Champagne Jam, the Front Bottoms’ concert of all Front Bottoms’ concerts. Rooted in the band’s tradition of an end-of-year celebration, each member dawns the stage with a bottle of champagne, ending the show when the first member empties their bottle. Over the years, it has grown, morphed, and reproduced on both coasts of the US and internationally to Europe, but its purpose remains the same. An anchoring point along the band’s journey each year that celebrates the genre they didn’t know they’d help to build.
This year, the band returns home to celebrate the end of the summer season on the beach of Asbury Park, NJ. Under the salty sun, seven bands took the stage to share music and art as fundraising opportunities littered themselves throughout the venue. Asbury’s infamous Stone Pony, known for its rich music history, expands into a grander outdoor space during the summer season. Boasting larger acts and more room for crowds, Champagne Jam would be split between the spaces, but, to kick off the day, would be contained to the intimate interior venue, shielding us a bit from the beating sun.
Featuring acts from across the tri-state area, Gazzee, Jared Hart, and Wakelee would ring in this year’s jam. Gazzee, the musical project of Natalie Newbold, touring bassist of The Front Bottoms, is an indie solo project from the talented and experienced singer-songwriter with introspections about life and longing. Jared Hart from Bayonne, NJ, sits somewhere between punk and folk. Built on acoustic sounds and emotional, heavy lyricism that grates his voice into screams for impactful moments. At times, his discography resembles bands like Goo Goo Dolls, with his softer, delivered vocals and full-sounding backing band; each track has a very classic sound like an unintroduced friend.
Wakelee is a 3-piece emo-laced indie punk band out of Brooklyn, NY, who just released their newest single, ‘Joyce Kilmer Service Area’ on August 18th. The three would have an intimate set, a modest setup of two acoustic guitars and a trombone that allowed their voice to float candidly. Closing the day's interior performances, it almost felt like more of an NPR Tiny Desk performance or KEXP live recording, with the closeness to talent the stage offered. ‘Bangkok’ and ‘mildlyinteresting’ are two tracks I love by this group.
Music started before even getting into the venue, for outside circling the sidewalks were the Ocean Ave Stompers, an Asbury native marching brass music collective that house unbelievable talent. Six of their members marched and performed outside the ticketing stations, also performing to the crowds of people herding up from outside the venue’s fences in restaurant bars and parking lot tailgates. Three of their members would also join the headliners later tonight to add a brass section to the latter half of the show.
Outside of music, there were also free airbrushed tattoo stations, exclusive food and drink collaborations, and opportunities to fundraise. Benefiting Share My Meals and the Mercy Center, both charities aiming to tackle food insecurity and generational poverty within NJ, fans could step up and try their luck at dunking band members in a dunk tank. When I passed by the dunk tank, Front Bottoms member Matthew Uychich and touring keyboardist Roshane Karunaratne were each taking a turn. Armed with some water balloons and a water gun, they’d each be stranded in the air where fans could make a small donation to step up and throw down.
Best Dressed Ghost is an absolutely energetic and chaotic punk rock group that commanded the stage from the second they came out. With intensity and ferociousness ripping from their guitars, the rowdy crowd grew more and more restless with each track. Unapologetic rage and self-expression over powerful drum strikes from Joestar and heavy riffs, the control the band has over the space in front of them was overwhelming. ‘Funhouse’ and ‘Garbage Day’ off their latest EP had an electrifying effect on the crowd, with the latter ending in a guitar solo from member Nino, who is captivating to watch get lost within his strings. Each member feels like a star; if they were each in a separate band, they’d be the face of it. Bassist Patti embodies this with how much fun she has on stage and the inability to be nailed down to one place. They made me proud to be a Jersey native, seeing our own take up space in the genre like that. Lead singer Stef is as powerful a frontwoman as it gets, leading the band through unapologetic political commentary and tales of domestic violence survival, with the ability to bring it back to a fun, lively shoving afterwards. She leads fearlessly, and the music is received in the same way. A fantastic act top to bottom, Best Dressed Ghost is a band you need to check out
Punk-folk artist Jack Kays followed with an angsty emo tinge to his music of existentialism and lived experience. With heavier rock influence from recent releases, Kays continues to explore the human experience through sound. Ripe with commentary, his music challenges much of his upbringing and surrounding existence, stemming from his upbringing in Ohio. ‘To Be American’ embodies this exploration of what it means to be a man in America, showing his chops for writing. While very catchy, each track holds substance between its lines that goes beyond a first listen and leaves room for reflection once it's played out.
Joe P is a Jersey native I have been trying to catch for the longest time. Joe has seen great success on social media with his unique artistry that extends to his video creation. He’s opened for fantastic acts like Mt. Joy and Matt Maeson, with his emotionally driven indie ballads. Joe P is a star in the making, and if I were unfamiliar with the lineup, I would've wrongfully assumed he was the headliner. Between his precise performance, the artistic lighting, wardrobe, and setup, and the crowd’s reaction, he was on it from the moment he stepped into the spotlight. Opening with ‘Color TV’ into ‘Leaves’ immediately plugged the crowd into Joe’s unique voice, and his delivery just scratches your ear in a way nobody else could, even given the same lyrics and music. His closer, ‘Off My Mind,’ began with a solo ballad version of the song, just Joe and the pinging of his electric guitar, lasting through the first major hit of the song about a minute and a half in. His restraint really impressed me, knowing when to use his full power or full voice, and withholding to make those moments bigger. He has the mark of a great performer, being able to mutate his already fantastic recorded songs into a larger live performance that expands upon each one.
Lone champagne bottles littered the stage in darkness, awaiting their owners to join them as a crowd; a full day’s worth of music and sun not battering them down yet, waits just feet away. Under screams and a cool breeze overflowing from the breaking waves just outside the venue gates, ‘Maps’ rang out. Frontman Brian Sella then reached for his bottle, popped its cork, spewing the bubbling drink all over the rug beneath him, and faced the crowd, “You know the rules, first one to finish wins,” while half-saluting, half-threatening last year’s winner and touring guitarist Erik Kase Romero.
Full of surprises, the New Jersey Devil would join them on stage for ‘Peach,’ flailing around with a cowbell to the band’s utter delight, Sella yelling to give it up for the “greatest mascot for the greatest team in the world.” The stage also featured an active bar that saw family, friends, and openers wandering on stage for drink orders, sometimes joining the band on stage for a beer, like with Tony “Dancing Tony” Susco.
Just after ‘Summer Shandy,’ dedicated to the Jersey shore boys in the crowd, reigning champ Romero would chug the remnants of his bottle, quickly followed by Sella himself. Raising the dribbling bottle, and with an hour left before curfew, he’d say, “alright, that’s the end of the show cause that’s how it works. Is there another bottle of champagne? We’ll figure it out,” before dedicating ‘More Than It Hurts You’ to the location it's written for, and we’re standing in, Asbury Park.
Three of the Ocean Ave Stompers formed a small brass section of a saxophone, trumpet, and trombone, adding instruments that are on many songs’ original recordings, beginning with ‘Father’ and the iconic eight-note intro, and all the way through the show’s climax. Where they added the most, though, was in their musical solos in ‘2YL,’ bringing the song’s brass recordings to life and expanding upon them with their own expertise and flair unique to the artists.
Throughout the course of the night, the group would perform 22 songs, representing every one of their studio albums at least once. Offering the most well-known classics and some deep-cut fan favorites across decades of releases, different factions of fans would raise their voices in waves of recognition.
In lieu of the modern myth of an encore, Sella announced they’d be playing straight through since they’re out of time, setting into ‘Twin Size Mattress,’ eliciting screams that Asbury’s town hall may be hearing complaints of. Leaving behind the race against the lingering champagne bottles, it was now more a race of how much music could be performed before the venue’s hard curfew time.
The night would end perfectly, with the performance of ‘Mountain.’ Upon the lyrics, “I bought fireworks/ a big bag in Pennsylvania/ I’m gonna light ‘em up/ when I get home to Jersey,” lines of fireworks erupted from the sand on the beach just outside the concert’s confines. In an emotional outpouring of the music and color, there was such a pride in being right here right now. As someone who's grown up in Jersey all my life, in a historic music hotspot, watching a band bred from my home state, embodying one of the state’s chief exports of memorable summer times, and overcome with vignettes of past friends who I’ve sat on the beach with, The Front Bottoms songs taking up space between us, it’s a moment ingrained within me.
That’s the specialty of Champagne Jam, and it's the whole reason for existing. As a thank you for another season spent breathing and celebrating, a reminder to slow down and enjoy it. Sella would say before Mountain’s performance, “I wait all year for this show, so thank you,” and that gratitude is felt as they are welcomed back home with more love than can be described. For a night, nothing else existed, and that break from reality is why Champagne Jam comes back every year. They need it, and we need it. Next year, no matter where it lands, The Front Bottoms are sure to continue the tradition of a night of music that invites fans to participate in the victory lap of another year around the sun, and as biased as I am, I hope they come home for it again.
SETLIST: Maps / Skeleton / Be Nice to Me / camouflage / Lone Star / Peach / End of Summer (Now I Know) / West Virginia / Summer Shandy / More Than It Hurts You / Punching Bag / leaf pile / Father / The Fued / The Plan (Fuck Jobs) / Ginger / Vacation Town / 2YL / The Beers / Ocean / Twin Size Mattress / Mountain
