Red Bull Sound Select New Jersey Rocked The Stone Pony

Red Bull Sound Select is an artist development program and music discovery platform to help break emerging artists. Besides providing an online platform for music discovery, each month they host Red Bull Sound Select Presents nights in 14 cities around the US, Canada and New Zealand (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Nashville, Austin, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Dallas, Seattle, Denver, Portland, Toronto, Wellington and Auckland). Each show is curated by local music influencers and boasts local artists and a headlining act. Best of all, these shows are available for $3 admission when you RSVP beforehand. We stopped by the New Jersey show being held at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park that was curated by Brooklyn Vegan. The Stone Pony is arguably the most famous venue in New Jersey. Located on the boardwalk of Asbury Park, the venue has been open since 1974 and hosted everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Snoop Dogg. This Red Bull Sound Select brought Big Eyes, Cakes Da Killa and Against Me! to the stage.
FO-1JSRZV9VN2111Big Eyes was first to hit the stage, front woman Kait Eldrige instantly captivated the punk-loving crowd with her high energy and grungy vocals. The NYC-based melodic punk trio has been around since 2009 and have two full-length albums under their belts. Their thirty-minute set flew by, playing through favorites off their 2013 release Almost Famous such as “The Sun Still Shines.” When Big Eyes left the stage, the small venue was filled to capacity, and the crowd was beginning to grow eager to see the main act Against Me! But Cakes da Killa was up next, and the New Jersey rapper definitely was not playing to his normal audience. The openly gay rapper who claims to be able to “spit that shit to make a homophobe a hypocrite” impressed even the ‘punkest’ attendees in the crowd, making everyone dance and follow his directions when he said “ya’ll are way too mild for me; raise your drink and take a sip for me.” The highlight of his performance was his ability to get everyone singing along and dancing to “I Run This Club.” (Have you ever seen a venue full of punk kids dance to hip-hop? It’s actually amazing.) He finished the set by jumping into the crowd at the end of this track, leaving the skeptical-at-first audience thoroughly impressed.
FO-1JSS4FR891W11Like everyone else in attendance, I was most excited to see Against Me! They were the first band to give me a taste of punk and opened an entire new world of music to me in middle school. I have been attending Against Me! shows for years: at Vans Warped Tours, small venues and even Bonnaroo. It goes without saying that this band has grown with me throughout my life and journey of music discovery. I’ve always loved seeing them live; the energy is undeniable and the sing-a-longs are always guaranteed; but in recent years since lead singer Laura Jane Grace announced she was transgender and would be starting her transformation from Tom Gable to Laura the sets have been extra special. Laura now has a confidence and happiness that you can feel right when she walks on stage. I used to think that Tom Gable was just a punk who was playing into the image of a broody artist, but it’s very clear now the pain and heartache was much more real than anyone could have imagined.
FO-1JSS5GH2D1W11The band was celebrating the release of their album 23 Live Sex Acts, which dropped on the day of the show. The live album features 23 live songs that take the listener from the early days of the band up to their last album, Transgender Dysphoria Blues; you can clearly hear the transformation of not only the band but Laura as well. This set was very similar to the album; it featured old fan favorites such as “You Look Like I Need a Drink” and “Cliché Guevara” as well as newer tracks like my personal favorite, “True Trans Soul Rebel.” The crowd did not stop moving throughout the entire set; there were mosh pits, crowd surfers galore and more then one missing shoe being thrown around. Perhaps the main highlight of this show was the always expected but never disappointing encore of “Sink, Florida, Sink,” which caused The Stony Pony to reach a noise level it hadn’t all night. The night was a huge success. Everyone left with a beaming smile on their face with the thought that hey, maybe punk really isn’t dead after all…

Against Me! Setlist: 

  1. True Trans Soul Rebel
  2. Pints of Guinness Make You Strong
  3. Unconditional Love
  4. Walking Is Still Honest
  5. Cliché Guevara
  6. You Look Like I Need a Drink
  7. White People for Peace
  8. FuckMyLife666
  9. Transgender Dysphoria Blues
  10. Dead Friend
  11. White Crosses
  12. Spanish Moss
  13. How Low
  14. Bamboo Bones
  15. T.S.R. (This Shit Rules)
  16. Pretty Girls (The Mover)
  17. Because of the Shame / Thrash Unreal
  18. The Ocean
  19. Black Me Out
  20. I Was a Teenage Anarchist
    Encore:
  21. Androgynous (The Replacements cover)
  22. Rapid Decompression
  23. Drinking With the Jocks
  24. Sink, Florida, Sink

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