Read previous – SOTC 2018 feat. Bleachers, Hayley Kiyoko, and Julien Baker
NOTE: this is a loooong post, keep reading/scrolling until the end.
I think we can all agree that Shadow of the City (i.e., Jack Antonoff’s annual music festival) has “been gone just a little too long now”. Since 2015, the festival has been an annual staple at the Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park, NJ. In 2019, the festival took a hiatus for Antonoff, et al to work on LP3 (Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night), and we all know what happened in 2020. With the arrival of Shadow of the City 2021 (on September 11th), loyal Bleachers fans who’ve been holding on to tickets for 2 years were finally rewarded with a return to live music. For some of the festival’s performers, it was also their first time back on stage since the beginning of the pandemic. Headlined by Bleachers, the rest of the bill didn’t disappoint and included Long Beard, Blu DeTiger, Claud, Beach Bunny, and Japanese Breakfast.
Prior to Long Beard taking the stage, Bleachers’ saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist Evan Smith performed a brief cooking demo that featured his signature hot sauce. Joined by bandmate Mikey Hart (on commentary and sound effects), Smith cooked up a vegan grilled cheese sandwich (on homemade Texas toast, no less) using an induction cooktop and the tiniest spatula ever. Take my word for it, this was actually more entertaining than it sounds (had to be there, I guess).
Long Beard’s opening set of dreamy indie rock was a perfect complement to the sunny and breezy weather conditions at the Summer Stage. Songwriter/singer/guitarist Leslie Bear is subtle in her demeanor, but still engaged the audience with banter/stories for her first pandemic-era show. To settle a debate, she asked for audience participation to provide the correct pronunciation of “aioli” to which she received a loud and resounding consensus from the passionate Jersey crowd. She also, somewhat hesitantly, recounted playing a Battle of the Bands at The Stone Pony when she was still in high school that ended in not-so-great results. I loves me some Long Beard, no doubt.
Up next was Blu DeTiger. DeTiger is a bass guitar maestro and touring artist who gained attention and notoriety on TikTok with her covers. Take note, it’s impossible to take a bad/unflattering photo of Blu DeTiger; however, it’s not impossible for her to contribute a “bad” song to an actual bad movie. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, she contributed “Go Bad” to the “He’s All That” soundtrack. Please also note, I actually kinda liked the movie (I’m a Rachael Leigh Cook stan, in my defense).
As the first artist signed to Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory label, I knew Claud would be right up my alley. Claud performed tracks mostly from their latest release Super Monster. That album includes collaborations with former Toast partner Josh Melling, Shelly bandmate Clairo, and Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Jake Portrait. The Claud discography is admittedly new to my repertoire, but “That’s Mr. Bitch To You” straight up slaps.
How is this my first time catching Beach Bunny? Seriously, though? They gained recent attention when Tegan and Sara joined them on a new version of “Cloud 9” (originally from 2020’s Honeymoon). Before their performance of “Painkiller”, Lili Trifilio encouraged a wall of death which unfortunately failed to materialize – I’m pretty sure it’s because everyone was too invested in their spot in proximity to stage, though. Beach Bunny will be back in November for a sold out show at Union Transfer in Philly. I’ll be ready to throw some elbows at that one.
How much more can I say about Japanese Breakfast? I attained my goal of seeing them 3 times this summer, go me! I had aspirations of going to a norebang for karaoke with everyone from Japanese Breakfast and Long Beard after the show, but that’ll have to wait for another time. Hit me up and let’s make that happen please!
And finally, Bleachers! Before I get to that, let me just tell you about the prime spot I had near the stage for this – stage right, a few people back from the barricade, as good as one could hope for. Why does this matter? Well, because Shadow of the City didn’t have a photo pit this year which meant carefully strategizing food and bathroom breaks over the course of 9 hours. Well, the daughters teamed up against me right before Bleachers took the stage and said they were “hungry” and wanted to buy merch. In a show of ultimate parental dedication and unconditional love, we abandoned our spot and ended up having to watch Bleachers from the back with the rest of you drunk and incessantly-talking schmucks. Turns out, they couldn’t even finish their food and I ended up having to eat the equivalent of a day’s worth of calories because I hate wasting food. We did get our merch, though, and I do love me a Windmill dog.
From the back, the sound and energy was still great but there’s just something about being in the thick of the crowd during a Bleachers set. Half way through their set, Antonoff started playing a cover of “Jersey Girl” (the definitive version, that is) and I just knew Bruce was gonna show up any second. As that transitioned into “Chinatown”, excitement built within me that Bruce was about to take the stage. Ultimately, he didn’t; however, I wasn’t too disappointed, as SOTC was never about cameos from Jack Antonoff collaborators, etc. (all of which, I just so happen to love). It was a pretty amazing thing just being able to watch all of these fantastic bands with 5000+ vaccinated (and/or otherwise allegedly COVID-negative) Bleachers fans at the Jersey Shore to close out the summer. Already can’t wait for next year!
Bleachers will be playing a show at the Skyline Stage at the Mann in Philly on Thursday, September 23rd. They’ll be bringing MUNA and Claud along as openers! Tickets are still available for the show – you can grab them here.
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