Gary Clark Jr Brings Summer Soul To Stone Pony Summer Stage

Soul, Rock, R&B and Blues A Genre Blending Evening In Jersey

Summer Concert season is in full effect and we’re back at the legendary Stone Pony Summer Stage for the one and only Gary Clark Jr as part of the North 2 Shore Festival. If you don’t know who that is, pause… head on over to Youtube and come back in 20 minutes. Also remember to flip the rock over you’ve been living under! I’m Joking! But seriously Gary Clark Jr is in my opinion our generation’s version of Jimmy Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Stevie Vai, what I’m trying to say is he is a phenomenal artist and guitar player. 

Fans in New Jersey were in for a treat, as Gary Clark Jr returned to Asbury Park, by my calculations I believe the last time he played the Jersey Shore town was for the Sea.Hear.Now Festival. Opening the evening was a band called Tangier Blues Band, a well known project which features legendary music photographer Danny Clinch a Jersey native who owns his own gallery the Transparent Clinch Gallery right down the street from the Pony and he is also one of the founders of the now yearly Sea.Hear.Now Festival. 

Tangiers Blues Band kicked off the evening to a roar of applauses, the bands set was fun, free flowing and packed with hits by some of our favorite musicians.

The guy’s cover some classics done with their own Flair.

The band delivered an 8 song setlist stretching from “I Wish You Would” by David Bowie, to “I’m Waiting For The Man”  by Velvet Underground. 

Danny Clinch was all smiles while looking out over the Asbury crowd, whether playing his harmonica or singing he was having a blast.

The band also kicked out covers of “Kiss” by Prince and closed out their performance with “Fight For Your Right” by The Beastie Boys.  

Next up was Gary Clark Jr, Guitarist/singer extraordinaire is out on the road currently supporting his latest album JPEG RAW an album Gary released back in March. The album is led by songs like “Maktub”, “This Is Who We Are” , “Alone Together” and the album’s title track “JPEG RAW”. Known for his incredible guitar skills, Clark Jr defies genre barriers on this album stretching from Rock, Blues, R&B and even rap. 

Gary took to the Stone Pony stage and delivered an absolutely powerful performance backed by his incredible band and back up singers. The show had a nearly 2 ½ performance consisting of 18 songs which included “Hyperwave”, “The Healing”, “Alone Together”, “Our Love”, and “Maktub”. 

Clark whose voice has gotten incredibly good over the years, not that it was ever bad but it seems to have more confidence and control to it. His guitar playing is absolutely incredible to witness live, especially up close.

Gary plays with incredible focus and feeling, at times the live music sounding even better than the album and he brings the album genre bending feel to the stage. 

An incredible moment of the show was when he brought Danny Clinch back out on stage to play harmonica during the first of 3 encore tracks “Don’t Start”, Gary Clark Jr and Clinch vibing off each other’s energy and creating an incredible atmosphere during the song. Fans packed the Summer Stage but also were in the side parking lots and listening from across the way on the boardwalk. Gary brought all the feels to NJ and Jersey gave that energy back. 

See the Full Gallery of the Night Here!

If you captured any shots of the night, feel free to tag us on social media at Shutter 16 Magazine and throw in #Shutter16 and #TwitFromThePit for the world to see. 

Checkout the full setlist for the night Below!

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