Sand, Surf, and Songs: A Sea Hear Now Review
By Matt Keenan
Sea Hear Now 2022 was an absolute blast, and with one look at the lineup and location it’s not hard to see why. Beachfront since 2018, this was my personal first year going and the first WRSU has gone as well and I cannot say it enough, boy was it ever so impressive. This was a festival of firsts, my first time seeing a lot of the bands on this lineup despite listening to most of them for years, the first time as I mentioned the station has attended the event, and the first time I attended the event, and the first festival I’ve covered personally too. What a way to start, the weather was beautiful, it wasn’t too cold or hot, it was nice and breezy, and this paired with the literal coolest lineup, how could you lose?
I arrived on site for Day 1 and 2 at roughly 12:15-12:30 and got through the media entrance with a camcorder in hand ready for the day. Upon interviewing artists and attendees alike I learned a lot about the festival I didn’t know upon entry, with one of my main questions being “What makes Sea Hear Now different from any other festival?” Almost every single person pointed out one thing:
Sustainability.
Now I promise I’ll get to the music, but this was actually a significantly noteworthy aspect of the festival which I could not have admired more. Sea Hear Now had enacted several different and seemingly effective initiatives to be an environmentally conscious and sustainability minded event which is something I can honestly say I haven’t seen before, not nearly to this scale and executed this well. Volunteers were rewarded with a free t shirt if they picked up enough empty cans and filled their provided bags so there were volunteers who were going around collecting the Liquid Death waters and Whiteclaw cans to fill up their bags and upon my exit from the festival I noticed they did a fantastic job, someone definitely got their t shirt.
Additionally, Sea Hear Now also partnered with Turn Systems to provide reusable cups for anything you were drinking during the festival, you can read more about the Turn Systems initiative here. This was so cool because you could return your cup versus just throwing it away and it really seemed to help mitigate waste because the amount of these I saw instead of your typical cocktail cups or plastic was insane. I could not have been more impressed by the commitment to sustainability shown by the festival coupled with the execution by their incredible team. With the festival being beachfront, I can honestly say that I have never seen a cleaner beach and I was blown away by the effectiveness and commitment to the campaigns demonstrated throughout the festival.
Day 1 – Saturday, September 17th
Speaking of being blown away, let’s get to the main attraction: the music. When you couple music, nice weather, outside, on the beach the people will come. The turnout was incredible. Everyone was out and enjoying themselves on the beach right on time to kick things off with New Jersey locals, Dentist on the appropriately named Sand Stage. The band was really really cool like their last record, Making A Scene. It was especially fun for me to get to see a New Jersey band at a New Jersey festival covered by a New Jersey radio station, it was like triple Yahtzee. Next up we got to see Aly & AJ who were super cool, a personal first time seeing them for me like a lot of other bands at the festival. It was especially fun to see them on the Surf Stage which was massive. WRSU had the chance to interview them a little while back (which you can watch here), so it was cool to see them more recently and live too. Next up we caught Annie DiRusso on the Park Stage, who was also incredible, a trend established very quickly for the festival’s lineup.
A little later on we caught one of the coolest bands I had the pleasure of being introduced to from Audiotree live, Peach Pit. I had a lot of fun with them, their stage presence was super engaging from the Sand Stage and they really gave off the impression that they were having fun too which was super refreshing to have a band engage and really go for it. I was in love with their first record Being So Normal, and I remember very vividly the anticipation I had for the second record which would become You And Your Friends, and they did not disappoint. I loved getting to see songs that have been in my personal rotation for a while live like “Drop The Guillotine”, “Chagu’s Sideturn”, “Psychics in L.A.” and “Vickie”. The especially fun part was Peach Pit being the first band of the festival where I knew all the words to the songs and was singing along the whole time. Later on we got to interview Neil Smith from the band, and he was incredibly sincere and just such a nice person. We talked about Peach Pit’s inspirations, how life has been as a band recently especially being three records in, and how they were enjoying the festival. Neil also pointed out he saw me rocking out during their set which made me very happy so thank you Neil it was a pleasure (:
Stay tuned to catch our interview with Peach Pit on air WRSU New Brunswick, 88.7fm!
Trucking on with Day 1, we caught Boy George with Culture Club which Neil also mentioned he was looking forward to. Hearing “Karma Chameleon” would have made my mom pass out, they were incredible. I’ve been hearing Culture Club play in my house since I was probably 5 or 6 up until today and I’m 21 now so Culture Club lived up to their reputation without a doubt. Another cool highlight was seeing The Backseat Lovers, who played their hits like “Kilby Girl” and the increasingly popular “Pool House” which caught what sounded like 2 million people screaming the lyrics.
Day 1 was incredible and full of love. I cannot explain enough how much fun I had, but of course just when I thought it couldn’t get any better Sea Hear Now Brought the heat with Day 2.
Day 2 – Sunday, September 18th
Day 2 was like the definition of a perfect festival day for me. It’s like someone got a peek into my Spotify and picked out exactly what I was playing. I’ve been listening to a lot of Wet Leg and IDLES. I also joined in on the Cage The Elephant and The Head and The Heart parties, as well as got to see Green Day for my second time.
Kicking it off with Wet Leg, I have been in love with their self titled debut album, and seeing their set was so cool. They were just as cool as they are on the record, if not moreso, I loved hearing “Angelica” and the effortlessly cool “Chaise Longue” live as well as some other highlights from the album. The band performed from the Park Stage, which was a lovely little spot and I couldn’t have been happier to see them in the perfect setting and at the perfect time for their set it all just felt very right. I would highly suggest tuning into WRSU or just checking out their album on all major streaming platforms!
What else is there to say about IDLES, their set left me absolutely speechless. I’ve been playing their album “Joy As An Act Of Resistance” for a while now, and I love their energy and the indescribable feeling of being inspired and just excited when I listen to them. The set contained favorites like “Never Fight A Man With A Perm” and “I’m Scum”, and the band played even better than the seasoned professionals they are.
Among the newer additions to my listening, are Cage The Elephant and The Head and The Heart. Now I know what you’re thinking, I am late to the Cage party. I’m late to a lot of parties, but I listened entirely through their album “Tell Me I’m Pretty” and it did not disappoint, I saw the album live which was so cool and so good it inspired me, a person notoriously incapable of focusing, to listen to it straight through. Now with Cage The Elephant everyone of course knows “Cigarette Daydreams” and “Ain’t No Rest for The Wicked” but I enjoyed hearing tracks like “Trouble”, “Mess Around”, and “Cold, Cold, Cold”.
Of course, as anyone would expect, Green Day was phenomenal. Green Day is a band who can take whatever environment they are put in and make it feel like their own. They can own a room of 10, or a beach of 10,000 which of course was exactly what they did. The legendary rockers played “Longview”, “St. Jimmy” (one of my personal favorites), and more like “Minority”. Their use of fireworks and consistent engagement with their crowd to me makes them one of my favorite performances of the festival. No matter how many times I see them, it never gets old and their live show has this magic about it that keeps their records fresh for me as well.
All in all, thank you Sea Hear Now. From an incredible staff and flawless execution to a lineup of performers who I will remember for the rest of my life, I am so incredibly grateful to have experienced the magic of Sea Hear Now right in my backyard of Asbury Park, New Jersey. Stay tuned to WRSU New Brunswick on the dial at 88.7 FM for more festival recap coverage including our live artist interviews as well as interviews with attendees, and of course more great music as always on your favorite radio station.
Until next time,
<3 WRSU