Pop Break Live: The Aquabats with MC Lars at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ
Words & Photos by Willy Mellott
With the summer officially winding down, Asbury Park was calm and quiet on Thursday night. Even though it was calm outside, The Aquabats had The Stone Pony singing, laughing, and dancing as they stopped by on their “Holy Guacamole Tour.”
For those who haven’t heard of The Aquabats, they are a comedic rock band/super hero group that performs wearing matching blue shirts, cloth helmets, and black masks. Looking around the venue, you could see young children sitting on their parent’s shoulders. (Editor’s Note: Aquabats lead singer Christian Jacobs created the smash kids series Yo Gabba Gabba). Many of the children, and even some adults, were wearing their Aquabats costumes and masks.
Kicking off the set was “The Shark Fighter.” As the band played, they sprayed water onto fans and threw giant inflatable sharks into the crowd for fans to bounce around. The inflatable props were a theme throughout the night.
A few songs later giant inflatable pizza slices were brought on stage and thrown into the crowd as the rock superheroes played “Pizza Day!” The lead singer, who goes by the Bat Commander, brought two children on stage during the song and had them crowd surf on top of the pizza slices. There was constant interaction between the Bat Commander and the audience. He was jumping off the stage along the barricade singing with kids in the crowd and even brought a young girl on stage to sing “Happy Birthday” to her for her fourth birthday. Fun was being had by all until a masked villain came on stage. The zombie villain was quickly scared off by The Aquabats but assured the crowd he’d be back for more.
During The Aquabats set, there were random graphics and video clips of the band’s “Super Show” playing on a projector screen behind them. At one point even parody commercials played in between songs as the band was retuning their guitars and catching their breath. Sure enough, the villain kept his promise and returned to stage accompanied by an inflatable Godzilla costume and King Kong costume. The band played and fought them on stage and once again The Aquabats were victorious.
After a short break, the band returned to stage to play an encore starting with “Super Rad.” They also played some snippets of other bands’ songs including, “Brass Monkey,” “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and “Enter Sandman.” Closing out the night was “Pool Party” which had the band throwing giant beach balls into the crowd. I can without a doubt say this was one of the most unique and entertaining concerts I have been to. It was part comic book come to life, part comedy show, all tied together with rock music.
