A massive indie festival, punk-rock bowling, and a stacked Stone Pony Summer Stage — yes, please!
ASBURY PARK — The Jersey Shore's hottest music scene is set to uphold its reputation this summer.
Between a stacked lineup at The Stone Pony's outdoor Summer Stage and a few new, outside-the-box festivals slated around the city, tens of thousands of rock, pop, funk and punk fans will flood the bustling beachfront as the weather warms.
The New Alternative Music Festival
The largest, and most recent addition to the Asbury schedule is the New Alternative Music Festival, a three-day event in historic — and quite weathered — Convention Hall hosted by New Brunswick-based Don Giovanni Records.
More than 40 indie bands are on the docket, with more coming, and Hub City garage-punk favorites Screaming Females leading the Jersey presence. The show, which makes clear it will not become an annual affair, boasts it will feature no "multi-national corporations" and strives to celebrate the DIY atmosphere that drives both New Brunswick and Asbury Park local scenes.
"This is a pro-weirdo event held in direct opposition to the apolitical sludge that has come to pass as "indie" and that has nothing to do with operating independently," the event writes on its Facebook page. Tickets are $28 per day or $75 for a three-day pass.
New Brunswick's The Screaming Females are one of the top draws for the New Alternative Music Festival in Asbury Park this September. (Tim Farrell/The Star-Ledger) Punk Rock Bowling and Music Festival
Three months earlier, the shore will be pounded by old-school punk and hardcore acts, as the annual Punk Rock Bowling and Music Festival invades the city for the first time June 11-12. The Stone Pony Summer Stage will host the music — top draws include genre icons Descendents, Agnostic Front and members of Black Flag playing the seminal hardcore group's raucous tunes. Seventeen acts in total are scheduled to perform over the two days.
The bowling, however, will not take place at punk haven and favored local alley Asbury Lanes, as organizers were unsure if the venue, which has undergone renovations since October, would be ready for June. Instead, tattooed arms will strike and spare at the Bradley Bowl in adjacent Bradley Beach. Tickets for the event are $50 per day. Registration is open for the bowling tournament.
New York punk veterans Agnostic Front will take on the Punk Rock Bowling and Music Festival in Asbury Park in June. (file photo) Asbury Park Surf Music Festival
The self-proclaimed "East Coast's No. 1 surf music event" returns to the shore Aug. 27, filling oceanfront Anchor's Bend bar and restaurant with Shore-inspired tunes, and the adjacent Grand Arcade area with local vendors. In its third year, the Asbury Park Surf Music Festival relocates from Asbury Lanes, and though the live music lineup hasn't been announced yet, organizer Vincent Minervino says bands confirmed include Bongo Surf, Los Pocos Locos, Blue Wave Theory, Slowey & The Boats, The Sharkskins, The Primitive Finks, The Coffin Daggers, Black Flamingos and Messer Chups. A classic car show is also promised.
Stone Pony Summer Stage
Beyond the festivals, The Stone Pony's beachfront venue has one of its strongest, most diverse lineups in years locked in for summer thrills. A few Pony mainstays — Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Umphry's McGee, Slightly Stoopid — will all return, but it gets better. On the contemporary front, "American Idol" winner and blues-folk frontman Phillip Phillips will come through July 2 (with Jersey-bred A Great Big World opening) and pop-rocking Ohioans Walk The Moon stop by Aug. 4.
More thrash-worthy acts include the electro-rock outfit AWOLNATION June 25, California hard-rock vets Deftones Aug. 10, and the folk-punk pairing of Flogging Molly and Frank Turner Aug. 20.
California hard-rock vets Deftones will rock The Stone Pony Summer Stage Aug. 10. (Matt Roberts/Getty Images) Even girl-pop legends The Go-Gos will pass through, on the band's farewell tour Aug 14. See the full Summer Stage lineup below:
June 9 — Rebelution, with The Green + J Boog, Stick Figure, Through the Roots
June 11-12 — Punk Rock Bowling and Music Festival, with Descendents, Black Flag, Agnostic Front and more.
June 19 — Violent Femmes
June 25 — AWOLNATION, with Death From Above 1979
July 2 — Phillip Phillips and Matt Nathanson, with A Great Big World
July 3 — Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes
July 15 — 311, with Matisyahu
July 17 — Umphrey's McGee
Aug. 4 — Walk The Moon, with MisterWives
Aug. 10 — Deftones, with Refused
Aug. 14 — The Go-Go's, with Best Coast and Kaya Stewart
Aug. 19 — Slightly Stoopid, with Soja and Fortunate Youth
Aug. 20 — Flogging Molly and Frank Turner
What about Skate and Surf?
The enduring multi-day punk and rock festival, which has overtaken Asbury Park's Bradley Park the last two years in mid-May with beloved national acts like New Found Glory, Dropkick Murphys and Thrice has made no announcements so far as to its plans for 2016. Organizer John D'Esposito could not immediately be reached for comment.
Fans the Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park last July, for Killswitch Engage and Rise Against. (Andrew Miller | For NJ Advance Media) Bobby Olivier may be reached at bolivier@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BobbyOlivier. Find NJ.com on Facebook.