The Sunshine & Summer Nights Tour with Atmosphere & Iration rocked out the Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park, New Jersey last Friday with openers, The Grouch with DJ Fresh and Passafire. Due to inclement weather and the delays it caused, Passafire’s set was cut from this stop.
The show started off with a small crowd for The Grouch with DJ Fresh’s set. They were very engaging and were getting the crowd hyped up for the rest of the night to come. The Grouch even at one point was standing in front of the crowd and letting the fans get on the mic.
As fans were waiting for the rain and lightning to subside in the area, they were inside of the Stone Pony singing along to classic Atmosphere and Iration songs, enjoying food from Bubbakoos Burritos, a local New Jersey restaurant that takes shop inside of The Stone Pony, and drinks.
As the weather started to clear and the sun went down, the music was back on the summer stage. Atmosphere performed some classics such as “God Loves Ugly“, where the entire crowd was chanting the lyrics and relating to the song. Not a single person in the crowd was not chanting “God Loves Ugly” back at the band. Their set had fans dancing and singing along to all of their lyrics. Atmosphere ended their set with a freestyle, which was something that I was personally not expecting, but was entertaining to listen to. Atmosphere’s lead singer, Ant, truly knows how to engage a crowd in every song; I never saw someone not dancing and enjoying the concert during one of their songs.
Iration has a natural reggae and island sound. The celebrated five-piece – Micah Pueschel [Lead Vocals / Guitar], Adam Taylor [Bass], Joe Dickens [Drums], Cayson Peterson [Keyboard / Synth] and Micah Brown [Guitar / Vocals] – have perfected their distinct hybrid style of music and incorporated every aspect of that in their performance. Iration’s set was full of dancing, extravagant staging, and fun vibes in the crowd. As someone who has never been to one of their shows, it was truly an experience I will never forget. This show brought everyone together and people you didn’t even know before were singing along right next to you, singing to you even at times. They ended their set with a Katastro song, “The Way I Feel“, in honor of the lead singer & friend of Iration, Andy Chavez, who passed away earlier this year. Pueschel described this tribute to the crowd as “their way of feeling like Andy is here with us and to honor him” and they will continue to finish their set with this song for the rest of this tour.
You can catch the rest of the The Sunshine & Summer Nights Tour at the dates below.