The Anchor Bar is open every Friday and Saturday from 4pm – 12am
PRIVATE EVENT
Faster Pussycat rose from the depths of the mid-‘80s Hollywood rock scene, taking the Sunset Strip by storm with a sound that wasn’t glam and wasn’t punk, but blistered somewhere in between. With an attitude and swagger all its own, their self-titled debut featured the instant classics “Babylon,” “Bathroom Wall,” “Cathouse” and “Don’t Change That Song,” and its follow-up ‘Wake Me When It’s Over’ climbed even higher with the radio hit “House Of Pain,” “Poison Ivy” and “Where There’s A Whip There’s A Way.” Despite their successes, Faster defied the mainstream mold and always followed front man Taime Downe’s underground sensibilities. The gold and platinum records are nice, but Taime considers his greatest accomplishment to be longevity. “The only number that really matters to me is the number 35. Three and half decades later, Faster Pussycat are still rocking, and it feels as fresh as it did in 1986.” Look no further than their 2021 releases “Nola” and the Johnny Thunders cover “Pirate Love” – Faster Pussycat are as virile and tenacious as ever… and won’t have it any other way.
Faster Pussycat plus special guests Johnny Nasty Boots
Doors - 7:00 pm // Showtime - 8:00 pm
Anchor Rock Club // 247 S New York Ave // Atlantic City NJ // 18+
Jawn Of The Dead: Tribute to Grateful Dead and other Jawns
Doors - 7:00 pm // Showtime - 8;00 pm // 18+
Anchor Rock Club // 247 S New York Avenue // Atlantic City NJ
Nylon Ghost // Teen Idle // Sacred Monster // The Side Chicks
Doors - 7:00 pm // Showtime - 7:45 pm // 18+
Anchor Rock Club // 247 S New York Avenue // Atlantic City NJ
A Farwell To Kings - A Tribute to Rush
Doors - 7:00 pm // Showtime - 8;00 pm // 18+
Anchor Rock Club // 247 S New York Avenue // Atlantic City NJ
Headcase Hair & Co. presents: Don't You Forget About Me - An 80's Prom Night
featuring DJ sets by - DJ Mike Saga & Just Jess
Anchor Rock Club // 8:00 pm show // 7:00 pm doors // 21+
Emo Night - hosted by David Earl and special guest Karle Gwen
Fri May 24 // Doors at 8 pm // Showtime at 9 pm // Free to Enter / No Cover
Anchor Rock Club // 247 S New York Avenue // Atlantic City NJ
Chad Kroeger (AKA Tom Allen) and JT Parr are on a mission to do good. Using their digital platforms (@chadgoesdeep), the duo take action to raise awareness and bring change for some of the most important causes in pop culture and beyond. When they are not at City Hall meetings, Allen and Parr host the weekly podcast Going Deep with Chad & JT, which sees them discussing major current events, honoring legends, exploring ongoing beefs, and giving solicited advice to callers and fans alike. Tom and JT have appeared on HAWAII FIVE-O, ELLEN], HOWARD STERN, SETH MEYERS, and JIMMY KIMMEL. Chad can be seen as “Mitch the Beignet Guy” on BARRY Season 3, which he was profiled for on GQ. They previously wrote, executive produced, and starred in their Netflix series CHAD AND JT GO DEEP, also produced by Abso Lutely Productions. Previously, they sold an animated series to Hulu, with 3 Arts and 20th TV producing. They are currently developing a scripted series with Drew Goddard and ABC Signature, and an animated series with 20th TV and 3 Arts, with Dominic Dierkes attached. Chad and JT can currently be seen on Netflix’ UNSTABLE as The Twins alongside Rob Lowe.
DJ Herbert Holler
Doors: 10:00 pm // Showtime: 10:00 pm // 21+
Anchor Rock Club // 247 S New York Ave // Atlantic City NJ
How about dinner and a show? Cardinal is one of the best new restaurants in AC and they're right next door. Show your show ticket for $10 off dinner. Then show your Dinner & A Show wristband for $2 off every drink at Anchor Rock Club that night. Book your table here.
Rift (A Tribute to Phish) & Learn 2 Ween (A Tribute to Ween)
Doors - 7:00 pm // Showtime - 8:00 pm
Anchor Rock Club // 247 S New York Avenue // Atlantic City NJ
For Those Who Can See // Sinful By Nature // Silence In Solitude // I Swear 2 Goth
Doors: 6:00 pm // Showtime: 7:00 pm // 18+
Anchor Rock Club // 247 S New York Avenue // Atlantic City NJ
Prodigious Tuareg guitarist and songwriter Mdou Moctar boldly reforges contemporary Saharan music and “rock music“ by melding Eddie Van Halen pyrotechnics, full-blast noise and guitar shredding, field recordings, drums rhythms, poetic meditations on love, religion, women’s rights, inequality and Western Africa’s exploitation at the hands of colonial powers to rip a new hole in the sky with the Afrique Victime album.
Mdou Moctar’s home is Agadez, a desert village in rural Niger. Inspired by YouTube videos of Eddie Van Halen’s six string techniques and traditional Tuareg melodies, he mastered the guitar which he himself built and created his own burning style. A born charismatic, Mdou went on to tell his story as an aspiring artist by writing, producing & starring in the first Tuareg language film: a remake of Purple Rain called Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai - which translates to “Rain The Color Of Blue With A Little Red In It”, winning the approval of his family and his community. The word and the sound travelled across West Africa via mobile phone data cards, a popular form of local music distribution. Gruelling DIY world tours and albums on the independent US label Sahel Sounds followed, including 2019’s landmark Ilana: The Creator album that earned Mdou Moctar an ecstatic international audience.
Afrique Victime is result of the combined efforts of Mdou and the members of the band that shares his name. Mdou’s crucial collaborator is Ahmoudou Madassane, who’s been his rhythm guitarist since 2008- their two guitars are an alchemical combination. As a songwriter, producer and recording artist Ahmoudou is the premier musical ambassador to Tuaregs in Niger, empowering young musicians with instruments, recording opportunities, and visas. Masassane helped form the revolutionary first woman-fronted Tuareg guitar band Les Filles De Illighadad, whose debut album and tours caused an international sensation in 2019.
The band‘s youngest member is prodigal drummer Souleymane Ibrahim, also a member of both the well-known Niger band Sultanat Star De L’air and the longest running wedding band in Agadez, Etran De L’air. Souleymane’s playing on this album ferociously sets a new standard for the “rock” drumset.
Producer & bassist Mikey Coltun flies 20 hours from Brooklyn, NYC, then takes a 28 hour bus ride to reach Agadez so the band can practice and record. With no support from a major label or a manager, they made this journey out of Niger every time they toured. In the past three years, Mikey’s played over 500 shows on three continents as Mdou Moctar’s bassist, road manager, producer/recording engineer, and friend. Coltun recorded and produced Afrique Victime around the band’s travels in 2019- in studios, apartments, hotel rooms, venue backstages, and in field recordings in Niger.
Recording and honing songs as a touring outfit forged a livewire new sound, and If Ilana was a late ’60s early ’70s ZZ Top and Black Sabbath record – Afrique Victime is mid ’70s to early ’80s Van Halen meets Black Flag meets Black Uhuru. The ferocity of Moctar’s electric guitar and the band’s hypnotic rhythm section are on awe-inspiring display on songs like “Chismiten” and the mournful yet incandescent title track. Elsewhere, Moctar finds inspiration in highlighting lesser known facets of the group: “While people have gotten to know Mdou Moctar as a rock band, there is a whole different set of music with this band done on acoustic guitars which we wanted to incorporate into this album in order to go through a sonic journey,” he says. Mdou pays homage to one of his heroes Abdallah Ag Oumbadagou, the legendary Niger musician and political revolutionary, on songs “Habibti” and “Layla”. “Abdallah was a contemporary of Tinariwen and helped to pioneer the sound of Tuareg guitar music blended with drum machines and electronic sounds”.
“From prison to Nobel prize. They ceded to Mandela / Africa is a victim of so many crimes / If we stay silent it will be the end of us / Why is this happening?“ Moctar asks on the heartfelt and rallying title track. “I want the world to know that we are making music to promote world peace and be with everyone on the same level, fighting against racism”, he says. “All colors and genders are equal. Women, Men and children all suffer in the desert due to the colonization by France and therefore there is a lack of the basics - hospitals, drinking water, schools.”
The needs of Agadez are a major part of what drives Moctar as an artist, and promoting the region’s youth through music is an especially personal cause. “I know what it’s like to have been in that position,” he says, “to not have the support of your family, or the money for guitars or strings, it’s really hard. I have a lot of support from the younger generation, because I help them out a lot. When I get back from tour, I give them gear that I bought while I was away so they can go out and form their own bands.”
Says Coltun: “In Agadez the music and feeling at Tuareg weddings is exactly like the best of Western DIY/Punk shows. It’s loud, energetic and powerful. There is a sense of everyone helping out. Tuaregs are a tight community. If you’re Tuareg you’re considered family.”
The music listeners are the beneficiaries of the staggeringly powerful do-it-yourself musical ethic of Mdou Moctar- the man and the band- who’ve worked so hard to bring the spirits of families and communities in Niger to the West. Afrique Victime sounds and feels like a Tuareg hand reaching down from the sky, and we are very lucky for this chance to get lifted.
WXPN welcomes Mdou Moctar
Doors - 7:00 pm // Showtime - 8:00 pm
Anchor Rock Club // 247 S New York Avenue // Atlantic City NJ
Gutter Drunk // Reckless Randy // The Washups
Doors - 7:00 pm // Showtime - 8:00 pm
Anchor Rock Club // 247 S New York Avenue // Atlantic City NJ // 18+
AC Pride presents Stilettos and Spurs - Pride Week Kickoff Party
"Dust off your cowboy boots! Slay with your fiercest western look!"
Doors: 8:00 pm // Showtime: 8:00 pm // 21+ // Anchor Rock Club // 247 S New York Avenue // Atlantic City NJ
Back to Moon Beach (Verve Records) is an EP by no one’s definition but Kurt Vile’s. Clocking in at just shy of an hour, this would be a long full-length record by most any other artist’s yardstick, but for Kurt, the collection is an expression of just how deep his well of non-album material runs. Culled from various sessions over the last four years, and representing a wide swath of the inspirational musical community Kurt surrounds himself with, the core 4 songs of the record (tracks 1, 2, 3 and 6) were born in the fall of 2019 at Panoramic Studios in Stinson Beach, California alongside close musical partners Rob Laakso, Stella Mozgawa, Chris Cohen and with coproduction on tracks 1, 3 and 6 by Cate Le Bon. Later fleshed out with bandmate and producer / engineer Adam Langelotti, additional musical parts were played by “Farmer” Dave Scher and Mikel Patrick Avery.
Many other moments (including hella overdubs on the Stinson Beach material) are from intense sessions on planet Philly at Kurt’s studio: OKV Central. It’s been a heavy few years and plenty of excuses to get lost in outer space behind the microphones. Mant Sounds – KV’s go-to recording studio in Los Angeles – was a third and crucial launchpad to ram these sessions home… a familiar spaceship run by Rob Schnapf and often flown by Matt Schuessler as engineer.
EP opener “Another Good Year For The Roses” is a richly psychedelic piano-driven earworm with swirling lap steel and catchy blues-pop guitars, and a deeply meditative yet characteristically hooky bend. Written a full year before the pandemic – and recorded in October 2019 just shy of it – “Touched Somethin (Caught a Virus)” was originally intended for Vile’s 2022 full length (watch my moves), but was ultimately left off of that record out of concern that it would be interpreted too literally, given the state of the world that unfolded shortly after its recording.
Somberly, the Stinson Beach material in the collection are some of the final unreleased recordings with Kurt’s longtime creative partner Rob Laakso, prior to his passing in early 2023. The EP is rounded out with a few fan favorites — his covers of Wilco’s “Passenger Side” and Bob Dylan’s Christmas song “Must Be Santa,” (featuring vocals by Kurt’s daughters Awilda and Delphine Vile) which Kurt is excited to bring to a wider platform (“just in time for the holidays!”) after its Spotify-only release last year. The final track brings-it-all-back-home with a punched-up, radio-ready version of (watch my moves) standout “Cool Water” – originally recorded with the Violators in January 2020 by Rob Schnapf at Mant sounds and remixed by Rob Schnapf again in May 2023 for this release – and for the radio!
Kurt Vile & The Violators plus Emily Robb
Doors - 7:00 pm // Showtime - 8:00 pm
Anchor Rock Club // 247 S. New York Avenue // Atlantic City NJ // 18+
If David Byrne is one of the geniuses of modern times, then Start Making Sense is a tribute to genius. The musicians in this 7-10 piece Talking Heads Tribute take pride in faithfully recreating the music of Talking Heads entire career. Together they bring much of the Heads unique live show to the stage, with front man Jon Braun as a spot-on David Byrne, giving you a "once in a lifetime" experience. Prepare yourself for a rockin', funkin', danceable celebration of the new-wave art punk you loved from the 80's !!!
Start Making Sense - a Tribute to Talking Heads
Doors: 7:30 pm // Showtime: 8:30 pm // 18+
Anchor Rock Club // 247 S New York Avenue // Atlantic City NJ
All aboard for the smoothest party cruising your way, DROP IT LIKE IT’S YACHT. Nothing but the greatest yacht rock favorites that will have you longing for an Asti Spumante.
Set sail and vibe to the music of Kenny Loggins, Steely Dan, Michael McDonald, Christopher Cross, The Doobie Brothers and so much more!
Bring your sea legs as we navigate through yacht rock’s greatest hits while sipping your favorite signature cocktails. Care for a little “Sax on the Beach” anyone?
Dress to impress! Grab your captain's hat, throw on some shades, and pop on those boat shoes for the ride of your life.
Drop It Like It's Yacht - The Smoothest Yacht Rock Dance Party
Doors: 8:00 pm // Showtime: 9:00 pm // 21+
Anchor Rock Club // 247 S New York Avenue // Atlantic City NJ
Alex Pearlman - A Night of Comedy and Rants
Doors - 7:00 pm // Showtime: 8:00 pm // 18+
Anchor Rock Club // // 247 S. New York Ave // Atlantic City NJ
Formed in Haledon NJ in 1976, The Feelies released 4 albums- including their critically acclaimed and influential debut Crazy Rhythms, which was voted 49 in the top 100 albums of the 1980s by Rolling Stone magazine and chosen by Spin Magazine as 49 of the best alternative records of all time. Supporting the release of their first four albums the band appeared on the The Late Show With David Letterman and in concerts with The Patti Smith Group, REM, and Bob Dylan as well as touring with Lou Reed. The twin-guitar attack of songwriters and founders Glenn Mercer and Bill Million is the infectious sound of the group. Paired with driving drums and percussion, it has left an indelible mark on the landscape of rock and roll.
In 2008, the Feelies re-united to open for long time admirers Sonic Youth at Battery Park and then resurrected their tradition of playing low key gigs at strategic intervals throughout the year rather than doing lengthy tours. In 2009 Bar/None re-issued Crazy Rhythms and The Good Earth, this being the first band-sanctioned CD release of the former. In 2011, they released a new studio album Here Before.
In March 2016, Bar/None Records re-released the third and fourth albums, Only Life and Time for a Witness. As a special Record Store Day release Bar None/Coyote Records will co-release the Feelies Uncovered. This will be a limited edition 12 “ EP featuring studio recordings of four cover songs, none commercially available before. In addition, the Feelies recently wrapped up work on a brand new studio album, expected to be released later this year.
They continue to regularly perform live. Their music has been featured in the films Married to the Mob, Something Wild, Prelude to a Kiss, The Truth About Charlie, The Squid & the Whale and Ricki and the Flash.
An Evening with The Feelies
Doors: 7:30 pm // Showtime: 8:30 pm // 18+
Anchor Rock Club // 247 S New York Avenue // Atlantic City NJ