Early on Saturday, Patti Smith walked onto the Asbury Park beach — not the sprawling festival grounds where she would later perform before thousands of fans, but the quieter north end at Eighth Avenue, a space usually reserved for dogs and their owners.
Punk’s stoic godmother waded into the ocean, reveling in the late-summer sun when she noticed someone standing near her, enjoying the same surf.
It was Eddie Vedder, she said.
Now, let’s skip the metaphors of water signifying rebirth as the gargantuan Sea Hear Now festival returned to New Jersey’s little music city for two days — three stages, 29 (mostly rock) bands and 35,000 fans welcomed back to the Jersey Shore — after a pandemic postponement in 2020.
Instead let’s flash forward to Saturday night, 15 minutes before Pearl Jam was set to headline, marking the grunge icons’ first proper gig in three years (and first Jersey show in 11 years).
There was Vedder again, head poking through his tour bus window, waving to fans as the vehicle crawled down the beach, toward the main stage. Yes, right on the sand, at the tide line (see a video here). It’s a miracle they didn’t get stuck.
Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam headlined the festival's first day. (Phil McAuliffe | For NJ Advance Media)Phil McAuliffe For The Times Of Trenton
A few minutes later, Pearl Jam hit the stage for an explosive two-hour set, debuting a half-dozen songs from the band’s startlingly good 2020 album “Gigaton.”
The new record’s title was an inside joke among bandmates, Vedder said. Yes, gigaton is a unit of measurement, but it’s also “gig a ton,” meaning they expected to be touring extensively following its release last March.
“But then the extraordinary and unthinkable happened,” Vedder lamented.
The 56-year-old frontman was clearly overjoyed to be back on stage, anchoring an impassioned performance that reached beyond a standard festival outing. After all, Pearl Jam isn’t exactly a standard festival band, with an extensive and celebrated catalog, plus performances that often eclipse three hours.
During the shorter set, Vedder spoke generally about the country’s troubles.
Pearl Jam played two hours on the Asbury Park sand Saturday. (Phil McAuliffe | For NJ Advance Media)Phil McAuliffe For The Times Of Trenton
“We need to be united, not divided … I wish we could come together and fight like an alien invasion was coming down, like this alien virus,” he said, linking his message to an “equation” he conjured that could save us all.
”Multiply love, add hope, subtract fear and end division.”
Vedder said all this just before “Even Flow,” the 1991 smash celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, as is the rest of Pearl Jam’s 13-times-platinum debut LP “Ten.”
The tune was among many immense singalongs in the audience; more than 30,000 fans stretching a quarter-mile down the sand and boardwalk.
“The ocean goes on forever and it looks like the crowd does, too,” Vedder quipped, before offering heartfelt messages to comedian Norm MacDonald and Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, both of whom recently passed.
The band weaved the Stones’ “Waiting on a Friend” into “Wishlist” in tribute.
It was a dynamic set, largely fueled by longtime guitarist Mike McCready’s searing solos on “Even Flow” and the new track “Quick Escape,” a blues-heavy style akin to Slash or Joe Perry, but with more groove. Fellow newbies “Dance of the Clairvoyants” and “Superblood Wolfmoon” both jammed hard; worthy additions to the alt-rock catalog.
But more poignant was the encore performance of Bruce Springsteen’s “My City of Ruins,” where Vedder was joined not by The Boss himself — who wrote the song two decades ago about Asbury Park’s economical failures, before its gradual revitalization — but four local singers from the city: Michelle Rushing, Joshua Rivers, Jason Rogers and Alexander Simone (grandson of Nina).
“Rise up, c’mon rise up,” the group urged the audience to sing, in a pseudo-spiritual moment.
Fans ate it up, as they did on earlier crowd-pleasers “Better Man” (with a “People Have the Power” section, nodding to Smith), “Daughter” and “State of Love and Trust.” See the full setlist here.
“I’m glad you made it, I’m glad we were able to make it and I think we’re all gonna make it,” Vedder said.
The day’s earlier sets largely comprised that “big folk-rock” sound purveyed by bands like Mumford and Sons and the Lumineers — heaps of chugging acoustic guitars, banjos, fiddles and the requisite four-on-the-floor kick drum. The style, which was huge ten years ago, still plays well at easy-vibe beach fests like these.
The Avett Brothers on the main stage. (Phil McAuliffe | For NJ Advance Media) Phil McAuliffe For The Times Of Trenton
Neither of those groups performed, however. Instead it was Philadelphia’s Dr. Dog, Los Angeles’ Lord Huron (of “The Night We Met” fame), and North Carolina’s the Avett Brothers — the latter, being most popular, played the evening main stage, to some 15,000 fans. Led by siblings Scott and Seth Avett, the bluegrass-tinged group is deeply well-rounded and easily won the crowd with pumping tunes like “Kick Drum Heart” and “Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise.”
Just before Pearl Jam played, the enduring Brooklyn duo Matt and Kim took the beach’s second stage (set against Convention Hall), unloading their patently frenzied brand of electro-pop. It was a party for sure, with the pair injecting covers of Van Halen’s “Jump,” AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck,” and tossing naked inflatable dolls (modeled after themselves) into the crowd.
Matt and Kim brought the high-octane electro-pop. (Phil McAuliffe | For NJ Advance Media)Phil McAuliffe For The Times Of Trenton
The festival, first orchestrated in 2018 by rock photographer and Toms River native Danny Clinch, Tim Donnelly and C3 Presents — operators of Lollapalooza — was crowded but mostly well-organized. Vaccination cards or negative COVID test results were checked upon entry. There were plenty of bathrooms, drink stalls and points of interest, including a surf competition out on the waves.
But here’s a pro tip for fans returning Sunday for Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Idol and more: If you don’t wish to wait 45 minutes on the food lines, exit the festival — three re-entries per day are allowed — and buy food at one of the nearby boardwalk stands.
Surfers on the waves at Sea Hear Now. (Phil McAuliffe | For NJ Advance Media)Phil McAuliffe For The Times Of Trenton
It took me all of five minutes to receive my delectable Mogo Korean tacos Saturday evening, just after Smith finished her terrific set.
The vaunted rock star, poet and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer — not to mention a Deptford native — delivered a galvanizing hour-long set on the early main stage.
Smith, 74, was all power and classic attitude as she opened her set with the appropriate “Redondo Beach.”
“Asbury Park and The Stone Pony was my mother’s favorite place for us to play,” Smith said. “We’re playing (today) thinking about mommy.”
Punk poet and Deptford native Patti Smith, in all her galvanizing glory. (Phil McAuliffe | For NJ Advance Media)Phil McAuliffe For The Times Of Trenton
“Dancing Barefoot,” “Because the Night” and “Gloria” — before which she told her Vedder story — earned singalongs but the entire day’s most exciting moment came during 1996′s “Beneath the Southern Cross,” where Smith went off-book, addressing the audience and encapsulating the day’s thrilling return.
”Raise your hands, feel the blood in your veins … we are f***ing alive!” she screamed.
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Bobby Olivier may be reached at bolivier@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BobbyOlivier and Facebook. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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