Story and photos by Deborah J. Draisin

The Skate N’ Surf festival predates the Bamboozle and had its humble beginnings in one of the only thriving music scenes left in the New York/New Jersey area, Asbury Park. The original Skate & Surf only ran for two years before being eclipsed by the bigger corporate extravaganza known as the Bamboozle. When its corporate parent Live Nation decided not to bring back Bamboozle this year, promoter John D’Esposito announced that he would bring back Skate & Surf instead.

D’Esposito stated that he wants the festival to return to its roots, honing baby bands rather than showcasing big name acts. However, the announcement of Fall Out Boy as Saturday, May 18th’s headliner did little to enhance that theme.

Perhaps there were several more misunderstandings afoot, because the festival, originally scheduled at the iPlay America arena in Freehold, was relocated to Six Flags Great Adventure mere weeks before the festival began.

Upon arriving to claim our media passes, it became even painfully clearer that there were issues with the organization of the festival. For starters, one day pass holders, guest listees and media participants alike were cattle-herded into one line with one operating window to service all, and each person took about ten minutes to process. After being stuck in traffic for nearly an hour and with raindrops already beginning to screw up everyone’s hair, the hourlong wait for someone in Media to finally realize that they had to claim us and bring us back to the media room was every bit as brutal as the frustration felt by the Will Callers watching as those who had no pass waltzed right on in as their line remained at a standstill.

Not a great start, however, as we passed the Superman coaster on the way to the Wild Safari, the ten year old that I once was couldn’t help but get excited at the possibility of reliving some memories of cotton candy, shooting games and ferris wheels. The media room, far from eagerly awaiting our occupation, was already in full swing under the tutelage of the very nice staffmembers of Chop Chop Bang Bang as their first set of victims succumbed to the always wise snap decision to “rock star their hair.”

Although the media room scored immediate points for both the life-sized giraffe stationed outside the tentlike structure and the vast availability of charging stations, it lost most of them again for the complete and utter lack of reception. Organizer Maria Malta did her best to help, and under any other circumstances, this woman would be a joy to work with, but the inability to reach her own staff wasn’t making her day go any easier.

Food was an immediate need after a five-hour commute, but the choices were limited to nachos, ice cream, cotton candy and $11 chicken fingers with fries that appeared to have already expired before they hit my plate. Whatever, it’s a festival, this is to be expected. I exchanged pleasantries with some friends who were there as I attempted in vain to reach any of my interview subjects (one of whose allotted two hour window of available time was up before we ever reached the festival,) work out my downtime in order to go on some rides and figure out where I would stand during sets to try and get a decent shot or two off (that was the other thing – very few photo passes were granted, making coverage a bit of an exercise in futility.)

With the rain refusing to stop, I was only able to photograph two full sets before I was forced to put my point-and-click away before I wound up with a lens error.

The sets that I was able to catch before my phone died were:

Mixtapes – An excellent female-fronted punk band with catchy jams and great energy and humor. I tried really hard to enjoy their energy, but it was almost impossible, what with all of the distractions, bumming out both artists and fans alike. I will definitely catch them the next time they come to town in order to give them a much fairer review.

Tallhart – Indie punk quartet with a fast-paced set. They did their solid best to keep everyone’s attention, and somewhat succeeded. At least I stopped noticing the rain as much while they were onstage. I always love a good indie performance.

Death Spells – Electronic hardcore with vocal lines reminiscent of Ministry; cool vibe from Reggie and the Full Effect/Get Up Kids’ James DeWees and LeATHERMOUTH/ex-My Chemical Romance’s Frank Iero. Was happy to note that the microphones (although they cut out for a bit during one song,) were amped up properly and the vocals much easier to interpret this time. They gave a silent performance which rounded out with Iero valiantly greeting every fan who had tried to rush backstage after they wrapped it up.

Balance and Composure – cheerful pop punk with eclectic lyrics to pull you through any break-up. I was looking forward to their set, as they have become my son’s favorite go-to band. This band would obviously blow shit right up if they weren’t under such miserable conditions – at least I got to learn a couple of songs.

All on the Aquarian Stage. Although each band managed to knock it out of the park despite the mess, and the sound was actually on par for a setup such as this one, it was still apparent that things were amiss.

One thing that I’ve never seen happen before: the bands were breaking down and setting up on the stage, while other bands were still playing. Each band was relegated to one side of the stage only to accomplish this rude feat. Ruder: the stages were really close together, and bands were playing at the same time, so virtually no intercrowd banter was really an option, as Maura of Mixtapes lamented bitterly.

To be honest, the bands seemed pretty unhappy, and small wonder, as I had learned earlier that they were being forced to go through security checkpoints every time they went back to their cars for anything, security was virtually non-existent (the barricade fell over and over again and the backstage area was easily rushed.) The entire event was squished into an unappealing parking lot which was impossible to navigate.

As for my interviews, they were a bust. One band bailed directly after their set in horror, another was presumed dead until they submitted their interview responses via e-mail earlier today. The entire festival was behind an hour as well, causing anxious fans to drown out the unfortunate performer prior to Fall Out Boy (which should have been Timeflies, according to the posted schedule, but I was told by son was actually a rapper – Jake Miller, perhaps?) to be drowned out by chants not of his name.

By the time my phone had retrieved somewhat of a charge and not even smoke signals could reach my son to see if he needed dinner money, I figured that I had had it. The headliners were to be an hour late hitting the stage and I wasn’t to be home before 4am. It never stopped raining and so no rides were going to be enjoyable, and everyone was, quite frankly, pretty cranky. People were actually spitting nails at one another on the bus.

I didn’t have the strength to continue on the next day, not even with the promise of an RX Bandits interview unlikely to ever come to fruition – unless they had a Bat Signal handy – but I understand that I missed a helluva show.

Word of advice for next year, Skate and Surf: Don’t.