E. Town Concrete: The Return

On February 21st I trekked down to Central Jersey for the return of E. Town Concrete. Two years ago they played their last show and disappeared. Then a few months back their MySpace page had a new image that said "The Return". As soon as the show was announced I bought my tickets.

Lots of people don't get ETC and I understand why. If you're only glancing at them and hear a song or two then you might get the wrong impression. The thing is they are uniquely Jersey, and I'm from Jersey and no band better represents all that is Jersey then ETC. They are my generations Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi. Which is why they can sell out two consecutive nights at Starland - that's about 2,000 people!

For this reason I was willing to make the trek down to Sayreville, which is a bastard to get too from NYC. On the train ride down I met a dude named Ross who flew in from fucking Chicago just to ETC! That's serious fucking dedication. Anyway, he joined our crew for the night and we got to the show as the first band was on.

We walked in as they walked off stage so I'm not sure who it was or how they were. Then One 4 One came on. If you don't know NJHC then let me tell you these dudes are legends and I was excited to finally see them. Unfortunately I seemed to be the only one. The crowd was oddly young and most had no idea what they were seeing. Granted the sound was awful (way trebly) but booing fucking One 4 One? That would have got your as beat down ten years ago.

Then For The Love Of came on and, holy shit, those dudes are good. Honestly I never really gave them a chance but aside from ETC they blew everyone else off the stage. Agents Of Man, another Jersey favorite, came on next and were pretty damn good. I never really dug their albums but they killed it live.

Once they finished up I grabbed a beer and headed down to the floor area for ETC. I was so fucking excited to see what was my favorite band from ages 18 to 25. Once they took the stage all fucking hell broke loose. The entire floor was a massive pit, one of the biggest I've ever seen.

They played a ton of classics - "Guaranteed", "Time2Shine", and even old shit like "Ashes 2 Ashes". It was funny because everyone knew every word to every song - except "Ashes 2 Ashes." That one was for the real old schoolers.

The show was amazing and aside from getting flipped over a guardrail and almost smashing my face on the mixing console I had a great time. It was just awesome to see so many people come out for ETC. I think they should keep playing but only in the Jersey/NY/CT area. They're the kings around here but outside of the area nobody gets it - so fuck em.

Hopefully I get to see them again sometime soon, let's just make it another venue next time. I'm sick of having to leave during the encore to catch the last train.


I wasn't able to take pics but this guy did: ETC Flickr

E Town Concrete Reunion Show - Tix On Sale

I know a lot of people hate this band and that's fine with me. I grew up in Jersey and there was no band that better represented growing up in Jersey in the 90's then ETC. They looked like the people I hung out with and they sounded like the people I hung out with.

Their songs were about drug dealers and thieves and trying to make it to the top when everyone said you couldn't. That's exactly what I dealt with back then and those songs spoke to me and inspired me. We liked ETC because we were ETC, and some of those guys still are. I've since moved on, I don't hang out with thugs in the bad part of town anymore - I'm too old and soft for that shit these days. Nonetheless I'm excited to see E. Town again, I think this will make show number 15 or 16 for me. Too bad its at Starland - $10 beers and in the middle of nowhere.

Tickets on sale NOW ($25):
Ticketmaster