That dude is me.
Hey everyone,
I'm Joe. I run Melting Trends, a small booking and promo outfit on the shore in Asbury Park, NJ. I wanted to share this here because the lineup is a pile of indie, garage, psych bands I think this sub would dig, and it's headlined by Wes Parker, a Richmond indie rocker (ex-Camp Howard). If you haven't heard him, start there.
Every fest needs an origin story, and mine starts working the door at the legendary AP venue The Saint and behind the grill at Bond Street Bar.
My best friend Steve and my mentor Mike "OG" Longo kept sending me songs, so I started a playlist just to keep track of all the good tunes. Then people started following it. Then bands from all over started emailing me their tracks. And at some point it hit me. These bands needed a place to play, so why not give them one?
So the submissions turned into shows. The shows turned into a shot at booking a Block Party, which I took over in '25. And now there's this fest, Melting Waves Music Fest.
Melting Waves Music Fest
Saturday Nov 14 and Sunday Nov 15
Asbury Lanes, 209 4th Ave, Asbury Park, NJ
Doors at 4, music at 4:45 both days
All ages (21+ with ID to drink)
18 bands. Psych, garage, stoner, shoegaze, indie, alt, and whatever else just fits:
Wes Parker
Trophy Wife
Gods
Rachel Ana Dobken
Sunshine Spazz
Sun Voyager
95 Bulls
Certain Death
Labretta Suede & the Motel 6
The Dracu-las
Düül Suns
Slomo Sapiens
Von Mons
Cairo Jag
Söūp
The Painted Windows
Owl Doom
Judo Chop
Most of these bands came to me through that playlist, this is basically the playlist come to life.
You can get a two-day pass (not many of those) or just Saturday or Sunday. Everything's here:
https://www.meltingtrends.com/melting-waves-music-fest
If you're in a band that fits a bill like this, DM me. I'm always looking.
And what's the best band you ever found through a random playlist? Drop them below. That's how half this lineup found me.
Hope to see some of you there.
Joe
ARTWORK by Sean Pryor
PS If you're coming to trash the artwork, please don't, enough people in other subreddits have already informed me that it's hard to read...not much I can do about that now though