WELCOME TO THE PONY

Arguably one of the greatest rock venues on earth, The Stone Pony has been the anchor of the Asbury Park music scene since we opened our doors back in 1974. Locals like Bruce Springsteen, Southside Johnny and Steve Van Zandt helped put us on the map, while today’s top artists and rising stars continue building our legacy. Here’s a snapshot of upcoming shows…

may 2019

fri24may7:00 pmElectric AvenueThe '80s MTV ExperienceBUY TICKETS

sat25may7:00 pmPostponed: Betty WhoMoved to June 26

sat25may7:00 pmSplintered SunlightGrateful Dead TributeBUY TICKETS NOW

sun26may6:00 pmPromised Landwith the Dave Alen BandBUY TICKETS NOW

fri31may7:00 pmTHE NEW BARDOTSat The Stone PonyBUY TICKETS

june 2019

sat01jun7:00 pmTHE MAVERICKSat The Stone Pony

sun02jun7:00 pmTHE MAVERICKSat The Stone PonyBUY TICKETS

tue04jun4:30 pmtue10:00 pmCoheed and Cambria with Mastodon & Every Time I DieON THE STONE PONY SUMMER STAGEBUY TICKETS

fri07jun7:00 pmE Street ShuffleBorn in the USA CelebrationBUY TICKETS NOW

sat08jun6:30 pmScarlet Carsonwith The New Black, City Vision & moreBUY TICKETS NOW

sun09jun7:00 pmTal Wilkenfeldat The Stone PonyBUY TICKETS NOW

Event Details

Tal Wilkenfeld at The Stone Pony on Sunday, June 9th, 2019

Tickets: $22 in advance (plus applicable surcharges), $25 at the door

Love Remains, Tal Wilkenfeld’s debut solo album for BMG, is a testament to the celebrated bassist’s unconventional journey.While a dedicated fan base may already know Tal for her work with Jeff Beck, Prince, The Allman Bros., Herbie Hancock and Mick Jagger, Love Remains reveals a new side of Tal as a songwriter and singer with skills on par with her legend-in-the making musicianship. This new album’s 10 song collection displays the Australian-born, LA-based musician as a talented vocalist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer. The album was co-produced by Tal and Paul Stacey (Oasis, The Black Crowes) and features guitarist Blake Mills, keyboardists Benmont Tench (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) & Zac Rae (Death Cab For Cutie) and drummer Jeremy Stacey.

Tal’s range of talents is on full display, and she achieves a stunning balance between instrumental prowess and exquisite song craft. Jackson Browne, who offered creative guidance throughout the process of making the album, was executive producer.With few models of an instrumentalist turned singer-songwriter, Tal has broken extraordinary new ground. As Jackson Browne acknowledged,“I can’t think of another instrumentalist that has ventured into the area that Tal now has, when it comes to writing and singing songs from her own experience.”“I began singing and writing songs with words when I first picked up a guitar at 14,” said Tal. “When I arrived in the States a couple of years later, I quickly became fixated on guitar and then the bass and I stepped away from lyric writing. My bass became both my weapon and my shield, but that ran its course. That’s when I began writing song with lyrics again and creating this album.”After relocating stateside from her native Sydney, Australia at just 16-years-old, Tal made believers of rock royalty and fans with her uncommon combination of melodic sensibilities and technical prowess.

Following the release of her instrumental debut, Transformation, Bass Player magazine’s readers’ choice poll in 2008 named her “The Year’s Most Exciting New Player,” and iconic bassist and producer Don Was presented her the publication’s 2013 “Young Gun Award.”Determined to transition into the singer-songwriter role, Tal began writing what would become ‘Love Remains.’ She also lined up club gigs with her own band, debuting as lead vocalist on her own songs. Later, in her first week opening for The Who, Tal introduced the record by way of the first single “Corner Painter,” a powerful mix of intertwined baritone guitars and impassioned vocals matched by undeniable rock energy, which was also featured on Judd Apatow’s Netflix series, Love.“Haunted Love” showcases a soul-bearing vocal performance in which Tal accompaniesherself via beguiling, arpeggiated chords on a capoed 5-string bass with an orchestra to heighten the reflective lyrics: “No, you didn’t know about the ghosts left inside of me. Feeling so alone in the midst of this uncertainty.”

As Pete Townshend remarks,“Haunted Love is truly a great song, touching, moving, and employs her two skills-her voice and bass. It’s stupidly great. She’s created a masterpiece.”Love Remains suggests, as Tal has said, “the abiding presence of love…or the remnants should it fail.” She’s written a confronting album that alludes to a complex and tragic romance. “The way to diminish darkness is by shining a light on it. That’s what’s so beautiful and rewarding about music.”

TICKETS

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Time

(Sunday) 7:00 pm

Location

The Stone Pony

913 Ocean Avenue

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tue11jun7:00 pmWolfmotherat The Stone PonyBUY TICKETS NOW

fri14jun7:00 pmLight My FireDoors TributeBUY TICKETS

sat15jun7:00 pmJohn Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Bandat The Stone PonyBUY TICKETS

sun16jun1:00 pmRock to the Top Semifinalsat The Stone Pony

fri21jun7:00 pmMatt O'Ree Bandplus Jacob Evan Smith Band & Vendetta RoseBUY TICKETS NOW

sat22jun7:00 pmDAMAGE INC. NYMetallica TributeBUY TICKETS NOW

tue25jun7:00 pmlovelythebandthe finding it hard to smile tourBUY TICKETS

Event Details

Ones to Watch Presents:
lovelytheband – the finding it hard to smile tour
with New Dialogue

Tickets: $20 in advance (plus applicable surcharges)

Music gives a voice to those who need it when they need it the most. Our favorite artists say the difficult things out loud, so we don’t have to — but can learn how to.

By the same token, lovelytheband translate emotions, anxieties, and feelings into lush, layered, and lively indie pop anthems. When the band was founded by lead singer Mitchy Collins, guitarist Jordan Greenwald and drummer Sam Price in 2017, the trio maintain a lasting connection to listeners by holding nothing back.

“I really believe the importance of songwriting is saying something when someone else doesn’t know how to,” affirms Mitchy. “In the songs, I’m talking about life, trials, tribulations, depression, anxiety, and shit I deal with as well as the headaches that come along with the good and bad days. My problems don’t define me, but we should embrace every side of who we are. The message is, ‘Everything will be fine.'”

This message immediately resonated among audiences everywhere. A centerpiece of the everything I could never say… EP, the group’s debut single “broken” caught fire as “the longest running #1 track on Alternative Radio thus far in 2018” with six weeks at the top. In under a year, it amassed 25 million total global streams. BuzzFeed summed it up as “So. Damn. Good.” Billboard proclaimed the group among “10 Rock & Alternative Artists to Watch in 2018” as they supported Vance Joy and AWOLNATION on tour between headlining dates everywhere. Everything paved the way for the arrival of the band’s first full-length, finding it hard to smile [RED MUSIC]. Produced by “broken” collaborator Christian Medice, these 16 tracks entrance, engage, and enchant, offsetting shimmering keys, sweeping synths, and spacey guitars with cathartic, compelling, and catchy choruses.

The title speaks directly to its thematic push-and-pull.

“finding it hard to smile touches on my life,” says Mitchy. “There are days when it’s hard to even walk out of my front door or get out of bed. So, you find the will to power through, call on your friends, and rely on loved ones to pick you up when you’re down and bring magic out of you. A lot of the record is about embracing who you are as well as dealing with relationships, breakups, nostalgia, and unrequited love. It’s really introspective for me.”

They preceded the album’s release with the single “these are my friends,” which quickly cracked 2 million streams worldwide. Wound up by faint guitar and a chant, “These are my friends, these are my friends, I love them,” the track crescendos towards an ambitious arena-ready hook.

“I was walking around Los Angeles one day thinking,” he recalls. “I left a party where I had a really good time at. Right after, I wrote the main lyric in my phone. I held onto it for a little while, but it eventually turned into a song about wanting love and wanting to fit in. I brought it to the guys in the studio, and they really took it to the next level. It becomes a lovelytheband song when everyone is on it.”

Whether it’s the feedback buzz and 808 rush of “pity party” or orchestral ambiance on “alone time,” the soundscapes mirror the emotional ebb and flow encoded in the lyrics. Elsewhere, the intimate “maybe i’m afraid” unveils an infectious confession as the band admits their fears without filter.

“It’s one of my proudest moments as a songwriter,” says the frontman. “It turned into the story of relationship. You’re in it. You know things are beautiful, but you’re scared to commit to the other personal. I think a lot of people struggle with the same thing. It feels relatable.”

As they round out 2018 on a headlining tour and hitting the stages of Lollapalooza, the Billboard Hot 100 Festival, and more, lovelytheband’s voice will only get dramatically louder.

It might just make crowds feel better too…

“I hope when you listen to it, you can find some solace or reassurance,” Mitchy leaves off.

“Maybe you didn’t know how to communicate something aloud, and it helps for us to talk about it. Hearing it might inspire you to make a move. Music moved me and gave me a little hope as a kid. I hope you can take away something from this in the same way my favorite records helped me. That would be my biggest goal with lovelytheband.”

TICKETS

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Time

(Tuesday) 7:00 pm

Location

The Stone Pony

913 Ocean Avenue

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wed26jun7:00 pmBetty WhoThe TourBUY TICKETS NOW

Betty Who

plus special guest Loote

Tickets: $25 in advance (plus applicable surcharges), $30 at the door

Due to a scheduling conflict, Betty Who’s performance originally scheduled for Sat., May 25 will now take place on Wed., June 26. All tickets will be honored for the new date. Refunds available at point of purchase.

Betty Who has partnered with PLUS1 so that $1 from every ticket sold will go to support The Trevor Project, and their work providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services for LGBTQ youth. TheTrevorProject.org

To understand where Betty Who currently stands in her career, it’s best to imagine her as she often stood as a kid: solo, in front of the bedroom mirror, belting out hits, dancing like everyone’s watching. Because as the Australian pop queen walked away from her record deal and into her first independent album, she had a single mandate: “I am going to be the most me I can be.” That is, in part, why her third full-length statement is simply called Betty. It’s pure her: a brilliant swirl of pop — ’80s, Y2K, and hyper-modern strains — that encompasses everything from intimate artful fare to darkly sexy bangers to full-on wedding reception shout-alongs. What’s more, these are songs about grown-woman emotions delivered by someone who rediscovered the drive and verve that fueled her rise through music in the first place. As Betty says, “It all came back to joy.”There’s a reason Betty was tapped to remake the Queer Eye theme song for the uplifting series’ second season. It’s the same reason she’s soundtracked Pitch Perfect and made the Glee cast swoon, and that a certain legendary flash mob proposal video went viral to the tune of her 2012 debut single “Somebody Loves You.” Joy has always been in the music, but for Betty herself the feeling had faded. “I didn’t understand how damaging it was to feel like I was never living up to expectation,” she says of her time on a major label. “When you’re in the middle of it, you think it’s driving you. When I came out the other side I realized, no, I was devastated.” She wanted to handpick her team, sink or swim by her own choices, and share music while it’s fresh. With Betty, she did all of that and made an album that, as she puts it, “I’m more proud of than I could possibly say.”The world got a taste of that with Betty’s first independent single “Ignore Me,” an uplifting ode to moving on set to warm, indie-tinged electropop. Likewise, synth-streaked dance cut “I Remember” takes on something sad — the dissonance that can bubble up in a relationship — and finds the sweetness therein as Betty coos, “I don’t want perfect, I want you.” Our heroine not only split from her label in 2017, she got engaged, and the thrill of realizing you’ could spend your life with someone rings out on “Marry Me.” The song’s exuberance was inspired by the unabashed pop (namely Katy Perry) Betty loved as a teen. Meanwhile, the vintage JT-evoking “All This Woman” addresses a would-be lover but is really about Betty’s acceptance of her own body: “This is me saying to the man or woman I’m standing opposite, ‘This is what I want and you’re crazy if you don’t want it too.'”These songs spilled out with a similar assuredness — among them, early teaser “Taste,” which Betty has described as “a little rock ‘n’ roll with just a touch of vampire fetish,” and Betty‘s first official single, the achingly up-close, acoustic-powered “Between You & Me.” The process began in sessions between runs of her famously vibrant, intensely choreographed tour. She’d planned to write more when she came off the road, but instead realized she already had an album’s worth of songs she adored. So rather than iron them out in high-profile studios around Los Angeles, she absconded to a rental in Palm Springs with her two of her best friends, artist/producer Pretty Sister and decade-long collaborator Peter Thomas. They finished Betty in 10 days between shared meals and streaming sunshine. “It was one of the best times of my life,” recalls Betty. “I swear I’ll never make a record any other way.”But that setting conjures the beginning of Betty Who, when the woman born Jessica Newham studied cello at Berklee during the week, then took the first train out to Providence so she could spend all weekend inventing her sound at classmate Peter’s family home. And that hustle itself mimics a theme of Betty’s childhood in Sydney: while her classical training began at age 4, she devoted every free second to Britney, Christina, *NSYNC, and MJ. The voices, the moves, the lyrics, the spectacle — she ate it all up, especially that feeling the best pop gives you: “When you hear it,” says Betty, “and go, ‘Oh my God, you literally wrote this about me.’ I’ve wanted to make music like that ever since.” In that spirit, Betty gives us what we need most right now: an excuse to dance in the mirror, license to trust our instinct, and knowledge that joy is never too far away.