold at times.

Quick Day 1 thoughts:

The good:

No downpour, fairly sunny all things considered, The Hold Steady's killer opening set, being able to easily get to the front of a pretty massive crowd. TGA truly killed a few songs, like "The Blue Dahlia" and "The Patient Ferris Wheel". TGA played 10 out of 12 songs from their best record.

The bad:

It took TGA 9 songs into a (fairly short) 21 song set to pick up the tempo and become even slightly exciting -- I had similar criticism with this in the Terminal 5 shows, but then it was 8 songs into a 24 song set, so it only got worse. Handwritten (album) is a thorn in the band's side, very few of those songs are exciting live and it brings down the show. It's not "the crowd" or the "new fans" -- it's TGA playing kickass songs like "Old White Lincoln" at a lullaby pace and waiting until your set is half over to get things moving.

It was 55 and rainy last night...I didnt want to take my hands out of my pockets and clap or move, I wanted hot chocolate and to die. Don't get on a new jersey crowd for gaslight. trust us, we wanted to be there, but that was basically the worst weather possible for an outdoor show. i would have rathered it been 75 and downpoured.

also for all the moshers and such out there, the floor was slippery cement. i'm not sure thats the best time to try to get a pit started, so you could maybe understand why some people were a little more subdued then normal.

everyone enjoys a show differently, lets not get on the crowd for not screaming and jumping around because i know thats not my nature personally, and ive seen them 9 times now, so don't try to tell me im not a fan just because im not yelling and jumping.

speaking of which after all this, I HAVE 1 EXTRA TICKET FOR TONIGHT. WILL SELL AT FACE VALUE OR A LITTLE LESS if you are leaning on whether to go to the show or not. Just lemme know if you want it via this thread, or inbox me or something.

Enjoy the 2nd night guys.

2 tickets for tonight. 15 bucks a piece OBO. Inbox me if yr around.

Wow, sad to see us trying to get rid of tickets...I remember when I saw them at Music hall of williamsburg people were paying 100$ to try to get in.

Whats happened to this band in the last year?