By James McGrath
While the obvious jokes can be made during my evening at the New Jersey shore, negativity was simply not present at the Stone Pony on Monday night. New Found Glory was playing a one-off headlining date in their first appearance at the legendary Asbury Park venue.
Although the attraction of the ocean and the Asbury Park boardwalk caused me to miss opening act Wicker Hollow, I got into the sold out (and perhaps more!) venue just after Lemuria started wooing the crowd with their unique Indie-Punk sound. The Buffalo, New York trio were a strange choice for New Found Glory to bring out on a club tour that will later feature The Wonder Years as well. It is this writer’s suspicion that Hayley Williams, who sings for Paramore and dates New Found Glory guitarist Chad Gilbert, had something to do with it. She could be seen stage left jumping and singing along to every word that came out of the mouths of Alex Kerns and Sheena Ozzella.
There was a suggestion box on the New Found Glory merchandise table and at the start of the 21-song set we were informed that they would be playing mostly requests. Right from the start, the show was all about the fans; this band certainly knows how to make 1000 different people like the show is being played just for them. With absolute sincerity, New Jersey shows were proclaimed as “the craziest” and the sold out Stone Pony was evidence of that notion.
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